HTPC Build

[Jim Tressel]

I've been keeping half an eye on it too.  Lotsa cool shit coming up.  I specifically held off this long to wait for the new Intel Core i3 chips to begin shipping.  Got it all worked up now: front-end windows 7 pc (for Netflixyness), running xmbc or something similar, all data hosted on 4tb Drobo over cat6.  Gonna be slick-rick and the gang.  Now, I just need to finger out a smooth way to convert all my dvd's to high-quality digital (coughTroyercough).

[Jim Tressel]

So Troyer, were you saying that if I install the k-lite codec pack, I should be able to use Handbrake to rip to divx?  I only ask because Handbrake's site lists their outputs as:

    *  File format: MP4 and MKV
    * Video: MPEG-4, H.264, or Theora
    * Audio: AAC, CoreAudio AAC (OS X Only), MP3, or Vorbis. AC-3 pass-through, DTS pass-thorugh (MKV only)

[Jim Tressel]

I'm new to this "ripping" thing, so be easy on me.

[Varg]

JT,
The formats you listed are going to be better than divx anyway. Unless you have space concerns i would go with mkv anyway.

[Hawkes]

Yeah... mkv is good.  All my HD rips are in mkv.

[Jim Tressel]

I said be easy!  mkv it is.  Now I sit and wait for the Drobo to show up.

[Troyer]

They've changed Handbrake since I last used it.  I tried it out that night and it appears that it doesn't rip the disc, just converts ripped discs so you'll need to rip it via DVDFab (use free version and select whole disc) then point Handbrake at your ripped folder.  I used the MP4 normal preset and it looked pretty good.  The High looked better, but in my opinion not worth the extra size.  the newest Harry Potter was 788MB at Normal and 1.2GB at High.

http://www.dvdfab.com/free.htm

[Varg]

I said be easy!  mkv it is.  Now I sit and wait for the Drobo to show up.

Did you really order one? Do you mind taking some pics of it and letting us know how easy it was to setup? I still cant justify the cost in my mind.

[Jim Tressel]

I think I'll go for the high quality.  the size difference will be negligible with a 4tb nas. 

And yup, it's ordered...in a manner of speaking.  I'll snap some pics for ya.

[Varg]

OK, so I have had to admit to myself that a HTPC on my 55 inch that cant handle netflix streaming (which is just the bees knees if you ask me) is just complete.
So, I hooked windows media center, grabbed an app for my iphone that makes it a remote (have to install a lightweight program on the htpc), and found this: http://www.mediabrowser.tv/
Its a plugin for WMC that gives it the same sexyness that the media browswer has in XBMC. Unless I run into DRM or Codec problems of some kind, i think this is a winner.

[Jim Tressel]

have you given Boxee a try?

[Varg]

have you given Boxee a try?

Yes. I even got a copy of the private beta that ships with the new "Boxxy box", personally i dont like it. It has all this social networking crap built into it, it doesent seperate TV and MOVIES, and the layout of it just doesnt make sense to me. Also, netflix works like shit on it. Completly unwatchable. I hate to keep bringing up netflix, but if you have the service for streaming movies you know how rad it is.

JT, I was thinking about something wondered what your opinion is. Why not use a service like MOXY for backups? Sure the inital backup make take a week but past that it should be pretty easy. 5 bucks a month is not a bad deal IMHO for unlimited data backup. Thoughts?

[Jim Tressel]

Moxy sounds pretty cool, and 5 bucks a month is pretty legit.  I wonder, however, what the data transfer rates are and if you'll see artifacts from the network lag.  Might be worth a test though.  Luckily I don't have to worry about that as my 4tb Drobo is en route. 

Netflix is a must-have for me as well, so it's a bit disheartening to hear that Boxee isn't very good at it and XBMC doesn't offer it.  I wish someone would take the slickness of XBMC and the universal playability of Boxee and add a legitimate Netflix streaming service.

[Varg]

I think you misunderstand me, i would still play my media from local hardware, i would just run the moxy service on those drives for backup purposes so that i dont have to worry about a raid at all, just throw a drive at it every now and then. For example lets say I buy two 1 TB drives, attach them via usb or whatever doesnt really matter, i would have 2 TB worth of space instead of only one cause MOXY is handling the backups.

It would be impossible to play media from a remote data hosting farm, even if they allowed it. Would be nice as hell though for sure!

I wish i had the cash for a Drobo, but i just cant drop that much right now. It looks super slick and I like how simple it is.

The problem with netflix is that they are using microsofts Siverlight. That means its never going to work on linux and its not as seasoned as Flash. After a while i am sure people will learn how to write for it a bit better and Boxee may handle it like a dream, but that time is not now, in my experince at least.

[Varg]

This looks pretty rad: http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2010/01/iomega-iconnect-is-a-scalable-nas-solution-on-the-cheap/

FTA:Looking for a cheap, easy NAS solution that also lets you access your data away from home? Iomega’s $US100 iConnect might be the gizmo for you.

Endowed with four USB ports, plus Ethernet and 802.11b/g/n connectivity, setting up the iConnect is as simple as plugging in any USB-based storage device and letting the device do the rest. Iomega’s new product also allows you to set up a print server, OS X Time Machine backups, Bittorrent clients and DLNA streaming. And while it may not possess the open Linux platform or remote web-streaming abilities of the Pogoplug, it pretty much does everything else (plus Time Machine!) for $US30 less.

Expect to get your hands on Iomega’s OS-agnostic iConnect sometime in February.