I'll be using it almost entirely to just watch iPlayer, I'd quite like it to be able to stream HD, and if it comes with some sort of remote control then all the better.
Any suggestions?
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I want a cheap PC for watching TV
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Posted 6 months ago #
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What do you mean by cheap?
You can get a refurb PC for £100 and stick a HDMI video card for £20 in it.
If you want a remote get a mini wireless keyboard for £25.
Posted 6 months ago # -
doesn't have to be as low as 100 pounds but ideally not much more than 250. Also it needs to get online tv over wifi.
Posted 6 months ago # -
Acer Revo with xbmc installed? buy a seperate remote control?
Posted 6 months ago # -
One of these
PC £100 with wirelessinstall one of these
graphics card £23
and one of these
keyboard £26
Posted 6 months ago # -
So, one of these with one of these remotes for example?
Posted 6 months ago # -
What winston_dog says... Though £85 is a tad steep for a low spec 6 year old PC, I recently gave away a higher spec Dell than that cos it wasn't even worth £20 on eBay even with a fresh XP install on it! So you should be able to get a bargain shopping about on eBay...
Cheap desktop a few years old, new GFX card with HDMI out, and a TV card (if you want to watch TV live at all) will do you nicely.
Posted 6 months ago # -
thanks. I guess the only real drawback with these refrb PCs is that they won't have HD output(?). and they're a bit ugly but I can probably live with that.
Posted 6 months ago # -
Is there some reason why you wouldn't just stick up an aerial?
iPlayer is flash based I believe, and so HD could be choppy on an old PC.
Posted 6 months ago # -
For what it's worth, there are a few boxes which will stream online content to your PC but doing away with the need for a PC sitting in the middle. I think they'll stream DLNA stuff to the tv too.
My local Tesco sells one and i've seen them in Comet. T3 magazine (i think) mentioned a few in this month's/last month's mag.Posted 6 months ago # -
If your just hooking it up to a HD panel then how about an Apple TV & just jail break it & load it with a browser of your choice, £100 job done.
Posted 6 months ago # -
I was going to say that; either that or a Blu-ray player, my Sony has iPlayer, LoveFilm etc all built in, and can stream movies off connected storage the USB port. Not quite sure why you need a PC to "watch iPlayer," 's overkill.
Posted 6 months ago # -
Is there some reason why you wouldn't just stick up an aerial?
Yes, I live in Spain. It may seem a bit extravagant to spend a few hundred quid on a PC just to watch iPlayer but when you've had 5 years of only Spanish TV to watch, it makes sense! We'll probably end up putting Skype on it too.
2unfit - I have a slight aversion to Apple products. Will it run Flash ok (or is it only the iPad that doesn't support flash)?
I'll have a look at the other suggestions, thanks. Cougar, I didn't know Blu-Ray players did that - ta.
Posted 6 months ago # -
Another idea...will an XBOX or PS3 do the job?
Posted 6 months ago # -
XBox or PS3 will also do the job indeed... Can watch iplayer, 4OD or many other channels all through my PS3...
Posted 6 months ago # -
what I was going to say
PS3 - then you've got a Blu ray player too
....... and a playstation
Posted 6 months ago # -
Posted 6 months ago #
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2unfit - I have a slight aversion to Apple products. Will it run Flash ok (or is it only the iPad that doesn't support flash)?
So did I, I have now fully embraced the lovely fruit as they just seem to work. I have no problem watching the Iplayer on my apple TV through an Ipad so I'm geussing the Iplayer doesn't need flash.
float - Member
make sure to flip the bird to the tv licensing peopleFunny as it was not mentioned that the OP is in Spain, I don't know if TV catchup gets around the problem, but the Iplayer won't work abroad unless you subscribe or pay for a proxy server
Posted 6 months ago # -
tier1online.co.uk do some good deals. I paid £130 for a 3ghz P4, 300gb & 2gb ram, & it came with a 19" monitor. Streaming CBeebies iplayer is how it spends 90% of its time, & it works perfectly for that. Don't know about HD though.
Posted 6 months ago # -
Eck, I live in Spain too and have sky tv. I have also got broadband in the house and 2 laptops but can't get iPlayer, even when trying to use a UK ip address with ExpatShield.
How do you access it?
I just brought my sky hd box from the UK and got local guys to fit a larger dish. It only has one lead and horizontal wave pickup so I miss a few channels and can only record what I'm watching, also don't get sky anytime feature but otherwise it's great.Posted 6 months ago # -
float - Member
make sure to flip the bird to the tv licensing people
Just tried it and it doesn't work in Spain eitherPosted 6 months ago # -
The best thing about using a PC for iPlayer is the desktop app that lets you download shows and watch later. No stalling and buffering.
I agree that the Sony blur-ray players are very good for iplayer and watching movies on hard drives, but I have found my old pc to much more flexible that the blu-ray. I'm lucky I can hide it away in a cupboard and fan noise is not an issue. With an upto date graphics card it copes with hd easily.
Posted 6 months ago # -
2unfit2ride - Member
KT, can you not just fit a multi LNB to your new dish?Cheapest way may be something like this
Nice 1 2u2r- works fine. I'll trial it for a monthPosted 6 months ago # -
KT1973 - VPN from simplyexpats.net
6 euros a month or 5 euros if you take an annual contractPS3 - then you've got a Blu ray player too
....... and a playstation
well, exactly! However the wife thinks this is just a complicated scheme for me to get a PS3 - which isn't entirely true, however the PC would let me downoad stuff and connect Skype too, so I'll probably do that. I'll have a look at tier1online takisawa.
Posted 6 months ago # -
That graphics card will run h.264 streams, as it has an on-board hardware decoder.
If its only the CPU decoding, it will not survive 2 seconds of smooth video!
If you do get that PC, increase the RAM from 1GB to 2GB minimum. They have 4x RAM slots IIRC, and max ram of 4 x 1GB sticks.
And most importantly - obstacle number one is getting iPlayer to stream to Spain...
Posted 6 months ago # -
thanks xiphon. Would one of these Eeebox be better?
I've sorted the iPlayer stream to Spain with a VPN.
Posted 6 months ago # -
Errrr, you're looking at spending the best part of £200 on a pretty low spec 2nd hand box... WTF for?!?!
If it was £20-30, fine, no problems... For WELL under £200 excluding an OS (and you can just install Ubuntu for free if it's only to stream iPlayer etc.), look at the following...
http://www.ebuyer.com/251310-zoostorm-desktop-7873-1036
Buy that and it'll last you a good few years, rather than only just being adequate right now. Even better, add a cheap GFX card with an HDMI output on it, something like the following link, and it will play HD video til your heart's content...
EDIT: Or just buy the PS3! But certainly don't waste any money on a PC that's several years old already, unless it is nearly free... Like I said, my 6 year old Dell was higher spec than the first one mentioned, I struggled to give it away, and it had 2Gig of RAM in it and a seperate GFX card!
Posted 6 months ago # -
TBH - I'd build a Mythbox
http://geekyprojects.com/dvr-pvr/building-your-own-dvr-mythtv-quick-setup-guide/
I have an Acer Revo R3610/Win7/4Gb RAM and it will not stream HD content from a NAS drive or the internal HDD without a lot of stuttering and pixelation
Posted 6 months ago #
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