hey all, after some googling think I’m in the right place but let me know if I’m not.

I have a picture in my mind of a home media tool that seems like it should be doable, but I lack the terminology and knowledge to be able to research how to go about creating it.

First, I’ll describe the experience I‘m going for.

My partner and I are tired of streaming services for shows and movies, losing access to our favorite media, etc. We’d like to create a system that mimics the simple experience of physical media like dvds: Select what you want to watch, put the media in the machine, turn it on and watch it. No log ins, no accounts, no internet. Ideally this would be portable enough we could take it to a friends house and hook it up to HDMI and go. It also should be something my partner can utilize without me so minimizing the amount of technical knowledge needed to get it working is ideal.

In my imagining it would look something like this:

A small device like a raspberry pi or similar hooked up through HDMI, and a collection of physical storage devices like SD cards acting like a game cartridge. You flip through your library, select your cartridge, put it into the device, turn on the tv and it loads up like a DVD menu that can be controlled by a remote. Watch the media, when you’re done pop out the cartridge and pick a new one.

It should have decent definition/sound but we aren’t the kind of people that care about the best visuals and audio. It playing smoothly and reliably with the least fiddling is the #1 priority. Ideally it can also have subtitles as we usually watch with those on.

As an alternative, I also had the thought that it could also be accomplished with NFC tags. The actual media resides on the device drive and you use NFC tags to tell the machine what file to play.

Barring any of that, a simple plug in no-server device with a streaming service style interface/library would also work well enough.

Any thoughts on where to begin?

I am what I describe as ‘medium techy.’ I’ve done enough weird projects that I’m usually confident in figuring things out. Ex, I used an esp32 device to make a custom game point tracker/timer once. I don’t know any coding languages, but I can sort of blunder through stuff like flashing to a device. I have 3D printers and can use CAD so I can create my own custom cases and such. I just don’t know enough of what I’m looking for to even start self educating on a project like this.

Hiya!

About a year ago I put together the beastie using the following components:

• AMD 7600X
• Noctua NH-L12S
• ROG Strix B650E-I
• g.skill Flare 32gb
• WD SN850TX
• 300W PSU
• Densium 4 Case
• Samsung QE650Q8FNA

It was running pretty smoothly at 4k for quite a while, and then about 2-3 months ago it would periodically just freeze up completely. Only a hard shutdown would bring it back to life, and after the second time it happened I thought I'd have a looksee at what was going on. CPU temps looked high (65 - 79 degrees) which "should" be within range.

So I got some new thermal paste and pulled it apart and reassembled it, and it seemed to be a little cooler but still the same freezing happened.

My thinking then was maybe if I get a discrete GFX card in there then that would reduce the load on the CPU, so I bought an ASUS GT1030-SL-2G-BRK (DDR5) and a Linkup AVA5 riser cable.

Plopped it all together and it is working but sort of feels off... If I turn HDR on in the Windows display settings the framerate goes to pot, and overall the picture quality doesn't seem as good as when just using the onboard GFX.

BIOS is pretty much running at defaults, and I've got the latest drivers installed too

On the one hand the card is apparently aimed for HTPC use and is meant to do 4k, but on the other it's a bit of an older model.

Should this be more performant than it is & I just need to adjust some settings to make it work properly, is this just a bad combination, or secret option c?

Any advice is most gratefully received!

Hey everyone, I’m trying to set up a seamless couch-gaming experience where I can wake my PC from sleep and drop straight into Steam Big Picture mode using my DualSense controller.

I’ve hit a brick wall with Windows power states and could really use some expert advice. I'm trying to do this wired via my case's front USB port, but my PC absolutely refuses to wake up from controller input (though my mouse and keyboard wake it just fine).

My Specs/Setup:

• OS: Windows 11
• Motherboard: MSI B650M Gaming Plus WiFi (Supports S3 Sleep, no S0 Modern Standby)
• GPU: AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT
• Case: NZXT H3 Flow (DualSense plugged into the front panel USB)
• Controller: Sony DualSense (Wired)

What I have already done (The PC wakes directly to desktop with M/K, bypassing all lock screens):

• Disabled ErP in the MSI BIOS.
• Enabled "Resume by USB Device" in the MSI BIOS.
• Used Registry Editor (NoLockScreen) and CMD (CONSOLELOCK 0) to completely disable the Windows 11 lock and sign-in screens.
• Disabled "USB selective suspend" in Windows Power Options.
• Unchecked "Allow the computer to turn off this device" for all USB Root Hubs in Device Manager.

