Need new HTPC for server rack

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I've used Kodi before, and still do on occasion, but I'm fine with just using windows explorer to view all my files, and playing thing back on media player classic and power dvd for my .iso files. I'm really leaning towards that NUC linked above, seems like it has everything I need, except for an external hard drive.

Kodi will also play ISO files and play from the DVD/BD-ROM.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Kodi will also play ISO files and play from the DVD/BD-ROM.

slowly on initial opening and no support for menus, but yes it does

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

slowly on initial opening and no support for menus, but yes it does

I don't have any ISO movie files anymore. But come to think of it, I do recall the not-so-great support for ISO when I tried it out a long time ago. I just knew it worked.

I'm surprised they have not improved on it all these years.

 

[panteragstk]

I've used Kodi before, and still do on occasion, but I'm fine with just using windows explorer to view all my files, and playing things back on media player classic and power dvd for my .iso files. I'm really leaning towards that NUC linked above, seems like it has everything I need, except for an external hard drive.

Ah, so you're one of the few keeping PDVD alive after all the competitors gave up.

I've got way to big of a collection to ever use the explorer MPC-HC method. Wifey wouldn't ever use that.

 

[panteragstk]

I don't have any ISO movie files anymore. But come to think of it, I do recall the not-so-great support for ISO when I tried it out a long time ago. I just knew it worked.

I'm surprised they have not improved on it all these years.

Rip the .iso to BDMV folder and get all the menu goodness. No difference in video/sound, but it actually works.

 

[GlocksRock]

Ah, so you're one of the few keeping PDVD alive after all the competitors gave up.

I've got way to big of a collection to ever use the explorer MPC-HC method. Wifey wouldn't ever use that.

Yeah, the newer versions auto switch the video output to 24hz when it detects that signal from the source, then will change back to 60hz. after playback is done, it's quite nice. But I don't have that many .iso files and don't use it too often, but I need the full bd image file when playing back 3D discs, or at least I will once I get my theater room finished and start to really use my projector.

 

[panteragstk]

Yeah, the newer versions auto switch the video output to 24hz when it detects that signal from the source, then will change back to 60hz. after playback is done, it's quite nice. But I don't have that many .iso files and don't use it too often, but I need the full bd image file when playing back 3D discs, or at least I will once I get my theater room finished and start to really use my projector.

Kodi will play the 3d ones just fine. It will also switch the refresh rate when starting playback. I do that now in my theater. Granted I'm doing with Android TV not a PC (not really a lot of difference when it comes to proper playback).

I tried PDVD and it didn't work well for me at all.

 

[Gunny]

I agree, except why Win7?

I'm on Win10 and never looked back. Why lock yourself into an older OS that will lose support sooner?

I don't know about now but early builds of Win 10 were absolutely horrible. I took the bait for the free upgrade and still went back to Win 7 on my home office system. I never took the chance on my HTPC but maybe it's time to take another look. Maybe...

 

[Gunny]

I'm settling into my new house, and the bonus room upstairs will be my theater room. I have all my equipment except for a new media/htpc to go in my server rack that will house all my a/v gear. I need something that isn't too big since I won't have a lot of room in the rack, but it will need to be able to run 4k video with ease. I don't want to spend a ton of money on it, so I don't need the best of the best stuff, just something reliable. I'll probably just use a SSD for the boot drive and to run the playback software, and have a BD-ROM drive for disc playback, and a larger size HDD to store my media files. I know it's not too difficult to build a pc, but I'll probably just have one of my friends build it for me since they have experience with building PCs. So should I go with Intel or AMD, how much ram do I need, what would be a good case to use, should I run Windows 7 or Windows 10?

You're right to consider a SSD. They are awesome and along with the [now common] UEFI BIOS replacement will reduce your boot up times to virtually nothing.

My first HTPC was AMD based. It ran fine for the most part but nowadays I stick to Intel just to rule out weird compatability issues. You'll likely pay a bit more but it was worth it for me. I'm also still running Windows 7 but, like you, preparing for 4K so I guess I'll be upgrading to Windows 10 soon. I'm not excited about that since my early experiences with it were horrible. As for rack space, my baby AT chassis is about 2U. Remember, with a HTPC you'll likely need to access it from time to time for troubleshooting, upgrades, etc. I'm the kind of guy who likes all of my components right where I can see them but that's just me.

As for RAM, I have 16GB because RAM is so cheap nowadays but 8GB is actually fine. The SSD will give you much more bang for the buck than extra RAM. As for software, I use both Kodi and JRiver as each excels in different areas. The latter is not free but, especially if you love music, it's worth it's price. Kodi is awesome but not always reliable.

Good luck!

 

[panteragstk]

I don't know about now but early builds of Win 10 were absolutely horrible. I took the bait for the free upgrade and still went back to Win 7 on my home office system. I never took the chance on my HTPC but maybe it's time to take another look. Maybe...

It is MUCH better than the early versions. I find myself getting frustrated if I have to use windows 7 now. Kind of like when I moved from xp to 7.

 

[GlocksRock]

I'm not very familiar with Win. 10, I just got a new work laptop that has Win. 10 on it, but I've barely used it at all. I'm sure it will be pretty easy to figure out though. I opted for the Intel NUC pc with 8 GB of RAM and the 128 GB SSD and an 8 TB external HDD. Should make for a pretty nice little setup and will have me ready for 4K when the time comes to upgrade my projector. Thanks to everyone for their suggestions, it's been very helpful.

