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dutchbstrd posted:What do you think of this setup? Its not too bad when you take out the price of the speakers. It looks good. The only thing I'd change is the hard drives. I'm not sure how much I trust Samsung hard drives. I work in IT and I didn't know they even had a line of them. I also don't see any information about them having a warranty. If you wanted to save a tiny bit of money and lose a bit of space you could get a couple 400 GB Seagates for $99 which come with 5 year warrantys.
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May 9, 2007 00:19
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JohnnyBravo posted:It looks good. The only thing I'd change is the hard drives. I'm not sure how much I trust Samsung hard drives. I work in IT and I didn't know they even had a line of them. I also don't see any information about them having a warranty. If you wanted to save a tiny bit of money and lose a bit of space you could get a couple 400 GB Seagates for $99 which come with 5 year warrantys. I highly suggest this. Edit: To add something more to this thread. I am pretty competant building an htpc, but I have something more sophisticated in mind for my next build so I would love some input. First, I want a case that really fits in with A/V components. I have only ever built into a normal case. I have looked mainly at Silverstone cases and like the designs. Is anyone familiar with any other companies? I am looking for a case with good build quality, and I would likely prefer one that will accept full size cards. My receiver is fairly large, so something along that line would not bother me. Second, I think I want to go with Vista for my new system. Is anyone familiar with how well VistaMCE handles media. Are there any other programs or seperate plugins that work well with Vista? Absolut_V fucked around with this message at 02:29 on May 9, 2007 |
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May 9, 2007 01:53
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Alright. I'll probably go with Seagate. I'm also going to get a better PSU because the one with that case probably blows. I'll get some Antec 400watt or so.
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May 9, 2007 02:46
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I apologize if this is a stupid question... I've pretty much switched to Macs for most of my computing so I've lost track of PC hardware. I have a Athlon 64 3500, 2GB ram, Geforce 6800GS 256MB pci express. I am getting a 1080p-capable HDTV and would like to hook up a computer. If my goal is a HTPC which will play back any file format that is common today (including 1080p content) without skipping or any other issues, how are my specs compared to what would be needed? What formats/resolutions/bitrates would I start to have trouble at? david06 fucked around with this message at 09:11 on May 9, 2007 |
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May 9, 2007 09:05
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I've been thinking about buying a MonolithMC box as a HTPC/DVR, anyone heard anything bad/good about them? Also, is it hard to install my own wireless card in it? Here's the site for reference: https://monolithmc.com
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May 9, 2007 20:14
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Absolut_V posted:I highly suggest this. For what it's worth, I've been pleased as punch with my Arisetec HT400-B. Looks pimp, good ventilation, plenty of room, though installing the CD drive is a serious pain in the rear end if you don't have a good long screwdriver. Probably tough to find however, but I can vouch for Arisetec quality, anyway.
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May 10, 2007 00:29
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can anyone recommend me the best HD TV Tuner card right now for Windows Vista Media Center? Thanks!
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May 11, 2007 04:28
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I am converting an extra machine of mine to be a HTPC. Athlon XP Barton 2500+ @ 2.1Ghz 1 GB Ram Radeon 9700 Pro An old IRMAN serial IR receiver to use an old remote control for input I order a hauppauge dvr-150 card for analog channels, and a HDHomerun for QAM digital and HD. I have currently setup Media Portal, with out the tuners, and it works pretty well for playing back videos and what not. I have a couple of questions: Should I consider another front ends other than Media Portal? I have read others in this thread talk about Myth, Sage, Meedio, etc, but theres not been much talk about the strengths and weeknesses of each. Secondly, 1080p H.264 play back is pretty much limited to Blu-ray or HD-DVD, right? That is to say, no tuner card or what ever records HD in H.264, correct?
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May 14, 2007 02:31
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Does anybody know if any of the Radeon HD 2x00 cards will be offered in AGP? And can anyone explain what their sound capability is - if it's just a passthru or and actual sound-making chip?
