roku, other options allow external sound usb sound card?

[kachaloo2002]

I am trying to get rid of an old tower that has xp that is now repurposed as a streaming audio, itunes, and streaming video thing. The nice thing about it is that I can use a dedicated sound card and get very good audio through my home stereo / surround system. The not so nice things . . . well it is a long list . . . long boot time, high power consumption, fairly noisy power supply in tiled living room, huge and aesthetically fairly unpleasant, unable to be controlled by my harmony remote . . .These objections cannot easily overcome the pleasant sense of nostalgia evoked when the windows xp logo flashes finally on the screen.

Anyway, I don't really need storage to speak of, but I do require internet access, good streaming, ability to incorporate a standalone dedicated usb powered soundcard (steinberg cl 1), and would really like compatibility with harmony 650 universal remote.

Will Roku or something like it do these things? I am trying to avoid building another computer.

 

[kachaloo2002]

So I did more looking into the low footprint solutions and found a whole area of products of which until now I had been blisfully ignorant. They are mostly on this chart

http/blog.streamingmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/2013-Device-Chart-MayV1.pdf



but what is weird is that content is predetermined, so with some you can't get you tube, with some you can't get get mog, etc. Some claim to have "limited browsing" but those devices seem not to have the i/o I would like. If I could get MOG (due to its highest quality streaming) through the Western Digital device that has the outs I want, I would go that route, but that device doesn't support MOG.

So my search for the best of all possible worlds for less that 150 dollars continues.

 

[ssddx]

all of the streaming players have limitations.

as you discovered many do or do not support different channels. roku by far supports the greatest number of channels but does not support everything.

the web browser included is typically not very good at all. think of it like the ps3 browser or a smart tv browser. not very full functioned if you ask me.

not sure if you are going to get something that pairs nice with the remote. i know the roku uses its own remote and the functions may not translate over well.

there are some holes that a streaming device just cannot fill that a computer can.

for instance a roku is great for netflix however it lacks the ability to go through all movies and relies upon the suggestions.

a roku doesnt support some channels which are free on the internet (with ads) but are only available as a the paid subscription option on roku.

the roku or other streaming player is alot easier to navigate around in and select channels while on a pc the result can be a bit clunky (browing around on a website) but as i just said this is at the expense of not having all content.

there are some rather nice HTPC cases which are designed to be silent. not sure if you would want to migrate the old hardware over or get new hardware though. a ssd would be faster but xp cannot make the most use of it. win7 and z77 would. even an i3, microatx z77 combination (entire system) would likely be at least 3x your budget though.

honestly there isnt any "perfect" solution at least as far as i've heard.

i personally use a ps3 (dvd, blueray, netflix) and a computer (dvd, games, netflix, crunchyroll) and both have their own pros and cons.

not s ure if this helps though!

 

[kachaloo2002]

Thx for the reply, it is appreciated, and gave me a few ideas for what to consider in the future. I decided to ditch my xp machine. It turns out a friend could use it. So I think I'm gonna wait to see what MOG is up to as it transforms to Daisy before getting into a streaming device or building a new computer.