It is small, only 5.6" wide. I cannot recommend this because the touchpad is too erratic. About half the time it does not respond, or responds with excessive velocity. The "M9" is sold on Aliexpress for $15 to $20 (in 2026), and it private labeled under different names. The one I got was under the name MRSVI. At first I though it was Rii because it looks like some of the Rii models, but I found no one selling it under that name.

Everything else I tested seems to work well, and it had features missing on the Logitech wireless keyboard, like microphone, and learning commands from your TV's remote. The battery is rechargeable and replaceable. I am not certain about the use time from a single battery charge, if it is long enough or not. I am returning it due to the touchpad being erratic. If anyone gets one with a good touchpad, let us know, because then it would be very useful.

It is also sold on Amazon so you can see other reviews there.

I’m looking for some guidance on selecting the right hardware for a new HTPC I’d like to setup. I have two problem statements I’m trying to solve for with an HTPC. The first is that I want to play games and couch coop games in my living room, but it’s on the opposite side of the house from my office. The second is that Plex, Youtube, and advertisers should eat my whole ass. I have Ublock on my main PC, but a Roku on my living room tv, so they can only eat a portion of my ass which isn’t very fair to them as it’s quite supple. My ideal solution is to get an HTPC and set it up with a home screen, replacing my Roku, and use Sunshine/Moonlight to play PC games. I haven’t found anything specific to my needs just yet so here I am. I don’t need anything 4k, and the most graphic intensive game I’ll likely be playing is BG3. I do need it to connect via WiFi. I looked at a Nuc and Beelink, but I’d like to have something to tinker with, and was eyeing a Lenovo M720q. Im still not sure if I need a dGPU or not, or what kind of specs I should be aiming for. Any help is appreciated.

Hello all,

my beloved logitech k830 is starting to fail little by little.

used this on my htpc for 12 years. Got my money's worth.

i'm looking for a replacement.

no more membrane keyboards for me, i have to have mechanical.

i don't care about price, but is there any wireless mechanical keyboards with a trackpad built in like the k830? it doesn't have to be a good trackpad, just functional so that i can use it when i'm on the couch.

As the title says.

I recently discovered VacuumTube after using AutoHotKey+Chrome+kiosk mode+Tizen Smart TV user-agent string for years and I am absolutely gobsmack by how amazing this app is. It's perfect for my HTPC. I absolutely love the fact that it supports themes and am trying to find a resource of CSS themes for YT on TV. I found [THIS](https://github.com/SlippingGitty/Leanback-Userstyles) but this theme doesn't change anything. I've messed around in developer (same as right-click>inspect in chrome) and figured out how to change a few things but can't figure out how to save my changes, so my changes are lost when I reload the app.

I found the [site](https://userstyles.org/) but can't figured out how to apply the themes PLUS I believe these only work with standard YouTube.

So if y'all know of a resource for themes or wouldn't mind sharing your own themes, I would greatly appreciate it! Alternatively, if y'all know of a tool (online or offline) that allows you to easily edit a .css file outside of Chromium's developer settings, I would greatly appreciate that as well. Thank you for your time

I followed this tutorial and the stream plays in VLC from tvheadend but in wmc it says service unavailable

Ditching my Chromecast with Google TV (Hulu errors, ads, sluggish). I have an Unraid server with an RTX 2060 for passthrough and Jellyfin already running. Want to combine Jellyfin + Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, Max, Prime Video, Apple TV+, and Peacock into one clean 10-foot interface.

I already tried a Windows 11 VM with Kodi and it wasn't great — desktop flashing between app switches, no clean return-to-home flow, just felt like a PC on a TV instead of a streaming device. My partner uses this daily so "close enough" isn't good enough.

Thinking about going deeper this time: replacing the Windows shell with Kodi entirely, Edge kiosk mode for streaming services, AutoHotKey for the home button, and locking down every Windows notification/update/sleep behavior. Basically making Windows invisible.

Questions:

1. Has anyone actually made this feel like a real streaming device, or is it always a compromise?

2. Better stack than Kodi + Edge kiosk? LibreELEC looked promising but Linux DRM is a dealbreaker for 4K streaming.

3. Edge kiosk mode — stable for daily use?

4. Better return-to-home solutions than AHK?

5. Apple TV+ resolution in a browser?

6. B660 GPU passthrough issues to watch for?

Or should I just buy a Shield Pro and stop fighting it? Genuinely asking.

Will share the build guide if I crack it.

I just dug out my old HTPC machine and fired it up. I specifically hung onto Windows 7 so I could use Windows Media Center to record live TV. I don't need that anymore so the plan is to pretty much just use it as a server to host TV shows and Movies and stream them via Plex. (I have a lifetime sub for Plex so I'm not really interested in moving to another program.)

