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+--- Thread: Starting a Media Center. What are the bare essentials? (/showthread.php?tid=80445)
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Starting a Media Center. What are the bare essentials? - ocmdiaz714 - 2010-09-05
I'm looking for a netbook or nettop with HDMI output solely for a media center. So far I've been looking at ASUS and Acer. I need something reliable and quiet. I'd also like to throw in that I won't want the lid to be open, but need the computer to stay on while the lid is closed. I've never owned a nettop or netbook, so I don't know how that works. These are the ones that I've seen thus far:
ASUS Eee PC Seashell 1201N-PU17-BK
ASUS Eee PC Seashell 1201PN-PU17-BK
Acer Aspire AO721-3574
So far I'll be running XBMC on my home PC as I don't have netbook or nettop, nor do I have a TV. Once I get the netbook or nettop I'll look into getting a TV.
- jhsrennie - 2010-09-05
If it's just for an HTPC a netbook seems a strange choice. I'd only go for a portable if I was going to be taking it with me to use away from home.
I have two HTPCs, an Apple Mac Mini and an Acer Revo 3610. The Mac is awesomely good and has the best sound I've heard on a PC, but it's very expensive. The Revo was *much* cheaper and is perfectly adequate. I take the Revo with me if I'm showing XBMC to friends.
JR
- StefanM - 2010-09-05
i can recommend the eeebox 1501..
JR you gonna get the new appleTV?
- poofyhairguy - 2010-09-05
The 1201N rocks. I have the competitor the HP Mini 311. It rocks. Avoid Intel GPUS.
- Jogee - 2010-09-05
ocmdiaz714,
I bought an Acer Aspire Revo R3610 (Win7-64bit, 160GB HDD, 2GB RAM) about a month ago. I have it connected to my LCD TV via HDMI as well as separately to my small stereo via the headphone jack.
I have been very happy with it once I got rid of all the crapola extra software Acer puts on (which did speed things up noticeably), and I put XBMC (dharma) on it.
From soley a media centre standpoint, the Revo and XBMC (dharma) is a great combination. The stable build was great on everything except for h264/x264 content as it just couldn't keep up (12fps). But the dharma branch added hardware acceleration which cured that aspect.
I cannot hear it at all. Admitedly, it is behind my TV, but even with my head behind the TV the Revo is quiet. There was an updated BIOS that addressed some fan complaints, but that was included on mine. With you sitting on your couch 1m + away watching your TV, you wont even know it's on.
The included wireless keyboard and mouse are decent. Keyboard has a pretty good touch, especially for a thow in. It even has keyboard shortcuts for play/ff/rw/vol that works with your media players. I haven't tried to add custom keyboard shortcuts for these keys yet in XBMC, but I think it should be possible.
I had thought about waiting for an ION2 based device, but the reviews didn't give it enough of an advance for me to wait around for the new stuff (like the Shuttle XS35, or whatever it's called).
Hope that helps. Ciao.
- jhsrennie - 2010-09-05
StefanM Wrote:JR you gonna get the new appleTV?
It looks sexy, but it has an underpowered CPU and no hard disk. If all you want is to stream media then I can see it's appeal, but that isn't all I want. If Apple put in an Atom 330 and a 2.5" disk I'd be interested.
We should probably continue in the hardware forum :-)
JR
- ocmdiaz714 - 2010-09-05
Thanks for the help guys, and thank you Jogee for your iput, it really helped. I had my mind set on the AR1600-U910H nettop as it's only $199 at Frys, but now I don't know. I mean, it's no biggie upgrading the ram, but I would like to buy a netbook or nettop with everything I need, and no need for immediate upgrade. I also had a question. I doubt there's a netbook or nettop with a bluray drive, but will these systems play an mkv file the same quality as a bluray disc? Thanks.
- jhsrennie - 2010-09-06
ocmdiaz714 Wrote:I also had a question. I doubt there's a netbook or nettop with a bluray drive, but will these systems play an mkv file the same quality as a bluray disc? Thanks.
Yes, on any Ion based system XBMC will play .mkv files ripped from Bluray.
The Asrock 330HT is available with a Bluray drive, though it's a fair bit more expensive than the Revo (well, Bluray drives are expensive) and note that at the moment XBMC will not play Bluray disks.
