Build a HTPC

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6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#106298 23-Jan-2008 14:56

Hey,

I've just finished my setup, and all i can say, is that i'm REALLY happy with the way everything is running. It's been an ongoing project for about 6 months or so now. I reckon its all but completed, i just need to tweak MediaPortal's configuration a bit and add the final component to my setup to completely finish the hardware side of things (one of these: http://www.audioauthority.com/product_details/1154A/All/5/1)

My HTPC has been built into my entertainment unit itself. It used to be a cd-rack, however with MP3's, who uses CD's anymore? Anyway, i took the plastic bits of the rack out and i was left with an empty box per-say. I had spare computer parts lying around (I work in IT, so ive always got spare parts galore) so i decided, I'm gonna put a computer in there! And so my HTPC was born.

Hardware Specs:

HTPC:

AMD Athlon XP 2500+
Asus A7S8X-MX Micro Motherboard
1GB DDR-400 RAM (soon to be 2gb)
ATA133 500GB Seagate HDD (bout to add another 500gb SATA HDD for timeshifting TV and recordings)
Nvidia FX5200 AGP (HTPC not used for games so dont need anything better, plus it runs silent!!)
TVCARD 1 - PixelView PlayTV MPEG 2 Capture Card (this card has the BT878x chipset which allows me to hack Sky UHF)
TVCARD 2 - Hauppauge PVR-150 MCE TV Tuner Card (for timeshifting Live TV and PVR)
Creative Soundblaster Live! 24bit External (gives me optical SPDIF out :D)
LG 16x DVD Writer
True Power 430 Watt Power Supply
Windows MCE Remote
Genius Luxmate 810 Wireless MCE Keyboard (Awesome!! http://www.geniusmouse.co.uk/product/218/Genius_Luxmate_Wireless_USB_Keyboard-%3C-Mouse-%3C-Remote.html)
ATI All-In-Wonder X10 RF Remote

Windows XP Pro SP3
MediaPortal Frontend (Single-Seat Configuration - Might do a multiple seat config later on down the track)
TheaterTek DVD 2.5
MediaMonkey Music Jukebox
nVidia PureVideo MPEG2 Decoders
MS Speech SDK 5.1 for full Voice Control of MediaPortal.

HOME THEATRE:

32" Sony Bravia D Series - 32" is the biggest that would fit in my unit :'(
Sony MUTEKI Home Theatre Stereo 6.2 Surround (6x 185WRMS + 2x 200WRMS Subs - This Stereo is insane)
Sony DVD-VCR Combo (Pretty much used for old VCR tapes) [Component Video + Optical Audio]
Playstation 3 [HDMI + Optical Audio]
Xbox 360 [Component Video + Optical Audio]
Nintendo Wii [Component Video + Stereo Audio]
Playstation 2
Xbox
Super Nintendo

Overall I'm really happy with the result of the HTPC. MediaPortal is probably one of the best frontends you'll ever use and the amount of plugins it has is utterly fantastic. It takes a fair bit of tinkering with the configuration to get it all going smoothly, but once you've done it, its a dream to use.

Live TV via the PVR150 and Media Portal is good but it wont replace the tuner in my Bravia, this will only be used for times when i want to timeshift and for PVR duties. People have asked me about DVB-S cards and getting freeview etc working, well, firstly im renting and my current place doesnt have a dish, and secondly, FreeView is bringing out terrestrial broadcasting of its service in March or so, so when that time comes, i'll invest in a DVB-T card to get freeview.

The Pixelview card for Sky works like a charm. Can get all the UHF channels with a pretty good picture.

My next challenge is to get EPG data working properly, i'll be having a play with Reven's xmlTVNZ in the weekend.

Everything in my setup is running via optical SPDIF, component video or HDMI.

Here's some pics of the setup:

Fossie

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#106302 23-Jan-2008 15:04

Heh, that is cool. Not a very 'clean' look though :P

ITNinja

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Wannabe Geek

#106303 23-Jan-2008 15:11

oh yeah, completely agree... once im fully happy with the way everything is connected then I might do some cable management to get it all tidy. Plus, i'm moving everything about all the time and i'm just lazy with the cables

euanandrews

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#106319 23-Jan-2008 16:33

Interesting to see what ya done there ITNinja

Not what I would do, as I'm aiming for a clean minimalistic look, that looks just like an AV component...but each to their own.

How do ya go when it comes to moving, do you pull the whole cabinet apart, including your built-in pc?

Anyway, very nice mate, great pics.

ITNinja

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#106322 23-Jan-2008 16:39

Haha, yeah im the opposite of minimalistic, i prefer the wow factor i get when everyone sees all the gear. What can i say? The more i get to show off the better

Moving the cabinet can be a bit of a pain...but thankfully only had to move it once so far. The computer, like i said, is sitting in a cd-rack part of the unit, so that slides out, computer and all. the unit used to be one solid piece but to get it into my current place, i had to do some modifications with a circular saw, so now it is in two pieces (a top half and a bottom half) which now makes it much more easier to move

richms

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#106330 23-Jan-2008 17:18

I prefer the consoles to be beside the sofa rather then at the front, but mines all apart at the moment till I get some new flooring done thanks to the place stinking of catpiss everytime its humid.

I gutted an old massive kenwood equalizer that a mate bought at auction to put a PC in it. Its just high enough for a standard pci card to fit in, I got the backplane off an old case with a bust bezel - at the mo its an athlon xp 1800 with stock cooler etc but thats because I am flat broke at the moment. Its enough to play everything I need, no HD stuff tho since its not worth it on a 1080i crt I deceided.

