Potentially the longest thread in history...

[PP Mguire]

Re: Today I have...

HTPC are kind of useless IMO if you have a smartphone, and even more so if you have a AppleTV and Mac. I just use my Apple TV to rent or watch any video I want. If I don't want to rent it, you can use Airplay in OS X Mountain Lion to stream anything from your mac to Apple TV. Before I had my mac I just used AirVideo App available on OSX,iOS,Windows to stream any video from my PC through my iPhone and then use AirPlay on my iPhone to send it to Apple TV. Works fantastic.

I am sure their is an equivalent of AirVideo on Android, heck AirVideo may even be on android i've not checked. Then connect your android smartphone to your TV wirelessly and stream the video on your phone to your TV, I dunno how you would do it on android but I bet you can.

Eh, not everybody can afford a newer TV with wireless capabilities. Try to remember, some of us make less than 2k a month.

 

[Puddle Jumper]

Re: Today I have...

HTPC are kind of useless IMO if you have a smartphone, and even more so if you have a AppleTV and Mac. I just use my Apple TV to rent or watch any video I want. If I don't want to rent it, you can use Airplay in OS X Mountain Lion to stream anything from your mac to Apple TV. Before I had my mac I just used AirVideo App available on OSX,iOS,Windows to stream any video from my PC through my iPhone and then use AirPlay on my iPhone to send it to Apple TV. Works fantastic.

I am sure their is an equivalent of AirVideo on Android, heck AirVideo may even be on android i've not checked. Then connect your android smartphone to your TV wirelessly and stream the video on your phone to your TV, I dunno how you would do it on android but I bet you can.

Or if you have a really new high end TV you can undoubtedly do that without even a smartphone. Pretty sure the newest TV's can connect and see content on your PC anyway, though perhaps I am imagining things

A HTPC would let me utilize Hulu for free as well as stream content from any of the networks sites (the latter of which can be done on Android as well thanks to flash). Not to mention it could store my music and video library assuming it's Windows based or stream them if it is Android.

If I wanted to stream video to my tv from a pc I could use WiDi but that would be pointless since it would basically turn my laptop in an expensive HTPC itself. I'm not sure of the benefit of streaming from a phone to the tv since my phone couldn't store any significant amount of content in the first place. I do have a HD dock for my tablet which works well but it still means tying up the tablet and I'll still have storage issues.

For me an HTPC is kind of an all or nothing thing, if I do it I am going to take the time to do it right. That means it needs constant access to my entire media collection and the ability to play it all back. The only reasonable ways I see to do that is either a dedicated Windows system with a 4-8tb RAID array to store everything or a server combined with a simple Android device like the one MindoverMaster posted.

I'm not about to replace a 65" 1080p tv just to get some poorly tacked on apps and the ability to playback some network content. The Android device mentioned above would do a better job and is a tiny fraction of the price.

 

[Oreo]

Re: Today I have...

Eh, not everybody can afford a newer TV with wireless capabilities. Try to remember, some of us make less than 2k a month.

Lol, I know, our living room HD TV is 7 years old. It aint even 1080p. But most people have smartphones like I said. My HDTV is also 720p, half broken, and about 4 years old - maybe 5.

A HTPC would let me utilize Hulu for free as well as stream content from any of the networks sites (the latter of which can be done on Android as well thanks to flash). Not to mention it could store my music and video library assuming it's Windows based or stream them if it is Android.

If I wanted to stream video to my tv from a pc I could use WiDi but that would be pointless since it would basically turn my laptop in an expensive HTPC itself. I'm not sure of the benefit of streaming from a phone to the tv since my phone couldn't store any significant amount of content in the first place. I do have a HD dock for my tablet which works well but it still means tying up the tablet and I'll still have storage issues.

For me an HTPC is kind of an all or nothing thing, if I do it I am going to take the time to do it right. That means it needs constant access to my entire media collection and the ability to play it all back. The only reasonable ways I see to do that is either a dedicated Windows system with a 4-8tb RAID array to store everything or a server combined with a simple Android device like the one MindoverMaster posted.

I'm not about to replace a 65" 1080p tv just to get some poorly tacked on apps and the ability to playback some network content. The Android device mentioned above would do a better job and is a tiny fraction of the price.

Why would their be storage issues ? As long as your main PC has good storage I don't see the issue. You use Airvideo or an equivalent app, it does all the conversion, compressing on your PC, streams it to an iPhone/Android in a compatible format, and then you use AirPlay or the android equivalent to stream it to your TV using a cheap media hub thing like Apple TV or a Roku.