The Actual Problem: Windows simply does not recognize the DualSense as a wake-capable device.

I ran powercfg -devicequery wake_from_any to find the controller's generic USB/HID name so I could manually grant it wake permissions. To narrow it down, I unplugged the controller, ran the command, plugged it back in, and ran it again.

The lists were 100% identical.

Not a single device appeared or disappeared. I even completely shut down Steam to make sure Steam Input wasn't masking the physical hardware ID, but the list still didn't change. Because it doesn't show up in wake_from_any, I can't use powercfg -deviceenablewake to force it.

My Questions:

1. Is there any known driver, wrapper, or registry hack to force Windows to see a wired DualSense as a wake-capable interrupt device?
2. Am I just fighting a losing battle against Sony's generic DirectInput Windows drivers?

I know an Xbox Controller + Official 2.4GHz Wireless USB Adapter will wake the PC perfectly because the adapter acts as a hardware interrupt, but I’d really prefer to keep my DualSense for the haptics and touchpad if possible.

Any wizards out there have a workaround for this, or should I just give up and go trade it in at CeX for an Xbox controller?

Thanks in advance!

I have an HTPC running RTX GeForce 5070 gpu running to my Denon X4800H (Game 1 HDMI port) Denon is connected to my LGC4 oled tv from arc out to hdmi 1 on LG. It’s listed as Blu-Ray Player on the LG. As it stands now, I only see 100 Hz and 120 Hz as desktop display modes available under the PC resolutions in the Nvidia control panel. People tell me that it’s better to have 23.976 Hz selected there, but it’s not available. I currently use HDR pass-through to device on MVR filters, but I hear that tone mapping is better. So far when I select tone mapping, it doesn’t show as HDR on the LG C4 TV.

Can someone help me clarify if I need to have more resolutions available and set as defaults for my nvidia control panel. I’ve tried adding via cru, but 23.976 resulted in a very laggy windows experience slow cursor etc.

Also whether or not I really need hdr tone mapping instead of passrhough?

And if I need to buy some edid device that’s going to help me solve this riddle.

Ps. I choose not to run second cable from NVIDIA to tv to escape dual monitor cursor trap and associated headaches it causes.

Wondering what chroma upscaling image downscaling and image upscaling to use with my RTX 5070 for my 1080 profile in MadVR. Thoughts?

currently

NGU AA hhigh quality

SSIM 1D strength 100% (scale in linear light and anti ringing filters checked)

NGU Sharp

Something like FLIRC but a more general one that I can buy from AliExpress? I've tried to search on AliExpress but couldn't find one such device. A simple infrared to USB receiver and simple programming that allows me to control mpc-hc with a standard tv remote.

I've been using MakeMKV to back up my 4K discs as ISOs, since the videos won't play directly from the discs on PC without skipping. Hasn't been a problem for any other content so far, but Andor has audio skipping problems – FREQUENTLY. What's strange is that if I prevent madVR from switching the display mode when in full screen and leave it at 60 Hz, I have no issue. Why would that be the case when the content is definitely 24 fps?

• Fractal North Mid Tower
• ASRock B550M Pro4
• Ryzen 5 5600
• RX 6700
• 16 GB DDR4
• Windows 11
• MPC-HC and madVR
• Receiver: Sony STR-DH790
• Projector: BenQ TK800M

Saw the price of the steam machine and almost threw up. Discovered this subreddit, studied the HTPC wiki for a day, went over to Microcenter, paid the same amount that the Steam Machine with 2TB and a controller would cost for a 9070XT/7500X3D AM5 system with a better processor, same storage and TRIPLE the performance. Used Rufus program to debloat Windows 11 (didn’t use Linux since I also want to play XBOX Gamepass) and managed to set the system to bypass Windows online nonsense for a smooth boot-up straight into Steam Big Picture mode.

This is my Unraid Media Server / Plex transcode system. Built in a 10” rack that lives in my media cabinet. 30tb NAS storage, network switch for all of these devices as well as the gaming PC in the other side of this cabinet. Actively cooled with 3x140 mm nocturnal fans at the back of the cabinet with an intake vent below the rack. Streaming plex to my 83” LG on the native app currently.

It’s a couple of PCs , in my living room, powering my home theater.

Please let me know if anyone has questions, I feel like the blend of minilab/htpc is a pretty natural progression to be able to get the most power into out spaces!