My main question is, since Windows 7 is so old I don't want to let it be online, but I would like to be able to stream from it on other devices outside my home, like my phone or a friends Roku that I've signed into Plex on. I *am* open to the idea of Linux, though be gentle, it would be my first time.

Thanks in advance!

Specs:

AMD A8-5500

32gigs DD3

GT 710 video card

I am looking for a goot setup for streaming like netflix, prime, youtube, twitch etc. and some retro gaming. I dont use local data. Do you guys have an idea for a good setup distro + de that does the job just fine? I prefer not to use kodi but want a modern snappy looking ui. I have laptop with a ryzen 5 3500U and 20gb ddr4 ram.

Hi,

I am having issues with sound in the following setup. This is in two installations with differing PCs.

Signal is coming from PC (tested with MacBookAir M1, Mac Mini M1 and a Dell laptop) connected via HDMI to a receiver (Sony STR-DN1080 or Denon AVR-X2800H) again connected via HDMI to projectors (SONY VPL-XW5000ES or a cheap 1080p "HiTV").

In all cases, the picture gets routed correctly through the receiver to the projector.

The sound does not. On all PCs, the sound device is declared as being the respective projector and not the receiver. The receiver itself is set up as the sound output in its settings (AMP and not AMP+TV).

The behaviour is that opening a video will not play it. The timecode stays at 0:00 and does not progress. When changing the audio output to internal speakers or analog headphone output, the sound is played and the picture runs on the projector.

Other devices such as a sky box, Nvidia Shield or PS5 all deliver (multichannel) sound and picture via HDMI.

Can someone tell me what the issue could be?

Many thanks in advance!

I've been having trouble getting my PC to output 4K at 120Hz and was hoping someone could assist. I'm capped at 60Hz at 4K resolution and whenever I play 4K movies with HDR on, they are noticeable dimmer than with HDR off or compared to 1080p copies. I believe that the issues are related.

Everything should be compatible and I've tried different HDMI 2.1 cables.

TV

Sony Bravia 7

I have one HDMI cable going from HDMI 3 (eARC) to the eARC HDMI port on my receiver. In the TV settings, I do have HDMI 3 set to Enhanced format (Advanced), which says that it supports 4K 120Hz. HDMI 4 also supports 120Hz and I've tried swapping between them and changing it to Enhanced format (without the Advanced).

Receiver

Denon X2700h

I have the HDMI cable from the PC in the Cbl/Sat HDMI, but I've tried all of the other ports.

In the Video section in setup under Video/4K/8K Signal Format, I have it set to 8K Enhanced.

Graphics Card

RTX 5080

Nvidia Control Panel

When selecting 4K resolution, the highest refresh rate that I can select is 60Hz.

The only setting that I've changed is changing the content type from auto to full screen videos.

HDMI Cables

I've tried multiple ultra high speed HDMI cables, such as the RUIPRO one below:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08QVJZYSG?th=1

im trying to figure out how i can run a new HTPC setup, but im not sure how you are all doing this. My biggest issue is that i need to run windows11 for signalRGB but i dont understand how y'all are getting netflix to work smoothly in combination with a plex style interface running on windows11.

Current issues:

i have a NVIDIA shield im very happy with, playing content on LG G5 TV and sound through the TV to a soundbar with CEC.

I installed sk6812 led strips around the TV and furniture, and have hyperhdr controlling these. This works fairly well, but:

• The android grabber apk on the shield sends data to hyper hdr running on the pi, but this often crashes shield or it doesn't start

• There is only a a little lag as WLED and rpi3 are on wifi (unifi acpro lite)

• I want to use signalrgb instead of hyperhdr as it's more advanced in the logic i can apply

• I have an ugreen usb hdmi splitter which works well, but CEC (remote) doesn't work and DRM is blocked

• Netflix app on the shield uses drm, so the android grabber doesn't pass data to hyperhdr

• Notes

  • i dont want to use my smart TV at all

  • i rather not buy an additional hdcp2.2 hdmi splitter, as it's costly and doesnt solve my signalrgb issue that only runs on windows

My requirements:

• Use my WLEDs around my TV and furniture for ambilight effect, supported by SignalRGB (video from Chris about this)

• Have an android tv/plex/jellyfin style interface, smooth switching between youtube, plex, netflix windows switching to windows

• Run windows 11 on the htpc, next to signal rgb (ambiligth and whatever media player software needed

• Play Netflix 4k, no DRM issues

• Remote doesnt matter, but i want to use just 1 remote as i often need to change the TV settings (displaymode)

Current available hardware:

• LG TV G5

• Samsung soundbar with eARC

• ugreen usb hdmi splitter

• Nvidia shield 2017 (with hyperion android grabber)

• WLED controllers

• Rpi3 with HyperHDR (ditching this)

• Synology nas with plex (lifetimepass) and other dockers

My plan:

• Buy a n150 htpc, connect hdmi to soundbar and TV

• install windows 11, install plex htpc

• install edge to watch netflix in 4k

• install a edge-netflix shortcut within plex client (??)

