O Canada! > Canadian > Canadian Chat > Ditching Shaw cable need media player ideas

reply to Doonz

Re: Ditching Shaw cable need media player ideas

Basically I could get away with two tv's for now. The kids can go to hell and stick to their notebooks.

What I need is a media player that will let me browse the internet and have full video playback. Not worried about audio files. From too much reading seems most of the media players seem half ass attempts at something with each one missing something (I do have a Asus O!play Mini which works good as bare bones video player). So ATM I'm thinking HTPC or a netbook capable of playing video on a 47" TV. I'm also not worried about BR playback as I'm ok with DVD quality and really none of the videos I download are 1080 usually stick to downloading videos in the 1.5td or less size.

Main thing is getting news and having a video playlist availability. We have a 92 year old grandma living with us so when everyone is at work I'd like to just create a play list of bunch of video files and let it play for hours.

I was going to go with Boxee Box but being discontinued I guess I'll pass?. My budget is obviously the cheapest I can get but seems with a new router, htpc/media players/netbooks I'll be hitting close to $1000 for two tv's.

This is what I was thinking of for the htpc

»www.ncix.com/products/?sku=58341···oid=1230
»www.ncix.com/products/?sku=67325···oid=1230
»www.ncix.com/products/?sku=70273···oid=1230
»www.ncix.com/products/?sku=61144
»www.ncix.com/products/?sku=41337
»www.ncix.com/products/?sku=52411

Oh yah and say another $60 for a small HD. I have a bunch of Segate 500/1BExpansions which I use to store the video.

Total is $300+ tax and give me the ability to go to i3/5/7

I would run Linux on it and XMBC. I do have a bunch of Humble Bundle games I bought and with Steam being in Beta for Linux I'm thinking an HTPC.

I also fund this cool little guy »www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a···13138368

OK that PC would handle all your needs but I'd add a GPU in the mix too for the GPU acceleration. For the other tv's I'd get a WD live box. they can be had for like 100 bucks and play media on their own if you don't want to store everything on the network.

Someone may can come in here and list out some better hardware for the same price or a little more. I don't keep up on hardware much.

»www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/···pot%2002

Take a look at some PC's on there some nice hardware for cheap prices. I got my father in law a system to build him off there 2 weeks ago for a good price.

»www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/···CatId=31

A system like this would cover all your needs I'd think. If I'm wrong someone please say something. No idea of the build quality of the hardware but hardware wise this would cover your needs. Some of the reviews on there say the case sucks.