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Random Hero posted:How is the built-in IR for the Fusion? Whichever case I go with, I will want to set it up with my Harmony One. The IR works great. I use the Harmony 890 with the built-in RF and it receives every signal just fine. I do keep my IRmon software updated on a semi annual basis and I've never had any problems. The mapping to keyboard/mouse functions work well as well. Though one thing I did do was configure the Harmony for my specific case (Antec Fusion) in the config, perhaps people have problems if they try to tell the Harmony software that it's a generic MCE box. I think you could swap for just about any display as the display/IR receiver are mounted behind glass in a standard 5.25 bay.
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# ? Jun 29, 2009 15:09 |
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# ? May 9, 2024 09:21 |
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I use a USB UIRT personally, coupled with EventGhost (freeware). http://www.usbuirt.com/ It's a USB infrared receiver AND transmitter -- so it can actually transmit codes to things as well. A little pricy, but the use i've gotten out of it already justifices the extra price.
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# ? Jun 29, 2009 16:27 |
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Figured I try a specific build and see if I could get feedback on overkill/incompatible/missing bits.
Total: $565.88 I have a 1 TB Caviar Green already. Need to play 720p (1080p a possibility in the future, can get separate graphics card later if needed) and Blu-Ray. Would prefer to use Win7 and/or XBMC.
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# ? Jun 30, 2009 16:35 |
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The Aphasian posted:Figured I try a specific build and see if I could get feedback on overkill/incompatible/missing bits. Drop down to 2gig ram, switch the e8400 processor, i'd recommend this motherboard ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131336 ) and you should be good to go! I am not sure there is a good solution for watching Blurays on your HTPC at the moment. I'm not an expert but definitely look into that before committing to a drive. What front end are you planning on using?
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# ? Jun 30, 2009 16:47 |
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TraderStav posted:Drop down to 2gig ram, switch the e8400 processor, i'd recommend this motherboard ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131336 ) and you should be good to go! I am not sure there is a good solution for watching Blurays on your HTPC at the moment. I'm not an expert but definitely look into that before committing to a drive. What front end are you planning on using? The motherboard he picked is a much better choice for XBMC than the P5Q-EM. Also, With the newer builds of XBMC having multithreading support in FFMPEG, an E6300 is probably enough to play everything.
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# ? Jun 30, 2009 16:52 |
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evilalien posted:The motherboard he picked is a much better choice for XBMC than the P5Q-EM. Also, With the newer builds of XBMC having multithreading support in FFMPEG, an E6300 is probably enough to play everything. Cool, 4 gigs of Ram is overkill though.
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# ? Jun 30, 2009 16:57 |
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Thanks guys. FYI there's a sale going on now: http://promotions.newegg.com/NEemail/June-0-2009/7th30/index-landing.html Found out here: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=3162606
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# ? Jun 30, 2009 18:41 |
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The Aphasian posted:
My only issue is some overheating problems on the northbridge/video chip. There's no fan so if you have a tight case with poor airflow it's not good. I have only had problems with this in Vista/W7 though, not in XP. Very odd, and probably due to Aero Glass.
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# ? Jun 30, 2009 18:48 |
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evilalien posted:The motherboard he picked is a much better choice for XBMC than the P5Q-EM. Also, With the newer builds of XBMC having multithreading support in FFMPEG, an E6300 is probably enough to play everything. I actually just built an HTPC with an E6300 processor to run XBMC. I tried the most demanding 1080p clips I could find and nothing dropped any frames. Even that ridiculous "killa sample" played without a hitch.
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# ? Jun 30, 2009 19:21 |
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smackfu posted:I have that motherboard with an E5200 and it has no problem playing 1080p h.264 mkv in XBMC. What does the temp stay at on the north bridge? Mine hovers around 42-45 while playing video and I just thought that was normal.
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# ? Jun 30, 2009 19:21 |
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Dobermaniac posted:What does the temp stay at on the north bridge? Mine hovers around 42-45 while playing video and I just thought that was normal.
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# ? Jun 30, 2009 19:26 |
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I'll probably hold off on the Blu-Ray drive. Still considering getting a PS3 as a Blu-Ray player.