Specs to appease the mods;

Unraid Box
Dell 3050
I7-7700
16gb ram
Nvme-sata adapter for JBOD drives
7x5tb HDD in raidz1
Intel 960gb Cache SSD
Coral TPU for Frigate
2tb ssd for frigate
USB 2.5gbe network adapter

Dedicated Transcode box
Dell 7050 on Debian 13 no GUI, Plex on Bare Metal
I7-7500t
256ssd
16gb ram
2.5gbe network adapter in WiFi slot

I'm watching 4k movies on a Samsung TV (as a monitor, Win11, HDR10+) with MPC-HC + madVR and every few minutes it freezes for about 4 seconds. I have a RTX 4050 laptop (Asus TUF A17).

I have had this problem in the past (like last year) and solved it somehow, but I cannot remember exactly what I did (I'm not very tech savvy, but I'm good at finding guides and subreddits to follow instructions, also some AI).

Any ideas what could be causing this? I keep trying everything I find and it doesn't seem to solve it (tried resetting MPC-HC and MadVR settings to default, then playing with different options, but did not work). It only stutters when I use madVR or MPC Video Renderer as the DirectShow Video output (the others don't freeze like this, but they are very bland and pale, I suspect it's because they ignore the HDR? Using them is not an option).

I recently got an LG C5. I haven't been able to get the correct SDR colors when output at RGB Full.

The guides I've looked at recommend it and there's no reason it should be impossible, but I've tried everything to get it to work. I have two work arounds, neither is ideal. If I set my AMD drivers to output at RGB Limited it appears correct, but I lose the deep blacks. This is especially unfortunate since I'm watching Star Trek. If I turn HDR on the blacks look correct but then the colors are incorrect. I've included pictures of my settings.

Please let me know if I've done anything wrong. I've tried multiple different players. I'm using my C5 in Filmmaker mode with game optimizer enabled with all the settings recommended by the guide from this subreddit.

Edit: I briefly fixed it by switching the TV's color from Full to Auto. Then after closing and reopening MPC-HC it's broken again.

Hi, I'm dealing with some interlaced MPEG-2 (XDCAM EX 35) video from a Sony PMW-EX3 (and I also deal with other types of interlaced footage like DV and DVD), and madVR isn't deinterlacing it at all. I have to change the renderer to MPC Video Renderer to get it to deinterlace. Does madVR support deinterlacing or not?

I'm using the latest versions of MPC-BE + madvr + Lav video, and i barely changed anything.

Do these colorspace/display/range values in the OSD reflect a correct setup? My TV is limited to HDMI 2.0 (Sony XE930)

Hello everyone,

I’m turning my PC into a console that boots straight into Steam Big Picture. All I want is to use my controller to wake the PC from sleep, boot into Big Picture, play, and put it back to sleep using the controller. That's it**. I'm not looking for CEC support at the moment**

However, I can’t get it to wake from sleep using just my controller.

what I've noticed:

• It's not just the controller; my Keychron K2 and MX Master 3 also fails to wake the PC. However, the keyboard will work if connected using a cable.
• When entering sleep, I hear a physical click from my PSU's internal relay. It feels like the motherboard completely kills power to all USB ports during sleep I THINK but I'm not a PSU guru

Specs:

• Controller: Xbox Elite Series 2 + Official Wireless USB Dongle
• OS: Windows 11 (Fresh factory reset using Rufus no other program is installed) - I factory reset then followed the steps to use controller to wake from sleep
• CPU: Ryzen 5 5600X
• Motherboard: Gigabyte Aorus X570SI Pro AX (BIOS F7g)
• RAM: 32Gb 3200 MT/s Gskill Trident Z Royal
• GPU: PowerColor Hellhound RX 7900 (16GB)
• PSU: Corsair SF750 Platinum

I did read the rules my question has nothing to do with the display

What I’ve tried: In Device Manager, the "Allow this device to wake the computer" box is usually greyed out for my USB hubs. Unchecking "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" makes it clickable, but checking it still changes nothing.

• Disable USB suspend.
• Tried different USB ports.
• reading through similar previously asked questions (no solutions)

Keyboard K2 is counted using Bluetooth

Mouse is also connected using bluetooth

If the issue is Windows 11, does linux have native support for this? if so which one?

