New Build Suggestions

[ETechNewbie]

I am a newbie and I am trying to ditch my cable subscription by March 2013. I want to build a HTPC that will be able to stream and record live tv to 4 tvs. I will be using this HTPC for streaming and recording live tv, Netflix, Hulu and playing Blu ray/DVD movies and music from my HDD.

I am aware that I will have to purchase a Ceton Infinitv 4 as well as 1GB of ram per tv. I am trying to purchase the parts by Early February and my budget is $700 and under. (as low as possible but still able to suit my needs).

This is the hardware that I have so far:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/wXbb

Also I have a PC at home : lenovo H420 (77521QU) Desktop PC Pentium G620(2.60GHz) 4GB DDR3 1TB HDD Capacity Intel HD Graphics 2000 Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit that we use as our regular computer.

Any suggestions on how to fit that into the equation?

Thanks

[LuckyDay]

You've got a good list there so far, the only obvious thing I see is that you've selected a DVD drive but you mention playing Blu-Rays. Might as well go with the BD-Rom drive to start, you can get one for a reasonable price and stay under budget.

I don't see anything else that will hold you back from a performance standpoint.

You will also want to consider what extenders you'll be using for the other 3 TVs. You have a couple of options. You can find Xbox 360s or you can get something like the Ceton Echo or the Linksys 2100. All of them have their own advantages and disadvantages so I would recommend researching each.

As for your current PC, if you plan on continuing to use it as your home PC, I would keep it separate. The only thing I could think of you could use it for is to store your media and recorded TV by adding more hard drive storage, but that would require you to keep it on 24/7.

[ETechNewbie]

@LuckyDay Great catch about the bluray. I was so preoccupied with the other hardware to notice. and I keep that computer on 24/7 anyhow so that would be an option. Another member suggested that I use the Lenovo as the main htpc because of its performance and the new build would just be a bedroom htpc that has access to all of its contents via networking the HDD. Whats your opinion on that?

[LuckyDay]

If you decide to use the current PC as your main media center (and you could do that no problem, the specs are there), then you may consider not even building a whole PC in addition.

You can probably accomplish what you want by just using extenders like the 360 or Echo on each TV you want to run.

If you go that route you could always look at upgrading the specs on the Lenovo to be more a more powerful option as what's running the entire set up.

You say you want 4 TVs total controlled. Do you just basically want live/recorded TV on each? Do you want netflix and streaming other services on each? What about Blu Ray? Is that only for one main TV?

[ETechNewbie]

If you decide to use the current PC as your main media center (and you could do that no problem, the specs are there), then you may consider not even building a whole PC in addition.

You can probably accomplish what you want by just using extenders like the 360 or Echo on each TV you want to run.

If you go that route you could always look at upgrading the specs on the Lenovo to be more a more powerful option as what's running the entire set up.

You say you want 4 TVs total controlled. Do you just basically want live/recorded TV on each? Do you want netflix and streaming other services on each? What about Blu Ray? Is that only for one main TV?

I think thats the route I would want to take. On two of the tvs I would want live tv and the other two would do just find accessing the recorded tv. I would want netflix/streaming capabilities on all four tvs. As far as bluray goes the tv in my living room would be the main tv using it and later down the live the other tvs.

[LuckyDay]

All extenders do live/recorded TV. That part is easy.

If you have a subscription to XBox Live already, the XBox may be the route for your 4 TVs. You grab 4 Xbox systems. You can get them $179 at Gamestop, or cheaper online or ebay. The slim models have Wifi built in, so you don't need anything but a remote for each which is about $6 online or at a place like Gamestop.

They have gone for around $100-125 a piece here where I live, which is a good deal. That also gives you a DVD player on each TV (but not Blu-Ray).

The Xbox is the only of the extenders that has Netflix built into it, but you need to have an Xbox Live subscription, and it isn't integrated into Windows Media Center.

The only problem is an Xbox Live family account (enough for 4 systems) is $99 a year. Might not be worth the cost for you, but if you or someone in your family play games it's a no brainer as it accomplishes everything you want to do.


If you don't want to pay for XBox live, you can still grab an extender for each system, then buy something like a ROKU for each TV and plug them in. That gives you Netflix, Hulu, Rentals, etc. on each TV for about $50 a piece.

[ETechNewbie]

So here's my dilemma. If I use my lenovo as my main htpc (since I have 4 tvs) I would need to upgrade to a quad-core CPU since mines only has a dual-core. I have shopped around and the Intel quad-cores are more expensive than the AMDs so I have hit a road block. I'm back to square one and building a AMD new build.

