Old laptop as HTPC and steam streaming device?

[mystvearn]

Hi,

I am not sure if this Kodi can be used, but hope people here can help.

My main laptop is an Asus U46SV with the below specs:
Windows 7 Pro
NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 540M with 1GB DDR3 VRAM,
16 GB RAM
512 GB SSD

Since the laptop is only being used when I'm outstation, I rarely use it at home/office. I was wondering if Kodi is the solution to my problem. I still use the laptop, so I can't just wipe the content and make it a dedicated HTPC box.

Here is a picture of what I want to do:

Basically I have a router which all pc's connect to. All the connections are wireless connection. I want to use the laptop as a media consumption device. The laptop has to be able to access folders from the gaming PC (or any PC) and play on the TV. It also has to be able to function standalone, say I want to open a youtube or some direct flash videos. I will connect the xbox controllers to the laptop and stream steam games from there. I think steam streaming works in this case? For the wireless controller to control the laptop, I was thinking of unified remote? I don't need or want to buy a keyboard. The laptop does support BT.

What do I need to make this kind of setup work? Any suggestions welcome.

 

[MrNeeds]

All this is possible, In fact I do it with my partners laptop, you can do this one of two ways, you can do it the way I do it, which is to share all relevant folders on the network and open them on your laptop using explorer, or you can use Kodi, you can also access them using the file explorer but through Kodi, once you've added the network folders to Kodi, it should stream most of your content, the only drawback is that you need to have your gaming PC on to stream this content, same with the games, but for steam in home streaming to work, you just need to sign into steam with your account and enable in-home streaming, as far as the controller goes, you can connect your xbox wireless controller up using the "wireless receiver for windows"(in fact, Kodi supports xbox controllers), but for a media remote, you will have to buy a separate control and receiver for it.

as far as working with windows, a remote won't suffice, you need an input method which works with the UI, you will need a mouse and keyboard for this, unless you want to get up and walk to the laptop each time you want to watch a flash video within the browser.

Hope this helps,

MrNeeds

 

[mystvearn]

Thanks for the reply.

I have tried stream wireless streaming with hardware decoding on both ends. Latency is there, but unless playing FPS, it is acceptable. Also tweak the default settings to give best of both but increase throughput. Also enable QoS. Tried with NFS MW with both PC and laptop about 20 feet away. In the final TV-laptop setup, the laptop is just 5 feet away from the router in the same room.

On the wireless controller for Kodi, I see there is an an app online for it. Have not configured it yet. Still need to learn how to use Kodi properly. I'm not sure if I should use Kodi or just stick with Windows Media Centre. Unified remote works, however the mouse is too small. Not that useful sitting away from the tv.