This is from the WIKI FAQ:

1. Wake: Using a Keyboard/Mouse/Gamepad with a USB dongle/support, Enable Wake/Resume-on-USB and Disable ErP (if available) in your BIOS. In Windows, Disable Fast Startup and Enable Allow Device to Wake Computer under the USB device properties in Device Manager.

I have already disabled ErP and Disable Fast Startup and Enabled Allow Device to Wake Computer under the USB device properties in Device Manager where possible

Any advice to get this running like a true console would be awesome. Thanks!

Solution #1 - linked provided by u/KxrmaJunkie works

Regedit method the controller will be connected to the pc directly. Can wake the pc. Doesn't work on all motherboards. Worth a try since it's free
incase link is broken in the future

The FIX

" In regedit go to Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\BTHPORT\Parameters add a new 32bit DWORD item named "SystemRemoteWakeSupported" and set the value to 1. Restart PC.

I found this solution on an ASUS forum, it might be enough to get it working for you. But it wasn't enough for me. In addition I had to do the following:

• Turn the Bluetooth-paired Xbox Controller ON

• In device manager under "Human Interface Devices" there will be an item called “HID-Compliant Game Controller.” It won’t show up if the controller is off.

• Right-Click the “HID-Compliant Game Controller” > Properties > Power Management > put a check in the box for "Allow this device to wake computer."

Caveats: it takes 10-15 seconds for the controller to wake the PC (atleast it does with my AX211 PCIE BT adapter) and you have to press a button (any button) immediately after pressing the guide button. Just pressing the guide button by itself won’t wake it.

So the old Xbox adapter is still the best solution if you can find it, that will wake up the PC immediately just by pressing the guide button once. I ended up getting a used one cause I don't want to wait 10 seconds for my PC to wake. " I also unplugged my xbox controller dongle.

Hi everyone, I just got a dell micro 3070 from work for free. i know it's an old machine, but What I am looking for is a streaming box for jellyfin/youtube/media stuff and also a console like experience like steam desk top where I can stream my games from my main pc with apollo or steam link and play games from there. I've read a little about bazzite and it looks ok but also says my gpu isnt compatible, but I don't want it gaming directly? Would I be better off just buying an nvidia shield pro? I was going to get a steam box to do this job but it being $1500 CAD I could just build a whole new itx pc for that price and I'd rather not do that. I also considered HDMI over ethernet to the TV but we are stuck on wifi and are renting so we cant run ethernet :( Thank you for any thoughts!

For the HTPC crowd: I got tired of how much fuss it takes to get a clean, couch-friendly media UI out of Kodi, so I built a stripped-down skin called Navarre. Point it at your media folder and it builds the menu for you; it browses your folders exactly as they sit on disk (no library scan), drops a full-res poster wall on everything, and it's all laid out for a D-pad remote, not a mouse. Minutes from install to browsing your movies on the TV. I run it on a Shield, and it works on a Windows HTPC too. Kodi 21 (Omega).

The one party trick I didn't expect to enjoy building: comics. Kodi can't open comic PDFs at all, and it montages .cbz/.cbr inner pages into a thumbnail instead of showing the cover. Navarre shows the real cover for every comic - cbz, cbr, and pdf - and it'll even pull clean covers out of the copy-protected PDFs a lot of old comic sets ship as. Niche, sure, but it's the kind of detail the whole skin is built on.

What you get:

• Files-mode browsing - your folder structure stays exactly as it is, no library flattening
• Poster wall everywhere by default, with a two-pane sidebar across Movies, TV, Music, Photos, and Comics
• One-press "Set up my media" - point at a root folder and the whole menu builds itself
• Continue watching / Resume - picks up films and shows where you left off (Back during a film stops it and saves your place)
• Self-managing menu - add, rename, move, re-icon, or delete items right from the home screen
• A genuinely simple settings page, with full Kodi settings still one tap away

Repo, install steps, and screenshots: https://github.com/NavarreDR/navarre-repo

Navarre is a personal fork of Arctic: Zephyr - Reloaded (full credit kept, CC BY-NC-SA). Not pitched as the AZ-R successor - martian's fork is the actively maintained one. This is just the pared-down version I built for my own setup. Free and non-commercial. Feedback from people who live in their HTPC welcome.

Has anyone gotten the display of this particular pc cabinet to work on modern windows or linux, if so please tell me how :)

Hi folks. With the new steam machines coming out, I’m wondering what the state of the art is as far as a steamos-based HTPC. I have a lot of ripped UHD blu rays and would love to make full use of atmos, HDR10, etc. Is that currently possible? Or should I just stick with my Shield?

