Options for Movies (Home Viewing) Please Help

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rp_dxn

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Mar 27, 2013
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Hello, im really new to HTPCs. I am planning to get a 32-40 inch Led TV just for the purpose of watching movies alone. I am not going to watch news or other channels from there but only for my digital movie collections (stored on my current PC). Here is my question...

Do i really need to build a cheap HTPC for this to get the best quality possible for my need? or sticking a USB stick (with movies inside) directly to the tv (assuming the TV does have usb 2.0 port) should suffice?

Will there be a significant difference between the 2 options? Looking forward to your responses guys

Please note that i am going to use this tv for the sole purpose of watching movies for myself and for the kids. Not going to play games or watch tv channels.
 
Solution
MeteorsRaining
USB would be sufficient. USB 2.0 has more than enough bandwidth to stream a FHD movie. A typical Blu-Ray stream (via HDMI) is around 40-50 Mbit/sec whilst the USB 2.0 transfer speed is 240 Mbit/sec. So there's no bottleneck or anything.

SATA are 3GB/s and higher but a whole PC for just movie watching isn't worth it, you'd not notice any difference whatsoever.
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MeteorsRaining

MeteorsRaining

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USB would be sufficient. USB 2.0 has more than enough bandwidth to stream a FHD movie. A typical Blu-Ray stream (via HDMI) is around 40-50 Mbit/sec whilst the USB 2.0 transfer speed is 240 Mbit/sec. So there's no bottleneck or anything.

SATA are 3GB/s and higher but a whole PC for just movie watching isn't worth it, you'd not notice any difference whatsoever.
 
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burdenbound

burdenbound

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Aug 9, 2011
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You will need to check what kind of file formats the TV can play, and on top of that not every type of video file (.mkv, .mp4, etc..) acts the same. I would say go the route of the HTPC because you will never have to worry about a compatibility issue, plus you can use netflix, hulu, youtube on top of the movies you actually have.

Personally for me I found an ultrabook on craigslist for about $300 with an i3, along with an external hard drive that has become my HTPC and it works perfectly. So you may want to go the route of a laptop with HDMI out before building a HTPC depending on if you care for looks at all. I would recommend throwing in an SSD if you go with a laptop otherwise they can be painfully slow on startup.
 
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