[LuckyDay]

An i3 with Hyper-threading should be sufficient for what you want to do.

You can get one for about $100. If you want to go quad-core, you can upgrade to a quad-core i5 for about $150.

Intels perform better, I would stick with them.

[foxwood]

So here's my dilemma. If I use my lenovo as my main htpc (since I have 4 tvs) I would need to upgrade to a quad-core CPU since mines only has a dual-core. I have shopped around and the Intel quad-cores are more expensive than the AMDs so I have hit a road block. I'm back to square one and building a AMD new build.

You could probably get by with just the two cores, as long as you're just watching TV. How often would you expect all 4 TVs to be in use at the same time? Streaming TV would be to 4 TVs at once would probably be OK, even with just two cores, but navigating the menus could get jerky if everyone was doing it at the same time.

I'd be more concerned about the RAM - as long as you've got the 64-bit version of Windows, you should definitely be looking at 8GB of RAM if you're looking to run 4 Extenders - RAM cram, and swapping, will have a bigger effect on perceived response times than 2 versus 4 cores. for DDR3, it'll only add an additional $25-$30 to your costs to go with 8GB over 4GB.

[LuckyDay]

I honestly trust nearly every 1155 dual core from Intel over most of AMD's quad-core lineup.

[ETechNewbie]

So here's my dilemma. If I use my lenovo as my main htpc (since I have 4 tvs) I would need to upgrade to a quad-core CPU since mines only has a dual-core. I have shopped around and the Intel quad-cores are more expensive than the AMDs so I have hit a road block. I'm back to square one and building a AMD new build.

You could probably get by with just the two cores, as long as you're just watching TV. How often would you expect all 4 TVs to be in use at the same time? Streaming TV would be to 4 TVs at once would probably be OK, even with just two cores, but navigating the menus could get jerky if everyone was doing it at the same time.

I'd be more concerned about the RAM - as long as you've got the 64-bit version of Windows, you should definitely be looking at 8GB of RAM if you're looking to run 4 Extenders - RAM cram, and swapping, will have a bigger effect on perceived response times than 2 versus 4 cores. for DDR3, it'll only add an additional $25-$30 to your costs to go with 8GB over 4GB.

I have kids so 3 of the 4 tvs would be running at the same time. I have 6GB of ram already installed so I would only need 2 more. My plan so far (thanks to more consideration and suggestions from "LuckyDay") is to upgrade my lenovo to 8GB of ram, dropping in a 120gb ssd, adding a bluray rom with ceton infinitv 4 and some wmc extenders. and using the hardware that i just swapped out in another htpc (down the line)

[LuckyDay]

It should be mentioned that it you are using an extender I don't believe you can use the blu-ray drive on the PC through it.

You can rip the disc and store it for playing on the extender though.

Also blu ray players can be had for under $50 now, and for a little more you can get one with Netflix. Putting one on the TV you want blu-ray on may be easier.

[nick]

I am a newbie and I am trying to ditch my cable subscription by March 2013. I want to build a HTPC that will be able to stream and record live tv to 4 tvs. I will be using this HTPC for streaming and recording live tv, Netflix, Hulu and playing Blu ray/DVD movies and music from my HDD.

I am aware that I will have to purchase a Ceton Infinitv 4 as well as 1GB of ram per tv. I am trying to purchase the parts by Early February and my budget is $700 and under. (as low as possible but still able to suit my needs).

This is the hardware that I have so far:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/wXbb

Also I have a PC at home : lenovo H420 (77521QU) Desktop PC Pentium G620(2.60GHz) 4GB DDR3 1TB HDD Capacity Intel HD Graphics 2000 Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit that we use as our regular computer.

Any suggestions on how to fit that into the equation?

Thanks

I just went through this and dropped off the TWC DVR/cable box 2 weeks ago!

I'd recommend starting small with just 1 TV and your existing desktop. Minimize what you need to buy until you know what you need/want.

In my situation, I already had an xbox360 and capable desktop running Win7 all hardwired. The desktop is not connected to a TV, I use extenders for all viewing. I first purchased a tuner (HDHR Prime) and tested the system for ~2 months. Only once I over came the WMC learning curve and was able to do everything I could do with my TWC box did I make the switch (saving $30 month!). I also had to convince the wife that she could use the system as well (harmony remote really helped here). I have an Echo as well connected to a bedroom TV but as you add extenders you'll realize you need even more tuners

I also use a standalone bluray player for the main TV but this is no different than what I had before the WMC setup. I still might do a dedicated HTPC to just keep it separate from my desktop but I can do that at any time.

Get the one TV system working and then investigate additional extenders and if you want a dedicated HTPC.

Good luck!