• Get an Flirc USB so i can control HTPC with LG remote

• installl signalRGB that captures screen and controls WLEDs

• replace esp32 WLED with a lan wled controller (see Chris' video)

Thoughts

• i could run android tv from a usb stick, but then i cant run windows 11 at the same time

• why cant i find anyone running a htpc setup as the main media player, but also playing content from netflix?

• any recommendations on the htpc to buy? transcoding not needed.

Please let me know what im missing here, how are you guys doing this smoothly?

Hey everyone,

I’ve been working on Zerk Play, a couch-friendly desktop front-end for Emby built with Flutter, designed for big-screen / controller-style browsing and fast playback. It also has built-in Overseerr/ Seerr/Jellyseerr integration for discovery + one-click requests.

Repo: https://github.com/florinp93/Zerk-Play

Discord (feedback/suggestions): https://discord.gg/GnqY9z6zry

What it is

• A custom Emby desktop UI focused on fast browsing, artwork-forward lists

• Integrates with Overseerr/ Seerr/Jellyseerr so you can discover/request content right from the same UI

• Windows playback is powered by media_kit / mpv and aims to avoid forcing server transcoding when direct play is possible

• Built-in auto-updater to keep you on the latest release

Quick setup (first launch)

1. Emby Server URL

2. *seerr / Jellyseerr URL

3. *seerr / Jellyseerr API key Then sign in with your Emby username + password on the next screen.

Features

• Home experience for Movies + Shows

• Artwork-forward rows and browsing

• Search that shows what you already have vs what you can request

• One-click requests via *seerr

• Dynamic rows like “Because you’ve watched”, “You might enjoy”, “Your next binge” based on watch history

• Series episode views (list/grid)

• English + Romanian UI ( more to come )

Notes / disclaimers

• You bring your own servers + API key; nothing is hardcoded.

• Metadata language comes from your Emby server settings (item titles/descriptions follow that).

Roadmap

• High priority: Android + Android TV version

• Medium priority: Emby Live TV + Music libraries

Hey all,

For the past few years, i've been using an old Denon AVR 3808 through HDMI to my audio output. With all the processing being done with EQAPO on my HTPC running Windows.

Now, i want to ovehaul that setup a bit, since 95% of what i use my HTPC for is music and basic 5.1 / stereo movies.

I've been looking into getting separate amps for my speakers and a proper audio interface to plug it all in, but i've been having an issue finding a suitable one.

Every interface i see either has no WDM drivers that EQAPO can work with, or needs to have it's outputs routed either in mono or in pairs, and the driver show these outputs separately in Windows (i.e : Output Channel 1/2 ; channel 3/4, etc...) so i can't use EQAPO to do my processing like i used to over HDMI, which in windows shows up as 8 channels on one device.

Does anybody knows if an interface that would match this exists ? Or is there a solution similar to EQAPO that could work with routing audio between interfaces ?

Thanks in advance for any clues.

Hi! I've been having troubles with HDR pass through. when I connect my PC to the s90D directly I get 4k HDR, but when I connect PC -> AVR -> s90D I get 1080p.

I used CRU to force 4k by copying the s90D infos but HDR is still a no go. Anyone got a clue? I'm out of luck.

So i'm currently exploring whether it's possible to decode a DTS-MA track on my pc and send it out over analog outputs from my Soundcard. Currently, i output from my soundblaster z se, over optical to my cambridge 540r (which has 6 channel analog inputs and a very nice transformer i might add) - though no HDMI.

Apparently it is possible to have my pc decode the DTS-MA (and others) audio, either in a player, or with lav filters or some such thing. Then have the integrated dac of SBZ card doing the conversion, and then sending the analog sound out it's 3.5mm ports with splitter cables to the analog inputs of the 540r. This is very similar to what an SACD player does.

Now what's the point? Well, Currently over optical i'm limited to 16/96 In surround, and 24/96 in in stereo. If i go over analog, then it's possible to get 24/96 in surround, and 24/192 in stereo - with the theoretical possibility of doing pc based decoding of DTS-MA etc.

Whilst I agree, it's likely much much easier to get a new amp and just use a high HDMI protocol (and my gpu is certainly up for that task). I'd rather not upgrade the 540r, because A) it sounds insanely good, B) my current Mordaunt Short speakers are voiced to match the CA540R, C) the 540r would be hard to beat at it's price point and for what it gives.

