HTPC vs WDTV vs KDLinks

[itschris]

The way mine is set up I have a dialog box that will pop up when you pick a movie that literally asks if you want to watch just the movie or movie with menus. One program launches for main movie playback, another for full menus. All seamless to the user.

Oooh... that's kinda slick.

 

[wiyosaya]

IF you are using Windows on your HTPC, I'll recommend Media Portal. They have yet to support Blu-ray menuing, however, it is my understanding that it is in the works.

Commercial Blu-rays are only supported via something like AnyDVD HD that must be bought, however, AnyDVD HD lets you do a number of things that might not be so easily done otherwise. I am in the process of finishing up a HTPC build, and a test that I did on Blu-ray playback with AnyDVD HD (they have a 30-day trial version) exceeded my expectations.

 

[JMJVK]

I use a WD TV Live Hub Media Center 1TB.

It's reception by the AV crowd has been lukewarm because the menu interface is slow. That said, it does everything else right. DLNA server and client, SMB server and client, onboard DTS decoding and output to stereo analog outputs, playback of ISO file format CD and DVD images. This thing has taken and read everything I've thrown at it except for BluRay folders. This can be remedied by making an MKV file using the free MakeMKV utility. It plays 40Gb MKV flawlessly.

Would never go back to a HTPC. Too much trouble, not as portable and definitely not as small. I have a second unit for the bedroom and travel. I've used this second unit to do family picture slide shows at family meets, even on older CRT TVs, using the old school analog outputs (which I'm now really grateful for).



Just my two cents.

 

[3db]

I'm looking to toss our current DLNA solution as it is simply becoming more than I care to manage. I am an IT guy by trade, and while I love to tinker with computers, networking etc, however, after spending 8+ hours on the job the last thing I want to do is have to tinker with a piece of tech when I'm trying to watch a flick.

I've looked at the Dune Smart solutions but have read that they no longer make devices that will play Bluray .iso's with menus. Is there currently a device out there that will run a BRD iso with menu, stream netflix,hulu,etc, and play a myriad of audio/video file types without transcoding. DTS MA and True HD are a must.

I've also looked at the Intel NUC's and OpenElec/XBMC, but not sure if I want to devote all that time in managing another device unless there is limited involvement. How polished are XBMC, Plex etc? Whould I be better off going with a device such as WDTV or KDLinks? If so, would I get all of the desired functionality?

Any opinions and experiences are welcomed.

Thanks for reading!

I'm using a WDTV live with a local USB attached 1TB drive and it really does the trick; simple and quick. Here's what it looks like..

 

[AaronH]

I'd suggest a HTPC. I have used mediaportal for about 10 years. I also have a WDTV Live and the picture is crap compared to HTPC.

My setup is i5 Cpu (you dont need a powerfull CPU) and a Nvidia Geforce GT630 with a 60GB SSD. The SSD has the operating system and MediaPortal and the TV buffer and I record TV to the SSD as its very fast. It takes alot of reads and writes to close sectors on a SSD drive. Its a Standard XP system with indexing, restore, printerserver in the services turner off. (Vipers XP tweaks) will get the system rocking. Cold Boot to Mediaportal up is 8 seconds. With MediaPortal I run MPC-HC it will play every single bluray MKV. It has no copyright protection blocking in it. I then use FDDShow to upscale to a higher resolution than the TV, the Video card then downscales to the TV resolution. The Other benefit of HTPC is you get 0-255 color gammet. WDTV live and the like is 16-240. What that means is your pure white and pure black is cut off. Actors white teeth will freak most out that have not seen 0-16 white and blacks are pure black 240-255.
You can do wonderfull sharpening and really tweak your color pallet with Fddshow. You can also have diffferent settings for DVD, Bluray, SDTV and HDTV. It is totally amazing watching bluray upscaled. DVD upscaled is nearly as good as bluray for instance. HTPC also allows you to changed drivers easy, or change a Video card Etc. My HTPC is the NAS server also as its much faster than a NAS on R / RW. I use 3 x 4TB USB3 drives and that is more than fast enough. I stream to 6 devices and all perfect. The benefit of having the main storage drives external is if I go somehere I take my WDTV unplug a drive and off I go. HTPC also has the benefit of being able to use MS office, any browser you like and copying software you like. DVDFAB is the best there.

