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TheScott2K posted:Vista's Media Center is still quite good, though h.264 support takes some tweaking and an install of something called the "TV Pack 2008." It supports all the same third-party software, codecs, and drivers as 7, supports EVR, and I'm pretty sure there is a Boxee and XBMC launcher available for its Media Center. If you have a license lying around I suggest giving it a shot. Right. The one big thing that 7MC has over Vista is CableCARD support on more than just OEM machines. If you're planning on using the upcoming Ceton quad-tuner CableCARD device or the HD Homerun CableCARD, you can't do it with Vista on non-OEM PCs.
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Mar 12, 2010 03:18
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Brock Landers posted:Right. The one big thing that 7MC has over Vista is CableCARD support on more than just OEM machines. If you're planning on using the upcoming Ceton quad-tuner CableCARD device or the HD Homerun CableCARD, you can't do it with Vista on non-OEM PCs. Marky Mark's greatest role is right, non-OEM CableCard on Vista is only possible with a very narrow set of hardware and a fair amount of trickery, most of which isn't worth the effort just to avoid finding a way to get a cheap 7 license.
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Mar 12, 2010 03:45
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BorderPatrol posted:Linux will give you VPDAU acceleration on video, but you won't be able to run some browser-based streaming line Hulu and Netflix. I might mess with Linux then. I don't really care about Netflix and Hulu, more like ripping my assload of DVDs and having a nice frontend to play them by over the network. I'll give it a shot, my Linux/CLI is so-so, how crazy is it to get it working? Is there a good forum or setup guide for Ubuntu (or whatever the flavor of the week is) XBMC and VPDAU?
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Mar 12, 2010 04:12
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KKKLIP ART posted:I might mess with Linux then. I don't really care about Netflix and Hulu, more like ripping my assload of DVDs and having a nice frontend to play them by over the network. I'll give it a shot, my Linux/CLI is so-so, how crazy is it to get it working? Is there a good forum or setup guide for Ubuntu (or whatever the flavor of the week is) XBMC and VPDAU? Personally, if all you want to do is XBMC then what I like to do is just install the XBMC Live distro straight to the harddrive. Boots up quickly and right into XBMC, no configuration necessary. If you'd rather have a full Ubuntu install, the XBMC Wiki has a step-by-step tutorial guide.
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Mar 12, 2010 04:17
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BorderPatrol posted:Personally, if all you want to do is XBMC then what I like to do is just install the XBMC Live distro straight to the harddrive. Boots up quickly and right into XBMC, no configuration necessary. Rad, thanks man/woman 
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Mar 12, 2010 04:22
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Has anyone tried out/had any positive experiences with the Fit-PC2? http://www.fit-pc.com/web/ It looks perfect for people who aren't looking for much more than an easy way to serve files from a network or play whatever 160 gigs worth of video will get you. Specs look decent enough to emulate old game systems, which is what I'm looking for, and you can't beat the footprint/energy savings. I'm curious to hear any success stories.
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Mar 12, 2010 05:00
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KKKLIP ART posted:I might mess with Linux then. I don't really care about Netflix and Hulu, more like ripping my assload of DVDs and having a nice frontend to play them by over the network. I'll give it a shot, my Linux/CLI is so-so, how crazy is it to get it working? Is there a good forum or setup guide for Ubuntu (or whatever the flavor of the week is) XBMC and VPDAU? You shouldn't need hardware acceleration to play back DVD rips.
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Mar 12, 2010 20:56
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Thermopyle posted:You shouldn't need hardware acceleration to play back DVD rips. True, but if you've got the hardware that is capable of MPEG2 acceleration in addition to the traditional MPEG4/H264/etc acceleration, might as well take advantage of it and reduce your power consumption and heat production, right? At this point, building a new HTPC that can't do VDPAU and/or DXVA is a pretty bad idea.
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Mar 12, 2010 23:20
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Thermopyle posted:You shouldn't need hardware acceleration to play back DVD rips. It could be a help if you want to do some nice upscaling with FFDShow.
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Mar 13, 2010 22:27
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The Ceton quad-tuner CableCARD device is up for pre-order: http://hd.engadget.com/2010/03/13/cetons-quad-cablecard-tuner-for-media-center-available-for-pre/ Ship date slipped to May 31st though.
