Ongoing Ingredients for the perfect streaming HTPC (1 Viewer)

[Kian]

hi guys,
i currently have a NAS system, which I am using for streaming media to my HTPC.
The media i am using is comprised of BluRay discs, HD files such as MKV ranging from 720p to 1080p, music and pictures.

and here comes the million dollar question:
which setup up is at least required to play my media without any problems and to run media portal?

in a perfect world, i would like to create a windows XP bootable USB flash drive with mediaportal on it, plug it into my "htpc" case and start streaming my media. this way, i wouldn't require any harddrive inseide a case and save some energy . is it realistic/possible?

hope you guys can help me out here.

regards,
k

 

[Johnnie]

Hi Kian,

I'm using almost this setup and its working fine, plse see system details.

Be aware that you have to change TV-service starting with User account instead of LSA.
Timeshifting is still done on the local SSD (I've got to of them for dual boot features), SSD are dropping in price ;-)

John

 

[Kian]

hi john,
thanks for your response.
i am indeed looking for a similar setup however i am now considering a move from mediaportal to xbmc.
xbmc runs on linux and can be booted from a usb stick. which saves a lot of energy.

xbmc looks nice but i hate certain design aspects where mediaportal really shines a lot. however, i still need to decide whether design outweighs the benefits xbmc can offer me.

nevertheless, i am currently looking for a "tiny" SSD harddrive. As it would only be used for installing mediaportal/xbmc and linux/windows and saving coverart, metadata, movie infos etc, and most importantly used for streaming media from my NAS.

now, does it matter which SSD i should choose? i am sure that 30-60gb of disc space would fully suffice. but do i need fast drives for the purposes above? or is it important for streaming?

hope you can help me out here,
kian