[Karnagious]

Yup.

[Ned Scott]

It's not really that it's dead or alive at any given time. It all depends on the demands of the user. There was very little DIY with the original xbox, modding, sure, but you couldn't make your own xbox. There will be something that users will want to do that isn't covered in some of the Android boxes or NUCs or whatever, and that will cause rises and falls in DIY builds.

I also think there's a big surge of "noobier" XBMC users, but that isn't really an indication of decline for the XBMC power users who are more likely to go DIY.

It's not like there really is much complication to "DIY" HTPCs. Motherboard, case, power supply, ram, drive.

Then you have things like the Raspberry Pi, which despite it's aging hardware is still increasing in interest as far as XBMC goes (thanks to new users). I feel like I've DIY'ed more with a Pi than my x86 machines. I've built my own cases, a couple of different LCD info screens, custom buttons, IR, small keypads, and more (much more when you go beyond XBMC, which starts to include sensors and servo motors). It's a lot of fun, too.

[Kapsville]

I did always build our computers myself but i don´t see the point of DIY htpc´s anymore. How can you compete with a Zotac ZBox i3, fanless cooling, complete loudless with an average consumption of 15 W at 1080p playback?

[voip-ninja]

The issue is that its becoming increasingly hard for a DIY build to match the power consumption and profile of a custom solution, and you don't really gain any performance either. OEMs like Intel don't sell the parts used in something like Chromebox in retail channels, so you can't actually DIY it.

So a DIY is not going to be cheaper, it'll consume more power, will be bigger, will take more time, have no support. What do you potentially gain? - it has more expansion support, can run more things, and you have the luxury (and pain) of researching, choosing and building it. Every single one of these is arguably not a benefit for most people.

XBMC should be an appliance, easy to use, not intimidating, and off the shelf, so everyone can use it. Now its pretty much there thanks to the new generation of devices.

Crispy pretty much hits it on the head here.

Right now there's very little reason to DIY, that might change when H265 content becomes more common and off the shelf boxes aren't able to handle it... for a while anyway.

Alternatively all that H265 really offers is better compression... from a PQ standpoint there's still little reason to go to 4K or H265 unless you have a truly monstrous TV and sit fairly close to it.

[SDub]

What if you have a large bluray and DVD library and don't care to spend the hours ripping it all to digital? I like having the ability to play DVDs and Blurays. I'm sure there's some way to tag a external bluray player onto a smaller form factor device but then you sacrifice it's form factor and aesthetic.

[Dougie Fresh]

I've always DIY'd to get exactly what I want as far as looks, brand, performance, etc. That's the only way I've found not to have to compromise on something. With these off-the-shelf boxes there's always some compromise. I also want to be able to support the box myself too and not have to deal with something breaking and then having to talk to someone in India or China who knows absolutely nothing but is my only recourse.

I can tell you from a system builder point of view, business and even inquireies have gotten very slow to almost non-existent. Everyone wants the cheapest thing possible but with full service and high-end parts. There's definitely been a change in mentality away from quality to cheap/throw-away. I'd personally rather spend more on something that works and looks nice.

The NUC is definitely the death-knell of DIY/mini-ITX.

[noggin]

from a PQ standpoint there's still little reason to go to 4K or H265 unless you have a truly monstrous TV and sit fairly close to it.

And 4K HEVC content in the first place. Apart from the occasional test transmission OTA and on satellite, unless you're shooting stuff yourself (on a GH4 for instance), you're at the mercy of streaming content providers like Netflix for the time being I guess.

[weirdinin]

How about those encrypted bd discs? How do you handle them using nuc? Sure you can store data on media server in your basement but if you go and rent a movie and want to start watching it right away. I wanted to be able to play discs and that was the main reason to go for diy.

[MrCrispy]

The issue is that its becoming increasingly hard for a DIY build to match the power consumption and profile of a custom solution, and you don't really gain any performance either. OEMs like Intel don't sell the parts used in something like Chromebox in retail channels, so you can't actually DIY it.

So a DIY is not going to be cheaper, it'll consume more power, will be bigger, will take more time, have no support. What do you potentially gain? - it has more expansion support, can run more things, and you have the luxury (and pain) of researching, choosing and building it. Every single one of these is arguably not a benefit for most people.

XBMC should be an appliance, easy to use, not intimidating, and off the shelf, so everyone can use it. Now its pretty much there thanks to the new generation of devices.

Crispy pretty much hits it on the head here.

Right now there's very little reason to DIY, that might change when H265 content becomes more common and off the shelf boxes aren't able to handle it... for a while anyway.

Alternatively all that H265 really offers is better compression... from a PQ standpoint there's still little reason to go to 4K or H265 unless you have a truly monstrous TV and sit fairly close to it.

Current chips already have hw decoding of H265 and 4K output. I think there are Android boxes that can already do this. They will become common in the next update of devices like FireTv/Roku's and mobile cpu's. Right around the time there is actually 4K content to watch.

