Software recommendations for dedicated HTPC

fLUX

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Hi,

I am going to use my old PC as a HTPC. The configuration is quiet decent
I5 6400 + 32gigs RAM + 1070 GPU + 3.75TB HDD space booting of a 250gb sata connected ssd

I have seen people mentioning use of remotes to control and launch media applications. Can someone guide me to the right thread or the software itself to configure it as such
 
Hi,

I am going to use my old PC as a HTPC. The configuration is quiet decent
I5 6400 + 32gigs RAM + 1070 GPU + 3.75TB HDD space booting of a 250gb sata connected ssd

I have seen people mentioning use of remotes to control and launch media applications. Can someone guide me to the right thread or the software itself to configure it as such
Something like this may work. You can also use a wireless mouse

 
1410113570.jpg

 
Thanks, any idea about the softwares besides Kodi ?
I haven’t used it so can’t comment on the product. I came across this product when I was planning to set up a HTPC as back up if shield fails any time. Dropped the idea as the new laptop I got is HDMI 1.4 and doesn’t support 4kHDR in 10 bit
 
I use VLC media player and Pot player for their functionality. A wireless mouse is my media controller!
I prefer pot player for a few reasons
a. light on system resources - you can also get very granular with settings.
b. with a single click of a mouse I can toggle between play and pause, double click to zoom / full screen, with mouse wheel scroll - change volume etc - you caconfigure all mouse actions.
c. binge watching TV serials is easy with the pot player play list - automatically adds similar type files in a folder to the play list.
d. Easy to change play back speed 1,1.1x, 1.2x... and so on - does not work with dolby / dts content though, but you can enable or disable audio pass through easily in a few clicks.
e. downloading subs where necessary is a breeze. for files with multisubs, you can configure it to load english subs automatically.
mouse actions configurable to your need. can easily sync subtitles
VLC has a straight forward simple interface - plays almost all encoded content - literally anything under the sun! almost never says codec missing! (ok now you would know that most of the content I play is downloaded). Only grouse with vlc is that it does not have some of the mouse controls I need (it needs a third party add on)
Taking baby steps to pass HDR video content to the TV processor (samsung serif - I had posted my views on this tv in a thread) with madVR.
HTPC - AVR - TV is my set up. All of these are HDCP 2.2. and HDMI 2.0b compatible with suitable high speed HDMI cables
 
On the paid side, I would suggest you check out jriver. They have binaries for Mac/ windows and unix. Jriver does everything well. Audio is great and extremely flexible. You can stream to dlna devices. Video is excellent and has native madvr support.
I personally don’t find the interface the worlds best, but they have a decent 10 foot interface as well,
 
........ or the software itself to configure it as such
When you mention 'software itself', are you looking for software for to play video and movies?

1. If you are playing movies up to 1080p, VLC is good enough. It's support of H.265 is still iffy and it does not use hardware acceleration well enough to play this compression smoothly. All other free software are in the same state.

2. If you are looking to play 4K, you need to get a 4K capable card that supports HDR. Even with that, none of the free software worked for me. They just don't understand HDR and similar technologies. I bought a copy of PowerDVD, and life has been smooth after that. PowerDVD is an ace in understanding all formats including 8K and HRD. It also tags all your movies and gives you information on the movies. Though Kodi also does that, it, Kodi does not play 4K and HDR well. Even Kodi on the new RPi4 plays 4K badly though it has the CPU and hardware capabilities available on the system.

I have used and experimented with most of these software for over two years, and finally gave up. Have switched to PowerDVD and deleted all other software. I don't have to worry about Codecs and all that rot.

It is worthwhile looking for promotion from PowerDVD. Sometimes you can get it for 5K or less.

If you looking for play music, it is a different matter.

If you sitting up to 10-15 feet away, a simple cordless mouse (and keyboard) can give you all the control you need. I think PowerDVD also has an Android app for RC, but I have never used that.

Cheers
 
No matter what remote you have a cheap wireless KB+MO is your best bet. I have a good remote but it does not do everything.
Try powerDVD and JRiver both. Buy what you like. It will be a very hard decision :)
 
Last edited:
When you mention 'software itself', are you looking for software for to play video and movies?

1. If you are playing movies up to 1080p, VLC is good enough. It's support of H.265 is still iffy and it does not use hardware acceleration well enough to play this compression smoothly. All other free software are in the same state.

2. If you are looking to play 4K, you need to get a 4K capable card that supports HDR. Even with that, none of the free software worked for me. They just don't understand HDR and similar technologies. I bought a copy of PowerDVD, and life has been smooth after that. PowerDVD is an ace in understanding all formats including 8K and HRD. It also tags all your movies and gives you information on the movies. Though Kodi also does that, it, Kodi does not play 4K and HDR well. Even Kodi on the new RPi4 plays 4K badly though it has the CPU and hardware capabilities available on the system.

I have used and experimented with most of these software for over two years, and finally gave up. Have switched to PowerDVD and deleted all other software. I don't have to worry about Codecs and all that rot.

It is worthwhile looking for promotion from PowerDVD. Sometimes you can get it for 5K or less.

If you looking for play music, it is a different matter.

If you sitting up to 10-15 feet away, a simple cordless mouse (and keyboard) can give you all the control you need. I think PowerDVD also has an Android app for RC, but I have never used that.

Cheers
Hardware acceleration works well for me on vlc as well as pot player. For large files, I run the player with high performance graphics processor and with DXVA h/w acceleration enabled in video filter settings. Have rarely faced any issues with 4k & HDR files.
 
+1 for potplayer. It solved a lot of problem for me which I was facing in multi screen setup. You can easily configure the default output screens for fullscreen mode and even span it across multiple monitor. Plus it have very granual control of each setting, which might see tedious initially, but once everything is configured, it really makes your life easily.
 
Thanks for the recommendations , will have a look at the same. Some changes are in process in the room aesthetically , will setup the pc post I complete that
 
Potplayer is good free option. It sounds better than MPCHC. Jriver is good paid software which can used.
 
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