JR
- prae5 - 2010-09-06
ocmdiaz714 Wrote:Thanks for the help guys, and thank you Jogee for your iput, it really helped. I had my mind set on the AR1600-U910H nettop as it's only $199 at Frys, but now I don't know. I mean, it's no biggie upgrading the ram, but I would like to buy a netbook or nettop with everything I need, and no need for immediate upgrade. I also had a question. I doubt there's a netbook or nettop with a bluray drive, but will these systems play an mkv file the same quality as a bluray disc? Thanks.
There is no need to upgrade the ram if you are running linux / xbmclive. The single core revo with 1gb ram is more than enough for 1080p playback.
- ocmdiaz714 - 2010-09-06
prae5 Wrote:There is no need to upgrade the ram if you are running linux / xbmclive. The single core revo with 1gb ram is more than enough for 1080p playback.
In that case...I'm back at step 1, but now with two options.
AR1600-U910H for $199.99
or
R3610 for $316.86
There's no need for extra ram if I'm running the linux OS thus replacing Windows or by installing XBMC onto a USB drive? I'm completely new at this. And another thing, if I want to add media would I have to load Windows from the nettop, and go on to downloading/importing media, later scanning into a library or is there a different way? And one last thing, could I have XBMC start right up when I power on the nettop without having to go through any BIOS or such?
- d'Wooluf - 2010-09-06
jhsrennie Wrote:If it's just for an HTPC a netbook seems a strange choice. I'd only go for a portable if I was going to be taking it with me to use away from home.JR
I've been thinking about a netbook for a htpc. Here's my rationale. A htpc has to do double duty as a video player and a music player. I don't want to leave a big power-hungry screen on just to select and play my music. The nice thing about the netbook is that it comes with a discrete and low-powered screen of its own. Video goes to the big screen.
This is all in theory, though. And I don't really know how intelligently xbmc handles that kind of dual screen setup.
- jhsrennie - 2010-09-06
d'Wooluf Wrote:I've been thinking about a netbook for a htpc. Here's my rationale. A htpc has to do double duty as a video player and a music player. I don't want to leave a big power-hungry screen on just to select and play my music. The nice thing about the netbook is that it comes with a discrete and low-powered screen of its own. Video goes to the big screen.
This is all in theory, though. And I don't really know how intelligently xbmc handles that kind of dual screen setup.
When I've started playing an album I turn my TV off until the album has finished :-)
JR
- poofyhairguy - 2010-09-06
d'Wooluf Wrote:This is all in theory, though. And I don't really know how intelligently xbmc handles that kind of dual screen setup.
It doesn't really, as a Netbook will have a lower res than your TV (so no mirroring).
Look, the only good reason to get a Netbook player is because you travel a lot and you want to take a small XBMC setup with you to plug into hotel TVs. That is what my ION netbook is used for.
I would NEVER use my ION netbook as my main player at home as the constant demands on it would be too much.
From what you have stated in the thread, you just need to go buy the single core Revo.
The single core Revo running XBMC Live (Linux) will play almost any x264 file on the planet. I have personally pushed ION to the limits myself and I can tell you- you won't outgrow it.
You don't need Windows at all. XBMC Live boot straight into XBMC. In fact that is best case- no dual booting. Just let that Revo be your XBMC appliance.......
- ocmdiaz714 - 2010-09-10
How is media transferred to the XBMC? Crossover cable, WiFi, server? If WiFi, I suppose my PC with the stored media needs to stay on 24/7? Also, to load XBMC directly once I boot up the Acer Revo do I need to replace Windwos with Linux, and if so what version? Been looking at Mint.
- jhsrennie - 2010-09-10
ocmdiaz714 Wrote:How is media transferred to the XBMC? Crossover cable, WiFi, server? If WiFi, I suppose my PC with the stored media needs to stay on 24/7? Also, to load XBMC directly once I boot up the Acer Revo do I need to replace Windwos with Linux, and if so what version? Been looking at Mint.
XBMC (Dharma) runs equally well on all operating systems. Use whatever OS you feel most comfortable with.
How and where you store your media is up to you. There are lots of options. If you don't have that much data you can just copy it onto your Revo using whatever method you find easiest. I copy data across the LAN using SMB file sharing, but you could use a USB key at a pinch.
If (like me) you have terabytes of data then you probably want a dedicated file server that stays on 24/7. You could just turn it on whenever you want to use XBMC, but I suspect that will rapidly become a pain. Having a dedicated server is very useful as you can use it to run BitTorrent etc overnight or whenever your ISP doesn't count your Internet usage.
JR