HTPC show and tell

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404 posts

Ultimate Geek

#146419 10-Jul-2008 22:03

Pretty excited today, finally got most of the bits to complete my Shuttle HTPC build. :)

Shuttle D'VO SG33G5M Deluxe Barebones

Bits I got today, Intel Quad Q9300 2.5GHz, Cosair 2x2GB Kit, Samsung DVD DL, Samsung Sinpoint 750GB SATA HDD, WinTV Nova T 500 HD tuner.
Just waiting for my Leadtek Gefore 9600GT 512MB now...

My opinions and ideas expressed in posts are solely my own and do not reflect the views of my employer in any way..

eXDee

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#146499 11-Jul-2008 00:15

^Wow, excessive much? Seems like you're going to be gaming on that or doing some incredibly heavy multi tasking. Sweet build anyway, how much was the shuttle barebones?

Regs

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Snowflake

#146636 11-Jul-2008 11:11

davidcole: one thing I've noticed, is not many wall mount systems shown. Is that because it's an unpopular option, or is it because most people are in existing homes (read = older) and don't want to punch holes in the walls. Whereas newer homes sometime have a wall mount area for a tv, with plug plates for your cables.

I was going to wall mount my system but realised that i would have a bloody sore neck after a while if i did. Before mounting mine I went and saw a couple of friends who had done that, and also went by a few shop displays with wall mounted screens. In all cases I found that I had to physically tilt my head up to watch and it just didnt seem like a comfortable thing to be doing while watching a 3 hour movie....

In the end I went for placing the screen on top of an entertainment unit that was about 50cm high. The screen height (42" plasma) was perfect when coupled with the slightly lower sofas that I have.

I have since renovated the house completly and that would have been the perfect chance to wall mount a screen but now I felt it was a bad idea so i didnt bother. I did, however, wall mount all the speakers!

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Regs

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Snowflake

#146652 11-Jul-2008 11:41

Vorbis: It always seems so tempting to build a system that's total overkill for a htpc. My first build was an e8200, 8800gt, 3gigs ram etc. Now I'm running an athlon 4200 with onboard gfx and 2 gigs of ram. Same results, half the cost :)

i took a bit of time coming up with the components for my first HTPC - i wanted to make it perfect

Perfect to me, however, meant a machine that was (a) looked nice. (b) quiet and (c) worked with MCE (lots of stability issues with components in the early days)

I ended up with a sound and graphics integrated motherboard - ASUS A8N-VM CSM. This had both integrated nVidia 6150 GPU with DVI-D and optical SPDIF out. Having the integrated motherboard was mainly to achieve the 1st goal - "quiet" as there were no GPU fans to worry about. Perhaps a card-based GPU with a heatsink might have produced slightly less heat overall but the onboard worked well enough for my needs and had the added bonus of saving me money

The single most expensive component I bought was the case - Zalman HD160. I was seriously limited to one choice here - all the other "full height/width" cases (needed to match the Onkyo amp) were too deep. The Zalman had the added bonus of being designed for their excellent quiet CPU fans.

My original list of components was as follows:
Case: Zalman HD160
Power Supply: Zalman ZM460-APS 460W
CPU Cooler: Zalman CNPS9500 LED
Motherboard: ASUS A8N-VM CSM Socket 939 NVIDIA 6150, PCI Express x16, SATA II, 1394, Gigabit Lan
Tuner Card: HauppaugeWinTV PVR500MCE
CPU: AMD Athlon64 3200+ (2.0Ghz) Socket939 CPU Boxed. Venice core 90nm.
RAM: TwinMOS 1GB DDR-400 Dual-Channel Kit 2x512M, 32Mx8 CL2.5, Retail Pack
DVD: LG DVD Writer (GSA-4167BBK), 16x DVD+/-R, 4x Dual Layer, 5X DVD-RAM With Nero Express
HDD: Samsung Single 7200 200gb SP2004C SATA 133 int 8MB
KB: Remote Keyboard MCE SNG

I have since switched the PVR500MCE for a pair of Nova-S-Plus cards and am using the FreeView DVB-S in MCE. I also ditched the MCE Infrared keyboard as I found it hopeless. Because I rarely use a keyboard with the system I just have a cheap wired one stashed away behind the cabinet for emergencies instead.

When(/if?) I make the move to DVB-T I will either get a new Graphics card (cheapest nVidia PureVideoHD with heatsink available) or replace the motherboard/cpu/memory when a decent integrated-gpu motherboard comes out. Its probably going to be cheaper to go with the new video card option and as the current CPU/Motherboard works fine for everything, there is no pressing need to upgrade it.

FreeviewHD is damn nice and all, but Freeview satellite is also pretty damn decent on the 42" and I dont have a UHF aerial, tuner card or capable system right now. I dont really watch that much broadcast TV - mainly news and the odd program - so its hard to justify spending any money at all. FreeviewHD isnt going to make my photos, DVDs or music any better

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Snowflake
www.snowflake.com

about.me/nzregs
Twitter: @nzregs

1gkar

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Ultimate Geek

#147187 12-Jul-2008 17:28

...When(/if?) I make the move to DVB-T I will either get a new Graphics card (cheapest nVidia PureVideoHD with heatsink available) or replace the motherboard/cpu/memory when a decent integrated-gpu motherboard comes out. Its probably going to be cheaper to go with the new video card option and as the current CPU/Motherboard works fine for everything, there is no pressing need to upgrade it...