Unfortunately for me after using HTPC with Upscaling, proper color gammet the WDTV to me is substandard + your limited. Its great to run to TVs as its cheap way. But to me the main unit should be a HTPC as they can do far more and give you a better picture. On Audio Mediaportal does Bitperfect Audio also. Cant get that on wdtvlive. You know the difference at 192khz bitperfect into a good amp anyday. On the remote Logtec harmony is the perfect solution as it controls every device you can imagine.

Mediaportal is easy to setup. Took me 10 minutes the first time. The basics of Movies / TV / Music is easy. The other plugins arnt needed to be setup to get the basics like twitter, facebook and rss. There are plenty of setup guides. Basically MediaPortal + Fddshow + MPC-HC + LAV Filters + Harmony and you have the perfect setup. A basic second hand PC I5 CPU with a GT430 card, SDD drive and XP is ample + Vipers XP tweaks and it will scream along. The key to a fast XP box is to turn of indexing, restore and all services not used. I use acronis to backup the main system as its a great bacup that is full Automated.

 

[crossedover]

I'd suggest a HTPC. I have used mediaportal for about 10 years. I also have a WDTV Live and the picture is crap compared to HTPC.

My setup is i5 Cpu (you dont need a powerfull CPU) and a Nvidia Geforce GT630 with a 60GB SSD. The SSD has the operating system and MediaPortal and the TV buffer and I record TV to the SSD as its very fast. It takes alot of reads and writes to close sectors on a SSD drive. Its a Standard XP system with indexing, restore, printerserver in the services turner off. (Vipers XP tweaks) will get the system rocking. Cold Boot to Mediaportal up is 8 seconds. With MediaPortal I run MPC-HC it will play every single bluray MKV. It has no copyright protection blocking in it. I then use FDDShow to upscale to a higher resolution than the TV, the Video card then downscales to the TV resolution. The Other benefit of HTPC is you get 0-255 color gammet. WDTV live and the like is 16-240. What that means is your pure white and pure black is cut off. Actors white teeth will freak most out that have not seen 0-16 white and blacks are pure black 240-255.
You can do wonderfull sharpening and really tweak your color pallet with Fddshow. You can also have diffferent settings for DVD, Bluray, SDTV and HDTV. It is totally amazing watching bluray upscaled. DVD upscaled is nearly as good as bluray for instance. HTPC also allows you to changed drivers easy, or change a Video card Etc. My HTPC is the NAS server also as its much faster than a NAS on R / RW. I use 3 x 4TB USB3 drives and that is more than fast enough. I stream to 6 devices and all perfect. The benefit of having the main storage drives external is if I go somehere I take my WDTV unplug a drive and off I go. HTPC also has the benefit of being able to use MS office, any browser you like and copying software you like. DVDFAB is the best there.

Unfortunately for me after using HTPC with Upscaling, proper color gammet the WDTV to me is substandard + your limited. Its great to run to TVs as its cheap way. But to me the main unit should be a HTPC as they can do far more and give you a better picture. On Audio Mediaportal does Bitperfect Audio also. Cant get that on wdtvlive. You know the difference at 192khz bitperfect into a good amp anyday. On the remote Logtec harmony is the perfect solution as it controls every device you can imagine.

Mediaportal is easy to setup. Took me 10 minutes the first time. The basics of Movies / TV / Music is easy. The other plugins arnt needed to be setup to get the basics like twitter, facebook and rss. There are plenty of setup guides. Basically MediaPortal + Fddshow + MPC-HC + LAV Filters + Harmony and you have the perfect setup. A basic second hand PC I5 CPU with a GT430 card, SDD drive and XP is ample + Vipers XP tweaks and it will scream along. The key to a fast XP box is to turn of indexing, restore and all services not used. I use acronis to backup the main system as its a great bacup that is full Automated.

So after all your praise for your htpc and disgust for the wdtv (which I have 4) what display are you using and is it isf calibrated?

 

[brabus]

That's the first I've heard of the WDTV live having a crappy picture. It was my understanding that the WDTV Live is one of, if not the only streaming box capable of DTS MA, perhaps my understanding is a bit lacking with regards to audio but is this not lossless? I was just about to buy one to try it out too, though ultimately it would be placed on my older Panny VT58 in the bedroom instead of my new 2013 ZT65 in the viewing room. I've decided to eventually build a HTPC and cut the cord. Actually, Ill probably 'retire' the i7 920@4.4GHz rig I currently have and relegate it to HTPC duty. It has a few TB of storage in addition to my now 16TB of rack storage in the basement.