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May 14, 2007 21:43
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Well, I'm down to the power supply unit I want to get. I'm thinking the Silverstone ST40F solely because it has six SATA power connectors. Is there anything else I should be considering?
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May 16, 2007 12:14
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Lowen SoDium posted:Should I consider another front ends other than Media Portal? I have read others in this thread talk about Myth, Sage, Meedio, etc, but theres not been much talk about the strengths and weeknesses of each. Being an avid sage user, I can say with full confidence that sage will 100% support your setup. Though sage is not freeware. Plus, with sage, you can use hauppauge's MVP hardware as an extender for any other TVs in your home which will completely run sage's software instead of the hauppauge garbage. V-Men posted:Well, I'm down to the power supply unit I want to get. I'm thinking the Silverstone ST40F solely because it has six SATA power connectors. Is there anything else I should be considering? I am a man who appreciates efficiency, noise reduction, and reliability. For an HTPC, I don't think you should need more then 300 watts personally. having the "next best thing in gigantic PSUs" typically leads to unused power and alot of extra plugs to try to tuck away somewhere. Not to mention the excess cooling and typically louder fans. (based on personal experiences)
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May 16, 2007 16:40
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Lowen SoDium posted:Should I consider another front ends other than Media Portal? I have read others in this thread talk about Myth, Sage, Meedio, etc, but theres not been much talk about the strengths and weeknesses of each. While I consider Meedio to be the best media front-end around, its weakness is in the fact that it is no longer really supported. Yahoo! bought out the IP awhile ago, and have only released I think two version since then, neither one doing a lot for the product besides integrating some Yahoo! services (along with adverts, IIRC). Because of that, it's relatively difficult for Meedio to support new TV Tuner devices. There is a chance that your tuners will work, but its hit or miss. I still recommend it as the primo front-end if you don't need a PVR, though. And even then, it can fairly easy integrate with the likes of Sage and BeyondTV through the use of importers and what-not, so you can get the best of both worlds.
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May 16, 2007 17:00
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FidgetyRat posted:I am a man who appreciates efficiency, noise reduction, and reliability. For an HTPC, I don't think you should need more then 300 watts personally. having the "next best thing in gigantic PSUs" typically leads to unused power and alot of extra plugs to try to tuck away somewhere. Not to mention the excess cooling and typically louder fans. (based on personal experiences) Yeah, mainly I need at least three SATA power connectors and the motherboard supports up to six SATA devices, so I figured, "Hey, why not get a PSU with six SATA power connectors, just in case I end up using all six connections?"
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May 16, 2007 21:19
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JohnnyBravo posted:It looks good. The only thing I'd change is the hard drives. I'm not sure how much I trust Samsung hard drives. I work in IT and I didn't know they even had a line of them. I also don't see any information about them having a warranty. If you wanted to save a tiny bit of money and lose a bit of space you could get a couple 400 GB Seagates for $99 which come with 5 year warrantys. They are decent drives. Not the fastest on the block but typically are among the quietest, and they mostly sell in OEM deals. The warranty is three years. Look up some reviews on some sites and you'll see they are pretty decent drives, just hard to find. I know my experience isn't much but I've used them for the past five years on several machines without issues.
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May 17, 2007 01:18
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I'm pretty confused with videocards at the moment. I'm getting a LN-T4665F (or maybe the 40" model) and I wanted a videocard that did HDMI. I've got a Nvidia 6600 now, and I could use the DVI out on it, but is it really needed? I know a few cards out now support HDMI, but are they good enough to run anything special? The most I'd do is run 720p stuff (based on what I've read I could do that fairly easily if I turn everything else off in the background). I might even be able to swing 1080p if I partition and do a super stripped down version of XP with the bare minimum needed to get it going. E: Is the M2A-VM worth it to get it for the HDMI support? What kind of juice would I need to get that running 1080p? KKKLIP ART fucked around with this message at 04:58 on May 17, 2007 |
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May 17, 2007 04:55
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I went out and bought a new HTPC setup with a NVIDIA 8600 card and just installed Vista on a clean partition. What I'm confused about now is how to get the HD Pure Video working. I've been through their website, installed drivers and even got their NVIDIA HD decoder. I'm worried that this feature only works with HD-DVD and Bluray drives and not compressed content running off the hard disc. Anyone know what exactly you need to do to utilize Pure Video?
