My 1st Homebrewed Kodi x64 HTPC Box

Took a few days selecting the components, putting everything together and configuring it to take over the little bits and pieces of my home theatre setup and so far, it's perfect!

* Getting Started With KODI (MaxPC)

Even the AC3 Audio Config is working great with 5.1 sound through my creaky old Denon AVR, remember to enable the DD transcoding option to force CPU processed "on the fly" AAC 5.1 > AC3 to the AVR too.

And you might as well add on the Autosubs service and a couple of your personal fave subtitles  websites to grab any missing subtitles automatically when the movie starts. Now that makes for an incredibly smart DIY media player.

Yup, this rig is based on the under appreciated but really wonderful AMD APU and probably way over-specced for it does, for now.

Other Components

ASRock > FM2A88X-ITX+ - with onboard dual band wifi, picked up the 5GHz without issues

Super Talent USB3 SLC 8GB Boot Flashdrive - bought years ago during a HK Golden trip
2 x KVR DDR3-1333@1866 4GB RAM sticks

After even more reading up on the OS, I tried out the (much) lower end Athlon A4-4000 dual core and just 2 x 1 GB DDR3-1333 RAM and so far Openelec ran just as smooth too. Ah, the simple joy of happy swapping around hardware parts without being heckled by the OS DRM - overall, really nice!

Notes

• Wall power meter reads 18-20W in both idle as well as streaming video which is of course most gratifying.
• Storage is in EXT4 format so you will need some method reading such a format in Windows. I use the freeware utility, Paragon ExtFS for Windows, which is slightly clunky but hey, it works and it is free!
• To backup/clone you working boot OS flashdrive, conside using this freeware ImageUSB

Kodi Remote Controller

All you need is a handy smart phone/device plus wifi, simply choose from several free apps. Wifi remote control can be so liberating, no more line of sight needed!

Android
Kore, Official Remote for Kodi

Winphone
Media Center Remote

iOS
Official Kodi Remote


Enjoy!


Next change, perhaps Lakka* anyone?



* Lakka Info