Home Theater PC

Todd Breakey · **Posted:** Thu Sep 17, 2009 9:18 am

So, last night Rebecca and I wanted to watch a movie. Trouble is, we just sent our most recent Netflix back yesterday and can't currently watch streamed Netflix on the big TV.

So we are researching the possibility of a HTPC dedicated to movie streaming. But we have absolutely no idea what we need to look for.

Any suggestions?

MikeWhitney · **Joined:** Wed Aug 20, 2003 9:15 pm **Posts:** 4724

If you just want to watch Netflix I have heard nothing but good stuff about Roku:

http://www.roku.com/netflixplayer/

If you want to do more, like Hulu or access a LAN based media collection as well, you're stuck with building a much more complex and expensive PC (or Mac?) based solution.

Chris Halweg · **Posted:** Thu Sep 17, 2009 9:57 am

Or XBox360 although you might need a monthly subscription to their online service. As of yet the PS3 is not directly compatible with netflix. Do you have a laptop you can use now and then?

Jason Mauldin · **Posted:** Thu Sep 17, 2009 10:10 am

MikeWhitney wrote:

If you just want to watch Netflix I have heard nothing but good stuff about Roku:

http://www.roku.com/netflixplayer/

If you want to do more, like Hulu or access a LAN based media collection as well, you're stuck with building a much more complex and expensive PC (or Mac?) based solution.

Roku is working on a SDK for their player. I'm hoping that the community will respond with an application that will allow it to access your personal media collection. If so, I will likely pick one of those up.

MikeWhitney · **Joined:** Wed Aug 20, 2003 9:15 pm **Posts:** 4724

Now _this_ could be interesting:

http://gizmodo.com/5360126/zune-hd-revi ... mp-evolved

http://www.zunethoughts.com/news/show/9 ... -zune.html

Marty Howard · **Posted:** Thu Sep 17, 2009 3:55 pm

Both the D-link DSM 520 and 750 do both netflix and blockbuster streaming, have flashable codecs for PC play, and can do windows media server streaming.

A lot less than buying or building a PC.

Jason Mauldin · **Posted:** Thu Sep 17, 2009 10:23 pm

Marty Howard wrote:

Both the D-link DSM 520 and 750 do both netflix and blockbuster streaming, have flashable codecs for PC play, and can do windows media server streaming.

A lot less than buying or building a PC.

It looks like you have to have "PlayOn" running to do do netflix with these? I assume that needs to be running on a separate PC?

Marty Howard · **Posted:** Fri Sep 18, 2009 2:15 pm

I am not sure. If it does need a machine just like the media share, then you can use your primary as a file server and not have to build a dedicated machine that sits in your media center vs where ever you PC sits now.

I hardwired my DSM-320 into my network and it works great, makes no noise and fits in the entertainment center with no space or heat issues.

Todd Breakey · **Posted:** Sun Sep 20, 2009 8:41 am

Thanks for the suggestions guys. Some good stuff there. I'm now also considering a better video card for my desk top and running HDMI to the receiver for the home theater.

My only question is this, do video cards for computers process sound also or will I need to add a better sound card that processes 5.1 or 7.1 also?

Jason Mauldin · **Posted:** Sun Sep 20, 2009 9:38 am

I downloaded the trial version of playon and installed it on our Acer Netbook.

So far, it's worked really well with watching Netflix and hulu on the Wii. The video quality is a little low, but I expected that with using the Wii's video output.

Chris Halweg · **Posted:** Sun Sep 20, 2009 12:04 pm

I've used PlayOn for HuLu with the PS3 and it worked well when I tried it a few months ago. I use free TVersity for my media streams now, but I'm not sure it works with Hulu or Netflix. We have very slow internet, so I tend not to bother with Netflix ondemand.

Todd Breakey · **Posted:** Sun Sep 20, 2009 12:23 pm

MikeWhitney wrote:

If you just want to watch Netflix I have heard nothing but good stuff about Roku:

http://www.roku.com/netflixplayer/

If you want to do more, like Hulu or access a LAN based media collection as well, you're stuck with building a much more complex and expensive PC (or Mac?) based solution.

Ok, somehow I missed this when you first posted it Mike. Sounds interesting. Have you used it yet, or has anyone else tried it?

Jason Mauldin · **Posted:** Sun Sep 20, 2009 11:13 pm

I should probably grab this for myself, instead of posting it here, but I'm going to wait for the SDK to be released before purchasing one.

http://raleigh.craigslist.org/emd/1383436707.html

Jason Tower · **Joined:** Wed Jun 11, 2008 3:31 pm **Posts:** 1173

sort of on-topic...i recently picked up a via epia system with the intention of using it for my mythtv backend. unfortunately the latest builds of myth only support the i686 arch and the via cpu is i586 so it won't work for me. bummer.

it's a totally silent system with zero moving parts (until you add a hard drive, or get a ide-cf adapter and run it from flash, or pxe boot it). would make an excellent toy for building a home theater pc, comes in a slick little black aluminum case. absolutely no noise when you hit the power button, after ten years of working with non-silent computers it freaks me out just a little bit. asking $35 for it, includes the DC power brick, 250gb hard drive (no guarantees on how well it works) and a 512mb stick of ram.

Todd Breakey · **Posted:** Mon Sep 21, 2009 8:26 am

Jason Mauldin wrote:

I should probably grab this for myself, instead of posting it here, but I'm going to wait for the SDK to be released before purchasing one.

http://raleigh.craigslist.org/emd/1383436707.html

Jason

What is the SDK thing?

Also, after looking at Play On. I'm thinking of trying the 14 day trial and using it through my XBox 360. How hard is it to set up and how buggy is it? Anybody have experience with using the XBox with Play On?

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