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May 17, 2007 06:27
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Hi, Just got a clean install of Windows Media Center Edition up and running. Installed the usual group of codecs (Defiler pak, ffdshow, media player classic, etc). Yet MCE does not play back HiDef .TS or .MKV files (plays 720p XViD files). Media Player Classic has no problem with these formats. Any ideas?
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May 17, 2007 16:18
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Randi Challenger posted:I'm pretty confused with videocards at the moment. I'm getting a LN-T4665F (or maybe the 40" model) and I wanted a videocard that did HDMI. I've got a Nvidia 6600 now, and I could use the DVI out on it, but is it really needed? I know a few cards out now support HDMI, but are they good enough to run anything special? The most I'd do is run 720p stuff (based on what I've read I could do that fairly easily if I turn everything else off in the background). I might even be able to swing 1080p if I partition and do a super stripped down version of XP with the bare minimum needed to get it going. All you really get by going with HDMI is the ability to pass through audio and HDCP support. Until you need HDCP to playback HD video there is no need to upgrade to an HDMI card.
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May 18, 2007 11:10
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Juriko posted:All you really get by going with HDMI is the ability to pass through audio and HDCP support. Until you need HDCP to playback HD video there is no need to upgrade to an HDMI card. Ok, so just stick with DVI for now. Most of the stuff that is on my computer are DVD's i've ripped to it for ease of use and some extra space (my room is like 10x10 and having a shelf for the DVDs takes up a ton of space). Thanks for the help!
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May 18, 2007 17:06
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ok, so this is a big technical question. I will be selling off my old HTPC soon and replacing it with a much smaller, lighter and overall better machine. I somehow got it into my head that I want to run MythTV as off a locked bootable thumbdrive so that, like an appliance, the thing is unmodifiable and should theoretically be rock solid after setup. The problem is I am not a huge linux person, and while I understand the "simple" walkthroughs you can find I don't want to have to install linux on the box, spend an hour in bash, and then not be able to boot the thing. I am curious to know if anyone here has tried this setup before, and if they found a easier way to do it, or at least a simpler walkthrough. I have a few ideas to try when I get home tonight, but non of them are that promising to be honest. Right now I would just be happy to get a stripped down version of knoppix running stably and move on from there. As I said, the idea is that after this is done I will have a perfect install that more or less can't corrupt itself, and can be refreshed just by deleting some system config files.
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May 18, 2007 20:59
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I just picked up a new TV and would like to turn my current desktop computer into a HTPC. I have a print out of what I currently have.[/url] As you can see it's a Dell Dimension 8400. I'm trying to find out if it is ATX. Does anyone know? I think a while ago I found out it wasn't. A few things I want it to do: Watch/Record HD/SD Programing Store Movie Backups Here's what I have that I tihnk I want to keep in the PC: 2 SATA drives totaling 410GB 1 DVD Burner 2GB RAM Processor Things I think I might need to replace/get: Motherboard - If its not ATX I would like to get an ATX one, those cases are much better RAM - Maybe 4x512MB instead ATI x800 Vid Card ATSC Tuner If the motherboard isn't ATX, does anyone know of any good black Media Center PCs? And if it is, any good ATX black cases? What else am I overlooking or will need to upgrade? Wood for Sheep fucked around with this message at 19:22 on Jun 6, 2007 |
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May 19, 2007 00:57
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I would be very surprised if that wasn't ATX.