And the other benefit of a retail box is its cheap to upgrade. It will probably cost less buy a newer FireTv/Chromebox than it will to upgrade the cpu/gpu/mobo etc in a DIY.

[jammyb]

How about those encrypted bd discs? How do you handle them using nuc? Sure you can store data on media server in your basement but if you go and rent a movie and want to start watching it right away. I wanted to be able to play discs and that was the main reason to go for diy.

PS3

[MrCrispy]

How about those encrypted bd discs? How do you handle them using nuc? Sure you can store data on media server in your basement but if you go and rent a movie and want to start watching it right away. I wanted to be able to play discs and that was the main reason to go for diy.

Its cheaper and easier to buy a BR player. BR drives and software is more expensive and not without issues.

[noggin]

How about those encrypted bd discs? How do you handle them using nuc? Sure you can store data on media server in your basement but if you go and rent a movie and want to start watching it right away. I wanted to be able to play discs and that was the main reason to go for diy.

BD drive in a Windows box with rip lock removed and AnyDVD HD ripping to server, means playback is much quieter without a spinning disc...

---

The issue is that its becoming increasingly hard for a DIY build to match the power consumption and profile of a custom solution, and you don't really gain any performance either. OEMs like Intel don't sell the parts used in something like Chromebox in retail channels, so you can't actually DIY it.

So a DIY is not going to be cheaper, it'll consume more power, will be bigger, will take more time, have no support. What do you potentially gain? - it has more expansion support, can run more things, and you have the luxury (and pain) of researching, choosing and building it. Every single one of these is arguably not a benefit for most people.

XBMC should be an appliance, easy to use, not intimidating, and off the shelf, so everyone can use it. Now its pretty much there thanks to the new generation of devices.

Crispy pretty much hits it on the head here.

Right now there's very little reason to DIY, that might change when H265 content becomes more common and off the shelf boxes aren't able to handle it... for a while anyway.

Alternatively all that H265 really offers is better compression... from a PQ standpoint there's still little reason to go to 4K or H265 unless you have a truly monstrous TV and sit fairly close to it.

Current chips already have hw decoding of H265 and 4K output. I think there are Android boxes that can already do this. They will become common in the next update of devices like FireTv/Roku's and mobile cpu's. Right around the time there is actually 4K content to watch.

And the other benefit of a retail box is its cheap to upgrade. It will probably cost less buy a newer FireTv/Chromebox than it will to upgrade the cpu/gpu/mobo etc in a DIY.

Has anyone confirmed 4K HEVC decoding in the wild yet on any of these boxes? There's quite a lot of 2160/59.94p and 2160/50p HEVC out in the wild now.

[weirdinin]

How about those encrypted bd discs? How do you handle them using nuc? Sure you can store data on media server in your basement but if you go and rent a movie and want to start watching it right away. I wanted to be able to play discs and that was the main reason to go for diy.

PS3

Its cheaper and easier to buy a BR player. BR drives and software is more expensive and not without issues.

Yes, might be a descent choice for someone. But It would kill the harmony of using one smooth, consistent user interface that has also a consistent theme all over the place. And in additition, that would mean another machine in your living room producing larger footprint than it would be if you had just one box that can handle all desired functions

And another reason not to get too many machines is that it would make living room look too much tech oriented. Tech should not be visible, not even in a dedicated home theatre room. I find diy being the only way to get exactly what I want. Nuc would be an interesting experiment to try but at least for now I want do it myself.

[skylarking]

There are still DIY options around today that allow a somewhat unknowledgable person to build their own HTPC and not be forced into the industies view of what a HTPC should be.
But the days are numbered. The skill level to DIY will grow at an alarming rate and matched by the dumbing down of technical documents put out be the OEM industry.

In the longer run, DIY HTPC will become more and more difficult as the industry pushes appliance style devices onto the market carrying with it the restirictions the media industry crave.
Intel will push the boundry and attempt removing DIY/enthusiest components from the shelves.
Motherboad manufacturers will start to push out all in one motherboards which can't be upgraded since intel wont sell enthusiest CPUs.
MS and it's cronies will further push towards securing their secure boot initiative, which will mean we wont be able to swicth it off and they wont allow self signing firmware or bootloaders.
Soon, we'll all need to be very very knowledgable hackers just to be able to boot our systems, if at all possible, and be made into criminals for circumventing such installed restirictions if we do.

We will be locked out of the hardware and this will more than anything else consign the DIY segment into the dustbin of history.
That's unless one considers DIY as buying an of the shelf product and bunging it into a different colored case, that sort of DIY will be around for much longer .

[weirdinin]

BD drive in a Windows box with rip lock removed and AnyDVD HD ripping to server, means playback is much quieter without a spinning disc...

But that doesn't work if you want start playback without any delays.
In my htpc there's anydvd hd with lifetime updates and usually I do rip all material to a dedicated server and watch it without spinning disc. But sometimes ripping is just not an option, it's not fast enough. Especially when I have impatient visitors. Ripping bd disc takes about 30-50 mins.