HTPC Software Advice

October 1, 2015 10:32 AM

Looking for some advice on HTPC software. I really have just two requirements: Netflix compatibility and good video library management.

I built a HTPC about two years ago. I initially tried using XMBC on it, but it doesn't support integrated Netflix and I had a lot of issues with the library management system. It wouldn't detect files, it didn't play well with a network directory that wasn't always there (my laptop), and I could not for the life of me figure out how to get it to automatically remove deleted files.

So I've just been using it as a PC that I control with a remote. Windows 7 directories for finding files to play in VLC, and Chrome for streaming Netflix/Youtube/Hulu. I control it with a mini-keyboard/mouse combo.

It works, but it certainly doesn't have that home theatre PC feel that I want.

Core requirements:
-Netflix integration
-Good library management for videos

Nice goodies
-Integrated music streaming solutions for Google Music and hypeMachine
-Automatic meta-data acquisition for video library. (XMBC did this very well, and it was very cool.)
-Integration with other streaming services, such as Amazon Prime or Hulu.


I'd be open to any solutions, including custom operating systems. I'm pretty tech savy, I just don't want to spend hours trying out and configuring 10 different software packages to figure out what will work best for me. Thanks in advance!

posted by mayonnaises to Computers & Internet (12 answers total)

A roku, plus roksbox or a similar streaming app, and any webserver to serve media. I'm on my phone at lunch but I can elaborate later.
posted by RustyBrooks at 10:51 AM on October 1, 2015

Best answer: I use a mac mini as a Plex server, and a Roku and Xbone to stream Plex and everything else. I went ahead and got the lifetime Plex subscription because it's just dead simple to use... it'll do the meta data stuff you want, really well. There is a sub cost now, but you can try it out and just pay the lifetime sub if you like it.

I'd use your current HTPC as a Plex server and get a Roku3 (or wait for the 4) and use that to stream Plex and all your streaming services. That'd be $70 for a refurb Roku3 and $40/month or $150/lifetime Plex pass.

Check out Plex Pass features, it has some cool stuff like streaming music videos based on your music library, gathers trailers and extras for movies in your library, etc.
posted by Huck500 at 11:14 AM on October 1, 2015

Best answer: I have an HTCP/file server running a mySQL backend for XBMC (renamed Kodi), and run Kodi on the HTPC, laptop, and a FireTV (not the stick). The Kodi experience on the FireTV is really smooth and shares the library with the other devices. Plus the FireTV supports Netflix, Amazon Video, Hulu, and Youtube. I probably going to stop running Kodi on my HTPC and use it just a file server and get the new FireTV for the living room.

I also run plex and it's pretty slick (transcodes and streams anything to my phone, and has similar awesome metadata scrapping as Kodi). I prefer Kodi because of it's configurability and $0 price, but am impressed enough with Plex that I will buy a pass if it goes on sale during black friday/cyber monday.
posted by 6ATR at 11:51 AM on October 1, 2015

Best answer: Yeah so basically I have been running HTPCs at home since about 1999. Back in the old days this was a serious pain in the ass. I had decoder/encoder cards and software to do the sort of stuff that Tivos did when they came out. It could also play files on disk. It was a nightmare, constant fiddling with it.

Eventually I figured out that there is no point in recording OTA stuff myself. Someone else will do it for me, and I can download and play theirs. This is ethically a gray area but IMO if I have access to it for free via one venue, then getting it for free from another is basically the same thing. But I digress.

In the modern age I get almost all my media from netflix/amazon/hulu/etc and once I saw how capable the Roku devices were, I saw no reason at all to keep a dedicated HTPC box. So instead I got a Roku. It works great. The remote is fantastic (it's not IR, it's (probably?) wifi. It's fairly fast and intuitive and everything just works out of the box. Couldn't be happier.

I use "roksbox" to stream media. It can play stuff off a local USB port (i.e. a stick or a drive) but I've never tried that. Instead it has the option where you just give it the URL to a website that has your videos (and pictures and audio) on it. The website just needs to give back a directory of the stuff in it. I don't remember what I had to do to set it up now, but it was very easy. I'm just running apache off a box upstairs that otherwise doesn't do much (email, ftp, my personal website)

roksbox has some... idiosyncracies. It works OK but imo it does not make ideal use of screen space when displaying file data (like name, etc). But it's basically fine and I use it a lot. Maybe Plex is better.

You probably don't need the Best roku - check out the specs and get the one you need. But even the best one is like $100 or $120, peanuts compared to the money I've sunk into HTPC over the years, not to mention sweat and time.

Roku also has a bunch of additional stuff (they call them channels) with content, some free and some for pay. Anime channels, NPR channels, movie channels, etc, etc.

There are other things aside from the roku that are probably fine, but I can't recommend them because I don't know much about them. But for example there is also chromecast and firestick and apple tv and what not.

Heck - my actual TV will play stuff from amazon netflix or hulu and I can *really* easily stream stuff to it from my laptop. We do that a lot with "one-off" type stuff, like, "hey, kiddo, check out this crazy video"
posted by RustyBrooks at 12:19 PM on October 1, 2015

P.S. we live in a golden age. Do you remember when if you wanted to see a TV show you had to be there at a specific time when it aired, and if you weren't, you might never get to see that episode again? I mean, seriously??
posted by RustyBrooks at 12:21 PM on October 1, 2015

To clarify some of the above, I've been using the free version of Plex for a while, and it works just fine for what I need it to do. The Plex Pass offers more bells and whistles, and I may upgrade at some point, but the free tier appears to do what you need.

