Took The HTPC Plunge

[SCOOTERDOG]

I figured I put this in the HT thread because it has much to do with our theater systems.

For some time now I have been getting the upgrade bug for a Home

Theater PC (HTPC). Well yesterday I finally gave into my urge and made

the jump. I am pretty good with pc's considering I have been using and

building them for years. Here is what it consist of;[H]

Thermaltake Bach HTPC VB8000 Case

Thermaltake A2331 VFD Media Lab (dispaly) with remote

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800

VistaView Saber 2020 Dual TV Tuner, NTSC, PCI Express

Nvidia 7300GT Video Card

1 gig DDR2 ram

160 gig HD & 60 gig HD (for OS & Programs)

DVD + - RW Dual Layer Burner

DVD/CDR Burner Player

Chaintech 7.1 Audio card 24/192 SPDIF optical and 8 analog outputs

Windows Media Center 2005

Logitech 3200 RF wireless keyboard and mouse

This puppy should integrate nicely into my system for both audio, video and internet. For the tuner I am not going to get into HD because chances are we will not have OTA HD in our area for several years(small market) and until they come out with a sat tuner card for the US I'm stuck with std cable. If I had digital HD cable then I could go that route but I hate the pq on digital cable compared with my sat system. The cool thing is I'll have enough control over video and audio with the pvr functions and digital outputs. I can watch one thing and record two different channels, and believe me there are many times where I could use this funtion.

Should have it in about 10 days. Once I get everything tweaked I'll let you know how it all comes out.[]

[sunburnwilly]

Sounds terribly complicated and wonderfull at the same time !

[erickoegle]

I've been hearing more and more about how HTPC's are the way to go. Let us know about how it all sounds and looks after everything is set up. I know a good HTPC could replace about at least 1000$ worth of decent equipment. Looks like better picture quality with the videocard and having an inexpensive DVR without subsciption, makes me want to build one for the same reason!

[JJkizak]

Check out the MY-HD-130 HDTV card at digitalconnection.com. I believe you can hook up satellite or cable and OTA but not sure. I have the 120 card with daughter card option and it really rocks. I send the signal down the analog cable (36 feet) at 720P to the HDTV along with the remote serial cable (36 feet) . The end of the analog cable has the conversion to BNC jacks for component input to the HDTV which then go into the BNC to RCA conversion jacks. (another 5 feet). The computer monitor views the HDTV signal at the same time your HDTV does but the monitor is not HD. It will record any HDTV source to your computer hard drive at about 8.6 gigs per hour at 24meg bitrate stream MPEG2. The file ending is tp and you can take any m2t file that you have rendered in your video editor (slides, etc) change the file ending to tp and then place it into the MY-HD log and bingo--. The card has auto timing settings to set times for recording when you are not home. The quality is outstanding. And also optical 5.1 sound. I also can record to the JVC D-VHS recorder at 720P from this card. "Cineform Connect HD" will also record to the JVC Deck.

JJK

[Guest " "]

is it media center compatible?

does it have componet video input?

[Cal Blacksmith]

I have a HTPC and have been pushing them here, gently. I
found that I dont need near as much processing power as what you have but I am
also from the more is better school so I am not faulting you at all!

I have a Dell Low profile Optiplex running a 2 GHz Pentium 4
with 512k ram, 40 gig hard drive, Nvidia 5500 (?) vid card and a MYHD 130
tuner/upscaler card. The 130 will receive OTA HD (it is AWESOME!) and CABLE QAM
(no sat) HD content. I am told that there is a lot of HD content on cable that
is free with basic service but as cable is not an option where I live I have no
first hand experience. The MYHD card has coax digital audio on board so there is no real need for a sound card if your rcvr can decode coax digital audio.

I CAN tell you though that the MYHD card does a FANTASTIC
job of sending out true HD quality signals. I play DVDs and they are pretty
darn near HD. The card comes with an infrared remote and receiver so you might
need to do a little fiddling with the remotes to get things to work with your
remote. I dont even use the Nvida vid card for output, just the MYHD card.
You can piggyback the VGA signal from the vid card into the MYHD card so everything is sent out the same output. The MYHD vid card has it's own processor on board to ease the load on the main processor. The MYHD card comes setup to output a VGA signal and has a breakout box that
gives you composite and component with an daughter card option for DVI. My current setup is to output to VGA and
send that to my projector. I do have a stand alone DVD player that is component
to the rcvr and then component to the PJ. With a daughter card, you can get DVI
from the card so the choice is yours as to what you want to use.

I have been to the digital connection store in person and
they are some great people. It is a small store in a strip mall but the service
is first class. I had the infrared receiver go bad and they handed me a new one
over the counter and answered my questions on HT setup until I was happy.