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May 19, 2007 15:03
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I have a weird problem with my HTPC that I hope someone can help me with. I have both an XP and Vista install on it at the moment (trying to decide if I prefer one over the other), and have been very pleased with Mediaportal. However, neither XP or Vista are able to play DVDs (sort of). I can play them in Media Player Classic just fine, but in Windows Media Player and Mediaportal, I can only watch the FBI warnings. Media Player tells me there's some issue with converting analog something to digital, and that I should update my video card drivers (I have the newest Nvidia drivers). I installed the Nvidia Purevideo codec, but that still doesn't fix it. What am I missing? *edit* I should also mention that my video card is an Nvidia 7300 I've actually hooked up my 360's HDDVD drive in the hopes that a different drive would give better results -- it didn't. Bender fucked around with this message at 17:51 on May 19, 2007 |
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May 19, 2007 17:48
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Kinison Khan posted:Hi, There are some registry entries you need to create in order for your .mkv files to show up. I'm of very little help here since I have them written in a .txt file at home but to find out reasonably quick try doing a search on the forums at thegreenbutton.com. Once you create the registry entries and restart they should show up. EDIT: Found it. Copy this to notepad and name it mkv.reg double-click the .reg file and it'll add the info to the registry. Reboot and Bob's your uncle. code:.Spec fucked around with this message at 18:20 on May 19, 2007 |
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May 19, 2007 18:18
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Sorry if this has been mentioned before, but I've got a shuttle PC with a Hauppauge card that I've been using as a DVR / HTPC. I can't seem to pick up digital channels on it, but that's okay since most of what I watch is on analog cable anyway. But I ordered FIOS TV service a couple weeks ago, and it's getting installed next Friday, and while the guy on the phone said that you can pick up the channels with analog, what he meant is that you can only pick up channels 1-20, which are only the local OTA channels. So what I want to know is, is there any way to set things up so I can set my tuner to record some channel, but make it so it will change the channel on the converter box as well? I'm not sure if I'm explaining this the right way. edit: I suppose I could use something like this http://store.snapstream.com/usb-uirt.html but then would that mean I need a different converter box for each of my tuners?
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May 19, 2007 19:27
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I have been playing with most of the DVR programs for the last week or so, to see which ones work the best with the Silicon Dust HDHomerun for recording QAM256 Digital cable channels. I have been looking at Windows apps, pretty exclusively sense this machine does get some use for other things a that require Windows. So no Myth or Freevo. Sage treats it as a network recorder and was the easiest to set up. You pick your cable line up, and de-select all channels, then you just click the remap button in SAGE TV and remap all of the clear QAM channels to their QAM address. You don't need to use an ATSC remap file or anything. I guess the hardest part is using the HDHomerun GUI tool and VLC to figure out what each channel is, which can take a while. Beyond TV and other Windows programs will need an ATSC remap file. This is extra work, but there is a tool to do it for you on the Silicon Dust forums. One problem is that most DVR programs don't want the ATSC physical channel to be higher than 69 (the remap tool will automatically map them higher), and they don't want any Major channel number to exist on more than one physical channel (the remap tool will also do this). Short of the long is, use the remap tool to figure out where things are, then manually edit channels to work. I decided against Sage TV because HD channels stuttered a lot, or got macro blocks. Sage did have the advantage of being able to play back other files on my system (that it had not recorded), but that ability is not super useful for me... I can play those files back manually, if nothing else. I decided against Media Portal because I was not impressed by it scheduler or ability to resolve conflicts. I also get the feeling that its more "Europe-centric" in design. You can make it work for US line ups, but it kind of feels like an after thought. No surprise as most of the designers are from Europe. There was a plug in for ZAP2IT to get US tv line ups, but the non SVN version crashed on my system. The SVN version worked, but 3 or 4 of my channels would not get guide data for some reason. I didn't go with GB-PVR, mostly because I didn't like the interface. Yeah, I know... shallow of me. I settled on Beyond TV for a few reason. It worked well with the HDHomerun, after I got it configured. Plays back HD well, and has no problem recording 2 HD shows at once (and watching another at the same time). Has an easy to configure scheduler that resolves conflicts well. The line up guide of my cable stations is correct. About the only negative thing that I can say about beyond, is that it doesn't show your TV in a window if you go back to the main menu. Once again, I know, shallow. Beyondtv, like Sage, is a retail product. It's a little cheaper than Sage, and they are having a promotion till the 5-22-07 for a free Firefly remote. I ordered it, bundled with an PVR-150MCE card for $109 so I could have a second analog tuner. I also ordered a wireless keyboard/joystick mouse that was $30 when ordered with a bundle. All in all, I think I am going to be pleased with my HTPC. I would be happy to answer any questions that anyone has. Just shoot me a PM or reply to this thread.
