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Is this possible with HTPC?

post #1 of 12
4/23/12 at 5:17pm
Thread Starter 
Hi everyone. I am thinking to build my first HTPC (never built a pc before) for my dedicated theater room. However, the more I read I get discouraged (due to lack of knowledge in this area) and quite frankly, I do not even know if I need one. here is what I am looking for HTPC to do;

1) I want to use it as my main blu-ray player to play AND copy content on the HD for future viewing. Needless to say I want to maintain the original PQ and SQ.

2) surf the net using benq w6000 projector on 135" screen.

3) view pictures and home videos.

In the room I have Fios cable box which can stay or if not too much hassle I would like to use HTPC (and save cable box rental?)

I use netflix, hulu + and youtube but I can get Ruku or something else and my receiver (pioneer vsx-1121k) has Pandora and internet radio.

am I inventing a new bicycle or I can benefit from building HTPC since I am not looking to use all/many of its abilities?
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post #2 of 12
4/23/12 at 5:18pm
That all seems pretty simple and do-able.

Welcome to HTPC
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post #3 of 12
4/23/12 at 5:18pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by cx3gma View Post

Hi everyone. I am thinking to build my first HTPC (never built a pc before) for my dedicated theater room. However, the more I read I get discouraged (due to lack of knowledge in this area) and quite frankly, I do not even know if I need one. here is what I am looking for HTPC to do;

1) I want to use it as my main blu-ray player to play AND copy content on the HD for future viewing. Needless to say I want to maintain the original PQ and SQ.

2) surf the net using benq w6000 projector on 135" screen.

3) view pictures and home videos.

In the room I have Fios cable box which can stay or if not too much hassle I would like to use HTPC (and save cable box rental?)

I use netflix, hulu + and youtube but I can get Ruku or something else and my receiver (pioneer vsx-1121k) has Pandora and internet radio.

am I inventing a new bicycle or I can benefit from building HTPC since I am not looking to use all/many of its abilities?

Yes. HTPC can do all of the above.
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post #4 of 12
4/24/12 at 5:29am
Thread Starter 
Great, thanks guys. Any budget minded advice on core components?
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post #5 of 12
4/24/12 at 5:36am
I have posted this a lot recently if you want to search I had a thread called cheapest ever decent htcp.

Many options in there...

In a nut shell,

AsRock 1155 mobo + sandy CPU+ cheap SSD is good foundation


You can also click the link in Assassin signature above because he has an excellent guide posted as a sticky in this forum. He covers everything you need to know.

I would recommend purchasing his paid guide. It's excellent. Will answer all your questions and a bunch more you don't even know you have yet.
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post #6 of 12
4/24/12 at 5:59am
For the FiOS / cableCARD, go with an HDHomeRun Prime. Everything else is pretty standard for HTPC requirements. The more complicated part will be software.
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post #7 of 12
4/24/12 at 7:18am
Quote:
Originally Posted by cx3gma View Post

Great, thanks guys. Any budget minded advice on core components?

For the HTPC, $300 is probably as cheap as you can easily/reasonably expect to go unless you have components laying around. Read the stickied threads at the top of the forum. That does not include a cable card tuner (Ceton or HDHomerun Prime) and only a small hard drive that will fill up after you rip some movies or record some television. If this will be a HTPC with internal storage, a budget of $500 will get you everything plus a few upgrades like a better keyboard/mouse/remote.
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post #8 of 12
4/24/12 at 7:44am
Hey my requirements are quite similar to yours. Except I don't need BlueRay but replace a DVD drive with BlueRay for extra money and I am cutting cable. If you want cable go with HDHomeRun Prime or Ceton recommendation.

My thread - http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1406726
Budget ~600
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post #9 of 12
4/24/12 at 8:01am
hardware won't be bad for you, wanting to rip blueRays in a raw format, now thats going to cost you an arm and a leg getting a good NAS/SAN array large enough to store that...

but yes, htpc can do all things ever!
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post #10 of 12
4/24/12 at 11:53am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mfusick View Post

I have posted this a lot recently if you want to search I had a thread called cheapest ever decent htcp.

Many options in there...

In a nut shell,

AsRock 1155 mobo + sandy CPU+ cheap SSD is good foundation


You can also click the link in Assassin signature above because he has an excellent guide posted as a sticky in this forum. He covers everything you need to know.

I would recommend purchasing his paid guide. It's excellent. Will answer all your questions and a bunch more you don't even know you have yet.

http://www.newegg.com/Special/ShellS...5-_-04242012_1

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post #11 of 12
4/24/12 at 12:03pm
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1404685

This thread has many builds under $300 and a good example of budget HTPC builds
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post #12 of 12
4/24/12 at 5:57pm
Thread Starter 
thanks everyone. Glad to be in this HTPC community getting excited to start my build but I definitely need to do more reading. I also have some parts at work that might be perfectly usable for my build so need to check that as well (i know i have i5 processor from dell tower computer that is not being used as well as 4 gb ram). I like the idea of building a budget oriented htpc first because I am sure I will want to build a better one next (sort of learning from mistakes) and around $300 builds are very encouraging.
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