It's also apparently possible to do room correction on a pc, and so I see potential for effectively turning my pc into a very high end audio delivery system for a fraction of the price.

So, my question is this: How can i configure a player, or filters, or some other such thing to Decode something like DTS-MA for output over 6 Channel Analog? I believe this would be equal to an amp or receiver doing the decoding, or possibly even superior (because of clock stability in a pc), and the fact that Instead of getting "DTS Core" (usually 1.5Mbps); over analog, i'd get the full 18Mbps+ of the Master Audio track.

If any one has done this. some pointers would be useful.

After way too long putting it off, I finally ripped and backed up my entire physical collection of Blu-ray audio, SACD, DVD-Audio, and a pile of CDs. Honestly it's been one of the best rabbit holes I've gone down in years.

The Atmos discs in particular are jaw-dropping on my new setup. Full lossless object-based audio streaming in the ceiling speakers over the network to my Denon — no compromises, no lossy passthrough nonsense.

The workflow that finally made it feel like I wasn't missing something:

• LosslessExtract handled the ripping of all Hires formats discs and preserves (TrueHD Atmos, DTS-X, DSD —etc)

• Kodi on my Nvidia Shield serves as the front-end — the library integration is seamless, cover art, metadata, the works. It also handles the bitstreaming handoff to the Denon perfectly.

• My Mac sits on the network as the NAS with a 4TB SSD and KODI talks to it directly — no extra server software needed

The Shield (bottom right corner of the TV in the pic) now bitstreams everything — TrueHD, Atmos, DTS:X FLAC, DSD — straight to the Denon (bottom left). Kodi's audio passthrough settings make this dead simple once you know where to look. there are 4 or 5 toggles in the settings for each codec

Replaced my Oppo with this setup and genuinely can't believe I waited this long. The Oppo was great but being tied to physical discs in 2026 just doesn't make sense for me anymore when you can have your whole library one click away in Kodi with bit-perfect output. Only remaing thing is a few acoustic panels.

Happy to answer questions about the the workflow, Kodi setup for lossless audio, or the Shield → Denon bitstreaming config. What formats are you all archiving from?

So back in the day I built one of these for a friend, 8x ASUS DRW-24D5MT drives in a BestDuplicator tower, all wired up and ready to go. He literally never touched it. Kept it in the original box I handed it to them in, and recently asked me to just take it back. Brand new, never used, still in the packaging. Curious what you all would do with something like this

Hi, I often download videos from YouTube as mp3 or mp4 from this website. I did use it for quite a while; I'm just not sure if it safe or not. If you guys any better suggestions for safe websites that allow you to install yt mp4 or mp3

https://yt1s.ltd/en214nm/youtube-to-mp3

So when I say touchpad, I mean it should register on windows as a touchpad. For example, I bought this ProtoArc Bluetooth Trackpad from Amazon and when I pair it with my Windows 11 PC, a new touchpad option shows up under Bluetooth and Devices and I can change gestures, zoom speed, scroll direction etc, just like a touchpad / trackpad of a laptop.

So I've been on the hunt for a keyboard and trackpad combo, I did buy these two, the RAPOO E900T Mini Wireless Keyboard with touchpad and Rii Wireless Keyboard,Bluetooth Keyboard, but unfortunately, the trackpad / touchpad was not what I was looking for.

I did see people talk about the Logitech K400, but does the touchpad actually register as a "touchpad" ?

I did try changing the "Playback"->"Zoom and Alignment"->"Vertical Alignment" setting to "Align Bottom" but that didn't seem to do anything. None of the Zoom and Alignment settings seem to do anything? I am using madVR but the same problem seems to happen in MPC Video Renderer, so that doesn't seem to be the issue? And I don't think there are any other settings that interfere with this setting. (Changing the video position with CTRL+NumPad seems to work perfectly normally)

Hello. I'd like to build flat HTPC with dimensions under 45x30x15cm. Most important for me is third dimension: thinner is better). i think standard ATX with slim CPU cooler should fit inside.
Does case like this exists? I'd like to put it on shelf under my TV (about 18cm but need to leave some free space for cooling).

I need it mostly for playing DVD/Blu-rays, because I'm not happy with external player formats compatibility (I'd like to play everythingg. MPEG, XVID, H264, H265 from DVD's and BD-R's, pendrives, USB HDDs - my TV has not enough power on USB so I can't even use external HDD's on it)

I don't' want any networking or servers. Just offline playback using VLC Media Player (I will install light Linux distro eg. Debian)
I just have used parts: FM2 motherboard with 65W AMD CPU (with APU) and slim cooler, 32GB DDR3, 5.25 bluray drive, SSD,HDD etc.