Lowest Cost HTPC with HEVC 10bit support in 2H 2019?

[kwanbis]

Hello guys.

Some years ago I needed to build a HTPC and I was nicely advised here. So I am back again in 2019.

I want to build a low cost HTPC that supports 10 bit HEVC@4K and 10 SATA hard drives. It can be a 6 SATA motherboard with some extension card.

I will probably run Windows 10 with it (as i also watch Netflix and Amazon Video).

One thing I can do to keep prices down, is to use a GeForce GT 1030 that I already have, which if I recall correctly uses a PCI-Express x 16 slot, and support HEVC 10 bit (https://www.amazon.com/gp/B072HRD3CY/).

By the way, I am currently living in Germany, so it is probably more expensive than in US.

What will you build today? Thanks!!!!

 

[Verge]

I messed with HTPC when HDR came out and it was just a huge mess, I gave up and bought a Nvidia shield and play everything off my NAS. So much easier.

Any way you can just build a headless NAS and spend that video card money on a media box? I think there are cheaper things out there that do 4k HDR then shield. I know I have it in gaming room, and ATV4k in living room. The apple is better but the remote is a huge pile of crap.

 

[IdiotInCharge]

As per Verge above, whatever HTPC you have, convert to storage only and run an Nvidia Shield, Apple TV or something similar.

You can grab a Shield and use the HTPC as remote storage, or you can run Plex server on the HTPC and put the app on the Shield. Either works with different caveats, personally I just run Plex server which makes everything easier on the streaming box side.

 

[Verge]

never mind I'm dumb


***edit


You can run a mysql database on your nas and have kodi connect to it, and it will offer a lot of the plex features... it's a preference thing I suppose at this point.

 

[ng4ever]

I messed with HTPC when HDR came out and it was just a huge mess, I gave up and bought a Nvidia shield and play everything off my NAS. So much easier.

Any way you can just build a headless NAS and spend that video card money on a media box? I think there are cheaper things out there that do 4k HDR then shield. I know I have it in gaming room, and ATV4k in living room. The apple is better but the remote is a huge pile of crap.

So windows only lets you keep HDR on always or off always right?

 

[kwanbis]

I messed with HTPC when HDR came out and it was just a huge mess, I gave up and bought a Nvidia shield and play everything off my NAS. So much easier.

Any way you can just build a headless NAS and spend that video card money on a media box? I think there are cheaper things out there that do 4k HDR then shield. I know I have it in gaming room, and ATV4k in living room. The apple is better but the remote is a huge pile of crap.

Thanks. However, my experience with NAS is that unless you have everything cabled, transferring files over Wifi is very slow, and I don't have cabling. I normally process my Blurays in my PC, and transferring to the NAS takes forever by wifi.

I am not super crazy about coloring and such. I am watching on a 60 inches tv, nothing spectacular. And even when I had my HT with a projector, I am ok if it plays good enough. So as soon as the PC is able to reproduce the files, I am ok.

So I rather have my PC with my disks and be able to play videos directly. But I will make the exercise of checking options and consider the NAS route.

In any case, which mother/cpu will you recommend for a NAS that can run Plex/Windows? As you can imagine, I am asking here because I follow AMD/Intel news, I am no longer so much into building (I used to do it for a living), so I am not 100% up to date with the latest CPUs in deep detail.

 

[Trimlock]

I do the same thing you do, but mine is a very cheap PC I built years ago that replays movies off of a NAS. I like having an HTPC so I can easily keep local movies that get played a lot and that means I don't have to worry about the network being up or down.

I'll probably never get rid of my HTPC even though, overall, a Shield or ATV 4k would be better. I'll probably get the Apple TV after I move though.

 

[thesmokingman]

I messed with HTPC when HDR came out and it was just a huge mess, I gave up and bought a Nvidia shield and play everything off my NAS. So much easier.