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Mar 14, 2010 13:48
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Brock Landers posted:The Ceton quad-tuner CableCARD device is up for pre-order: http://hd.engadget.com/2010/03/13/cetons-quad-cablecard-tuner-for-media-center-available-for-pre/ If only my HTPC had a PCI-E slot... that thing still gives me a hardon though.
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Mar 14, 2010 20:20
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Anyone know if there is a program to control hdavi or viera link stuff over the hdmi cable from the htpc?
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Mar 14, 2010 20:41
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I've been happy with PS3 Media Server, but I want to watch MLB.tv on the big screen this season. Is an Acer Revo with the Atom 330 the best pre-built HTPC option for me? It looks like it would be quieter and cheaper than anything I could custom build. I don't need DVR or blu-ray playback with this thing. I'm also looking at getting a Drobo with 4 x 1.5TB drives and directly attaching it to my regular desktop and share it over the network. Boxee or XMBC could then play all my video content over the network. Anything wrong with my brilliant plan?
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Mar 14, 2010 21:34
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Brock Landers posted:The Ceton quad-tuner CableCARD device is up for pre-order: http://hd.engadget.com/2010/03/13/cetons-quad-cablecard-tuner-for-media-center-available-for-pre/ Grr. I'm angry about Dish Network not having any sort of similar solution.
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Mar 14, 2010 21:43
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Thermopyle posted:Grr. I'm angry about Dish Network not having any sort of similar solution. I've always thought the same thing. It would be neat if one of the satellite providers would come out with a multi-tuner card. They could charge the same as a STB, maybe a little more and still get a healthy number of enthusiasts. Plus there wouldn't be the messy CableCARD/DRM issues and headaches to deal with.
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Mar 15, 2010 00:32
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Kind of a different setup here that I'd like to build. I have a IPTV box which receives TV from Sweden (SVT World) over the internet. I'd like to build a cheap PVR to record programs off of it. It has an SVideo and analog audio outputs, so nothing too complicated. Scheduling can be acheived via xmltv. Any suggestions for a rig for this setup? I was thinking that one of those Acer Atom processor mini machines with a USB TV Tuner might work? Any suggestions would be appreciated.
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Mar 16, 2010 00:32
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Mister Fister posted:Is there any reason whatsoever to buy the new ion 2 nettops that are coming out for HTPC's? I notice that acer is going to do a revo on this new architecture as well... I'm starting to look into the something like this now. I just had both harddrives die on my HTPC (everything's backed up to a USB drive, so no worries) but if I'm dropping a few hundred on hard drives I'm going to consider other routes as well. It seems like the hardware's there now to use a netbook as an HTPC. You'll end up with a small form factor that's quiet, and you can just throw USB harddrives at the thing as your library grows. There are several good USB tuners out there now too. The netbooks tend to be quieter than even most quiet rated fans, in my experience, so as long as your hard drives aren't too loud it'll be almost silent. You may have to watch for overheating, but just make sure it's raised off the ground. You also end up with a neatly modular and portable system. You can take the thing over to a buddy's place to watch recorded TV if you want. All I need to figure out is whether they have the guts for all the different HD compression schemes, and if there are reasonable options if I decide to go the bluray route at some point. They're supposed to be able to stream HD, but I don't know if that means they'll have the decoding power to stream something really compressed. I'm also not sure what the Canadian price point of something like the Acer Aspire One 532G is going to be. T.C. fucked around with this message at 08:22 on Mar 16, 2010 |
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Mar 16, 2010 08:13
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I have an Acer Aspire Revo 3610 - does anyone else with this system play any games on it? I wanna play some FPS but I have no idea which ones will work, I haven't gamed in a long time...