I thought about getting an Intel Nuc but I really would like to game on the system as well. With that said I will still need some form of streaming boxes for other rooms in the house. Is the WDTV Live not especially suited to that task, or is there something newer with the ability to do 1080p and DTS MA as well as vob, m2ts and mkv playback capabilities?

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

HTPC + XBMC is the best IMO.

 

[brabus]

Yeah, I'm thinking the same thing. I'll be happy if I can manage to configure XBMC to mount an .iso and play it with TMT and then go back into XBMC upon movie exit. That way I can have BD menus if I want them, still play pass-thru mkv's with top notch quality, live and recorded TV shows, and get Netflix and all the other great XBMC plugins working.

 

[3db]

So after all your praise for your htpc and disgust for the wdtv (which I have 4) what display are you using and is it isf calibrated?

There is nothing wrong with the WDTV picture. I suspect that poster is just flapping his gums. I've had friends over to watch some DVDs that I have copied on to the hard drive and they were impressed with the picture and sound quaility. And get this, my TV is not ISF calibrated. My only complaint with the WDTV is that menu selection is dreadfully slow on the internet apps. If it had the speed of say a ROKU3, then this would be the best media streamer on the market. The fact that it plays almost any kind of format under the sun and can stream from one's home network without having the added power consumption of a PC is a big bonus for me

 

[crossedover]

There is nothing wrong with the WDTV picture. I suspect that poster is just flapping his gums. I've had friends over to watch some DVDs that I have copied on to the hard drive and they were impressed with the picture and sound quaility. And get this, my TV is not ISF calibrated. My only complaint with the WDTV is that menu selection is dreadfully slow on the internet apps. If it had the speed of say a ROKU3, then this would be the best media streamer on the market. The fact that it plays almost any kind of format under the sun and can stream from one's home network without having the added power consumption of a PC is a big bonus for me

I wasn't complaining about the WD. I love mine. I don't use them for anything but movies and music from my server (gigabyte hard wired), so I've never experienced the apps. I was just wondering what his display is since the post mentioned color gamut abilities of his htpc, which seemed a little one sided to his argument

 

[3db]

I wasn't complaining about the WD. I love mine. I don't use them for anything but movies and music from my server (gigabyte hard wired), so I've never experienced the apps. I was just wondering what his display is since the post mentioned color gamut abilities of his htpc, which seemed a little one sided to his argument

I know you weren't complaining. Hence the remark of the poster flapping his gums remark.

 

[brabus]

I finally picked up a WDTV live to hold me over until I build a new rig. I really am digging the picture quality on my Panny and the fact that I can click on a BD .iso and it just plays, with DTS MA audio to boot, is fantastic. Much easier than fiddling with my DLNA server. So far it's played everything I've thrown at it, .mkv, , m2ts, DVD file structures, avi's etc.

As others have mentioned I'm not a big fan of the slow-to-respond menus, but I'll take that in trade with it's ability to play so many different formats. While it was a bit cumbersome to get it working properly in my domain environment, once that was sorted it has been able to connect and stay connected to all my shared resources across the network. (Using the first 'word' in my domain name in the workgroup field and giving the WDTV live its own user account and making that account a local admin through a GPO on machines holding shared resources with a simple password consisting of only letters and numbers seems to have eliminated all the initial connectivity issues I experienced once share and security permissions were sorted.)

I would like it if it had the ability to add more options in the way of apps, such as being able to customize it much like XBMC, but for now it will work until I can build a new PC and relegate the old to HTPC duty. I have played with XBMC a little, and it seems it would take quite a bit more work to get everything to play as seamlessly, but I'm sure the customization options would be worth the extra effort.

 

[crossedover]

Just run plex or serviio as a media server as opposed to network shares and you will find it runs smooth.

 

[brabus]

Are you referring to the menu's? I used Plex previously but there were a few things about it I didn't like, likely because I wasn't using a decent front-end. Does Plex serve content to the WDTV without transcoding? Will it pass DTS MA and TrueHD as well as the myriad of file formats without transcoding?

 

[crossedover]

Are you referring to the menu's? I used Plex previously but there were a few things about it I didn't like, likely because I wasn't using a decent front-end. Does Plex serve content to the WDTV without transcoding? Will it pass DTS MA and TrueHD as well as the myriad of file formats without transcoding?

I use serviio with no transcoding and it pass MA no problem.