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Floriana Grundy

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Aug 2, 2024, 12:32:46 PM8/2/24

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Of course, there are a few tweaks you'll want to make to your PC before it's ready to serve as your HTPC. Here's everything you need to know about how to make a media center PC out of your current PC.

All of this assumes that you're using an existing PC for this project. If you're building your own, of course, the sky's the limit! Check out our section below on upgrades for tips on what to emphasize.

You may also want to consider making your PC gaming-ready. With the right setup, you could be playing your favorite PC games (and even streaming them on Twitch TV!) right from your couch. That's a bit outside the scope of this article, but there are plenty of great places to turn for gaming PC-building advice online.

If you have an internet connection, you could just connect your PC to your computer, grab a wireless keyboard and mouse, and start using your TV as a big ol' computer monitor. But to get a really nice HTPC experience, you may want to take a bit more time to put together a media center experience.

If you're out to make the ultimate HTPC, it makes sense to put the emphasis on your graphics card and your processor. If you are going to be gaming or streaming 4K video, a dedicated graphics card is practically a must. As we mentioned earlier, you may be okay with a recent generation of integrated graphics instead of a dedicated card for lower-quality (1080p) streaming.

Your sound card, too, is a good place for an upgrade. It is very likely that your computer is using the integrated sound system on your motherboard, which is fine for most low-to-medium quality PC speakers. However, a dedicated sound card can provide a noticeable improvement if you are going to be using a surround-sound or high-quality audio system.

Memory (RAM) is one of the cheapest and most upgradable parts of your PC, and it can do wonders for your HTPC. You can get by with 2-4 GB of RAM, but many computers are upgradable to 16 GB or more. This is definitely an upgrade worth considering, especially if you plan on using the PC for more than the occasional Netflix binge.

Storage may not be important if you are primarily using streaming providers, but if you plan on playing local music or video files, this is another great area to look into. Hard disk drives (HDDs) are the cheapest option, but they are also the slowest. Upgrading to a solid-state drive (SSD) can offer a huge boost in speed, especially during system startup. They are also much quieter than HDDs.

If you're not using a wired connection or a powerline adapter, a good Wi-Fi card is a must for your HTPC. And while we're on the subject, upgrading your router is never a bad idea when you're a cord-cutter.

You could, of course, just use a keyboard and a mouse. But even wireless versions of those standard computer controllers might be a bit cumbersome on movie night, and it's easy to see how they might not be the most attractive things to have lying around on your coffee table.

So consider investing in a remote control of some kind for your computer. You'll find plenty of options for sale online. You could also opt to use an app on your tablet or mobile device: there are several that work well with Kodi, and other options exist for other media center platforms. (You may want to grab a physical controller, too, for guests and for moments when you don't have your phone or tablet on you.)

You don't necessarily have to opt for a controller that mimics the style of regular old TV remotes. It's worth considering a mini-keyboard and trackpad instead. You can get an all-in-one device of this sort in a size that's no bigger than a typical remote. It will give you all of the control that you'd get from a full-sized keyboard and mouse, but it will look a lot less sillier on your coffee table.

You can watch live TV using a skinny bundle service and your internet connection, of course, but a media center PC is also capable of showing you free over-the-air TV. Instead of connecting your over-the-air antenna directly into your television set, you should consider connecting it to your HTPC via a PC TV tuner.

A PC TV tuner is exactly what it sounds like: It gives your computer the ability to decode over-the-air TV signals. And once those signals are being interpreted by your computer, you can use programs on your PC to do more with your live OTA TV.

For instance, you can time-shift OTA TV using some popular media center and server programs. Plex will let you time-shift your OTA TV and stream it on other devices via your Plex server and Plex apps. You can even stream live OTA!

This post covers the basics of converting a PC to a HTPC. It isn't tough: Simply connecting your computer to your TV using an HDMI cable gets you most of the way there, and using a media center or media server app and a remote or mini-keyboard will make everything feel more media-center-like.

But there's still plenty more that you can do to fine-tune your HTPC experience. One of the joys of creating your own media center and streaming device is that you'll be able to tweak things. This might also be a good time to consider increasing the security and privacy of your PC with a VPN app.