Any way you can just build a headless NAS and spend that video card money on a media box? I think there are cheaper things out there that do 4k HDR then shield. I know I have it in gaming room, and ATV4k in living room. The apple is better but the remote is a huge pile of crap.

I kind of went this route too. Instead of a NAS, I consolidated my htpc into my main rig and use the shield to access it. I also run plex so the other media players in the house like roku can use the plex front end.

 

[defaultluser]

10 disks for your media library? Do you save every show you ever watched?

Also, you can't stream 4k Netflix on an Nvidia card unless it's got 3gb ram. You need a 1050 or better...because Nvidia wants their cash if you want HDCP 2.2 support enabled.

Instead, I would just use onboard video to get the job done. At this point, both Intel and AMD support Netflix 4k on IGP. You just have to make sure you buy a motherboard with an HDMI 2.0 port. But just be aware that neither part has full hardware decode of VP9, so if you spent ad a lot of time on Youtube, you'd better get a beefy processor.

You're stuck paying extra to Nvidia for a complete seamless streaming solution on a PC. I just compromised and used my old GTX 960 for youtube HDR, and used my Roku fr everything else. You can do the same with the GT 1030 (it has full hardware acceleration for everything).

 

[IdiotInCharge]

10 disks for your media library? Do you save every show you ever watched?

I plan to expand to eight...

Also, you can't stream 4k Netflix on an Nvidia card unless it's got 3gb ram. You need a 1050 or better...because Nvidia wants their cash if you want HDCP 2.2 support enabled.

1050Ti 4GB here!

You can do the same with the GT 1030 (it has full hardware acceleration for everything).

My understanding was that it didn't... and Nvidia has the best GPU transcode at the moment for whatever reason.


Also, I'm aware that I'm not the OP . Just sharing what I did as an additional example.

 

[Wade88]

NAS with shield TV and an avr is the king since 2015 afaiac, used to HTPC but the Shield has saved me hundreds of bucks because I've operated servers and nas's since a long time ago is just one more thing to use it for.

At least for 1080p and 2160p bluray rips if you plug it into your lan and your NAS or server is not abysmally slow and is also plugged into your lan it should work fine. I've never tried it with wifi on the shield. I use 5 8TB disks presently in the NAS, might put bigger ones in it or switch to flash eventually if i ever get better than 10gb lan.

You could use your main PC for this with extra disks in it but IDK about your main machine but it is a huge waste of energy for playing rips and things. The nas and shield together use a small fraction of the energy to do the same task. Energy is cheap in my region but on general principle IDC, I like the trees and things. It's also less heat to remove with my 9 tons of air conditioning.

Is too bad they shrunk it down my Pro model from 2015 is easy to take apart a wee bit and replace the SSHD with a 860 EVO, does firmware updates at seemingly a good fraction of c and launches apps and switches between apps much quicker. I also use a hd homerun device to pull the local TV during the tornado warnings and occasional flooding, giant hail, etc.

H/t IdiotInCharge

 

[IdiotInCharge]

I also use a hd homerun device to pull the local TV during the tornado warnings and occasional flooding, giant hail, etc.

Just quoting to have something:

Please use the enter key to add lines. It helps. Walls of text cause human eyes to blur!

 

[Wade88]

Isn't it a bit early in the evening for that old boy? It should work fine now as you have the same horizontal resolution and ppi that I do, almost identical infact yours is one model year newer.

Regarding the SSD, if yours came with a SSHD you can just use a spudger around the middle of the back top of the unit and it comes right off and you unplug a couple of things, remove some tape, whip the disk out, put it in your hdd duper, turn it on, put the SSD in slot 2, manipulate dip switches or press the button, profit, reinstall, button up, watch it fly.

This isn't the page I used but the one I used had some of the same images in it and this is a better link anyway you might consider re-thermal gooping it while you're in there.https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Nvidia+Shield+TV+1st+Generation+Motherboard+Replacement/99303