When I had the projectro in place I prefered the quality watching tv on the bt878 card to that of a pvr250 - always had mpeg artifacts no matter what the quality was set to for me, but that was with the stock software so it could have been a limitation in that, plus the lag in changing channels was really annoying, using the menu on the skybox or vcr was virtually impossible with the latency. - hvc plus is a nice to have but sadly there is always horses on when I want discovery ;)

Richard rich.ms

phatbloke

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Master Geek

#106681 25-Jan-2008 10:26

Thebartender

Just letting you know I recieved my Leadtek PX8500GT today. I measured it and it is 190mm in length to the end of the heatpipe so it will definately fit into the LC16. I'll keep you informed on how the rest of the installation goes once the rest of my parts arrive.

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euanandrews

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#106738 25-Jan-2008 15:18

phatbloke: Thebartender

Just letting you know I recieved my Leadtek PX8500GT today. I measured it and it is 190mm in length to the end of the heatpipe so it will definately fit into the LC16. I'll keep you informed on how the rest of the installation goes once the rest of my parts arrive.

I appreciate that, love to hear how it performs...
I looked long and hard, comparing specs, to find that component, so hope its perfect.
I have since also recieved more info from the NZ distributor, and await yet more...

Anyway, good luck with your project, keep us/me updated how ya go.

shaana

7 posts

Wannabe Geek

#106770 25-Jan-2008 18:45

I have been reading with interest this top re how to build a HTPC as have decided it will be better than buying a prebuilt system or brand system.

I have a large dvd collection and would like to set up a library on a hard drive and use windows media centre. My question is how do I convert my collection into the correct format to do this.

I also want to be able to play avi and divx files through media centre but it currently won't allow me to.

I have a windows vista system.

Apologies if this is not the correct forum to query this.

euanandrews

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#106776 25-Jan-2008 19:08

Welcome to Geekzone shaana

shaana: I have a large dvd collection and would like to set up a library on a hard drive and use windows media centre. My question is how do I convert my collection into the correct format to do this.

What format do you want to convert them into?

There are plenty of free rippers available, just search rippers in download.com for example...

I also want to be able to play avi and divx files through media centre but it currently won't allow me to.

I have a windows vista system.

I'm not sure if that is a VMC issue, but have you reinstalled DIVX since purchasing/installing your Vista system?
.avi and divx require their own codec, which does not come with windows pre-installed.

Regs

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Snowflake

#106778 25-Jan-2008 19:11

Fossie: Heh, that is cool. Not a very 'clean' look though :P

This is my htpc setup. It uses a onkyo SR702 receiver, kef egg 5.1 speakers and amd 3000+/asus a8nvm-csm housed in a zalman htpc case with silent fans and low noise hdds. i'm using optical spdif for sound to the receiver and dvi for video to the plasma. i have both XP and vista MCEs but i normally use XP due to a few minor issues on vista.

i went with the zalman hd160 case for one reason: its not as deep as the silverstones therefore it fits perfectly into my entertainment unit. most 'big' htpc cases (i.e. ones the same height/width as an AV reciever) are too deep to fit nicely into a cabinet. The zalman also had the nicest finish.

htpc setup

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sbiddle

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#106780 25-Jan-2008 19:11

shaana: I have been reading with interest this top re how to build a HTPC as have decided it will be better than buying a prebuilt system or brand system.

I have a large dvd collection and would like to set up a library on a hard drive and use windows media centre. My question is how do I convert my collection into the correct format to do this.

Freitasm has encoded all his DVD's into .iso format so you can play them directly and still retain the menu structure. There are quite a few programs that can do this so you might like to ask him what he's using.

I also want to be able to play avi and divx files through media centre but it currently won't allow me to.

You obvioiusly don't have the correct codec installed to play these. Install FFDShow and you'll be fine. If you already have the official Divx codec (from divx.com) remove this as it's always had a lot of issues with Vista and actually caused a lot of system crashes in Media Center.

freitasm

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#106781 25-Jan-2008 19:14

shaana: I have a large dvd collection and would like to set up a library on a hard drive and use windows media centre. My question is how do I convert my collection into the correct format to do this.

I also want to be able to play avi and divx files through media centre but it currently won't allow me to.

Shaana, this is not completely related to this topic - would be better to create a new one but I will give you the answers right here:

- create a backup of your DVDs using any DVD Backup software, one DVD per folder. Create an ISO image because this will preserve th DVD menus. A warning though: make sure your system does not have a Matshita DVD drive because those won't allow copying DVDs from other regions.

- on your Media Center, install Daemon-Tools Lite, and make sure to disable Secure Mode.

- install the MyMovies plugin and enter the movie information into your database. If you enter the movie as "online" point to the folder where the file resides.

- on your Media Center, when using MyMovies you will have the option to "Watch" a movie. MyMovies will automatically load the ISO image into Daemon-Tools and play it as it were a normal DVD.

- to play non-WMV movies you should install FFDShow, a collection of codecs.

If you have more questions, please open another thread.

shaana

7 posts

Wannabe Geek

#106783 25-Jan-2008 19:21

I'm pretty new to this so am not sure exactly which is the best tool to use.

I want to convert my DVD collection to a high quality standard video.

I have tried handbrake which is good but I did convert a couple but media centre won't play them.

My current plan is to create my library on a hard disk and once that's done start looking at building my own HTPC as my current pc system is a bit unwieldy and noisy.

freitasm

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#106784 25-Jan-2008 19:22

Look for DVD Decrypter for example. If you follow my steps you will have a system that plays your backup DVDs from your storage.

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