Carry on building or not, sell up and get a revo ?!?

[dibbers]

OK, bought me self some parts today and the idea was to build my self an HTPC media player, and then realized that after I'd bought all the items that I'd just bought another pc, all be it the mother board has an HDMI out put on it so i thought I'd was doing good by not getting a graphics card with it, so, ended up with a mini atx mother board, processor, ram and case, and i'm now looking at the "revo" what ya all think? i mean these are just tiny silent pc's? can any one shed any light on them?

Not sure if i should look for an HTPC media case, some thing nice and carry on building this machine or cut my losses and sell the brand new parts and put them to wards a revo?

What ya all think?

They run windows 7 and media center ?!?

 

[oneman]

The revo does not have an internal optical drive, I imagine the HTPC case will.

Depends on what you want, the revo is small and integrated but if the parts already would it not be cheaper to finish building your own PC

 

[dibbers]

Thanks bud, decided to sell up and start a fresh, that was a knee jerk reaction diving in for the parts, one of them "i must buy some thing" days......right back to the drawing board, i like the idea of the revo as that'll play back stuff from an attached USB drive or via the network....how ever i best sit and have a think on what i want to achieve from a htpc, and what i want it to do, not do etc. got a lap top here that has windows media centre on it, so might be better off just using this as it's hdmi, it' not like i can't get on the net, suppose this lap top could sit underneath and i have one of them USB remotes some where for windows media center....*thinks*

 

[oneman]

If you are looking for a good remote then look at logitech dinovo mini. Bit pricey but probably the best remote for a media centre PC I have used.

 

[Captin]

Have you thought of getting a PS3 and use that as a media centre. Thats the main use for mine. You can stream anything to it from a PC using ps3mediaserver (it accomodates every format including full HD with subs and surroundsound). Or (if it's on CFW or jailbreak) you can use Showtime player, it play all sorts of file formats. I use it to play MKV files from an external hard drive it will also play the video files from the internal hard drive and even the in-games videos (cut scenes). Showtime has some internet TV connections too like Revision 3 for lots of tech related shows. With the built-in blu-ray drive you have as full featured media center as you could ask for. It would cost less than building a MPC.

I've just ditched my Harmoney remote to use a Blu-Link remote I got from Amazon for £35. It operates 6 devices but the best part is it operates the PS3 using bluetooth, so I just have 1 remote for everything.

 

[zad]

If you are just watching downloaded movies get an apple tv gen 1 or 2 , stck xbmc on it

 

[oneman]

PS3 is a good solution just for streaming but it still has problems with ff/rw and I hear there some media types that need transcoding first and also problems with subtitles. Plus of course you have all the extra functionality that a PC brings like webtv, internet browsing, attaching extra devices, etc.

 

[Captin]

Using showtime on a CFW PS3 sorts out most of the media problems, plays back all the file formats the PS3 doesnt play on it's own, like MKV, and also the subs arnt a problem too, although I dont have a problem with subs using ps3mediaserver. So no need for transcoding, unless the file is larger than 4gb, even than it can be put on the internal drive. FF/RW isnt a problem with showtime too, but even if you are using ps3mediaserver you can still use the "goto" function to go to anywhere within the film by choosing the time. Granted the PS3 is not too good at browsing the internet, but it can do it, and showtime does have some webtv stuff built in though.

The best thing is that to get the functionality of a PS3 you would have to pay twice as much for a media pc.

 

[ManofScience]

I've got a htpc with 3 hard drives in it, however, I'm after a low powered solution and moving all the media into the server so others on the network can access it. I'm looking at a foxconn net top bare bones now.

I like the apple tv2 with xbmc on but was put off by the lack of 1080p support. At the end of the day the hardware doesn't support it well enough.

 

[dibbers]

Thanks very much for the replies guys, it's appreciated.

OK i have a PS3 underneath my TV that is and has worked fine streaming some movies, the idea behind this media center was that i planned to run "windows media center" on it, I like the idea of it going off and it downloading all the backdrops and movie folders etc etc, i also have an xbox 360 sat next to the PS3 and that too runs XBMC - thing is i have to have my main PC on that has all the movies to do the trans coding etc to my PS3/Xbox 360, so i thought I'd splash out and build a "stand alone" media server that booted up windows media center and this then had all my movies/TV shows/documentaries stored on it, all in one location.

I've always dreamed of having a media center PC that stood by it's self in the sitting room and when ever you wanted to watch a movie you could just fire that up and all your films would be there for you to play/watch back.

I agree that the PS3 is good, and yes it doesn't do backdrops/folders etc but at the end of the day what is it I'm trying to achieve here, some thing that will play back a film or some thing that will load a film and make it look nice on the screen.

I was just after one massive server location with all my media stored on it, but the more i spend and look into it the more that i end up with items that quite don't cut it.

I do like the idea of some thing running "windows media center" so i might look at a few of them "Apple TV" things, then again i have everything already, a PS3 and an XBOX 360 - not to mention a laptop that has an HDMI port on it and i have also one of them USB remote control media center remotes, so in affect i all ready am sorted really.

Could just use me laptop as the main machine connected to the TV via HDMI and use this as a great media player and source another laptop from some where.

This would mean that i could keep my main pc in the "lab" as a stand alone machine for work/play etc and then when i want to watch a movie in the sitting room etc i could use me laptop which all ready has windows media center on it.

I'm not sure what I'm after now which of course sounds daft, but as time passes by what i originally set out to achieve, technology has advanced and things change/improve so i end up going down one route to build some thing only to find that there's a better way of doing it.

Thanks for the input though chaps.

It's appreciated.



I've sold all the parts that i bought yesterday and i'm not out of pocket, just need to have a word with my self and don't do any more knee jerk reactions on the cuff going out spending when what i actually have at home will all ready do what i want it too.

Cheers for your ears....

 

[Bally12345]

Ok I went pretty much same experience as you and ended up with the ASRock > Products > ION 330HT-BD actually mines the one without the bluray drive but same thing. Dual boot with XBMC, all the movies are stored on a 5 year old machine but with gigabit lan so have no problems at all streaming, this is tucked away in another room. I get full dts audio, 1080p playback, imdb scraper, fanart, thumbnail posters bloody great! When I dont need to use XBMC can simply reboot to windows 7!

 

[little_pob]

The revo does not have an internal optical drive, I imagine the HTPC case will.

Depends on what you want, the revo is small and integrated but if the parts already would it not be cheaper to finish building your own PC

Just to be pedantic, the Revo RL100 has a blu-ray drive built in... :tongue: