Ultimate HTPC / Router

#1

Well as part of my bigger smart home project I will be building a HTPC for my media center to complement my 60" Samsung I am buying next month. There are multiple things I want to accomplish but what I need to know is if you guys think I will be able to do all of these things on one powerful HTPC

Tasks I want to accomplish

[ul][li]Use HTPC as a router using a dual gigabit NIC and ICS in Windows 7/8[/li]
[li]Digital Cable Quad-Tuner PCIe Card for Samsung 60" and to Stream to other computers over network[/li]
[li]Download large movies and TV shows from Usenet[/li]
[li]Stream these movies and shows to other computers[/li][/ul]

Specs of the HTPC I will be using

[ul][li]Core i5 or i7[/li]
[li]Max memory supported by motherboard[/li]
[li]Ceton InfinTV 4 http://www.amazon.com/Ceton-InfiniTV-Digital-Cable-Quad-tuner/dp/B003B4VLJQ[/li]
[li]Dual Gigabit NIC http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833106015[/li]
[li]Good video card[/li]
[li]Small SSD for OS and regularly used programs[/li]
[li]A couple of terabytes of hard drive space to store recorded or downloaded shows/movies[/li][/ul]

So lets say a theoretical and likely situation is that I am streaming a movie downloaded from usenet to one computer, someone is watching TV on the 60" using one of the tuners, someone is streaming digital cable over the network to a computer using another one of the tuners, and another person is browsing the internet or downloading a file on another computer over the shared connection on the HTPC. Lets say I am doing these all at once will I notice really bad issues with connection speeds if I am doing all of these at once or should I split the tasks across a couple of computers?

#2

Cool idea, I love projects like these. First up a quick question, why are you gonna be using this for routing?

Few random notes from my experiences,

[ul][li]I’d recommend having two seperate computers for a few reasons, one for storage one for media playing[/li]
[li]First being power bill, spec up a media pc to play 1080p+ content that is only on sometimes and spec a low end (or even dedicated ie qnap) box aka NAS for serving the content, running usenet clients and tv downloaders (even routing) thats designed to be low power and on 24/7 - get a cheap UPS for this.[/li]
[li]Second, run windows as your media pc and linux on your NAS for a few more reasons.[/li]
[li]Linux will also give you a lot more viable options for RAID, usenet programs, routing and general server type stuff on a dedicated box. Lot less overhead, too[/li]
[li]You will want to run the following 2 programs: sabnzbd (best web based front end nzb downloader, everyone uses this), sickbeard (best tv series downloader ever)[/li]
[li]These are also good, but your mileage may vary: some sort of sabnzbd status for your web browser, couchpotato (less advanced sickbeard equivalent for movies), headphones (same for music), minidlna (basically a media streamer that will let you stream stuff to phones/tablets/dedicated players)[/li]
[li]Windows media center on w7 generally provides a better, easier experience than linux solutions like mythtv/xbmc. Better support for media hardware like remotes and tuners also.[/li]
[li]WMC can also share the tuners and recorded tv to other w7 pcs[/li]
[li]Do whatever you can to find a rechargeable remote. Batteries are complete aids.[/li]
[li]Could not recommend this wireless mouse/compact keyboard combo enough (yes you will want this to complement the remote): http://www.gyration.com/index.php/us/products/in-air-micekeyboards/go-air-mouse.html#models[/li]
[li]There’s no need for a dedicated video card as all the current core series will play 1080p video from the onboard IGP.[/li]
[li]Go the mini itx route and make goddamn sure your case is just big enough to fit your tuner and not much else, it’s annoying having an atx case next to/near your tv[/li]
[li]I cannot stress enough that you need to research your tuner card as much as humanly possible to make sure it will receive your encrypted cable and accept any cards you have (ie, we can’t use those cards in australia cuz our cable and satellite providers use some propietary bullshit encryption which you need their hardware for)[/li][/ul]

WRT your question, you wouldn’t have problems but you would have a better setup by seperation of the roles.

That’s all I can think of for now, I’ll make another post tomorrow with a few pics of my current setup.

#3

IIRC, he said that home routers generally suck and I do agree with this, although I haven’t had problems with a Linksys WRT54GL running DD-WRT, but it isn’t the fastest beast anymore.

Why not run a lightweight linux distro (archlinux) with XMBC? Yesterday I installed the XBMCbuntu on my laptop with a broken screen (link) and have liked it. I’ve been using my HTC Hero as a remote control and it has worked flawless.

[quote=“eXemplar, post:2, topic:435218”][ul][li]Linux will also give you a lot more viable options for RAID, usenet programs, routing and general server type stuff on a dedicated box. Lot less overhead, too[/li]
[li]You will want to run the following 2 programs: sabnzbd (best web based front end nzb downloader, everyone uses this), sickbeard (best tv series downloader ever)[/li][/ul][/quote]
This could all be achieved on the arch box.

I used ushare, an upnp sharer to view content on my Xbox 360 and it worked good. Only flaw was that I had to restart ushare everytime I added more content.

[quote=“eXemplar, post:2, topic:435218”][ul][li]Windows media center on w7 generally provides a better, easier experience than linux solutions like mythtv/xbmc. Better support for media hardware like remotes and tuners also.[/li]
[li]WMC can also share the tuners and recorded tv to other w7 pcs[/li][/ul][/quote]
XBMC seems to work better than WMC did for me and all of this can also be achieved with XBMC.

[quote=“eXemplar, post:2, topic:435218”][ul][li]Do whatever you can to find a rechargeable remote. Batteries are complete aids.[/li]
[li]Go the mini itx route and make goddamn sure your case is just big enough to fit your tuner and not much else, it’s annoying having an atx case next to/near your tv[/li][/ul][/quote]I agree.

This can be achieved with a cheap box and I don’t think a i5/i7 is needed for this setup. But then again all newer motherboards that work with 1080p probably need a quite good processor. Also IMO two boxes shouldn’t be needed like eXemplar said. One would probably be cheaper in the long run.

#4
home routers generally suck
Suck for what? Most recent home routers can run 100mbit internet connections and gbit lan just fine, even smashing the nat table with torrents.

I’m just going to sum up your anti-windows stance with an all in one point:
You will never get a tuner working well with linux, or if at all. I’m sorry, it’s just fucking balls hardware support. WMC7 also integrates so much better with other windows desktop computers around the house. DLNA just doesn’t cut it when you want to share a stream and have to run 50 billion different programs and never quite get it working where it’s just one button setup, one button play on WMC7. XBMC works fine as a dedicated media player, but if you want a tuner for home use and integration with other desktops you will want to use windows.

Trust me on this, I’m speaking from weeks of pain trying as hard as I could to get a linux mc working well.

(ps, try out minidlna - it uses inotify to monitor fs events for when you add/remove files etc)

Also, if you’re looking for precise feedback on the seperate/combined pc post a rough estimate of your budget. Also also, a rough idea of the computer literacy level of the people using it.

#5

[quote=“Teh Spede, post:3, topic:435218”]This can be achieved with a cheap box and I don’t think a i5/i7 is needed for this setup. But then again all newer motherboards that work with 1080p probably need a quite good processor. Also IMO two boxes shouldn’t be needed like eXemplar said. One would probably be cheaper in the long run.[/quote]I use a cheap AMD A6 CPU with integrated gpu and it handles full hd fine, not to mention it reduces heat generation in case significiantly not to have a separate graphics card.

#6

Suck for what? Most recent home routers can run 100mbit internet connections and gbit lan just fine, even smashing the nat table with torrents.

I’m just going to sum up your anti-windows stance with an all in one point:
You will never get a tuner working well with linux, or if at all. I’m sorry, it’s just fucking balls hardware support. WMC7 also integrates so much better with other windows desktop computers around the house. DLNA just doesn’t cut it when you want to share a stream and have to run 50 billion different programs and never quite get it working where it’s just one button setup, one button play on WMC7. XBMC works fine as a dedicated media player, but if you want a tuner for home use and integration with other desktops you will want to use windows.

Trust me on this, I’m speaking from weeks of pain trying as hard as I could to get a linux mc working well.

(ps, try out minidlna - it uses inotify to monitor fs events for when you add/remove files etc)

Also, if you’re looking for precise feedback on the seperate/combined pc post a rough estimate of your budget. Also also, a rough idea of the computer literacy level of the people using it.[/quote]Oh don’t get me wrong. I’m not anti-windows (Posting this from Win 7 :P) like some people here. (MITB, Wizzup) I’m just giving alternatives to WMC as I just don’t like it. I haven’t tried my TV Tuner yet, but it used to work perfectly fine with Kaffeine. Does minidlna work with upnp? Would be nice to be able to view videos with 360.

#7

I too was going to advocate XBMC running under Linux for this setup, as it is what I use and I couldn’t love it more. But eXemplar brings up a good point about the TV tuner card, I also have an older PCI TV tuner card and a newerish (still probably 3 years old) USB TV tuner card, both of which are nightmares to get to run correctly the way you want them to under Linux. Of course the blame is to be laid on the manufacturers, but I digress.

Anyway, what do you need a TV tuner card for anyway? Are you going to record TV shows onto the box?

A big advantage with Linux on the media server box though is that you don’t need a hard drive, just boot from an NFS share on the file server/router, it’s one less thing to buy and completely silent. :slight_smile:

#8

dlna is upnp.

#9

[quote=“eXemplar, post:8, topic:435218”]dlna is upnp.[/quote]oic. I get confused when someone says dlna when I’ve always said upnp.

#10

So I got bored and took some pictures:

Media center, tv, xbox: http://i.imgur.com/jGVMd.jpg
mc specs: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4850e AM2, Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H, 2gb of some generic ram and a 1tb hdd, some pioneer br burner - this was purchased back in 2009 and still has no trouble playing 1080p or bluray content using the built in IGP.
tv: samsung 64 inch d8000
(should have taken this one naked)

Other tv: http://i.imgur.com/r3IPq.jpg
tv: Panasonic 42" plasma something or other
Apple tv2 running xbmc

NAS: http://i.imgur.com/ZfPkc.jpg
Qnap ts559 pro+ with 5x3tb hitachi deathstars (on top is 5x2tb wd greens DO NOT USE THESE IN A NAS because they park their heads and shit hits the fan when they park it too much)
Router: fritz!box 7390

UPS: http://i.imgur.com/7YpBc.jpg
Eaton S3 550 - perfect for router and nas and phone, total draw is 20W under load so it has like 30 minutes of battery

And here’s a giant spider that I found: http://i.imgur.com/O0HhE.jpg

#11

You should peel off the plastic film from everything and take those pictures again.