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I'm ready to join the HTPC (home theater pc) revolution - what to get?

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mouser:
I spent half of today playing with 0.0001% of the 3rd party addons and skins and stuff for XBMC.  

I'm probably just getting really grumpy in my old age but it is an impossibly chaotic experience trying to configure these things with a million different half-supported, half-broken, clashing 3rd party addons.

And that's despite the fact that the XBMC folks have created an incredibly helpful system of finding and using these 3rd party addons.

I think there is a real lesson here for coders, of the costs and benefits of designing a system that is structured to let a million people plug and play and every part of it.. The chaos and incoherence and potential for confusion is incredible.

There are quite a few projects like this, that have an incredible ecosystem of independent developers -- it feels like treachory to suggest that this approach results in something that is painful to use, but i just find myself wishing for a system that was coherently designed.

I'd gladly give up 90% of the power and flexibility in exchange for something that was clean and predictable and comprehensible and simpler to configure and use.

mouser:
I think superboy might have the right idea.. Which is to not do all this incredible struggling to get these HTPC tv-theatre-view-mode fancy and painful UI systems to work.  That's where all the pain is.  Instead just use a monitor/mouse/keyboard to select what to play.. Problem solved.

wraith808:
I think superboy might have the right idea.. Which is to not do all this incredible struggling to get these HTPC tv-theatre-view-mode fancy and painful UI systems to work.  That's where all the pain is.  Instead just use a monitor/mouse/keyboard to select what to play.. Problem solved.
-mouser (September 16, 2013, 03:12 AM)
--- End quote ---

I use a combination of a remote and a keyboard with a mouse embedded.  Those lap keyboards make using the keyboard not that big of a deal.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823176018

mouser:
A few more observations after a week of tweaking -- first some more XBMC complaints..

XBMC is an amazing open source project and it's amazing that it runs so well on so many different platforms.

It's also completely fails the test of being a set top replacement for a consumer device like a tivo etc -- for all but the most devoted users.  It is simply packed to the brim with an insane navigational system and large gaping holes in functionality.  It is absolutely and inexplicably painful to navigate around some of these side and context menus and perform certain operations, and it's absolutely braindead about lots of things.  It may be ok for movie and tv browser but it's fairly terrible for online streaming and audio music.

If someone unfamiliar with XBMC came over to your house and you gave them the remote, the chance of them getting stuck in some sidebar context menu, triggering unwanted commands, and becoming frustrated is a near certainty.

Having said all that, i haven't seen anything better.  But using something like this really makes you appreciate the work that goes into polishing a consumer GUI (like the TIVO) to make it intuitive and comfortable.  XBMC gives you 10,000 alternate unsupported abaondoned broken "skins" and it's impossible to navigate.  TIVO does not let you choose the skin but everything else works intuitively.  What would you rather have?

Despite all my complaining, I still haven't found anything better for use as an htpc set top box (mainly for music) and XBMC does have a very high factor of cool if you want to hack around on it, which I have spent the last week doing.  God knows how much will break over time -- it feels fragile.  But there are some fun things to be done, and lots to explore and customize if you are into that kind of thing.

Jriver Media Center is still on my list of tools i'm playing with -- it has much nicer out-of-the-box music support, and much more power-user friendly interface in standard desktop application view.  However, it falls down miserably on the htpc television screen (theatre) view, so that's what's stopping me there.

mouser:
And now some more constructive general comments:

I've been thinking more about hardware choices for an htpc.

You can get a $100 brand new android-based htpc/xbmc box that uses little power, is quiet, and is all ready to plug in, to be used as an htpc end user appliance.  No operating system to install, and presumably a lot less to configure and worry about.

And on the other end of the spectrum you can do what i did, which is to use basically a full powered desktop machine (possibly in a thinner media-friendly case as i have).

I've been going back and forth in my mind about what makes the most sense, and i don't yet have a firm view on what makes most sense.

In many ways, the full desktop-class computer approach to an htpc seems way overkill.  My htpc never gets above a couple percentage of cpu use -- it's basically just sitting their idle and running up my electric bill much of the time.  It's also much louder than a small dedicated htpc device would be.

But there are some advantages i've noticed:


* Very fast and easy cd ripping (and playing); i'm in the process of ripping all of my cds.  Of course you could do this on your desktop machine and transfer the files since it's probably just a one time deal.
* The desktop pc can be used as a replacement for your dvd/blueray player.  Most small dedicated htpc's don't have a dvd/bluray player (though see dc member Dirhael's post early on this thread for a great looking build that does).
* It's convenient to be able to run standard software that i am familiar with -- whether it be backup tools, exact audio cd extraction tools, etc.).  Though I can't say i have any crucial software that i couldn't live without.
* There is some real comfort in not having to worry about performance issues and being able to run multiple processes.  Though I cannot say if people ever have problems with underpowered dedicated htpc boxes.

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