I asked about the difference between component, VGA and DVI
as I was willing to spring for the daughter card and the 35 HDMI cable. The
answer was that DVI will have a SLIGHTLY better PQ if you stood there and
switched them side by side but if you left the room to go to the bathroom and
someone switched them while you were out, you would NOT be able to tell the
difference. SOOOOOOO.. I left the cabling I have in place and saved myself the
~$250 it would have cost to upgrade.

To play movies on the HTPC, you will need a program such as DVD
idle pro to bypass the copy protection on many DVDs. The program also
spins up the DVD drive to let it read ahead and buffer the content to the hard
drive so the DVD player only runs for about 15 or so minutes per movie, thus
saving wear and tear on the drive. The program is not very expensive and they
update the program frequently to keep you playing the movies you like. The
upgrades are free once you own the product. There is a free download to try for 30 days. I think it will only let you play a movie for 15 minutes at a time but it will show you just how much you will like the product. They keep your "key" on file and if you ever loose your install, and the password, it is no problem to get the key again. (I know, I have needed it[:$])

[j-malotky]

Scooter

I Love my HTPC. Been doing it for 2 years now.

One comment / concern on the 64 bit processor. You will have to make sure your DVD player and upscaler software is compiled to run on 64 bit hardware. When I built mine 2 years ago there was not much out there for 64bit so built mine with a p4 32 bit machine.

What software are you planning on using? I use Theatertek for my DVD player and ffdshow for my upscaler.

RF is the way to go. No line of site like IR. I have my HTPC in the basement storage room behind my rack the the antena on the wall. This keeps the fan noise out of my HT. I use the ATI remote wonder for my remote control. When it is set up I use it just like any other DVD remote to navigate the menus. I also programmed a button to shut down the PC.

One more thing. The HTPC is a balancing act between the hardware, OS and DVD software. I have applied XP patches, video card drivers and soundcard drivers and software that have blown up my setup. Get a good backup or image to restore to before you make changes.

Two months ago, I loaded the mixing board software that came with my sound card to try to use my HTPC to do some recording and mixing. MISTAKE. I did not do an image and my PC hangs from time to time during movies. I have reinstalled drivers, dot net framework, and software. Everytime I think I am set it hangs a few days later. GRRRRRRR. I should have known better. That will never happen again. Learn from my mistake.

Once you get your HTPC dialed it, it looks great and is worth the effort.

JM

[SCOOTERDOG]

I've looked at the MyHD card also. But like I said I do not and we will not have HD OTA for at least 4 years here in my neck of the woods. Although if I had digital cable with HD programing then I would get the MYHD card. However, I use satellite with HD programing and there is not a HD satellite card avialable for this country...yet.

The MYHD Card with the daughter card can output your video & digital audio but personally I prefer a seperate video card to do all of this because of the flexibility. I do a lot of online multi-player gaming too and a good video card is worth its weight, especialy the new SLI cards using PCI Express.

Plus there is only one card I know of that can capture HD from other sources and that is via HDMI but at 1000.00 buck I'll pass for now. (see below). There are no cards I know of that have component input at this time under 300 bucks (PDI). I would suspect in the next year or two we will see products like the Decklink come down to a reasonable price point or cards that have component in.

So for general PVR tuner functions it is analog, but I will be able to manipulte my resolutions, scaling etc via my video card and FFShow.

The tuner card I am will be using is a dual tuner by VistaView. The Sabar 2020 is touted as the best card on the market along with the new nvidia dual tuner that is non HD. So since I have no need for an HD card at this time this is where I am at. I can run SVHS into the VistaView from my satellite and scale up to HD resolutions if I want to for recording shows and I also have a seperate video processor for my stand alone DVD player and of course for non HD Satellite channels too. So until these other items come down in cost I am where I am at.

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View connection

diagram...

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[toddvj]

Wow. No Local HD. I can't imagine. I hardly watch anything anymore that isn't HD. I feel for you, man.

There is a company that can add firewire to a sat. box, I forget what it's called, but I don't think the price is very affordable, anyway.

I can't believe the (lack of) Hard Drive space you guys are getting by with. Between my 2 Media Center computers, I have 5x250GB and 1X320GB.

You shouldn't need DVDIdle to play copy protected DVDs, it's mainly just to save wear and tear on your drive. Best bet is to rip the DVD to your harddrive, and watch it whenever you want (now you know why I have so much HD space.)

I don't use mine as a DVR, the cable company's is much more reliable.

[SCOOTERDOG]

Yeah no local OTA HD sucks, and I work for the top TV station here. We do send out a digital signal but thats because the FCC mandates it. But we are a small market and adding HD is very expensive for us to do.

HD space is a non issue right now but I plan to add another 250gigs to the system. I am not using DVD Idle just FFDshow. I'm hopping I can find a PDI card on ebay or I'll just hold out until it gets down to under 150.00.