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# ? Jun 30, 2009 19:41 |
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Anyone able to help with a blu-ray issue I've run into? I have a blu-ray drive in my PC, and I use PowerDVD9 as the player and AnyDVDHD so it will work on my HDTV. So far it's worked great, but I recently picked up Sunshine and it will not play with AnyDVD running. When I try to start it I get an error in PowerDVD that it doesn't support playback from virtual drives. If I play it without AnyDVD running it works fine, but it will only display on my monitor and not my TV. Any ideas?
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# ? Jun 30, 2009 22:49 |
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smackfu posted:My only issue is some overheating problems on the northbridge/video chip. There's no fan so if you have a tight case with poor airflow it's not good. I have only had problems with this in Vista/W7 though, not in XP. Very odd, and probably due to Aero Glass. Did you pull the heatsink off and replace the thermal grease? Somebody mentioned it in a review on Newegg so I made sure to do it when I got my board and the original thermal grease job was, in fact, a little shoddy. I've only had my system up for a few days though and haven't had a chance to see how it performs yet.
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# ? Jul 1, 2009 16:01 |
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Goldmund posted:Is anyone else considering picking up an Ion based netbook later this year for use as an HTPC? If they live up to the promised performance, it should be able to easily handle 1080p content. And I really like the option of being able to take it with me when visiting parents or friends. The only thing I think I would miss is blu-ray playback, but that could easily be remedied with a PS3 or standalone player. I used to use a dell e1505 as my htpc. But after using it a while I realized a real htpc is much better. For portable htpc you should just get a network streamer like the popcorn hour or xtreamer... just my opinion after using a variety of htpc solutions
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# ? Jul 2, 2009 15:23 |
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I've been wanting to build/buy an HTPC for months now but I'm horrible at pulling the trigger. Found what looks to be a decent setup on Craigslist - what do you guys think? code:
Seller claims it was built only a month ago and is looking for $300 OBO. I'm looking for something low power and all but my main concern is this playing back everything I throw at it and working well with XBMC. From what I can tell it will playback 1080p fine, but not so nicely with XBMC (have to use an external player?). Should I try to snag this at $280-300 cash or spend the extra $100-200 and build one as has been recommended in this thread (5200 CPU - GeForce 9300 etc. etc.)?
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# ? Jul 8, 2009 01:50 |
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The external player for XBMC is really just a hack as it isn't well integrated (no XBMC skin overlays, have to set up seperate remote profile for whatever you are launching, etc.). If you are dead set on using XBMC, I highly recommend the better hardware, otherwise you can try to live with XBMC with external player, or use something like Media Portal. You could also pick up a cheap nvidia card and use linux XBMC for hardware acceleration support.
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# ? Jul 8, 2009 02:01 |
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Jook posted:I've been wanting to build/buy an HTPC for months now but I'm horrible at pulling the trigger. I strongly recommend that you at least go with a dual core processor for cases where you want to play something that can't be accelerated. And 45w dual core processors do exist, and even the 55 and 65w ones won't increase the power or heat that much either. I personally would go for a better video card as well. Even a 780g based mainboard would be a better choice
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# ? Jul 10, 2009 13:23 |
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So I built my dad an HTPC, but we're having problems with audio. The O/S is Windows 7. The system has an HDMI port that should, theoretically, be all we need for audio and video. It has: Motherboard: BIOSTAR T41-A7 LGA 775 Intel G41 ATX Intel Motherboard The motherboard has (Integrated): Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X4500 Realtek ALC662 6-Channel HD Audio It has no native HDMI out. It has a DSUB and DVI out. Video Card: MSI N9400GT-MD512H GeForce 9400 GT 512MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 Video Card - Retail49026275 I ran a SPDIF out from the header on the board to the graphics card. Is this just a passthrough? Does the 9400 do anything to the signal? Does the Realtek ALC662 do anything? How does it know what to send over the port when playing protected, normal, or whatever-the-gently caress content? Doesn't the audio signal on an HDMI out get downmixed and/or compressed in the case of protected content? I see a lot of motherboard manufacturers who have a driver that creates an HDMI Audio out. For example, I found an nforce "HDMI Audio" driver, as well as an Intel G41 Graphics driver download that contains an HDMI driver / folder. I have no idea what these are for or why they are necessary. I tried to install both for grins, but both said that their required hardware was not present. I can't see why the integrated graphics would need to be enabled to install a driver that, if I am correct that the PCI-E disables the Integrated Device, would cause a catch 22 that would never allow you to install the graphics cards... sound driver? I also am not clear whether or not the existence of a PCI-E card will always disable the onboard graphics chip. It was too late to test this out, but we'll be doing that tonight. I would imagine this is true. The Noble Nobbler fucked around with this message at 23:57 on Jul 10, 2009 |
# ? Jul 10, 2009 18:34 |
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Those drivers don't install because you don't have a true HDMI audio device. Instead, your graphics card just takes optical audio (from the Realtek) and spits it out over HDMI. You need to set your primary sound device to be the Realtek digital output (s/pdif).
