Media center / emulator pc

[Spikes69]

Help me out here guys please.

I have an old pc (quad core amd processor and windows 7) that I currently use as a server to stream my films from and it is set up as a wireless network in my house.

I want to completely do away with wireless and connect it directly to my tv (Panasonic vierra) as I have issues with the wireless setup.

Sometimes my films will lag and even get stuck during playback because of a poor signal and I have run out of patience with it.

There are so many options for good media centers that i just dont know where to start. I am currently thinking about installing Linux and kodi as an option but have no experience with either of these.

Also I want to know if I can do all this and also use this pc as an emulator machine to play on my tv. Would this be viable or too much of a pain in the backside to setup?

What setup do you guys have at home? Any thoughts? Any good software you would recommend to get this all setup?

Thanks in advance for any guidance here...

[Moandain]

Launch box would be your best bet as a front end software with Retroarch doing all the emulation.

[scorpNZ]

Install kodi as you would anything else into win 7.Would also pay to install vlc & klite full for convenience.

or linux distro's here
distrowatch.com

[erik1977]

I use Windows 7 with Kodi and Maximus Arcade.

You can get Kodi here:
https://kodi.tv/

You can get Maximus right here on ISOzone: http://www.theisozone.com/downloads/pc/ ... ne-for-pc/

Both are pretty straight forward to setup.

[NoMention]

I have a rackmount server with 48TB that I use as my media server. Then I have 2 NVidia Shield TVs that I use Kodi with to stream and watch Netflix, Xfinity, gamestream, etc. I also have a pair of Raspberry Pi3 boxes (one in my son's room for him) that we use for retro gaming since he doesn't get to touch my actual consoles since they are older than he is. I have it all serviced through hard wired Cat 6 gigabit. It was a bit of a pain to set everything up but it sure has worked well ever since. I love the Shield TVs and the Raspberry Pi3s. At first I thought getting the server would be the best part but it certainly is the little boxes that I enjoy more considering how much you can pack into such a small box. The Pi's have impressed me the most!!

[Spikes69]

I did look at the Raspberry Pi solution as that would sit better behind my tv instead of having a pc tower. Maybe have one setup with just media and another one setup for emulator gaming. I have never owned a Pi but have heard good things about them. I think I will look at that more closely.

NoMention your setup is a bit overkill for me I think. Just want something simple. Can you connect both your Pi boxes and play two player with your son over your network? Is that even possible?

[scorpNZ]

Overkill ? rule one of being a geek is "you can never have to much power",he's already thinking of upgrading & don't we all

[Spikes69]

Ok so i just ordered a raspberry Pi model 3 for my media center project. Should arrive before the end of the week and then I will set it all up with Kodi and an external hdd.

Looking forward to checking this thing out. Never used one before so we will see.

If its good I will get another one for a little emulator and gaming machine, cant wait