Client advice - Put PC in hall cupboard

[mattyb]

Many thanks in advance for your input.

I have the HTPC setup in my signature below and for noisy fan reasons I would like to look at putting it in the hall cupboard of our newly renovated home, which is complete with patch panel and 3 runs of Cat5e and ethernet (RJ45) ports at each end (from patch panel to living/TV area).

I'm thinking I'll need to keep the Sky box and remote receiver at the tv end, and plug them into some kind of silent client (?), and then run a link through the ethernet connection back to the HTPC to access NPVR.

Can anybody give me an idea of what piece(s) of kit might be suitable?? Budget would be in the area of a couple of hundred bucks - hopefully I'm not dreaming.

Apologies if this is not the right forum.

Cheers

[psycik]

Many thanks in advance for your input.

I have the HTPC setup in my signature below and for noisy fan reasons I would like to look at putting it in the hall cupboard of our newly renovated home, which is complete with patch panel and 3 runs of Cat5e and ethernet (RJ45) ports at each end (from patch panel to living/TV area).

I'm thinking I'll need to keep the Sky box and remote receiver at the tv end, and plug them into some kind of silent client (?), and then run a link through the ethernet connection back to the HTPC to access NPVR.

Can anybody give me an idea of what piece(s) of kit might be suitable?? Budget would be in the area of a couple of hundred bucks - hopefully I'm not dreaming.

Apologies if this is not the right forum.

Cheers

How are you planning on recording off sky if the HTPC is in the cupboard, and sky in the lounge? Large Composite run?

You should be able to do what you want. But not sure your budget. I've bought a Gigabyte Brix (AMD A8 although there are index i5 ones also) via Amazon + 120GB SSD and 4GB ram. Didn't leave me much change out of $500. But then I also had a HD HomeRun for DVB-T tuning. This is silent....but about $750 worth of kit....and you also need somewhere else to save your recordings as 120GB is not big.

In terms of other quiet clients....an old popcorn hour 110 if you can find one, can't think of anything else suitable that will control Nextpvr - although Reven (and now someone else) did a bunch of work to get a samsung smart tv (or smart dvd player) to act as a proper next pvr client. There's also possiblity of running XBMC (Kodi) with NextPVR plugin - but again you'd have to find some hardware to run it on, something that can natively decode 1080i (which a raspberry pi cannot - but then again neither natively can a Roku3 or Apple TV 3).

[mattyb]

I think this is my biggest issue... my thinking was to have the Sky box in the living area so it would still be possible to watch it direct rather than through the HTPC (something we do occasionally), but perhaps it would be better to put it in the cupboard as well. Though then I'd need to have the IR blaster receiver in the living area and run that all the way to the cupboard to get channel changes on the Sky box. Might need to draw up a wiring diagram...

[mvallevand]

How are you planning on recording off sky if the HTPC is in the cupboard, and sky in the lounge? Large Composite run?

Connecting to STB's and antennas are a concern for sure.

There's also possiblity of running XBMC (Kodi) with NextPVR plugin - but again you'd have to find some hardware to run it on, something that can natively decode 1080i (which a raspberry pi cannot - but then again neither natively can a Roku3 or Apple TV 3).

The RPi can do 1080i in fact it plays lots of media but it is slow My client of choice right is the Asus Celeron Chromebox with Kodi. Both of these need a remote or a wireless keyboard. If you need Windows for DRM the new Bay Trails with Windows for Bing are probably almost as good Those choices are all quiet and cheap.

Martin

[stustunz]

THe RPi is the best little device i have ever come across beats the pants off the popcorn hour once you overclock it and stop all the background services cover art scrapers etc It can play 1080i fine ,i prefer it over all the other devices bar a pc
dont use kodi pvr clients they slow it down (to much crap going on in background)
use x-newa only
Plus it can be put behind TV and controlled through the hdmi cable using cec(all tvs pretty much have something similar) on the tv remote
uses next to no power
Boots pretty quick
Cheap
reload replace image on SD card and you are up and running ,no down time(waf high)
comskip works (although not as good as you dont see the black bars like you do in npvr)
Kodi Addons for extra video sources ...................

The samsung clients never fast forward properly (only the bd-e5900 did)but its slower in the menus than the rpi

the popcorn hour was pretty solid but to old now cant buy.

[mattyb]

psycik - which model Brix do you have??

[psycik]

In me sig: Gigabyte AMD A8 Brix

This one here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00I0G7...UTF8&psc=1

[ccihon]

In me sig: Gigabyte AMD A8 Brix

This one here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00I0G7...UTF8&psc=1

I was going to suggest the unit I have for my bedroom TV, mounted to the back of the set: It's the Brix 2807: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6856164017

Cheap and functional - I added an ssd and some RAM - also replaced the wifi card with an Intel AC one, not sure that was necessary. Not as snappy menus as my server and client systems, but playback is great for around $200 US, plus it is a full Windows system for other apps including xbmc etc.

For cheaper solution these units should have basically the same performance: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...-_-Product

Both are fanless and draw little power or make much heat also. I tried several mini android/linux ARM systems with xbmc but found there always seemed to be quality or convenience compromises. WAF is important in my house also.

[lost@c]

RPi - + 1 here.

It has been so simple and worked out of the box. Mine is stuck to the back of the TV with foam tape, has a 150mm HDMI cable, powered by the TV's USB and networked to my main HTPC where all content is. TV remote does all the work through CEC. Running x-newa so looks and works the same as the main setup. Just a great little device

[liteswap]

I like the idea of moving from a full-sized PC box under the TV to a Brix or similar, but my main content comes from a pair of Freesat tuners. Is it possible to use a pair of USB-connected satellite tuners together, instead? And then, which ones does npvr support best?