 

[GlocksRock]

So I finally got all my stuff up and running, everything is working great with the exception of 3D Blu-Ray playback via PowerDVD 17. It will playback the disc, but only in 640x480 resolution, which looks absolutely terrible. It should autodetect my display (ben q HT2050) but even when I manually select 1080p/24 it tells me that it's not a valid option (not the exact error message, but something to that effect). Has anyone ran into this issue before and know what the fix is? I may just have to try playing the .iso back with Kodi or something else, but will anything else playback the 3d correctly, as in using frame packing, or would I have to playback using over/under or side by side? All of my drivers are up to date and I'm running Windows 10 on an intel NUC.

 

[panteragstk]

So I finally got all my stuff up and running, everything is working great with the exception of 3D Blu-Ray playback via PowerDVD 17. It will playback the disc, but only in 640x480 resolution, which looks absolutely terrible. It should autodetect my display (ben q HT2050) but even when I manually select 1080p/24 it tells me that it's not a valid option (not the exact error message, but something to that effect). Has anyone ran into this issue before and know what the fix is? I may just have to try playing the .iso back with Kodi or something else, but will anything else playback the 3d correctly, as in using frame packing, or would I have to playback using over/under or side by side? All of my drivers are up to date and I'm running Windows 10 on an intel NUC.

I would just use Kodi. PDVD didn't work for crap the last time I tried to use it. This was also v17.

 

[GlocksRock]

After doing some more reading, it does seem like it's probably related to PDVD 17, I'll probably try Kodi, if that doesn't work I'll look into older versions of PDVD, or if all else fails, I'll just have to burn the discs and playback on my PS3 or XBOX One.

 

[GlocksRock]

Kodi will play the 3d ones just fine. It will also switch the refresh rate when starting playback. I do that now in my theater. Granted I'm doing with Android TV not a PC (not really a lot of difference when it comes to proper playback).

I tried PDVD and it didn't work well for me at all.

Tried kodi but didn't find a way to play 3d discs. I mounted the iso and it played the movie, but didn't start at the main menu or let me select 3d playback. I changed the 3d modes in the projector and in the kodi settings I found, but it didn't appear to be playing back in 3D, what am I missing?

 

[panteragstk]

Tried kodi but didn't find a way to play 3d discs. I mounted the iso and it played the movie, but didn't start at the main menu or let me select 3d playback. I changed the 3d modes in the projector and in the kodi settings I found, but it didn't appear to be playing back in 3D, what am I missing?

For the few 3d titles I have I set the option in kodi to prompt when playback is starting. It asked and I chose the 3d version and it played fine.

I convert all my movies to .mkv though so it's not exactly the same thing. I don't see why it wouldn't operate the same way with an .iso or BDMV folder.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

I convert all my movies to .mkv though so it's not exactly the same thing.

found this tool: https://www.npmjs.com/package/h265ize
haven't used it yet, but seems very promising to covert all my video collection from 264 to 265. space savings could very significant.

 

[GlocksRock]

For the few 3d titles I have I set the option in kodi to prompt when playback is starting. It asked and I chose the 3d version and it played fine.

I convert all my movies to .mkv though so it's not exactly the same thing. I don't see why it wouldn't operate the same way with an .iso or BDMV folder.

Still very new to the whole 3d thing. I usually use .mkv as well, how would I convert a 3D full blu ray .iso to an .mkv file for 3d, and what settings do I use in MPC-HC x64 for playback, do I need to install madvr, or any codecs or filters? That may be my best bet, I think there is an issue with whatever video driver intel uses that is not letting power dvd to set the correct output for my display, even though my projector and receiver are fully capable. I really didn't think it would be such a hassle to get 3D to work right on my setup, all this equipment is new and very modern, I shouldn't have all these problems.

 

[panteragstk]

Still very new to the whole 3d thing. I usually use .mkv as well, how would I convert a 3D full blu ray .iso to an .mkv file for 3d, and what settings do I use in MPC-HC x64 for playback, do I need to install madvr, or any codecs or filters? That may be my best bet, I think there is an issue with whatever video driver intel uses that is not letting power dvd to set the correct output for my display, even though my projector and receiver are fully capable. I really didn't think it would be such a hassle to get 3D to work right on my setup, all this equipment is new and very modern, I shouldn't have all these problems.

It's much less of a pain to use Kodi for playback. As good as MPC is, it's a dead project and I wouldn't put all that much effort into it.

For converting simply use MakeMKV. It's stupid simple to use and it gives you a list of available audio and video tracks in your movies. Pick the ones you want to save space. You'll notice on 3d movies that there is an option for both 2d and 3d. If you pick both and have everything set right in Kodi, Kodi will prompt you to play the 3d version or not when it detects that type of file.

 

[GlocksRock]

I tried using kodi to playback the Blu-ray 3d .iso files and it didn't work properly, just like powerdvd, not sure it will work with .mkv files either, but I'll convert one and give it a shot. I'm still thinking the issue is with the pc/drivers since it keeps thining I don't have a compatible display.