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# ? Jul 10, 2009 22:32 |
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Another sound card and an onboard sound card can both exist in the same machine and be enabled, it'll just add more entries to Windows' available sound device listing. Set your output device to be your chosen sound card's digital audio output and see if that works. Audio over HDMI is still a bit finnicky on the PC, and using an unfinished operating system probably doesn't help anything. It could also just as easily be your video card drivers loving it up as your sound card drivers. You did run the cable between the sound card and the video card, right?
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# ? Jul 11, 2009 12:47 |
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Can someone recommend a good wireless keyboard/mouse combo for my htpc setup? I need a range of atleast 10 ft.
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# ? Jul 11, 2009 20:51 |
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Hughmoris posted:Can someone recommend a good wireless keyboard/mouse combo for my htpc setup? I need a range of atleast 10 ft. Dinovo Mini, hands down.
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# ? Jul 11, 2009 21:14 |
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TheScott2K posted:Another sound card and an onboard sound card can both exist in the same machine and be enabled, it'll just add more entries to Windows' available sound device listing. Set your output device to be your chosen sound card's digital audio output and see if that works. Audio over HDMI is still a bit finnicky on the PC, and using an unfinished operating system probably doesn't help anything. It could also just as easily be your video card drivers loving it up as your sound card drivers. Yeah, the SPDIF on the board connects to the card. There's no digital out on the backpanel of the motherboard. Normal windows sounds are fine, but anything else is garbage that sounds like square waves. No clue what format is coming out of that cable. I'd guess the SPDIF is just a straight pass through but I have no clue what data is being pumped over it. The TV that's decoding it, or, well, not decoding anything most likely, is the only HDMI input we have so it's getting the audio for now until we get a splitter. I bet that it only supports some really strict uncompressed stereo digital signal, but who knows
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# ? Jul 11, 2009 21:42 |
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TraderStav posted:Dinovo Mini, hands down. I like the Edge as well. The mini would drive me crazy.
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# ? Jul 13, 2009 15:52 |
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I got one of these and liked it, when I did use it http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823166079 Trackball can be a bit fiddly and takes getting used to, and if you type too fast it might drop strokes, but it works. That Dinovo mini looks pretty slick. Any other products in that vein anyone knows of, or a blackberry app to do that?
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# ? Jul 14, 2009 00:37 |
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The Noble Nobbler posted:Normal windows sounds are fine, but anything else is garbage that sounds like square waves. No clue what format is coming out of that cable. I'd guess the SPDIF is just a straight pass through but I have no clue what data is being pumped over it. The TV that's decoding it, or, well, not decoding anything most likely, is the only HDMI input we have so it's getting the audio for now until we get a splitter. I bet that it only supports some really strict uncompressed stereo digital signal, but who knows Sounds like maybe your TV is trying to play back a digital bitstream (e.g. DTS or DD) as uncompressed PCM? When you say "anything else," what are you specifically testing with? DVDs? Video/audio files? What are you using for playback?
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# ? Jul 14, 2009 21:26 |
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What software package are you guys using for your HTPCs? Boxee? XBMC? I'm kind of out of the loop here.
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# ? Jul 14, 2009 23:31 |
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MediaPortal for me, it seems the most user-configurable as far as a TV server goes
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# ? Jul 15, 2009 03:41 |
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Residency Evil posted:What software package are you guys using for your HTPCs? Boxee? XBMC? I'm kind of out of the loop here. Check out the Front End thread http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=2874933 There is a lot of good information there. For me, I'm using Vista MCE and drat do I hate it.