The HTPC market is growing and I think we will start to see more product that willl allow us to connect all of our equipment to them.

[Cal Blacksmith]

Wow. No Local HD. I can't imagine. I hardly watch anything anymore that isn't HD. I feel for you, man.

There is a company that can add firewire to a sat. box, I forget what it's called, but I don't think the price is very affordable, anyway.

I can't believe the (lack of) Hard Drive space you guys are getting by with. Between my 2 Media Center computers, I have 5x250GB and 1X320GB.

You shouldn't need DVDIdle to play copy protected DVDs, it's mainly just to save wear and tear on your drive. Best bet is to rip the DVD to your harddrive, and watch it whenever you want (now you know why I have so much HD space.)

I don't use mine as a DVR, the cable company's is much more reliable.

HUH. I have had several DVDs that would not play due to the Sony CP. NO way around it but to have software that will defeat it. We also have hundreds of DVDs so paying for all that storage space to rip them to the hard drive would be more than it is worth for me.

As for the upscaler, that is one of the reasons I am using the MYHD card. There is no need to run FFDShow with it as it has built in hardware to do the job and it does it very well. That is one of the reasons I don't need a super power PC. As for the hard drive, all it dose is act as a buffer for the DVD player. I don't store any music on it as I listen to analog 99 percent of the time. As to the card switching between standard resoultion and HD, the MyHD card is a push of the button on the remote, standard to HD or HD to standard, that quick. One of these days your analog turner card will be as good as **** on a boar hog. That is another reason for a digital / HD tuner.

I feed my Sat signal to the PJ by component so there is no need to run it through the PC.

Oh well, different strokes as they say.

Good luck with the new system, I am sure you will enjoy it very much, as well as the tinkering with it[]

[J.4knee]

Anyone tried this with a MAC yet? I am normally a PC guy but I am interesed in trying a MAC for this type of application.

[j-malotky]

HUH. I have had several DVDs that would not play due to the Sony CP. NO way around it but to have software that will defeat it. We also have hundreds of DVDs so paying for all that storage space to rip them to the hard drive would be more than it is worth for me.

What DVD codec are you using? I am using theatertek which uses the nvidea codec and have never had a problem playing any DVD, even the Sony CP versions.

I also copy movies to my hard drive, especially movies the kids watch a lot, and concert films I watch a lot. Now there, I do have some Sony CP disks that will not copy. But I am using an older freeware decrypter that is no longer available for download.

JM

[SCOOTERDOG]

My new HTPC was shipped to me today. Robert at Rainer Technology snapped some shots for me before he packed it up for shipment. Attached is a pic of the Thermaltake Bach HTPC Case. This puppy comes in at a wopping 33lbs with all the components installed.

Here are the final specs from him. Since he ordered the Motzart case by accident and it caused some delays he upgraded my processor to the 4200 from the 3800 and also the HDD from 160 to 250 gig at no charge.

Nice people to work with.

Thermaltake Bach HTPC VB8000 with Media Lab VFD & Remote

Amd Athlon 64 X2 4200+

ECS C51GM MB

Nvidia 7300GT 256 meg Video Card

250 Gig HD

Sata

1 gig DDR2 PC4200

Plexor 16x Dual Layer DVD-RW

1.44 Floppy

XP Mdeia

Center 2005 with SP2

[dougdrake]

Scooter - Re local HD programming... You may have checked into this and found it to not be available in your area, but up above was a subtle comment in a post that you may be able to receive "network" (Fox, ABC, CBS, NBC, CW2) HD programming with just a basic cable connection. I am doing that using a QAM-capable HD card in my PC (mine is the DVICO Fusion 5, but I believe the MyHD card has a QAM tuner as well). I pay about $14/month for the cable, and do so because I can't receive HD OTA in my hilly neighborhood. Depends if your local cable franchise is simulcasting the SD and HD feeds from the TV stations.

[TheEAR]

A solid HTPC is a great addon to any HT system no matter how small or big.I have one I built using...

Intel Core 2 Duo 6600 CPU

Intel G965RYCK mobo

Crucial 1GB DDR2 667 X 2

Zalman D135 case/Antec NeoHE 650W PSU

Pioneer DVR111 CD/DVD drive

eVGA 7900GTX KO 512MB video card(selected for its quietness and power,some gaming)

Creative X-Fi Extreme Music audio card

Seagate 500GB 7200.10 hard drive X 2

Logitech MX5000 Bluetooth cordless key/mouse

Output from the 7900GTZ in component ,sound and video quality is excellent.Used to play MP3's,streaming audio(internet radio) and my library of movies.

HTPC's are a major plus to have.No complete HT system should be without one.