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Mar 16, 2010 13:27
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I am thinking of making (more likely purchasing since I have so little time these days) an HTPC for use in my living room. It should be able to handle streaming video from netflix/hulu and a card for video capture. Anything that can work to replace my TIVO gets extra points. Output method is not terribly important since my TV can handle VGA or HDMI. I don't particularly care about HD video at this point but I suppose some future-proofing in that arena wouldn't be a terrible idea. Ideally, I would like low power consumption and some quiet fans. I don't plan on using it for heavy gaming so the video card is not too much of a priority. I would, however,like to play some old SNES/PSX games on my big screen via emulation. Bear in mind that I am very comfortable with tinkering; if I have to add in some components, that would be fine. Any thoughts or suggestions? Thanks in advance. Largejaroalmonds fucked around with this message at 16:09 on Mar 16, 2010 |
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Mar 16, 2010 16:05
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Largejaroalmonds posted:I am thinking of making (more likely purchasing since I have so little time these days) an HTPC for use in my living room. Well, the good thing is virtually any HTPC platform can decode HD through the video card, so even if you don't need it now you'll have it in the future. On the AMD side, an x2 240/245 + 785G board is low power and could handle what you need. You can even find "low power" 45w x2 240s for about $20 more if you want. On the Intel side, an i3 530 + H55 motherboard would do the same thing, and by all accounts it's as good if not better for power consumption - neither one consumes more than 150w under load. If you want SD recording, it's pretty trivial - there are dozens of NTSC tuners that you can buy for old fashioned analog cable. Alternatively, an Acer Revo or Dell Zino will do everything you want as well, although for DVR functionality you'd have to get a USB tuner/video capture unit. ANYTHING you buy today can handle SNES and probably PSX emulation as well.
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Mar 16, 2010 16:43
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Crackbone posted:Well, the good thing is virtually any HTPC platform can decode HD through the video card, so even if you don't need it now you'll have it in the future. Given the choice between a Revo or a Zino, which would you choose? My big concern is the atom processor on the Revos. Not too sure about that choice in general. Largejaroalmonds fucked around with this message at 22:06 on Mar 16, 2010 |
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Mar 16, 2010 22:02
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Largejaroalmonds posted:Given the choice between a Revo or a Zino, which would you choose? The revo is excellent, I have all my emulators on it and it does everything up to N64 with ease. I don't have any PSX stuff. 1080p content is a breeze with DXVA or VDPAU. Only downside is Hulu doesn't play perfectly (its acceptable) but Flash hardware acceleration is new and still in beta so it will only get better. Only needs a bit of improvement and it will be perfect, I don't really care about that though cause I will be picking up a tuner card so I can record my own stuff, hulu video quality is pretty spotty and sucks sometimes, and I also don't want to be too dependent on it because of all the rumors about it going to a pay model.
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Mar 17, 2010 14:31
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We picked up a Revo 3610, a 1.5TB external, and a Siig MCE remote over the weekend at Fry's and I'm more than pleased with the setup. So far it has played everything we've thrown at it flawlessly, it's dead silent, and has been rock solid stable. Since the xbmc site was down I copied my portable xbmc install from my bedroom machine (since it had the skins, installers, plugins etc already) to the Revo and configured the shares. I was tempted to try xbmc live but it's nice to be able to alt-tab into Windows 7 for youtube/web/email etc. The remote worked right out of the box, that surprised me honestly (of course if I press the MCE button my 360 comes on, have to find a workaround on that one) I'm considering a USB tuner card for DVR duties but most of what I'd want to record comes in over our cable company's premium HD tier.
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Mar 17, 2010 15:41
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Owsla posted:(of course if I press the MCE button my 360 comes on, have to find a workaround on that one) Under system settings there's an option to tell it to ignore MCE button presses on anything but a dedicated 360 remote.
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Mar 17, 2010 15:49
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Haha, awesome. Thank you 
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Mar 17, 2010 16:16
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Is there a good remote or keyboard solution that is easy to use for XBMC purposes?
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Mar 18, 2010 04:03
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KKKLIP ART posted:Is there a good remote or keyboard solution that is easy to use for XBMC purposes? if you're patient, that new boxee box remote coming out looks amazing
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Mar 18, 2010 04:11
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I'm not sure that only having "Menu" and D-Pad keys will be useful for XBMC. Is there a way to conditionally configure the same button to be different menus in different screens? On MCE remote I had to separately wire up "Guide" and "DVD Menu" buttons to launch item context menu and DVD playback menu respectively in different XBMC screens.
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Mar 18, 2010 04:51
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KKKLIP ART posted:Is there a good remote or keyboard solution that is easy to use for XBMC purposes? If you're looking for something with a keyboard, both the Logtech DiNovo Mini and the Lenovo Multimedia Remote are available now. If you have an iPhone/iPod Touch the XBMC remote app should handle most of your functions as well.
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Mar 18, 2010 05:02
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BorderPatrol posted:If you have an iPhone/iPod Touch the XBMC remote app should handle most of your functions as well. Oh hell yes, this is awesome.
