Buy/build a HTPC - recommendations?

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If i understand correctly, you want a 101% featured AUDIO mch player with some Video needs (menu).
What is the specific problem you have with the Oppo 203? Just to figure out what you need to improve your setup.
My Oppo doesn't recognize ISO or MKV files. Would like to also play DVD/BD rips with menus. The OPPO does seem to play most of my other formats. Thanks.
 
Going with video menus rule out Foobar, Kodi is the software that go closer to your target. A 100$ Odroid N2 can run it.
Not sure how Kodi deals with ISO, i convert everything to flac and play with Foobar using a convertible.
 
Going with video menus rule out Foobar, Kodi is the software that go closer to your target. A 100$ Odroid N2 can run it.
Not sure how Kodi deals with ISO, i convert everything to flac and play with Foobar using a convertible.
Kodi eats just about any format, including ISO. One down side is menus. Those wanting to replicate the menu view of a bluray disc or dvd disc then it’s not 100% safe that will work. Of course you have kodi built in menu options and it’s efficient enough to me.

I myself don’t need that, I am fine with all music ripped to flac and most video ripped to mkv and just play it as is.
 
I've had a HTPC for years running an Asrock Z68 mini ITX with an I3 cpu now running Win 10 x64.
I bitstream audio via HDMI through a HD6850 ATI video card. Used to be in a compact box but I moved it to a larger mid tower recently. I use Foobar for music and PowerDVD for Blu Ray/DVD .iso playback when not using one of the Oppo's.
( I don't know zilch about Kodi, all I know is it's predecessor XMBC was a royal pain in the ass when I tried it years ago; wouldn't play mch and I just didn't like it.)
I'm not big on ripping to flac, either I try to play from .iso or just play a disc.
 
I‘ve played: Flac, wav, dts, mkv, dsf, mts, vob, MKV and mka files in Kodi.

I know it also does avi and m4v. It also plays DVDV and BDVs ripped to a file structure with menus. I think it plays DVDV and BDV ISOs with menus too, but you’d need to check on their website to confirm.

To get music into the Kodi library (database) you need to tag the files with album name, artist, track title and album artist as a minimum. So if you don’t already tag you music files there’s pain in that (with benefits).

To get movies in to its library you need to scrape the internet to create a small text file (xml) with movie data. There’s several programs to do that (free) all based on the movie file name (actual movie title with year on end in brackets, example: Apocalypse Now (1979).m2ts. The xml file contains all the movie info, plot, genres, actors, director, blah blah. The scrapers also auto download movie poster, fanart and actor photos, biographies.

I split my DVD and BDV disc into individual files per song, Kodi then lists the concerts by artist and concert name, then displays each song title. You can choose any song to play or play all in concert sequence. That also needs a small xml file if you want them loaded into the music video library, there’s tools to semi automate that by scraping too.

Without adding tags to music or scraping metadata you can still play all your files by navigating your storage discs by folder and files to select a file to play, like the Oppo but it’s still faster (much more powerful processor and heaps of memory, Media players are tiny multiprocessor computers. A modern NUC is quad core.
 
A 100$ Odroid N2 can run it.

There’s a thread in the QQ Multichannel Media Player section on how to set one up. Check it out to see if you’d be comfortable doing it. The N2 is great value and plays everything including 4K UHD rips with HDR.

Both the Intel NUCs and Odroid N2 play multichannel codecs including up to 7.1 FLAC.
 
( I don't know zilch about Kodi, all I know is it's predecessor XMBC was a royal pain in the ass when I tried it years ago; wouldn't play mch and I just didn't like it.)

Kodi on odroid can do it, have one myself, now temporarily retired for other works to do.
 
Thanks for all the great comments! If I focus on a solution just for doing what OPPO can't play [such as MKV, ISO], then what is a good media player app for running on Kodi? My audio selection process up to this point has been to browse to a folder on the NAS [organized by artist name].
 
