Feedback on HTPC Streamer + Blu Ray Player

I've run Linux based media centres for a while now and know your pain.... Seemed like such a simple task those years ago and started with integrated graphics but just have a look at what my media pc turned into in my sig (mega media pc and gaming rig)!

Regarding integrated graphics, especially if you're contemplating Linux, definatly go with an nvidia card, their drivers allow 23.967 fps playback (for blu-ray rips) and lossless hdmi audio with the hd audio codecs. Lots of people have issues with smooth playback with igpus and ati drivers aren't as developed as nvidia and more people use use nvidia so support will be easier. Something like the gt610 will be cheap, silent and make your life loads easier (http://uk.asus.com/Graphics_Cards/NVIDIA_Series/GT610SL1GD3L/)

The onboard gpu will be able to play 1080p though and if you're not to concerned about some stutter then I guess you could use the igpu.

To play blu-rays direct from the drive, there isn't anything that works particularly well that I've found (although not looked since I got a ps3 about a year ago) as the decryption can only be done under license (I think) so I'd suggest keeping your existing player for blu-rays off the disc.

Standard Ubuntu uses a Pulseaudio sound server which is great if you want to mix system sounds with mp3s for example but it resamples your audio usually all to 48kHz so you get a loss in quality. Uninstalling it is certainly possible but there are a lot of dependencies so it can be awkward to get passthrough to work after. However, recent installments of xbmc seem to handle audio better so this may not be an issue anymore.

I use mythbuntu (a variant of xbuntu) which doesn't install it in the first place and also sets up the DVR software Mythtv, worth a look if you're interested in recording tv on it too

If I were to build a media pc today this is what I'd put in it.... Definatly not the cheapest but certainly a very capable machine and plenty of scope for upgrades or moving bits around should the need arise....

http://uk.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1155/P8Z77I_DELUXE/

http://www.fractal-design.com/?view=product&prod=94

http://ark.intel.com/m/products/65520

Quiet CPU cooler, would need to check it fits in case:

http://www.noctua.at/main.php?show=productview&products_id=37&lng=en

http://uk.asus.com/Graphics_Cards/NVIDIA_Series/GT610SL1GD3L/

http://www.corsair.com/en/power-supply-units/cx-series-psu/cx500-80-plus-bronze-certified-power-supply.html

http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/minisite/Greenmemory/products/green-ddr3

http://www.corsair.com/ssd/force-series-gt-ssd/force-series-gt-120gb-sata-3-6gbps-solid-state-hard-drive.html/

+ basic DVD drive or BD drive for future use

+ 2 Tb WD caviar black drive for data

You could probably half the cost of components if you wanted... It's just what I would build! Amd processor/board combo would be cheaper, could do away with quiet HSF to start and see how you got on, certainly don't need a SSD for a media pc not an i5 but as I said, its what I would do... I'm a bit of a techno whore though!
Edited by pharcycle - 2/23/13 at 1:04pm

I'm afraid I dont have and therefore never used powerdvd12 and none of my processors have igpus so it's somewhat difficult for me to test!

Try any igpu, they should handle it but you may have telecine judder due to display rate mismatch.

it will probably handle it ok... if you have any issues though the gt610 i referenced above would be a good card for a htpc for $40

for what they cost, you may as well stick a bluray drive in there too, you can use it to rip your own BD-ROMs for playing back and support will only get better over time. I'm probably going to be trying a new ubuntu install soon but my hardware will be quite different to yours.

you don't need to go for the XBMC-buntu distro... its really easy to install XBMC on its own (http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=HOW-TO:Install_XBMC_on_Ubuntu/HOW-TO_1). Mythtv however (http://www.mythtv.org/) is pretty tricky to install so I recommend mythbuntu (http://www.mythbuntu.org/) as it sets everything up for you if you're interested in trying it out. You'll need some tuner cards to use it to its full capacity but it then lets you record, pause and stream live TV across your network and can transcode recordings from the raw MPEG-2 to h.264 or MP4 for your phone/portable device etc. It has been around for probably about 10 years and is very mature software but its version is 0.26 so its still classed very much in development. Works astonishingly well but documentation can be a bit involved and the guides are not always relevant to the current version.