Playon!DVR-HD or HTPC or...?

[Sammus187]

Howdy, I've been wanting to build a HTPC/NAS box for ages, realised that with my PC being on 24/7 and relatively low power consumption, I could just fill it with HDDs and use a little network attached media player to access them, so instead of $1k-1500 to build a HTPC, I've been looking at standalone units.

Does anyone out there have much experience with the Playon!DVR-HD? I'm considering getting it, plus a bunch of samsung F2 1.5TB HDDs ($89ea) - one for the player and the others for my PC.

And advice welcome, budget was a grand, then went up to 1500, but with a few HDDs its looking like I could get it to work for around $600, which is much more attractive.

The other option is to wait for D-Links Boxee Box (should've named it Boxxy Box, but I digress...) which looks kinda neat. Can't find any info on expected price or AU release though.

Cheers,

Sam

[Fishface]

Careful selection of components will build a HTPC for around $600 that will handle 1080p no problems.

You can find suggestions for components on some of the threads here.

So it is up to you as to which way you go but $1500 would be a very extravagent HTPC.

[Sammus187]

Originally Posted by Fishface

Careful selection of components will build a HTPC for around $600 that will handle 1080p no problems.

You can find suggestions for components on some of the threads here.

So it is up to you as to which way you go but $1500 would be a very extravagant HTPC.

Yes, can do it for less than $600, from an ASRock ION330 for example.

I guess I didn't really make it clear that a DV tuner is prefered, and requirements include wifi-n, a remote control, and a VGA converter box - or video card capable of - component output, as small as possible (mini ITX) and have low power consumption.

I'm struggling to build anything like that for less than $1k, and that's before adding any HDD space. quality Twin tuner card + remote runs in at around $200, a couple TB of storage is $150+, that's already $350, and I've tried but can't build a mITX system for $250. CPU/Mobo is at least $200 by themselves, still have RAM, case, PSU....

Not finding the other threads a lot of help, hence starting my own.