It also looks like the mobile Plex app (which you will need to pay for) allows you to cast to a Chromecast, so that option may even be cheaper than the Roku path. Using the Roku will allow you to browse your library on the big screen, though.
posted by dforemsky at 12:45 PM on October 1, 2015

Response by poster: So looks like my best bet is to convert my HTCP into a home server of some kind and then use one of these new fangled smart TV devices. I think I will most likely go the Plex Server/Roku route.


Thanks for the help everyone! This is exactly the kind of info I needed.
posted by mayonnaises at 1:16 PM on October 1, 2015

Another tent in the 'I messed with HTPCs forever, was never satisfied, don't make my mistakes' camp here.
+1 for the streaming box (Roku,etc) and Plex server (PC with your library on it running Plex) solution.

The good news is, if you try the Chromecast and hate it, you're only out $35, with $50 to spend on a Roku instead. Cheap options.
The bad news is, unless you've been consistent with your library naming scheme all along, you're going to spend a tedious afternoon renaming files like 'House_Season Eight_EverybodyDies' to 'House.s08ep22' so Plex can put the episodes in the right order in menus, and fetch the proper 'album art' for you. Time intensive, but you only do it once.
posted by bartleby at 1:53 PM on October 1, 2015

Best answer: No no no no. don't get a roku. they're so locked down and boring! And honestly, plex is terrible. It's just a laggy mess with irritating to navigate menus that you have to babysit.

I have, still around at my house and have used: a roku, a firetv, and a chromecast.

And yea, i'm gonna make another case for XBMC/kodi here, and i'm willing to return to answer specific questions.

The solution to what you want is a firetv with xbmc/kodi installed(i like this variant because of the plugins it comes with for streaming). I did exactly what you suggestion in your update too. In that i have a pc running a server(well had, i replaced it with a cheapo NAS) with all my local media, and then i use kodi plugins and netflix for streaming.

You can set kodi to rescan your storage folder(s) automatically say, every few days, and manually force refreshes if you really want.

The integration between netflix and kodi on a firetv isn't direct, but switching between the two(and any other streaming service you want!) is about as annoying as switching apps on an iOS/android device. Tap the button, select the other app, open. No futzing with a keyboard/mouse or selecting things or anything. When set up properly, they're both just icons on your home screen and a quick tap of the home button lets you swap. There's ALSO a way to get a netflix icon directly in kodi that will launch the app instantly from your videos tab. I never bothered though, because tapping home and selecting netflix is so fast.

Another bonus of this setup is that kodi has gotten really awesome at doing what bartleby describes above. It's shockingly good as parsing stupid titles as long as the folders are nonstupidly named(and amazingly, even then) and grabbing the art/descriptions/etc on its own. Really, this shocked me.

And seriously, i've had so many problems with plex. Rokus cant play every format, and so it has to transcode them... which creates lag when loading and more importantly rewinding/fast forwarding/pausing, sometimes audio/video sync errors, and requires a bunch of CPU grunt to do smoothly sometimes.

Also, with kodi, there's no "server" app that needs to be running. You just create a shared folder and... you're done. The crappiest <$100 on sale NAS can handle it and your PC can be shut off, or an old laptop with external drives plugged into it, or... A full desktop PC sucks a lot of power. Even more when it's running plex. Why bother if you don't need to?
posted by emptythought at 1:48 AM on October 2, 2015 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: emptythought - Do you run the fireTV box or the stick? Looking at the documentation on kodi - should be able to run on both just fine. Just trying to figure out if there's actually a huge advantage of going the box route.
posted by mayonnaises at 5:18 AM on October 2, 2015

I have two coworkers that I recommended the FireTV (non-stick) to. They both cheaped out and got the stick, and complained about the laggy UI experience.

Fire TV > Roku > FireTV Stick

And emptythought brought up an excellent point that I forgot that I valued very highly - no need for a server. I added a USB hard drive to a router, set it up as a samba share, and set up a FireTV at a friend's without the need for a PC at all. The only downside is the library isn't shared (really just recently watched and watched status).
posted by 6ATR at 7:08 AM on October 2, 2015

So, I know you have plenty of answers already, but I like my setup so much that I have to chip in.

I don't know what you're using to, erm, acquire your non-netflix media. A Sickbeard fork that uses torrents instead of newsgroups is the solution in my house. It's a bit of setup, initially, but once it's setup it's easy enough to use that my non-techy housemates have no problem adding shows, etc. It will "watch" various torrent sources via rss, download, clean up the name, and move it to the appropriate directory automatically. It will even tell XBMC/Kodi that there's a new file, and bug it to update the library.

As you've noticed, we mainly use XBMC on the TV to which the htpc is connected. But we also have Plex installed, and with some Chromecasts on the other TVs in the house, it's no big deal to access anything on the main PC anywhere in the house. Both Plex and XBMC have solid smartphone remotes for controlling everything.
posted by booooooze at 6:59 PM on October 4, 2015