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# ? Jul 15, 2009 05:33 |
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Just built: Antec NSK2480 case Western Digital WD10EADS 1TB x 3, 2 of them for a 1TB RAID and another 1TB for an easily-wiped startup disk. Core 2 Duo E8400 4GB Corsair PC2-8500 (the mobo only goes up to 800MHz but this was a REALLY good deal at the time. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001JIAJ9E/ref=ox_ya_oh_product"]Asus P5N7A-VM, GeForce 9300/nForce 730i Gyration RF wireless keyboard/mouse This is running OS X 10.5.6 Leopard with everything (HD Audio, protected content over HDMI, etc) working. Boxee for the front end. This system is great. I have fifteen torrents running and I can still playback 1080P h.264 HD video from the hard disk and backup both my Macbook and my wife's via time machine over wifi without dropping frames. This is plugged into my Samsung HLT-5689S. Thinking of adding a couple TV tuners but I don't even have cable right now, so there isn't much point. Maybe in the near future. EIDE Van Hagar fucked around with this message at 20:58 on Jul 15, 2009 |
# ? Jul 15, 2009 20:53 |
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My HTPC has onboard video with native HDMI out, and plays 1080 no problem. However, I've wanted to play a few simple games and it just isn't up to the task (Radeon Mobility 1200.) I mean, I can play Audiosurf with some settings down, and the new Wallace & Gromit adventure games, but I'd like to wind up AA and such. So, I figure I can get away with some REALLY cheap card that has HDMI out (native connector preferred as I have limited space behind the PC for adapter plugs) and perhaps hardware decoding? A quick look reveals I could get away with $50 or less, depending on how much grunt I want. And so long as I'm happy with DVI out. Any recommendations beyond "anything would be better, really"?
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# ? Jul 16, 2009 03:35 |
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b3t3 n0ir3 posted:Just built: What are you using for wifi (motherboard doesnt come with it according to Amazon)? Is it n?
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# ? Jul 16, 2009 07:03 |
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This my my hobo HTPC, which I just build out of old PC parts: Intel 3GHZ 1.5GB RAM GeForce4 TI 4400 AGP 250GB HD 200GB HD Ubuntu 9.04 XBMC 9.04 Now here's my question. I've got this and my desktop PC (w/ E8400 and 8800GT, so it's chunky and hunky) in my bedroom, and it's making things warm in here. (And it can't help that I live in Flordia.) Do I have any options that would reduce the heat produced by my HTPC? I already revamped my PC's cooling, but that was to keep it's contents from overheating. Anyone else familiar with my situation? Do I just have to deal with the heat? Am I stupid for having two computers in one room?
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# ? Jul 18, 2009 20:40 |
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The only thing you can really do is replace parts with more efficient low power options. Also be a bit more aggressive with the power options in the OS but I haven't found that to help too much.
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# ? Jul 18, 2009 22:42 |
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evilalien posted:The only thing you can really do is replace parts with more efficient low power options. Also be a bit more aggressive with the power options in the OS but I haven't found that to help too much. Yeah, that's what I was thinking. I can't right now because I'm unemployed, but I'm planning to make a 'real' HTPC with new parts and an HTPC case anyways.
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# ? Jul 19, 2009 00:29 |
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Revol posted:Do I have any options that would reduce the heat produced by my HTPC? I already revamped my PC's cooling, but that was to keep it's contents from overheating. I'm sure you know this by now, but improving cooling isn't going to change the amount of heat your PC puts out. All that power going in has to come out somehow, and thermodynamics says that somehow is heat. The only way you're going to make less heat is by putting in less power. Like evilalien said, a more efficient power supply would be one place to start. Past that, you may want to take a look into undervolting. I don't know how well it works with a P4 (I'm assuming that's what you have given the rest of your components), but check out this article for the basics. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/undervolt-cpu-phenom,2348.html Then again, there's no reason you couldn't do this with your desktop as well.
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# ? Jul 19, 2009 03:47 |
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Revol posted:Do I have any options that would reduce the heat produced by my HTPC? I already revamped my PC's cooling, but that was to keep it's contents from overheating. Underclock it. You'll obviously get lesser performance...
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# ? Jul 19, 2009 05:43 |
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It looks like the motherboard on my HTPC can only be overclocked.
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# ? Jul 19, 2009 17:48 |
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# ? May 9, 2024 09:21 |
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Revol posted:It looks like the motherboard on my HTPC can only be overclocked. :( That is kind of hard to believe
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# ? Jul 20, 2009 00:52 |