DigitALL Posted November 7, 2009 Share Posted November 7, 2009 Hi, I am seeking advice about more than installing and operating system and found this section more appropriately. Hopefully I am not that wrong... What is this about? I bought an AppleTV, hacked it, loaded tons of movies but I am a little disappointed in terms of hardware capabilities. I can not play MKV movies encoded in 720p or higher. I download 720p movies in MKV, then convert them to MV4 or MP4 to be able to play them on AppleTV but I found very difficult to add subtitles and not to mention that it is a lot of time consuming for conversion. Therefore, I am looking into building my own HTPC or PC/Media to be more capable and be able to play HD movies (720 and up) in MKV format. I am also looking into having the possibility to control it by remote. I already have a PC enclosure in a small format with 350W power supply. It fits a small format footprin MO (9.5x9.5") and found one with HDMI output, video card integrated and a good prcessor(AMD). Model number: ASUS M3A78-EM http://www.asus.com/Product.aspx?P_ID=KjpYqzmAd9vsTM2D I wish to ask your opinion and advice: - Should I go for it, buy it and install SL on it? - Or should I focus more on Intel based MB? (the intel based boards and CPU are more expenssive and my budget is tight). - I wish to add a dongle infrared that I have to be able to control for instance the VLC player by remote. Are the drivers accessible? Is it possible to easily achieve this? - I wish to add a bluetooth dongle that I have to be able to connect a mouse and keyboard. Do I need any special drivers for it or when installing the SL, these devices will be fond automatically and the drivers installed? - And again, is it possible to install on top of SL the AppleTV software or similar software, so I could enjoy the same features as I have now with AppleTV and make it easy for wife? Thank you. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/196376-seeking-advice-for-a-htpc-hdtv-project/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
srs5694 Posted November 8, 2009 Share Posted November 8, 2009 When building with the express intent of installing OS X, it's generally better to go with an Intel CPU, since the AMD CPUs require more hacks to get working. That's not to say an AMD-based system can't run OSx86, of course, but the number of problems you'll encounter is likely to be higher. This is especially true of Snow Leopard; given it's relative newness, and the fact that no AMD-ready Snow Leopard distributions are yet available (AFAIK), it'll be harder to get it up and running. I don't know offhand if you can run AppleTV on a standard OS X installation, much less a Hackintosh. Look into that carefully before proceeding. If your main problem with your AppleTV system is insufficient CPU speed to play your MKV files, you might look into the possibility of simply upgrading its CPU. I know next to nothing about AppleTV, though, so I don't know if this is a practical possibility. I suggest Googling the question or finding an AppleTV forum where you can ask such questions. If you decide you need to build a new DVR box, then given your requirements, particularly the need for a high Wife Acceptance Factor (WAF), you might want to consider another approach. For instance, you could install MythTV, which runs atop Linux and so works with just about any standard PC hardware, AMD or Intel (or PowerPC or others, for that matter). Even MythTV isn't going to be as easy to set up as a store-bought DVR, but it'll give you a lot of flexibility. I've played MKV files on mine, although not many. In HD resolutions, that format still requires a fairly powerful CPU (dual-core ~2GHz or better, IIRC). There are also commercial and open-source DVR programs for Windows, although I'm not very familiar with them, so I can't give specific pointers. FWIW, there's an OS X port of the MythTV frontend (the part that plays media, vs. the backend, which records shows). I've heard of people using the AppleTV hardware as a dedicated MythTV frontend, but of course that's not likely to help you with the MKV playing issue. Still, it might be a factor in your decision -- you could use your existing AppleTV as a MythTV frontend that you use in a second TV-viewing room, for instance. If you decide to go the MythTV route, there are several mailing lists (MythTV-users being the most appropriate for new users), as well as a Wiki with assorted information. There are several dedicated Linux MythTV distributions for (relatively) easy installation and setup. The MythTV release version has just bumped up from 0.21 to 0.22 (literally today), and the distributions currently lag behind. Good luck, whatever approach you choose. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/196376-seeking-advice-for-a-htpc-hdtv-project/#findComment-1323128 Share on other sites More sharing options...
GillBates Posted November 8, 2009 Share Posted November 8, 2009 If you want an OS X based HTPC, definitely take a look at plex, it's one of the best media center applications I've ever seen, and I think they are SL ready. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/196376-seeking-advice-for-a-htpc-hdtv-project/#findComment-1323366 Share on other sites More sharing options...
DigitALL Posted November 10, 2009 Author Share Posted November 10, 2009 Thank you very much guys. Rod, you made a good point with AMD vs Intel so I would probably go with an Asus board and a dual core. Thanks again. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/196376-seeking-advice-for-a-htpc-hdtv-project/#findComment-1325228 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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