Future of HTPC

degsie

Getting very quiet around here. Has the requirement for HTPC been superseded with the huge surge of cheapo Android based media players? Seems to make sense to invest in a cheap player for a while and replace it with another cheap player with improved features, instead of constantly upgrading a PC. Any thoughts?

hairyslug

I'll be the 1St to say I know very little about computers but my build (50/50 recycled/new €150) does the job perfectly and I don't see the need for me to upgrade anytime soon. It's also smoother than any of my friends Android boxes. It's a dual boot, openelec/tiny7 runs quick and smooth and was a very easy build. Anyone I know, I would point them in the direction of a htpc before a box (the big plus to these is how neat and small they are)

Dravokivich

Most of the people who would buy an android box wouldn't be doing it in mind of a simplified plug and play HTPC device.

There is still desire for HPTC as indicated with a prominence in threads about Tuner Cards lately. But it's such a specialised topic they tend to have low volume associated with them.

The main thread here previously was Kodi and even that was just about a particular set of addons.

The Ritz

The future of HCPC ? Hard to say �� I started out with one to play alt region DVDs, do picture processing and experiment with different codecs and to do 1:1 pixel matching to a projector and graduated to including tuner cards, satellite etc, and needing the horsepower to play HD streams obtained from other enthusiasts in the US, long before HD became available in the UK or here.

The advent of android boxes and some of the murky addons has blurred things somewhat, and notwithstanding the approach taken on this forum to discussion of some aspects if it's functionality, I'm a long-term fan of XBMC now Kodi and use it as a media organiser - a significant proportion of my movie collection is now ripped to storage. I have a Wetek box on hand and I'm thinking of test-driving it for silence (the enemy of hcpcs everywhere ��). As long as people keep their curiosity and are sufficiently willing to make the investment in time, there will be a place for hcpcs. Mind you, I remember reading similar statements about CRT projectors in other forums !

Ritz

Johnboy1951

The difficulty in answering such a question is that HTPC means different things to different users.

For some a HTPC is a simple low powered 'as small as possible' box, silent, that sits at the TV and streams from internet.
Others will add functionality requirements to that, and so a whole range of devices are pulled in under the HTPC name.

My chosen set up is a backend tuner box, which stored recordings, using an old PC with a P4, and at each TV a small silent device for playing liveTV from the backend tuners, and stored media files and recordings, as well as streaming. Devices such a R-Pi, NUC and so on, running Openelec and Kodi do well.
In fact I use Openelec on the backend also with tvheadend doing the tuner management..

All storage is in one location and everything is accessible by all devices. The client devices are st up to store anything they record in the central location.
Devices include tablets, PCs, laptops, smart phones as well as the TV client devices.

No problems with distributing signals to the TVs as, if there is no ethernet cable fitted, home plugs work very well.

Johnboy1951

I could not complete my post above, even with multiple edits, so this is how it was supposed to finish:-

No problems with distributing signals to the TVs as, if there is no ethernet cable fitted, home plugs work very well.
Other devices can use ethernet or wireless, although wireless is susceptible to interference.

I don't expect my HTPC set up is what most would think of when the term is used

The Ritz

I've read some of your explanations of your setup and, to be fair, I'd say you're at the cutting edge of distributed TV. I'd like to get to know more about tvheadend etc. as I've a wetek box with satellite tuners and I have a masochistic weakness for learning about/setting up boxes I'll probably rarely use !

Ritz.

Johnboy1951

The Ritz wrote: »

I've read some of your explanations of your setup and, to be fair, I'd say you're at the cutting edge of distributed TV. I'd like to get to know more about tvheadend etc. as I've a wetek box with satellite tuners and I have a masochistic weakness for learning about/setting up boxes I'll probably rarely use !

Ritz.

Can you easily do a separate install of Openelec on the Wetek for experimenting?
Maybe a dual boot or a separate removable boot drive such as an USB stick?
Set up tvheadend on that and try to work through setting it up.

Fun project

Fallschirmjager

i think the wetek is a bit of a game changer. i would buy one if they did a sat and terrestrial option but last i checked its either 2 sat receivers or terrestrial. so they have one more step to go and i would get one.

i finally retasked my pi 2 with a usb stick for satellite on tvheadent (openelec on the pi 2 and kodi and therefore tvheadend as well). with minimal setup on the pi, i was up and running with guide, recording and perfect pic quality inc HD. also i might add since its a tv server, all the other kodi clients can now watch tv without sat cable runs everywhere. also a shout out to Johnboy1951 which cleared up a ton of 'stuff' in the early days for me...thanks dude. to be honest the only hard part was cancelling fecking sky, jesus talk about annoying!

the reason i think the wetek is a game changer is the simple integrtion of the tuners in a tiny quiet box and it not expensive at all. hopefully this will drive the likes of minix etc to do something similar. i have a minix box and have to say i am very impressed.

the other quite noticable thing is win10 appearing on these small boxes like android like boxes and even the pi...that must mean its hurting the big M$oft. my main room kodi box is a NUC, whenver that goes, no way am i replacing it with another NUC, just too expensive. i do love them, dont get me wrong...but for a quarter of the price you can get something equally and some would argue better.

one other thing i think will change in the HTPC arena. the addons. if companies dont adopt a payment model ala netflix, they will get overrun like the music industry, i would go so far as to say that has already happened and will accellerate as it gets easier. the amount of illegal stuff is honestly mind blowing. The amount of websites with boxes selling illegal options is staggering IMHO. no wonder the kodi group are loosing their cool with some in the addon community. the more companies like wetek create these one stop simple boxes, the more people will buy them and the more they will seek out differnet ways to consume tv. on a related not i saw a stat recently that 30% of under 25's get all of their tv online. that will only grow. the days of the episode a week and what you watch being controlled by some plonker in RTE etc are coming to an end methinks.

Johnboy1951

I have looked at the Wetek box with a view to maybe one in my future sometime

I would get the one with two Sat tuners, and add the DVB-T tuners using two cheap DVB-T USB dongles (or a dual dongle) to cover the Saorview content for everyone.

My only doubt presently is whether the hardware is capable of managing everything and providing the channels to multiple devices on the LAN.
It might well be capable .... I don't have the info.

A box like the Wetek with 2 of each DVB-T & DVB-S, internal HDD and a 1Gb/s NIC or two would be near ideal for me.


@Fallschirmjager

Glad to hear your set up is working well for you.

What Sat USB stick did you get?