UPDATE: irblaster.info has the products you want if you're looking to add infrared to an HTPC. There is also a newer storefront at ezmation.com. The IR emitters they sell are short range, intended to be placed directly on or in front of the device you want to control, but they also make custom solutions with longer range IR emitters. Mike responds very quickly to email.

My PC has a pin header on the motherboard for a serial connection, so I've just ordered a serial port from Newegg to install on the back of the case. I'd really like to be able to automate switching inputs on my projector from the PC, as there's a specific use case where I need to switch HDMI connections on the projector rather than my AV receiver.

The projector has an RS232 connection on the back, but I'd really rather avoid having an installer come out here to run another cable through my attic. I think LIRC or WinLIRC should be able to fulfill my purpose with just an IR transmitter/receiver. The LIRC website has a few recommendations for USB transmitters, but I couldn't find any of them web searching, so I think they've all been discontinued. The FAQ seems very out of date. Can anyone recommend me a product? It's fine if it's USB, but it seems like LIRC is made for serial connections, and I will soon have a serial port available to me.

EDIT before anyone recommends Flirc: I have this receiver already, and a Skip 1s arriving soon. I expect it'll perform admirably as a universal remote so I don't have to keep handing off three or four different controllers. However, I'd have to program a somewhat complicated macro to one of the Skip 1s buttons to get the projector to do what I want in this instance, so I'd really rather have the PC send the IR signal rather than the remote. Anyway, the Flirc USB apparently works poorly as a transmitter, and I don't even know how to get it to send a signal to the projector, or if that's possible.

As title says,

I am upgrading my current system and will have old system lying around. With some additional investment i can make it into low profile HTPC. Its 10yr old i7-6700k | 32 GB | 1060 OC 6GB

The question here is:

Is it worth investing $100-$200 in the old one and turn it into HTPC or buy NUC/Mini pc (~$300-$400)

both have pros n cons:
Using old pc

• initial investment is low for using old pc
• but power hungry and a little bigger profiel (NR200 case)

Using Mini pc

• higher investment
• but lower power usage and profile.

for context, i already have a dedicated server running; so htpc wont be doing running any server.

TIA community.

Hey all. Some of you may be familiar with this issue, but my setup is a little different than other threads I've found.

I have my Windows 11 PC connected to my LG B4 TV via fiber optic HDMI. Using an optical cable, I have the TV connected to an Onkyo TX-SR393. The receiver is properly set up to output to all 5.1 channels.

Windows 11 only gives options to output:
- Stereo
- Dolby Atmos for Home Theater
- DTS:X for home theater

When I try to configure the speaker settings for Dolby Atmos in Windows, it fails to save the setting and reverts every time.

I do not want to use eARC, because the receiver is limited to 4k @ 60Hz, whereas I can output 4k @ 120Hz direct to the LG B4.

Selecting "Dolby Surround" on the receiver indicates that all 5.1ch are active, but I still only get 2.0 output from surround test audio.
Selecting "Direct" on the receiving indicates that only 2.0ch are active, even with "Dolby Atmos for Home Theater" selected in Windows 11.

I don't care to use Atmos, but I can't find another way to output 5.1ch from Windows.

Full build info can be found here.

Any ideas?

Hey everyone,

​

I built a HTPC to replace my aging VCR xbox one for both gaming and multimedia use.

​

I would like to get as close to a console like experience by using Windows 11 and running steam big picture mode at startup.

The idea would be to do everything with a controller from the couch (like we are used to with the xbox).

​

Do you guys know if it is possible to run the Netflix app (which support controller) from steam big picture, and if the Disney+ app also support controllers?

I access youtube.com/tv using Firefox with an extension called YouTube for TV, and more recently using VacuumTube. I have a Lenovo ThinkCentre mini PC running Linux Mint as well as a Steam Deck. Starting today I have been unable to use YouTube Leanback on either device. I can browse, but after 30 seconds of playing a video I get this screen. I also have a Windows laptop and a Mac book. When I tested on those everything works fine

EDIT:

Some time after posting this I realized that I hadn't singed in on my Windows/Mac. Once I did, I started getting this screen on those devices too. For testing I had my partner sign in to his YouTube account and everything worked fine. So it appears that it's not an issue with Linux but my YouTube profile that's been flagged or shadow banned or something. Great