Just so you're aware; Nvidia purevideoHD only works with MPEG2.

Silverstone LC14 HTPC Case/Intel E4600 CPU/GA-EP35-DS3 MOBO/Asus EN9500GT graphics/2GB RAM/total 2TB HDD space/HVR-2200 & 2X 150MCE tuner cards/LG GGC-H20L BD Drive/MCE2005/Mediaportal/TVServer 1.1.0Final/LG 55"3D LED-TV/Denon AVR-1803 receiver/X1 projector

1101

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#147880 14-Jul-2008 19:57

Just so you're aware; Nvidia purevideoHD only works with MPEG2.

There are (fully legal) ways to enable purevideo H264 support
Installing the Twihan drivers is one (this works for me)
Installing a demo copy of PowerCinema

http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?ForumId=84&TopicId=20747&page_no=4

Nvidia are pretty missleading about there H264 Purevideo support (its only in the fine print that you need 3rd party apps)

lchiu7

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#147898 14-Jul-2008 20:38

Regs:
o card option and as the current CPU/Motherboard works fine for everything, there is no pressing need to upgrade it.

FreeviewHD is damn nice and all, but Freeview satellite is also pretty damn decent on the 42" and I dont have a UHF aerial, tuner card or capable system right now. I dont really watch that much broadcast TV - mainly news and the odd program - so its hard to justify spending any money at all. FreeviewHD isnt going to make my photos, DVDs or music any better

I held off doing FreeviewHD since my machine lacked the grunt to decode the H.264 video (Sempron 64 3000). But I purchased a Popcorn Hour and decided I would use that instead. So I have my gbpvr system record (only at this time TV3) HD shows I actually want to watch and then use the PCH to actually watch them. While the PCH cannot handle the AAC HE LATM default audio that FreeviewHD has, TV3 seems to also have a AC-3 track that can be heard. So I can enjoy TV3 true HD shows.

Luckily I have a UHF antenna on the roof that pulls in the FreeviewHD signals fine from Kaukau.

Given that's all working now I don't feel so motivated to upgrade the video card in the HTPC. Like most PCH users in NZ waiting for the firmware upgrade that will handle the LATM audio. It will also be interesting when the Olympic start and TV1 broadcasts true HD what audio signal format they will be using.

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azzaj

88 posts

Master Geek

#154280 5-Aug-2008 12:40

My new setup (scuse the boosted blurry 1 second exposure taken by hand photo, my lounge is dark....)

Antec fusion v2 case with 430 watt psu (doesnt have the 8 pin connector that the motherboard desires but the 4pin p4 connector seems to be ok), very nice case and fairly quiet (no thanks to the standard amd cooler). the vfd is a bit gimmicky but it helps confuse anyone when i ask them to find the pc.

and the stuff that can't be seen...
65 watt amd x2 5200+
xfx 8200 noforce motherboard and 8500gt gfx (had to buy the card for analogue tv out)
2gb of corsair ram ddr2 800

salvaged some bits that were lying around......
500gb wd sata hdd (the model before the gp i think)
old nec 3540 dvd+r (no bluray yet)
old faithful btc wireless keyboard with joystick kind of thing (hardly a remote but i do find it quite easy to use as does the wife)
and technisat skystar 2 running bda driver and gbpvr for DVB-S (no hd for us poor hicks in nelson)

old faithful big 4:3 tv, crt rear projection, strangely enough i find the crt due to its analogue nature makes everything look not bad when the lcds make most divx or downsampled stuff look bad.
speakers are my old computer setup of klipsch promedia 5.1 (400way dual 8inch subs makes most of those ht in a box systems with a single 6.5 cm sub seem underpowered) and where i sit the centre and corners converge quite nicely.

old box sitting off to the left, will be stripping it this week.

might get one of those logitech bluetooth mini keyboards at some stage but for now this does it properly, cpu usage on non encrypted 720p is around 12%, standard xvid aorund 2%. now just to get cool and quiet working.

problems had:
tearing ; fixed by installing amd cpu driver and settling on the overlay mixer thanks to something i read in these forums, (thanks guy who i can't remember).
no lock in dvbviewer but fine in trans edit : giving up and installing bda and using gbpvr
getting full screen on 4:3 within 16:9 (little picture in centre of screen) in gbpvr : building a custom aspect ratio in gbpvr config file (can't remember the numbers i used but it didnt take too much experimenting)

total cost on the box if everything had to be new would have been around 900.

thanks to all those in here i gleaned information off for this build, i made some up myself but took in a lot from others, thankfully being put off the amd chipset with the built in x1250 but tv out although i still think amd cards are better at resizing options on tvout than nvidia, one day i will go to hdtv.....

