I've done the HTPC thing recently in preparation for dumping satellite. One advantage to an HTPC over a Roku or similar device is that I occasionally run into shows on Netflix / Hulu that say they have to be viewed on a real computer because of some licensing issue or another.
But yeah, one of the big things is ripping my DVD/Blu Ray collection so I can pack all the disks up and put them away. I use
MakeMKV to rip my disks to MKV files. It doesn't compress at all, so you end up with huge MKV files. I then run them through
Handbrake to get the size down and to remove things I don't need. I usually strip out subtitle and audio tracks I don't want, keeping just the English of both (except for some foreign films where I keep the English subs, the English audio if available, and the original language audio track). If you prefer MP4 files you can convert the MKV file to an MP4 when you transcode with handbrake. I don't bother with the extras (which usually end up as separate files if you rip them), just the movie. If I want those I'll go dig out the disk.
Right now I use
Kodi (formerly XBMC) as my front end to view stuff. I've heard that Media Center for Windows 10 will handle MKV files properly, so I may give that a try when the time comes.
The one place HTPC's lose out for me is cost. Roku's and such are much more cost effective. This gives me more options to play with though. Here's my current setup if you care:
SHUTTLE LGA1155 Intel H61 DDR3 USB 3.0 A&V&2GbE 90-Watt Slim PC Barebone System XH61VBarebones system that uses laptop components, barely larger than a good sized hardback book. Looks fine on the shelf under the TV and my wife doesn't object. I put a piece of her black washi tape over the power & HDD LEDs which keeps them visible but mutes them down to where they're not obnoxious.
Intel Core i3-3245 3.40GHz 2 LGA 1155 Processor This is the beefiest processor that system will handle. More than adequate for HTPC duties. If you want a more powerful processor you'll need a different case/psu/mobo.
Crucial 8GB Kit (4GBx2) DDR3 1600 MT/s (PC3 - 12800) CL11 SODIMM 204-PinYou can put 16GB in this, but 8GB is more than sufficient.
SanDisk Ultra Plus 256GB SATA 6.0GB/s 2.5-Inch 7mm Height Solid State Drive (SSD) SSD boots & runs very quickly. Not where I store the media, so capacity isn't a huge issue.
Panasonic UJ260, UJ-260 6x Blu-ray Burner 8x DVD Burner Player SATA Laptop DriveI can use this to directly play DVDs. I'd have to get something like PowerDVD if I want to play Blu Rays on this and I may at some point. Mostly I use it for ripping DVD & Blu Ray disks.
Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64bit, System Builder OEM DVDWin7 for now. Probably Win10 during the free upgrade period.
Seagate Expansion 3TB Desktop External Hard Drive USB 3.0I was going to go with a NAS, but expenses became an issue for a while. This is cheap, and 3TB should be more than enough to hold every DVD & Blu Ray I own once I compress them. For redundancy I plan to get another one like this to hang off the upstairs desktop and I'll keep the two drives synced across the home network. Maybe set up a scheduled robocopy to sync them in the middle of the night. Distributed RAID1 anyone? I used a full sized external drive with it's own power supply as that little HTPC doesn't have a particularly grunty power supply.
Hauppauge 1192 WinTV HVR-1950 External USB HDTV Tuner/Video RecorderThis is to let me record over-the-air HD channels from the antenna I'm going to hook up once I dump satellite. The tiny PC case means it has to be an external, not one of their internal card solutions. I don't see me having do a lot with this, as I can stream most stuff, but I think it will be handy.
Logitech Wireless Touch Keyboard K400 with Built-In Multi-Touch TouchpadThis works well for controlling it all. The only caveat is that when I put the USB dongle in one of the rear slots it was glitchy unless I held the keyboard in the right position. Move it to a front slot and it's fine. Or in my case I used a 1.5' USB extension cable to get it out from behind the case, tucked up between the PC and the external hard drive.
