OK so ill try and keep this quick-
Im sure someone has more experience with this than I....
My main entertainment setup right now includes a 60" Plasma, My denon 5.1 system, and a PS3.
Over the years I have acquired movies in 1080P and some in 720 which are usually in the format of MKV, MPEG, or AVI.
In the beginning I tried streaming movie files via Playstation Media server which is just a way to serve media to your ps3.
Anything over 720, and some 720 would stutter, sometimes really badly.
No matter how I tweaked the settings and what I did, it would not work.
One day I said fuck it and ran Ethernet from my modem to my PS3.
Thinking this would work better as I was under the impression that my wireless was not robust enough to carry HD video.
Well, to my dismay stuttering still happened.
So I streamed a movie and opened up my task manager on the sending machine and quickly saw that my Intel Core Duo was maxed.
basically what was happening is that when I try and serve media from the PC to the PS3, if the file is not in a format that the Ps3 natively likes, it has to be transcoded. Transcoding on the fly takes up a fuckton of CPU power.
So basically unless I upgrade my desktop, I can never stream HD files.
And by the way my desktop has a Radeon HD 4800....so it is outdated by my buddy was able to play 1080p files on his setup but his is played through VLC connected directly from PC to TV....My pc is in another room.
So im thinking now, with CPU getting smaller and pcs smaller than ever before, maybe my best bet is to acuire or build an HTPC that will go in my cabinet and basically connect via HDMI to my tv through my DENON and then Instead of transcoding or streaming over wifi, I can just switch inputs to the HTPC, open up the file in VLC and then sit back and watch. No stutter.
So for a while my idea was to just pick up a Mac Mini but a decent one is $400.
I have found other alternatives that are cheaper such as a Chromebox as I love Google and I use Chrome for everything else but I am worried with that setup that id be limited as the Chrome OS is basically a Chrome browser.
So what I want to find out-
What do I need to run this? What is the min processor specs that I should be looking at?
I don't want to spend money and then realize that it wasn't "enough".
My duo core PC sometimes plays 1080p MKV without issues and sometimes stutters without transcoding In the mix so Im pretty sure I at least need a quad core with im assuming 2.2 GHZ?
I was looking at the mac mini with the i5...
With the mac mini the problem is of course its a little pricey and also the new ones can no longer be upgraded...i.e the ram is soldered in.
Older ones were totally upgradeable.
So I guess im looking to see what others are doing or at the least, which direction I should go in.
And I also know they make media boxes for this purpose but I guess I kind of like the traditional pc route as it can also be used to browse the web/view pics/ etc.
Thanks!
Ninjaedit- Guess it was kinda long winded lol.
Also wondering what I should run? as this pc will stay on for long periods of time and Id prefer little to 0 maintenance, windows as the primary OS is out. It is bloated and unnecessary.
That is why I figured id just use OSX as it is polished, will work well with PLEX and will make for a nice HTPC.....when I connected my wifes 2013 MacBook pro to test it out, I LOVE that the mac recognized my DENON and changed the font/desktop settings to match my tvs resolution etc.
The new mac minis have HDMI out but the old ones had DVI which I am not fucking with.
I would not be opposed to running Ubuntu or Linux, as I will really only need to play files with VLC.
Im sure someone has more experience with this than I....
My main entertainment setup right now includes a 60" Plasma, My denon 5.1 system, and a PS3.
Over the years I have acquired movies in 1080P and some in 720 which are usually in the format of MKV, MPEG, or AVI.
In the beginning I tried streaming movie files via Playstation Media server which is just a way to serve media to your ps3.
Anything over 720, and some 720 would stutter, sometimes really badly.
No matter how I tweaked the settings and what I did, it would not work.
One day I said fuck it and ran Ethernet from my modem to my PS3.
Thinking this would work better as I was under the impression that my wireless was not robust enough to carry HD video.
Well, to my dismay stuttering still happened.
So I streamed a movie and opened up my task manager on the sending machine and quickly saw that my Intel Core Duo was maxed.
basically what was happening is that when I try and serve media from the PC to the PS3, if the file is not in a format that the Ps3 natively likes, it has to be transcoded. Transcoding on the fly takes up a fuckton of CPU power.
So basically unless I upgrade my desktop, I can never stream HD files.
And by the way my desktop has a Radeon HD 4800....so it is outdated by my buddy was able to play 1080p files on his setup but his is played through VLC connected directly from PC to TV....My pc is in another room.
So im thinking now, with CPU getting smaller and pcs smaller than ever before, maybe my best bet is to acuire or build an HTPC that will go in my cabinet and basically connect via HDMI to my tv through my DENON and then Instead of transcoding or streaming over wifi, I can just switch inputs to the HTPC, open up the file in VLC and then sit back and watch. No stutter.
So for a while my idea was to just pick up a Mac Mini but a decent one is $400.
I have found other alternatives that are cheaper such as a Chromebox as I love Google and I use Chrome for everything else but I am worried with that setup that id be limited as the Chrome OS is basically a Chrome browser.
So what I want to find out-
What do I need to run this? What is the min processor specs that I should be looking at?
I don't want to spend money and then realize that it wasn't "enough".
My duo core PC sometimes plays 1080p MKV without issues and sometimes stutters without transcoding In the mix so Im pretty sure I at least need a quad core with im assuming 2.2 GHZ?
I was looking at the mac mini with the i5...
With the mac mini the problem is of course its a little pricey and also the new ones can no longer be upgraded...i.e the ram is soldered in.
Older ones were totally upgradeable.
So I guess im looking to see what others are doing or at the least, which direction I should go in.
And I also know they make media boxes for this purpose but I guess I kind of like the traditional pc route as it can also be used to browse the web/view pics/ etc.
Thanks!
Ninjaedit- Guess it was kinda long winded lol.
Also wondering what I should run? as this pc will stay on for long periods of time and Id prefer little to 0 maintenance, windows as the primary OS is out. It is bloated and unnecessary.
That is why I figured id just use OSX as it is polished, will work well with PLEX and will make for a nice HTPC.....when I connected my wifes 2013 MacBook pro to test it out, I LOVE that the mac recognized my DENON and changed the font/desktop settings to match my tvs resolution etc.
The new mac minis have HDMI out but the old ones had DVI which I am not fucking with.
I would not be opposed to running Ubuntu or Linux, as I will really only need to play files with VLC.
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