2011 or 2012 Mac Mini
Runs the newest OSX (and back to 10.6). Install Linux or Windows if you wish. (OSX runs the most software, ie everything. Windows is a PITA.)
This is the last of the Jobs era Macs. You can snipe these on Ebay for $200-ish (depending on ram and hard drive installed or not). New SSDs are cheap.
The 2011 & 12 machines are quad core i7. Over spec for a media server perhaps but more power for a low price is never bad.
These have 2x 2.5" drive bays. Up to 16GB ram. 2011 is USB2, 2012 is USB3. Both thunderbolt and HDMI. Fully serviceable. Last of the Macs that were real Macs.
Or there's a 2010 model with an optical drive bay and 1x 2.5" drive bay. Put a bluray drive in it. These are C2D CPUs. Last gen but plenty for a media server and still faster than the modern budget machines.
I have just acquired an older model. Not sure how many channels it would put out or what the specs are on it yet.. But what would be a good media player app that would run on a Mac-Mini? Thanks.
 
VLC will also run on a MAC and plays MKV. Don’t know about ISO, but it’s possible since an Open Source project (like Kodi) and they share some code libraries:
https://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-macosx.html
Kodi is media player software, it’s runs on most operating systems inc MACOS:
https://kodi.tv/download/851
JRiver runs in a MAC, unlike the two Open Source (Free) above you need to buy JRiver and pay for yearly upgrades. it’s plays MKV, I think. There’s a free trial version:
https://www.jriver.com/download.html
 
I have just acquired an older model. Not sure how many channels it would put out or what the specs are on it yet.. But what would be a good media player app that would run on a Mac-Mini? Thanks.
For just playing back music, any modest machine from the late 1990's would run circles around the task. It will still be at idle serving HD video along with 24/96 5.1 audio. Now if you were asking how big of a mixing board you could dial up to work on CREATING a mix... :D (Pretty big with a quad core i7 machine with a SSD FYI.) Even if it's one of the trimmed down models with an i5 or i3, it will be at idle just serving home theater.

Manage your hard drives with intention. Don't let that be a mystery! Don't just leave an aging HDD that's starting to fail and REALLY slow down in the machine and be confused thinking something else must be wrong. (Not to insult anyone's intelligence! Those are just common missteps when you don't know.)

Any of your favorite media players are fair game. XBMC/Kodi, Songbird, Vox, VLC, etc
OSX runs all software FYI. Windows apps run natively in OSX with Wine installed. (But there are always better native OSX choices available.) Or you can also run different OS's (Linux, Windows) if you like to tinker.
 
Here is an update. I tried out an old Mac-Mini but that experiment didn't work out. It has OS X v10.7.5 and the OS said there are no further updates available. Every media player I tried to download from the App Store failed saying I need to be be at v10.10 or later. I also tried to get Kodi but couldn't locate a version old enough. I guess this device is just too old. It is an i3 with 8GB of Ram.
 
Spot the media player:
IMG_1097.jpg
Nice speakers !
 
Here is an update. I tried out an old Mac-Mini but that experiment didn't work out. It has OS X v10.7.5 and the OS said there are no further updates available. Every media player I tried to download from the App Store failed saying I need to be be at v10.10 or later. I also tried to get Kodi but couldn't locate a version old enough. I guess this device is just too old. It is an i3 with 8GB of Ram.
That sounds like an early C2D Mac Mini from 2007.
It would still run home theater just fine. 10.7.5 should also be fine.
The Apple grifter shop... er I mean App Store said that? Not surprising nowadays...
I never like downloading from the App Store if I can help it. Just avoid the clumsiness of that and download apps as you please form their source as you do online. :)
This recent trend of gaslighting in the computer arena is ridiculous. Writing software now that shuts you down and tells you to go out and buy new? That's real special...

The 2010 C2D Mac Mini will run at least up to 10.13.6 FYI.
I still recommend the 2011 or 2012 machines if you're going out to snipe for one.
But if you already have that 2007 kicking around, scare up a SSD for it and it will do a bunch.

