Just put together my first NUC HTPC

[Fritz]

it's a BOXDC53427HYE. Got it from Kalleyomalley on eBay for $185.00. Picked up a Dell Samsung 256GB mSATA SSD for $48.00 and 16GB of RAM to rounds things out. Then I realized the only sound in this box was via HDMI. Since it's hooked to a projector, HDMI sound wasn't an option. I had a Trond USB sound card that solved this problem beautifully. If you ever need a USB sound card, the Trond is the cats meow.
I'm really happy with the outcome. The i5 based NUC is plenty fast and takes up no space to speak of. It's as close to the perfect HTPC I've ever had.

 

[britinpdx]

Since it's hooked to a projector, HDMI sound wasn't an option.

I have the HDMI output from my HTPC going into an Onkyo receiver, which drives the 7.1 audio and passes the HDMI video out to a Mitsubishi 1080p projector.

 

[StevenDTX]

I have one of those on every TV in my house. Awesome HTPC running Windows 10 w/ WMC and Emby.

 

[Kybber]

Interesting. For HTPC use, silence is key. How audible is the fan in a living room setting?

 

[StevenDTX]

Interesting. For HTPC use, silence is key. How audible is the fan in a living room setting?

They are pretty quiet. In my living room, I don't hear it at all. However, in my bedroom, if I don't blow out the dust a couple times a year, I can hear the fan every now and then...like if it reboots in the middle of the night.

 

[vl1969]

it's a BOXDC53427HYE. Got it from Kalleyomalley on eBay for $185.00. Picked up a Dell Samsung 256GB mSATA SSD for $48.00 and 16GB of RAM to rounds things out. Then I realized the only sound in this box was via HDMI. Since it's hooked to a projector, HDMI sound wasn't an option. I had a Trond USB sound card that solved this problem beautifully. If you ever need a USB sound card, the Trond is the cats meow.
I'm really happy with the outcome. The i5 based NUC is plenty fast and takes up no space to speak of. It's as close to the perfect HTPC I've ever had.

what are you running on OS/software side of it ?

I have run an Intel NUC5CPYH (I think that is the right model) with 120GB ssd and 8GB ram
with LinuxMint 18 + Kodi on it.

 

[Fritz]

I put Win 7 Pro on it. The last time I used a Linux / Kodi combo I shut down the system from the Kodi exit menu and that was the last I saw of Linux. I have my HTPC's set up to auto load Kodi and shut down the computer when exiting. This way I never see the OS.

As for the audio, this setup is in the bedroom and most of the time it's just me and I like to use headphones so I can hear better. I have a HiFiman tube headphone amp. When speakers are called for, I plug the NUC into a receiver. Using the Trond was easier than using the receiver to strip out the audio. My favorite programing is documentaries. The US Navy permanently damaged my hearing, this is why I need the headphones.

 

[vl1969]

I have been running Linux/XBMC(Kodi) for the last 4 years
the only time I had a problem was when my SSD died.
I shutdown the HTPC and it never came backup. but that was not do to Linux but hardware failure.
for the last 4 years I did not have a windows PC in my home. all I run is Linux based setups.
slow learning on my part, but I manage.

 

[Jon Massey]

the Trond is the cats meow.

Cats meow? Is that American for dog's bollocks!?

 

[Fritz]

Cats meow? Is that American for dog's bollocks!?

Dunno. what's "dog's bollocks"?

 

[Fritz]

I have been running Linux/XBMC(Kodi) for the last 4 years
the only time I had a problem was when my SSD died.
I shutdown the HTPC and it never came backup. but that was not do to Linux but hardware failure.
for the last 4 years I did not have a windows PC in my home. all I run is Linux based setups.
slow learning on my part, but I manage.

I'd love to reach that point some day.

 

[vl1969]

well it's all about what you need to do.

at home I do not have to use or run any programs that dependent on windows.
Libre office works for me as MS Office replacement 99% of the time.
for my main PC I run Linux Mint Cinnamon @ 17.3 at the moment planing to move to 18 soon.
my HTPC si already on Mint 18 + Kodi , although I am mostly in the desktop using YouTube

my server is on OMV 3.0 but I plan to rebuild with Proxmox + OMV in VM.

 

[EffrafaxOfWug]

Dunno. what's "dog's bollocks"?

Literally, the testicles of a canine. In a nutshell, means "excellent" and you can use the alternate phrases "the dog's danglies" or "the mutt's nuts" when the vicar comes over for tea.

Been running XBMC on linux on my HTPCs for years since it's so much less of a maintenance headache than windows IME; if you're looking to get a start on learning linux, an HTPC with XBMC on it is a good place to start IMHO, and using summat like that NUC means you don't need to worry that much about fighting the hardware (which has been an issue on some kit I've played with).

 

[Fritz]

Literally, the testicles of a canine. In a nutshell, means "excellent" and you can use the alternate phrases "the dog's danglies" or "the mutt's nuts" when the vicar comes over for tea.