Though if you insist on 1080P BluRay quality like I do on certain films I love, then yes, a HTPC would be the only real way to get that kind of quality.

 

[Puddle Jumper]

Re: Today I have...

Why would their be storage issues ? As long as your main PC has good storage I don't see the issue. You use Airvideo or an equivalent app, it does all the conversion, compressing on your PC, streams it to an iPhone/Android in a compatible format, and then you use AirPlay or the android equivalent to stream it to your TV using a cheap media hub thing like Apple TV or a Roku.

Though if you insist on 1080P BluRay quality like I do on certain films I love, then yes, a HTPC would be the only real way to get that kind of quality.

If I went that route why not just cut out using my phone or tablet as a middleman between my pc and a media hub and just use one of the mini Android pc's in place of the media hub and stream to it directly? Or I could even cut out the Android system completely and just hook a Windows pc up to the tv directly, I have enough hardware lying around to put together a complete AM2+ or lga775 system so all I would need is the storage drives.

I would want bluray quality which is why I need so much storage.

 

[PP Mguire]

Re: Today I have...

My server is usually my HTPC. Plop it in the living room and hooked the cable straight to a screen.

 

[C0RR0SIVE]

Re: Today I have...

My server is my a full entertainment system... Use PLEX, have all my shows categorized, I have a TV Tuner card, can pick up several local stations, and I have an app for PLEX that lets me record the broadcast and store it on the server. I use my server for downloaded content, it sits tucked away. It will stream to any android device in my home, and COULD stream to my devices online if I had fast enough upload speeds. Guess, what, my server cost around $1000 in the end, the tv around $600. Hell lot cheaper than the Mac alternative of a smartphone IMO, in the fact, who the hell wants a smart phone to view content if they are wanting 7.1 surround sound on a 1080p 52in screen? That is where a cheap HTPC comes in handy.

I can sit here, watch what I want, when I want, from at least 6 different sources easily, on either an Android phone, and even a stupid iphone provided they have plex client installed or something that can pull from a plex server. What is even more enjoyable is the fact anyone in the house at any time can pull from my "HTPC" on PS3/Xbox360/Droid/PC/iPhone (bring a mac PC into my home and it will be shot) and provided they have a newer TV, they can do so as well.

So really, a phone or a mac computer will NOT replace a full HTPC setup like mine, nor would anyone that spends time/money building such a system would want a phone.

 

[Oreo]

Re: Today I have...

If I went that route why not just cut out using my phone or tablet as a middleman between my pc and a media hub and just use one of the mini Android pc's in place of the media hub and stream to it directly? Or I could even cut out the Android system completely and just hook a Windows pc up to the tv directly, I have enough hardware lying around to put together a complete AM2+ or lga775 system so all I would need is the storage drives.

I would want bluray quality which is why I need so much storage.

Well, that is what I do now I have my mac. You can't stream from a windows pc to an Apple TV - at least I don't think.. i'll have to look into that one. You certainly can't stream your desktop like on Mac, because Apple would never allow that.. ha.

I'm not saying anyone should buy a Mac *just* for a HTPC, that is absurd. But if you have one anyway it's a viable alternative for core HTPC functions such as watching a few films. If you want the kind of thing corrosive has, then that is what you have to do. I'm only interested in streaming a few films every now and then, so it really is not worth investing in a full blown HTPC for me.

 

[Puddle Jumper]

Re: Today I have...

Well, that is what I do now I have my mac. You can't stream from a windows pc to an Apple TV - at least I don't think.. i'll have to look into that one. You certainly can't stream your desktop like on Mac.

The beauty of the Android system in place of an Apple TV is you can just use ES File Explorer or Dice Player to browse your existing network shares for content and don't need any clients installed on the pc/server so even s prebuilt NAS would be adequate to store your content.

Windows systems have been able to stream their desktop for ages using WiDi plus a compatible device hooked up to the tv.

 

[Oreo]

Re: Today I have...

Yeah I know. But who has one of them ?

AppleTV is basicly a WiDi but with more features, for the same price. But that is a totally different argument altogether. The point I was originally making is that HTPC are not necessary for many people anymore, especially those that are happy with the kind of quality of something like Vimeo HD, which for most purposes is great and very adequate.

 

[iFargle]

Re: Today I have...

I use my PS3 as a media streamer from my desktop... PS3 Media Server is painfully slow though...