There's lots of capable hardware available. I liked the Jobs era Macs. Right now you can often snipe them used for less than a new machine with half the spec. The 11s and 12s are still high end current spec relevant. OSX has always just worked for the most part and was the only choice for the pro audio stuff. Still just works but Apple is trying to break it and they're starting to blacklist many of the fully compatible Jobs era machines with the new installers. Turning into Microsoft in other words. Linux is looking like the future. Pro audio and video is already starting to switch gears that direction.
 
I have been using Kodi since the original modded XBOX using XBMC. I have been through countless hardware options. I would check out the link provided below. Right now I'm using a Pi II, NVIDIA Shield, and Fire stick 4k (34.99 U$ @ Best Buy) to play MCH FLAC flawlessly. They also play just about every other imaginable format.

https://forum.kodi.tv/forumdisplay.php?fid=112
 
I have been using Kodi since the original modded XBOX using XBMC. I have been through countless hardware options. I would check out the link provided below. Right now I'm using a Pi II, NVIDIA Shield, and Fire stick 4k (34.99 U$ @ Best Buy) to play MCH FLAC flawlessly. They also play just about every other imaginable format.

https://forum.kodi.tv/forumdisplay.php?fid=112
Interesting! What app are you using on the Firestick 4K To play multichannel FLAC? Everything I’ve tried seems to downsample to 48 kbps and 16-bit.
 
That sounds like an early C2D Mac Mini from 2007.
It would still run home theater just fine. 10.7.5 should also be fine.
The Apple grifter shop... er I mean App Store said that? Not surprising nowadays...
I never like downloading from the App Store if I can help it. Just avoid the clumsiness of that and download apps as you please form their source as you do online. :)
This recent trend of gaslighting in the computer arena is ridiculous. Writing software now that shuts you down and tells you to go out and buy new? That's real special...

The 2010 C2D Mac Mini will run at least up to 10.13.6 FYI.
I still recommend the 2011 or 2012 machines if you're going out to snipe for one.
But if you already have that 2007 kicking around, scare up a SSD for it and it will do a bunch.

There's lots of capable hardware available. I liked the Jobs era Macs. Right now you can often snipe them used for less than a new machine with half the spec. The 11s and 12s are still high end current spec relevant. OSX has always just worked for the most part and was the only choice for the pro audio stuff. Still just works but Apple is trying to break it and they're starting to blacklist many of the fully compatible Jobs era machines with the new installers. Turning into Microsoft in other words. Linux is looking like the future. Pro audio and video is already starting to switch gears that direction.
I looked into this unit a bit more. Using the serial number I was able to confirm the following on this Mac Mini I was looking to use as a media player. Mac Mini Mid 2011. 2.5Ghz i5 cpu, 8GB memory, AMD Radeon HD 6630M 256MB graphics, Max OS X Lion 10.7.5.

Maybe I can find install Linux on this hardware? Or maybe I can see if Parallels (Windows) will run on it. Anyway, this is becoming a fun project.
 
I looked into this unit a bit more. Using the serial number I was able to confirm the following on this Mac Mini I was looking to use as a media player. Mac Mini Mid 2011. 2.5Ghz i5 cpu, 8GB memory, AMD Radeon HD 6630M 256MB graphics, Max OS X Lion 10.7.5.

Maybe I can find install Linux on this hardware? Or maybe I can see if Parallels (Windows) will run on it. Anyway, this is becoming a fun project.
I was able to find an older version of Kodi that would install. I am able to play mkv, flac, dsf, m2ts, vob so far. ISO's won't open but am still learning Kodi. The Logitech wireless keyboard with touchpad is working well on the Mac Mini. Will play with it some more. Thanks for all the suggestions!
 
I was able to find an older version of Kodi that would install. I am able to play mkv, flac, dsf, m2ts, vob so far. ISO's won't open but am still learning Kodi. The Logitech wireless keyboard with touchpad is working well on the Mac Mini. Will play with it some more. Thanks for all the suggestions!
I think Kodi ISO capability is a relatively new development.
 
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