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Mar 18, 2010 14:29
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KKKLIP ART posted:Is there a good remote or keyboard solution that is easy to use for XBMC purposes? Yes. Get a universal remote that allows for IR learning and then buy a super cheap PC remote. Learn the PC remote commands to the universal remote. Those cheap PC remotes just push keyboard keys. One less remote to have laying around. If someone could give me their recommendation, I'd appreciate it. I've completely given up on getting XBMC to play ISO files nicely so I am just going to rip my DVD collection sans special features/menus/etc. I just want to rip the main movie to one big mpeg file. I can rip to VOB just fine but I can't find a program that will take the main movie and just take the mpeg file out of it without re-compressing it. Any help would be appreciated.
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Mar 18, 2010 16:09
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Crackbone posted:Well, the good thing is virtually any HTPC platform can decode HD through the video card, so even if you don't need it now you'll have it in the future. Unless the real reason you want i3 is because of bitstreaming you can even go lower end with like a Celeron E3300 and a cheap 775 mainboard. The E3300 is dual core, supports virtualization, and x64 and is basically a Dual Core E5000 in a smaller die. I have a similar system running a GF8600GT and it's pretty much has run everything I've thrown at it, and for under 125W.
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Mar 18, 2010 16:11
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Have you looked at Handbrake? I've used it to compress DVD files into various formats, but I seem to recall there being an option to do a straight conversion. Also, what's your issue with ISO files in XBMC? I only have a couple and they seem to work just fine.
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Mar 18, 2010 16:12
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EC posted:Also, what's your issue with ISO files in XBMC? I only have a couple and they seem to work just fine. Despite other video files looking fine they seem to suffer from horrendous interlacing problems. I'd also like to use some nice FFDShow filters to make my (lossless) DVD rips upscale much nicer and in ISO format this is not an option thanks to DSPlayer not supporting ISO files.
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Mar 18, 2010 18:03
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Thanks for the help in choosing a system. I have ordered a Revo. One further question: In regard to remote controls, what are the opinions on the best way to go? Primarily concerned with video playback in Boxee (or possibly XBMC) rather than things like music. I already have a Phillips SRU8010/37 for my TV. If there is some way to make that work, that'd be swell.
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Mar 18, 2010 21:50
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Largejaroalmonds posted:Thanks for the help in choosing a system. I have ordered a Revo. There's a few recommendations 4 posts above yours.
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Mar 18, 2010 23:04
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Ok here's a question. I put together an htpc a few weeks ago and I get stutters and frame skips quite frequently when recording shows in HD from my antenna. My two suspected culprits are either the tuner or the harddrive. I had an extra Western Digital Green harddrive so I am currently using that and the tuner I got was a Hauppauge 950Q USB. I am suspecting the harddrive since if comskip ever starts running while I am watching a show it basically makes it unwatchable but it occured to me that maybe the tuner is horrible as well. I don't really know. Anyone have any experience with the 950Q? I know it's USB and thus fairly CPU reliant but I have a core2duo cpu (can't remember the clockspeed but it's older) and 4gigs of ram. I suppose I should look into a western digital Black drive?
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Mar 19, 2010 00:12
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What OS are you on? The new WD Green drives need a bit of prep before they'll work on XP or 2003. No idea about Linux. I had abysmal performance using one as a system drive for WHS because I didn't read up and set the correct jumper before format.
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Mar 19, 2010 00:17
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It's Vista 32bit Oh and it's a 1.5Tb green drive if that makes a difference
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Mar 19, 2010 04:13
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Got my system all set up. Acer Revo 1600 with an extra gig of RAM. Installed Win7 32-bit on it and added a cheapo Media Center remote. Getting OTA HD with the junky Kworld ATSC adapter. I changed the video RAM to 512MB and installed the Ion LE drivers to see it as an ION. Installed Flash 10.1 beta 3 as well. Hulu on HuluDesktop works great. Maybe 10 sec of stutters then 100% perfect after that for Hulu videos. HuluDesktop's interface, however, is slow as dirt on the machine. I installed Boxee to see if I could watch Daily Show, but it seems to be the opposite of HuluDesktop. The interface is pretty usable, but the video runs horribly. Also installed Maximus Arcade for emulators so I can shelve the modded Xbox dying on my floor. Interface is kinda slow, but I couldn't find any alternatives. I think EmuCenter only works on Vista, but I could be mistaken. Overall, I'm pretty satisfied
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Mar 19, 2010 15:05
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