Check out more tips right here at Cordcutting.com! Customize your setup by adding Plex channels or Kodi add-ons, learn more about using OTA TV and your computer together, get a better Wi-Fi connection, and more by reading our coverage.

I would look at this differently. As long as your favorite streaming service does not rely of Adobe Flash Player, most browsers should work fine. That also means using Linux instead of Windows on a budget computer. We will be dumping Flash in 2 years anyway. I also think using a TV versus PC monitor is better, as many TVs will upscale video to their highest resolution. I am a work in progress on this. I need to invest in a budget NUC-ish machine.

Typically, these problems are due to a combination of poor add-ons (or ones that will only work with desktop PC Kodi installations) and the low spec of older Raspberry Pis. If you're using a Raspberry Pi 4, the following steps will allow you to access your existing streaming service subscriptions via Kodi.

Alternatively, you can install OSMC using the Raspberry Pi Imager. This is available from the official Raspberry Pi site and comes various operating systems ready to install, including OSMC for Raspberry Pi 4.

Once OSMC is installed to your SD card, safely eject from your PC, and insert the card in your Raspberry Pi. Ensure the computer is connected to your router via Ethernet (Wi-Fi can wait until everything is configured) and your TV's HDMI port, then connect the power cable.

Your Raspberry Pi will then boot into OSMC's automated installer. Wait while the files install and the system reboots. OSMC will then open, providing you with a Kodi media center on your Raspberry Pi. Some basic configuration is required for language, time zone, device hostname, and enable or disable SHH.

First, open a terminal or SSH client on your PC and connect to the Raspberry Pi. You'll find the IP address for the device in OSMC via Settings > System Info. Connect over SSH using the username and password (osmc is the default for both), then use wget to download the ZIP file directly from GitHub:

Enter Y when prompted, then select OK when the configuration of the software necessary to run Netflix on the Raspberry Pi completes. If it doesn't happen automatically, restart OSMC.

Once successfully logged in, you'll be able to select your profile, see the shows and movies you've saved to your list, see the popular shows, and basically access all the same menus as you would in the Netflix app on any other device. At this point, however, don't attempt to play anything until you've installed Widevine CDM (instructions for that are below).

Finally, if you want to install Disney Plus on your Raspberry Pi media center running the OSMC build of Kodi, you first need to install a new repository. Ensure that unknown sources are enabled (as explained earlier in this guide) before proceeding.

When installation of Disney Plus is complete, head to the Videos > Video add-ons screen to launch the add-on. Use the Login option to add your credentials and start using Disney Plus on your Raspberry Pi media center.

Choosing a TV show or movie to watch will let you select WidevineCDM, installation of which you'll fin instructions to below. You can also select a different version if necessary. The Disney Plus add-on also displays a choice of bitrates, so you can enjoy the best quality feed for your connection and TV.

So far, you've installed Plex, Amazon Video, Netflix, and Disney Plus. You're almost set, but before you can watch anything, the Widevine CMD decryption module must be downloaded. You cannot do this manually, however; instead, it needs to be done by the Amazon or Netflix add-on.

A Chrome OS recovery image much be downloaded from which the Widevine CMD is extracted. This can take a while to download and extract, so let the Raspberry Pi work at its own pace, following any requests OSMC displays to complete installation.

That's it: you can now stream Netflix and Amazon Video on Raspberry Pi, and it can easily stream video from another computer on your network via Plex. And you can enjoy Star Wars, Marvel, and Disney movies and TV shows thanks to the Disney Plus add-on. In short, you built a Kodi-based Raspberry Pi streaming box, and it is awesome.

Exception: Some Netflix Original educational documentaries are available for one-time educational screenings. To find out which titles are available for educational screenings, visit Netflix Media Center and search for the documentary by title.

Explanation: The Netflix Terms of Use specifies that the account is "for your personal and non-commercial use only." Netflix is not alone here. Amazon Prime, Hulu, and other personal streaming vendors do not grant rights for institutional or educational use.