Ahh, yes. Same as "the cats meow".

 

[Fritz]

I have decided to give Linux/Kodi a try on the NUC. What's the best way to go? Ubuntu/kodi? Kodibuntu? OpenElec? or something else?

TIA

OK, I went ahead and loaded Ubuntu and slogged thru a few problems but there's one I can't seem to solve. When I browser to a SMB share from within Kodi on a Win Server 2012 R2 box (My Media Server) I get an "Operation Not Permitted" error message. This does not occur when browsing to a Win 7 share, only win server. Security and permissions are wide open on the server and Ubuntu itself can connect to the share just fine so the problem is with Kodi. I've googled and haven't found a solution. This error is common on all platforms but I've found no reference of it on Win Server.

 

[EffrafaxOfWug]

I have decided to give Linux/Kodi a try on the NUC. What's the best way to go? Ubuntu/kodi? Kodibuntu? OpenElec? or something else?

XBMC works perfick on Windows already if you want to give it a whirl without being too disruptive to your original OS setup if you want to get to grips with the actual software side before you delve too much into configuring linuxy stuff. Personally I run mine on Debian with XFCE, since when I'm not using it for HTPC stuff it can be a regular desktop or gamingey stuff for the living room as well.

Personally, instead of using the inbuilt user-space NFS/CIFS clients within XBMC I've always just set up system mounts and pointed XBMC at those instead - that way they're available to the rest of the OS as well if you prefer. Dunno what the GUI way that the 'buntu's do it is but if you want to mount CIFS share an easy way to do it is to add a line like this to your /etc/fstab:

//winservername/sharename /some/local/pathname cifs username=fritz,password=thecat 0 0

Then point XBMC at /some/local/pathname for whatever source type.

 

[Fritz]

XBMC works perfick on Windows already if you want to give it a whirl without being too disruptive to your original OS setup if you want to get to grips with the actual software side before you delve too much into configuring linuxy stuff. Personally I run mine on Debian with XFCE, since when I'm not using it for HTPC stuff it can be a regular desktop or gamingey stuff for the living room as well.

Personally, instead of using the inbuilt user-space NFS/CIFS clients within XBMC I've always just set up system mounts and pointed XBMC at those instead - that way they're available to the rest of the OS as well if you prefer. Dunno what the GUI way that the 'buntu's do it is but if you want to mount CIFS share an easy way to do it is to add a line like this to your /etc/fstab:

//winservername/sharename /some/local/pathname cifs username=fritz,password=thecat 0 0

Then point XBMC at /some/local/pathname for whatever source type.

Sorry to be such a dummy but the above is just a little clearer as mud.
When I open fstab it opens as read only. How do I get past this hurdle?
Could you be a little more specific on the "/some/local/pathname for whatever source type" part?

Thanks

 

[EffrafaxOfWug]

fstab's only usually writable by root, so you'll either need to open it as root or use sudo to open it as root.

/some/local/pathname will be somewhere on the HTPC's filesystem to mount the remote filesystem. Somewhere under /media or /mnt is traditional, personally I'd create a dir tree like /mnt/winservername/sharename to mount your share(s) under.

If you want to try mounting it without touching /etc/fstab you can run a command like:

mount -t cifs //winservername/sharename /some/local/pathname -o username=fritz,password=thecat

There's plenty of pages detailing these sorts of setups along with more background info, e.g.
Mounting Network Locations on Linux using Samba

 

[BlueLineSwinger]

XBMC works perfick on Windows already if you want to give it a whirl without being too disruptive to your original OS setup if you want to get to grips with the actual software side before you delve too much into configuring linuxy stuff. Personally I run mine on Debian with XFCE, since when I'm not using it for HTPC stuff it can be a regular desktop or gamingey stuff for the living room as well.

Personally, instead of using the inbuilt user-space NFS/CIFS clients within XBMC I've always just set up system mounts and pointed XBMC at those instead - that way they're available to the rest of the OS as well if you prefer. Dunno what the GUI way that the 'buntu's do it is but if you want to mount CIFS share an easy way to do it is to add a line like this to your /etc/fstab:

//winservername/sharename /some/local/pathname cifs username=fritz,password=thecat 0 0

Then point XBMC at /some/local/pathname for whatever source type.

Also, the Kodi NFS and SMB clients are absolute crap. It's probably not too much of an issue on a full-fledged PC such as a NUC, though it might cause the CPU to work harder than is otherwise warranted. However, if you ever move to something small/embedded like a Raspberry Pi + Open/LibreElec it won't be able to keep up if you intend to stream off of a NAS or other local system. Going with the OS's built-in clients instead is essential.

 

[Fritz]

The reason I went to Linux was studdering video under Windows. Audio was good but video was a bit herky jerky. This showed up mostly in panning scenes. Under Linux the video is perfect. I may just go back to Windows and see if I can sort out the video issue. It's an i5 NUC with 16GB of ram and a 246GB SSD. Don't think it's a HW issue, I think it's Kodi flakiness.