First HTPC Build - Advice please?

Lpfsox

hi folks

looking for some pointers and advice before I take the plunge into building my first HTPC. I've got boxee and pi running xbmc and am very impressed so I just want to go a step further, remove the DVD player, sat/dtt combi setup and all the associated remote controls and have one neat, quiet box sitting under the TV that feeds in freesat/dtt, plays media from my NAS and supports XBMC. It can connect back to my wired network so wifi isn't an issue.

can anyone recommend the best setup to go for? Is SSD the way to go for bootups, and what about tuner cards; blackgold have an integrated dvb-t2/dvb-S which would suit me but I've heard things about driver compatibility. If anyone's got a similar setup or can point me in the right direction I'd really appreciate it.

Requirements are: relatively small, very quiet, fast, parent friendly and not too expensive.

thanks in advance

Johnboy1951

About a year ago I built such a system ...... TBS tuner cards, because the Blackgold company did not release drivers for Linux, which severely limited my choices of what to run on the HTPC.

I find no need at all for an SSD .... I had one in there at first but took it out and used it in a PC where it is needed.

For operating system I chose OpenelecTV .... there is a community version which includes the drivers for the TBS cards.

For backend ..... tvheadend, and frontend XBMC.

It streams from both Win and Lin boxes on the LAN, as well as providing LiveTV, not only to the TV it is connected to, but also any other device on the LAN with XBMC installed (presumably anything that can 'talk' to the tvheadend backend).
So it is a server as well as a front end for the main TV.

I have plans to change this set up.
My intention is to put the tuner cards into a server box (already have one), run Openelec on a USB stick, and store all media files on HDDs there.
This can then not only stream the media but also the LiveTV to wherever I want it.

I can then use very small, silent, and hidden devices at the TV points.
I am testing a R-Pi for this in the coming week or so, using the existing set up as the server, prior to doing the new set up.

One thing I did learn after building this ....... there is no need for high spec CPU or much memory.
The cheapest Intel CPU with on die graphics is quite capable of delivering Full HD to the TV, and handling the server side of things too for other devices on the LAN.

I bought 8GB ram when building ..... 1GB would do this set up ...... 2GB 'just in case' I suppose.
Generally using about 350MBs.

I did upgrade the CPU to a newer model when funds became available ....... and saw no appreciable difference in pic on TV.

So, if starting again, I would look to build a media server ...... that could be placed out of the way somewhere .... and use client devices at the TV to play the media or LiveTV.

The server would need a couple of PCI-e slots for the tuner cards.
Tuner cards are available with single, two or four tuners on board, depending on your needs.
Two of each tuner (DTT, Sat) is probably minimum to allow for recording or two devices on the LAN tuned to different transponders/muxes.

The only reason I can think of to need more memory and much better CPU would be if Win and/or transcoding video was a requirement, or if you intended to dual boot the HTPC for use as a 'standard' Windows PC.

This is my present opinion for what it is worth

Johnboy1951

Just to report .... I got the inclination to try the R-Pi this evening as the new cheapie TV arrived for the bedroom.

The R-Pi experience was not great on HD channels when using wifi ..... the picture went blocky at times.

Changing to wired ethernet fixed it.

The bedroom now has access to all DTT and Sat channels over the LAN from the HTPC.
R-Pi running Openelec which uses XBMC.

Added this post in case you were having thoughts about going this route

Lpfsox

Hi Johnboy and thanks for the feedback. A lot of food for thought there... presently I have my NAS/router etc in my home office but no DTT/SAT feeds in there, but your idea of centralising stuff makes a lot of sense. I've four DTT/Sat feeds to various other rooms which won't be required if I centralise so I need to see if they can be re-routed to the office without too much hassle.

Also, as I need to upgrade the NAS (presenly only have a 2 bay box, running RAID 5 and running out of disc space) it might be a better idea to think along the lines of a server box instead, with multiple drives. I've no real experience of building servers though so I'll need to research that a bit more.

Would you reckon a box with multiple drives running freenas or similar and with 2 x SAT + 2 x DTT tuners would do the trick to stream live tv around the house along with stored media? I'm not clear on how to install XBMC on that though, aside from a USB stick. If you can help a gob****e (me!) out a bit more with this I'd appreciate it, and we can take it to PM to avoid clogging up the forums if you wish. Thanks again for your help and sharing your experiences

FrankGrimes

I'd be interested in seeing more details on options here too, sounds like an interesting potential setup.

Johnboy1951

FrankGrimes wrote: »

I'd be interested in seeing more details on options here too, sounds like an interesting potential setup.

My HTPC is running Openelec (A Linux especially made to run XBMC).
It can play media from shares on the LAN - say this PC ..... and also shares out its recordings to other LAN users such as this PC.
I have XBMC installed here and can view LiveTV or recorded media from the HTPC.
As I mentioned, I set up a R-Pi in the bedroom to essentially do the same thing .... that also runs Openelec.

So in my view the viability of streaming LiveTV as well as media on the LAN is proved ...... and this is a 100Mb LAN with Cat 5e cabling.

So my intention is to disassemble the HTPC and put the tuners into a server box that is capable of receiving them (sufficient PCI-e slots), run that server using Openelec probably on a USB stick or such, and use the HDD space for storage of media and recordings and so on.

At each TV point an ethernet termination to which a small device (such as R-Pi or better) will be connected and thence to the TV.
Internet will be available at the same ethernet socket if the client device is capable of using it. (I don't know if there is a good web browser plugin available for Openelec or not).

This kind of set up is what I envisage in preference to my previous plan of bringing in the same 4 Sat cables and one DTT aerial cable to a central point, and using a multiswitch to distribute the signals to each room that required it and a splitter box in the room to break out the DTT and Sat signals.
That would have meant that each location would need to have its own client device with capabilities of integrated channel list and 14 day EPG and recording functions etc etc etc.

I am hopeful (because it is not yet in place ) that this present plan will give me one central location for all recordings regardless which room the 'instruction' comes from, and the recording will be available to play in any room with a connection.
There will be one master channel list and EPG etc, so much less maintenance should be required.

In addition ...... all media on the server will be available at each location and not just what was recorded there, including any ripped CDs/DVDs etc which are placed on the server.

Yes the plan is probably a bit ambitious and I might come a cropper if I meet some unforeseen hurdle ...... but so far the basics of the plan have been checked out and all is positive.

In fact my present HTPC could easily act as the server (it does during the testing), except it would not have sufficient storage for the project, and is not really built to be left unattended etc.
So the move to a server is nothing more than using more suitable hardware with more storage space.

I guess that's it from my point of view

I am hopeful it will work out well.

I have a lot of work to do to complete it of course ..... and am in no particular rush either
I will have to get the Sat & aerial cables into the location I wish the server to sit.
I will also have to re-wire some rooms to get the ethernet cabling to the same 'server press'.
For new routes I might do double Cat 5e wiring --- might be advantageous at some future time.

The LAN should be 1Gb and I have a router for that purpose.
The R-Pi might or might not be sufficient in the long term .... IMO there is not a lot of leeway there at present, but longer testing is needed to make a decision.

That's it

.