Home build - some advice is needed

[JudeC]

Firstly, thank you to everybody who assisted me on my nas build, but going a slightly different way now.

If any body has advice or can point me at the right how to guides for my configuration?

let me try and explain this

HTPC (lounge)

home build = Huntkey H920 black desktop case
Foxconn H61 MXP motherboard
Intel i3-3220-3.30g
intel 120 g solid state HD
wireless mini keyboard
operating system ?????????????????? (need media centre to run media browser)
MSI Radeon HD 6450

cost = R5500.00

i'm then connecting via lan to my router which in turn will be connected to my nas device

Nas device = HP Proliant MicroServer AMD Turion II Model Neo N40L (with 3 of my own drives 3TB, 1.5TB, and 500G)

cost = R3300.00


in addition to this I want to connect a dstv decoder to the htpc as well as a extender in the main bedroom (thinking about an xbox)

finally scraped the money together and going this weekend to go and buy all the hardware but nervous as hell, that I've forgotten something or that it wont work properly.

all I want is to be able to watch or listen to my media anywhere in the house and have it look aesthetically pleasing (like with media browser and a decent fetcher for posters and such) it would also be nice to have dstv go through the htpc.

my biggest issue is that my knowledge is limited and my budget isn't that much better

a big thanks to anyone who can offer assistance and suggestions

[HavocXphere]

EDIT: Reread OP & I see I missed the point of this thread +- entirely. OP please ignore post below in so far as not applicable.

I'd combine the budget & jam both functions into same box.

There are epic long threads discussing HTPCs over at mybroadband...like a bazillion pages of it. You should find them with google fairly easily.

in addition to this I want to connect a dstv decoder to the htpc

Thats not going to fly. DSTV decoder provides only SD output, unless you've got a full HDMI path to the TV (which I believe the GFX won't do).

You're barking up the entirely wrong tree on the aesthetics department. Forget that. Focus on how quiet/loud the box is.

Budget is more than fine. You can probably pull it off for much less.

Will think about the components a bit more & post back...that is if nobody else beats me to it. In the mean time start investigating whether you're LAN is a gigabit lan...

[Avatar]

Gezunkeldie and I have messed around with something along these lines with an old pc of his. He has since turned it into a NAS as far as I know.

What I've learned since is to go with DLNA. It works brilliantly. DLNA devices are split into three categories:

• Renderers
• Controllers
• Servers

(And I'm sure someone could point out mistakes I will inevitably make along the way.)

I'll start at the bottom of the list, the server: Simply, it's where your media is. The server broadcasts all your media to the entire network. My preferred DLNA server is Plex, but lots of people like PS3 media server too. (don't let the name fool you, it has nothing to do with a Playstation.)

The renderer is what plays your media. Unfortunately, this is where I'm still struggling, maybe Havoc can help. Plex has a built in web based render, but it's not DLNA compatible (I'll get to why this is important in the next bit.) VLC works, but takes so long to actually get into the server directories, that I've never actually used it with DLNA; that means I can't be sure that is actually DLNA compatible.

Then there is XBMC. XBMC seems to work exactly as it's supposed to, and you're in luck, it's real pretty if you spend a couple of hours with a lifehacker guide. Just don't allow it to act as the server and you'll be fine. (In other words, don't point XBMC to the media locations on the network, point it to the server. In fact, your media itself should not even be shared via SAMBA/windows share, why can you see it on the network? Take it off! Now!) The part that XBMC is best is best at, IMO is being pretty and being DLNA controllable.. Which brings me to the last bit..

..Controllers. Controllers are simply the bit that tells a server that a renderer want to play some media. In other word a tablet (controller) can tell a server (your NAS) to push a movie to your render (the HTPC).

In short, the upshot for you:

In my opinion, you need XBMC on your HTPC, and Plex on your NAS. XBMC has a built in controller that you can use via kb and mouse, and millions of free controller on all the conceivable app stores (these controllers aren't DLNA controllers, but rather just a remote for XBMC, but that's getting very pedantic). It also runs on quite a few OSs, including android, so you're spoiled for choice there.

Plex runs on a couple of OSs as well, but I'm unsure about FreeNAS; if you planning on rolling a more mainstream linux NAS, you should be in luck.

Hope this wall'o'text helps, and do keep us updated!

EDIT: Also let us know if you need help organizing the media on you new NAS, there are some amazing pieces of software out there.

[JudeC]

fantastic, thanks so much, a lot of reading and a lot of rethinking, as well as learning cause most of the stuff you said was over my head, but well constructed so even I could understand what I need to do

thanks again