[ashman70]

Also, if you are streaming with plex locally inside your network, there is no transcoding required, its only if you wanted to stream when outside your network that the transcoding would kick in.

[Cincinnatus]

Wishlist::
-storing 3TB+ of mixed media
-backing up via raid or something
-Kodi to organize movies
-downloading torrents on htpc or nas would be cool
-streaming movies and mp3s to iPads is cool but not required
-if nas then seamless easy playback of files on tv
-want to sometimes use the htpc or nas to surf the net, YouTube, Netflix, etc. on my tv
-possible gaming in WOW on htpc (not a requirement though)
-3D doesn't matter since I hate it, and 4k proof would be cool but not required

I was pretty much in your same shoes, and can ditto the recommendation of an Nvidia Android Shield TV + Western Digital EX4 (4 drives in RAID5) + Kodi = Nirvana.

You'll need something to rip your movie/cd collection to a drive and unprotect it so that it can be accessed. There are a number of products, but I use SlySoft 'AnyDVDHD'.

Note that there's currently a promotion available to get the Shield + Remote + Controller for $150USD, but I'm not sure if that's available to y'all in the Great White North. Might be worth checking into, though.

Per the prior points, though RAID is not a 'backup' per se, for my needs, I found the risk of a failure without warning at a time I'm unable to react to be very low. Therefore, in my scenario, it is a 'backup' of sorts.

Hope it all works out for you!

[Acadia]

Omg I'm loving Emby from what I've read. I ordered the qnap 451 with 4x western digital red 4tb.

Now I have to learn how to set everything up.

And I'm debating a Mac mini 2.8 i5 with 8gb ram and ssd as the htpc. I might order one tomorrow. I know it's overkill, but I want a computer in my living room. I read chrome box or Pi can sometimes not playback everything...I'm not geeky enough to fix all issues, and I am willing to sacrifice flexibility for ease of use.

Only issue I'm reading about is this 24hz playback with bluray limitation on Mac minis. Something about 23,967 instead of 24....video skipping every few seconds...a limitation of OS X. I don't understand it. I'm hoping I can play all my movies via Emby/kodi. Fingers crossed.

[wrxtasy]

And I'm debating a Mac mini 2.8 i5 with 8gb ram and ssd as the htpc. I might order one tomorrow. I know it's overkill, but I want a computer in my living room. I read chrome box or Pi can sometimes not playback everything...I'm not geeky enough to fix all issues, and I am willing to sacrifice flexibility for ease of use.

Only issue I'm reading about is this 24hz playback with bluray limitation on Mac minis. Something about 23,967 instead of 24....video skipping every few seconds...a limitation of OS X. I don't understand it. I'm hoping I can play all my movies via Emby/kodi. Fingers crossed.

Seriously if you want super smooth 23.976fps video output, DO NOT buy a Mac and run OSX on it for movie playback.
To get properly synced 23.976fps video out of a Intel Haswell or later Mac you need to run Windows or Linux on it. This is an OSX Limitation, always has been. If you want a bit more of a detailed explanation read THIS
Also no HD Audio Passthrough on any Mac running OSX. Period.

An Intel Haswell Chromebox or Intel Braswell box are far better options than a Mac Mini running OSX for HD audio and 24p video playback.

You don't need 8GB of RAM or a high capacity SSD if you are just running OpenELEC Kodi.

The bog standard ASUS Chromebox makes a far better media player. You just follow Matt Devo's dead easy script, install OpenELEC on it and you are good to go. A FLIRC IR receiver and remote of course is also needed.