[Jaegger]

Hello

It's my first time on these forums so I hope I won't piss anyone off if I asked questions that have been answered previously in other topics.
I'm planning on doing some upgrades at home for both myself and my parents.
Since I have no experience with XBMC's or HTPC's, I was hoping you could help me out with a few general questions. The technical stuff i'll glady search and figure out in the existing topics.

What i'm already planning on buying:

• NAS: Synology Disk Station DS413J + HDD's: 2x Western Digital Red WD30EFRX 3TB
  

• Tablets: 3x Ipad Retina 16 GB to replace previous laptops
  

How me and my parents use our media currently:

• I stream sports & esports from my PC to TV with HDMI cables.
  
• My father plays music, films & concerts from his own collection + spotify with his laptop connected to TV & Receiver/Amp.
  
• Both me and my dad watch tv shows (american ones which are unfortunately not legally available as soon as the american releases) which I download on my PC and then use through USB sticks on my Dune mediaplayer + his laptop
  
• My mother listens radio with her laptop connected to receiver & speakers.
  

Since we're getting tired of HDMI cables, usb sticks and leaving unnecessary PC's & laptops online, XBMC seems to be the solution for my needs, combined with a beautiful library that everyone in my house can use. That would be amazing.

However, my mind is confused with Appletv, raspberry pi's, HTPCs, barebones, ... so what hardware do I need exactly in correspondence with bang for your buck kind of price & performance, plus I need 2 of those for in my own bedroom + the livingroom.

What's your opinion in what fits best for my situation?

Thanks in advance

Jaegger

[cwide]

With all your mobile devices I think you might have to do something else on the server side.

No offense to everyone here, but I don't think XBMC is the choice for mobile devices. I use XBMC on all my local x86 systems, but use Plex on all my mobile devices. The problem with the iPads, Apple TVs, Rokus, phones, etc... is that they usually require transcoding which is very CPU intensive and the NAS you have listed is just not powerful enough to do it. Granted, you could always just use the NAS as a NAS and install plex server on another computer.... but that is still using another computer that must be on.

I don't know how comfortable you are with building a server, but you can build a much more powerful server for the same price. Use unraid or freenas (or whatever you are comfortable with). Mine is a Celeron G1610 based ITX machine in a Fractal Node 304 case. It isn't very power hungry and is plenty powerful for almost all server functions.

I'm a pretty firm advocate of having a nice x86 based system as the main HTPC... and then filling bedrooms with Raspberry Pi's or even Rokus with Plex. Unless a jailbreak comes out for Apple TV or you already own an Apple TV 2 then I would just ignore them altogether.

[Jaegger]

With all your mobile devices I think you might have to do something else on the server side.

No offense to everyone here, but I don't think XBMC is the choice for mobile devices. I use XBMC on all my local x86 systems, but use Plex on all my mobile devices. The problem with the iPads, Apple TVs, Rokus, phones, etc... is that they usually require transcoding which is very CPU intensive and the NAS you have listed is just not powerful enough to do it. Granted, you could always just use the NAS as a NAS and install plex server on another computer.... but that is still using another computer that must be on.

I don't know how comfortable you are with building a server, but you can build a much more powerful server for the same price. Use unraid or freenas (or whatever you are comfortable with). Mine is a Celeron G1610 based ITX machine in a Fractal Node 304 case. It isn't very power hungry and is plenty powerful for almost all server functions.

I'm a pretty firm advocate of having a nice x86 based system as the main HTPC... and then filling bedrooms with Raspberry Pi's or even Rokus with Plex. Unless a jailbreak comes out for Apple TV or you already own an Apple TV 2 then I would just ignore them altogether.

What's your opinion on HTPC vs raspberry in terms of performance? 2 HTPC's would rather be expensive and since I watch movies/tv shows & streams more than my parents, i'd rather go for HTPC + raspberry pi.

[cwide]

HTPC is such a loose term. So many different platforms and hardware components. Raspberry Pi isn't going to blow you away, but it gets the job done in most cases. I haven't owned one for a while, but it was kind of a pain when I did.

I'm also not sure where I said to get 2 HTPCs? My only suggestion was to at least have one HTPC on your main media TV.

[Jaegger]

HTPC is such a loose term. So many different platforms and hardware components. Raspberry Pi isn't going to blow you away, but it gets the job done in most cases. I haven't owned one for a while, but it was kind of a pain when I did.

I'm also not sure where I said to get 2 HTPCs? My only suggestion was to at least have one HTPC on your main media TV.

Because I need one for my parents (living room) and my own bedroom? One HTPC wouldn't suffice for 2 rooms?

Whats your opinion on barebones?

[mdleal82]

Check the hardware section and the build post. Rasberry pi is painfully slow compared to an actual pc.

[mayoman]

I would get a cheap box for the bedroom.
CEC enabled TV & wired ethernet connection = Raspberry Pi
No CEC & wireless connection = Ouya (or other cheap android box).
Popcornmix is doing a lot of work on optimising the Pi firmware, its performance is much better than it was, with the promise of better to come (see here)

If you plan on retiring either of the laptops you could dedicate one as a living room HTPC & spend your money on a good NAS instead.
I would alo be concerned about overloading available wireless bandwidth - wired connections should be used for streaming as much as possible & the IPads used more as remotes.

[Jaegger]

I would get a cheap box for the bedroom.
CEC enabled TV & wired ethernet connection = Raspberry Pi
No CEC & wireless connection = Ouya (or other cheap android box).
Popcornmix is doing a lot of work on optimising the Pi firmware, its performance is much better than it was, with the promise of better to come (see here)

If you plan on retiring either of the laptops you could dedicate one as a living room HTPC & spend your money on a good NAS instead.
I would alo be concerned about overloading available wireless bandwidth - wired connections should be used for streaming as much as possible & the IPads used more as remotes.

What about barebones which are cheaper than HTPC's?

Thanks for your reply's so far guys

[mdleal82]

I think you getting lost on what an HTPC is.

HTPC=home theater PC which is any PC that is used for home theater purposes.
Barebones is a computer kit that you buy that is not assembled and does not come with software.

I guess first thing we need to know is how much you want to spend on everything.

Check out this post. http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=94199

[Jaegger]

I think you getting lost on what an HTPC is.

HTPC=home theater PC which is any PC that is used for home theater purposes.
Barebones is a computer kit that you buy that is not assembled and does not come with software.

I guess first thing we need to know is how much you want to spend on everything.

Check out this post. http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=94199

I apologise.

I was confused with the barebones in this showcase topic: http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=169539
where the user used the Shuttle barebones for each room, run with XBMC.

I will check the HTPC sticky.