1gkar

722 posts

Ultimate Geek

#155331 8-Aug-2008 21:55

lchiu7:
Regs:
o card option and as the current CPU/Motherboard works fine for everything, there is no pressing need to upgrade it.

FreeviewHD is damn nice and all, but Freeview satellite is also pretty damn decent on the 42" and I dont have a UHF aerial, tuner card or capable system right now. I dont really watch that much broadcast TV - mainly news and the odd program - so its hard to justify spending any money at all. FreeviewHD isnt going to make my photos, DVDs or music any better

I held off doing FreeviewHD since my machine lacked the grunt to decode the H.264 video (Sempron 64 3000). But I purchased a Popcorn Hour and decided I would use that instead. So I have my gbpvr system record (only at this time TV3) HD shows I actually want to watch and then use the PCH to actually watch them. While the PCH cannot handle the AAC HE LATM default audio that FreeviewHD has, TV3 seems to also have a AC-3 track that can be heard. So I can enjoy TV3 true HD shows.

Luckily I have a UHF antenna on the roof that pulls in the FreeviewHD signals fine from Kaukau.

Given that's all working now I don't feel so motivated to upgrade the video card in the HTPC. Like most PCH users in NZ waiting for the firmware upgrade that will handle the LATM audio. It will also be interesting when the Olympic start and TV1 broadcasts true HD what audio signal format they will be using.

I know this is late in responding to this post. But it is more directed towards future browsers in search of what works.

I have the same CPU in my client HTPC in my bedroom & with an 8500GT video card (Asus EN8500GT Silent Magic) it plays-back H.264 Freeview TV perfectly using the PowerDVD8 trial codecs, across my local network.

PS. Could people please learn to post their pics in normal resolutions. Not everyone has a 32" widescreen desktop monitor running 1980x1080. It's areal pain in the A-h*l& having to scroll horizontally to read posts

FreddyK

84 posts

Master Geek

#157876 19-Aug-2008 03:36

Seeing azzaj's post above, prompted me to show & tell my modest setup ... or more specifically, seeing him using the same case as I prompted me to jump in on the fan-wagon. I love the Fusion2, its such a beautiful case. The built in IR reciever started out being a bit of a pain (since it only seems to like MCE gear), but if you stick with an MCE remote and the iMON software, you dont need anything else anyway. I have the VFD set to display the graphic EQ and remote commands only.

I use DVBviewer for Freeview, and VMC for everything else. Shortly I plan to replace the CPU with a dualcore Opteron and hopefully, once ATi sort out their deinterlacing issues with hardware acceleration and H264, I can stick my HD2400XT back in.

kiwijunglist

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#160586 28-Aug-2008 22:57

Please pretend the furniture is black not purple, bought off trademe for $40 it is perfect apart from the colour and the HTPC is too high for the shelf (would only fit under the bottom shelf, but i've let it on the side because there is no way i am gonna be able to plug the cables in that low down!! I intend to paint the furniture/htpc case black, but deep down i know i will never ever get around to it. Another idea is to hack out the middle shelf or just the left/right side of the middle shelf.

HTPC / Home automation (home assistant) enthusiast.

FreddyK

84 posts

Master Geek

#160963 30-Aug-2008 23:58

Certainly alot more tidy than your last shot. I'd say taking out that middle shelf and painting the cabinet black is a no brainer. Having your TV off centred like that on the cabinet would drive me crazy ... almost as much as those cables running under the mat like that

Whats the clear cable running down to the top of your TV for?

Tarek

17 posts

Geek
Inactive user

#161127 1-Sep-2008 02:25

Hi Guys I've been thinking about building my HTPC for few months now and i finally going to go for it, as you guys already went through it your feedback is appreciated and it'll help me a great deal before i start ordering the parts:

MOBO
M3A78-T features the AMD 790GX graphics integrated chipset

Rams
8GB (4x2GB) 800MHz DDR2 Non-ECC Low-Latency CL4

Hard drive
Primary: 1TB Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000
Secondary: 1TB Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000

Optical Drive:
LG GGW-H20L Blu-ray Writer Review
LG GSA-H55L DVD-Writer

TV Tuner
two: ATI TV Wonder™ HD 650 Combo PCI Express

Speaker System:
I am going to use this system in my living room (3m x 5m) and I am not planning to use a receiver, is there a good wireless surround speaker system that I can hook strait to my HTPC?

Case:

I would like to go with liquid cooled case; however, i never owned one any recommendation for a roomy simple liquied cooled case?

Many thanks for your help on this,
TH

freitasm

BDFL - Memuneh
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#161134 1-Sep-2008 06:48

Tarek please open another discussion for your questions. This discussion is for showing existing HTPC setups.

kiwijunglist

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#162648 6-Sep-2008 15:32

Whats the clear cable running down to the top of your TV for?

FM antenna cable.
The cables under the matt are for the rear 5.1 speakers
I just setup so need to move the matt closer to the entertainment unit to hide the cables =)

HTPC / Home automation (home assistant) enthusiast.

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