What are the best operating systems for a Home Theatre PC?

8

Options
Considered

90

User
Recs.

Aug 12, 2018

Last
Updated

Here’s the Deal

The Best 1 of 8 OptionsWhy?

Best operating systems for a Home Theatre PC	Price	Last Updated
92 OpenELEC	-	Aug 9, 2018
-- Geexbox	-	Aug 12, 2018
-- Kodibuntu	-	Jun 28, 2018
-- LibreELEC	Free	Aug 2, 2018
-- LinuxMCE	-	Aug 10, 2018

OpenELEC

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Top Pro

Ease of use of XMBC that is easy to install

Very easy to setup through XBMC Live which is a very easy to setup distribution. See More

Top Con

The online installation guide is very convoluted

The online guide on installing OpenELEC is very convoluted and practically makes something very simple look like it's difficult. For example, the installation bundle comes with a script that is used to prepare the SD card, but then according to the guide you have to manually copy it to the device. While it can just tell you to wget the image and then write it to the target media in just a simple command. See More

Top Pro

Great support

It's very easy to find support for any problems you may run into with OpenELEC. See More

7 Other Options Considered

Geexbox

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Top Pro

Lightning fast booting

The booting process is very fast, it only has a brief splash screen between POST and when the XBMC menu loads up. See More

Top Con

Issues with the Wifi driver

There have been several issues reported related to the WiFi driver adapter when using Geexbox. See More

Top Pro

Simple installation

Installing Geexbox into a hard drive is very simple. Just select the install option from the boot menu and it will automatically take you to a screen where you can select your hard drive. It needs very little involvement and it's done in a matter of minutes. See More

Top Pro

Extremely portable

Geexbox has an ISO that is optimized to run on both USB and SD cards and of course all of them have the option to be installed on a hard drive. This makes them extremely portable, plus there are various ISOs for different systems which are about 150MB apiece. See More

LinuxMCE

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Top Pro

Easy installation

The installation wizard automatically finds and detects all your hardware details and adds the configurations accordingly. It also asks for your permission before each step and then carries on the next screen. Everything is completed in 5 minutes. See More

Top Con

Lots of bugs

Unfortunately LinuxMCE has some very annoying bugs. For example there are some things that will not work with the default settings, and that's a real downside for beginners. It's also rather complicated to get a weborbiter working. See More

Top Pro

Easy to use

Even with multiple features and options, LinuxMCE is still very easy to use; everything is very intuitive and dead simple to find your way around with everything being available through a point and click UI. See More

Top Pro

10 foot UI

LinHES

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Top Pro

Seamless setup

The first time LinHES is launched, you are prompted by the configuration tool which is built using the same toolkit as MythTV itself. This allows for a seamless setup experience since LinHES automatically detects and configures the necessary settings correctly. This means that things like recording hardware, infrared receivers and remote controls are all configured automatically. See More

Top Con

Support only for 64-bit Intel architecture

The latest releases of LinHES only have support for 64-bit Intel architectures. While it's not worth it to worry about 32-bit Intel systems it's worth noting that the absence of an ARM release is problematic. See More

Top Pro

Great functionality out of the box

LinHES comes with a suite of programs already preconfigured to make it function as a media-centric appliance. Stuff like NFS and Samba are included for sharing files, Webmin and VNC provide remote administration capabilities, furthermore there are various remote system monitoring tools and packages for supporting file-transfer methods (one of them is Bittorrent). See More

Windows 8.1

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Top Con

Expensive

You will need to purchase a Windows license. See More

Top Pro

Hardware Compatibility

Windows has excellent x86-based compatibility, and has recently announced ARM compatibility as well. See More

Top Con

Resource Intensive

In contrast to many dedicated solutions which can run on nearly anything, running a full Windows install requires decent hardware. This is not a lightweight solution. See More

Top Pro

Familiar Windows Interface

As opposed to unfamiliar and purpose-built Linux distros, Windows still reigns supreme for sheer usability and ease of use. See More

Top Pro

Customizable UI

There are many that can be used to customize the MetroTile screen and add custom tiles. Then, by adding custom tiles you can configure them to open any application or web page that you need. For example: Netflix, HBOGo or Steam. See More

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