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May 20, 2007 02:42
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raditts posted:but then would that mean I need a different converter box for each of my tuners? Yes it would. Unfortunately there is no easy, consistent way to get digital channels to work on your media PC in the US. Cablecard was supposed to be the answer, but the support is not there. What you need is an IR blaster, which can be trained to change the channels on the box for you and recored over svideo on your hauppauge. The usb uirt you listed can act as an IR blaster.
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May 20, 2007 11:53
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JohnnyBravo posted:
Hey cool that worked, now how do I get it to actually play .mkv files? Do I use some directshow codec/filter?
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May 22, 2007 03:12
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Uninstall/reinstall DefilerPack yet?
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May 22, 2007 03:52
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Has anyone used a Mac Mini with EyeTV yet? How does it work? Also, has anyone used it with Verizon FiOS TV? I'm looking at buying a Mac Mini for HTPC use and could really use some advice.
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May 22, 2007 10:33
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JohnnyBravo posted:Uninstall/reinstall DefilerPack yet? Yeah done that. MKV files work fine in Media Player Classic, it just doesnt play back in MCE.
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May 22, 2007 12:37
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Kinison Khan posted:Yeah done that. MKV files work fine in Media Player Classic, it just doesnt play back in MCE. Play one in Windows Media Player first. It'll come up as an unrecognized file type and ask if you're sure if you want to open it. Say yes and check the box to always open them in WMP. Once it plays there it _should_ open in WMC.
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May 22, 2007 17:11
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JohnnyBravo posted:Play one in Windows Media Player first. It'll come up as an unrecognized file type and ask if you're sure if you want to open it. Say yes and check the box to always open them in WMP. Once it plays there it _should_ open in WMC. Nah, not even MS Media Player will play it back. I installed the CoreAVC, which is supposed to be some super efficient h264 codec. Still nothing.
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May 23, 2007 15:58
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What are you all using for regular DVD playback off the disc? VLC is giving me all kinds of trouble and stutters, and sometimes I just want to pop in a DVD to watch instead of having to rip it first.
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May 24, 2007 20:48
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Os Furoris posted:What are you all using for regular DVD playback off the disc? VLC is giving me all kinds of trouble and stutters, and sometimes I just want to pop in a DVD to watch instead of having to rip it first. Decent-quality region-unlockable DVD players are so cheap it's kind of ridiculous. Between that and DVD-playing game consoles, I have never needed nor wanted to play a DVD using anything but a dedicated piece of DVD hardware. I have one of the old Philips DivX/XVid players, and it cost me less than $50. Optical sound output, component, great picture. I know media players are getting better at dealing with dvd menus and such, but I don't think they're going to be as good as a DVD player from years ago for a while.
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May 24, 2007 23:09
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Crackbone posted:AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+(65W) Windsor 2.0GHz Socket AM2 Processor Model ADO3800CSBOX $79.00 Are you using the default heatsink and fan that came with this?
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May 25, 2007 02:14
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Kinison Khan posted:Nah, not even MS Media Player will play it back. I installed the CoreAVC, which is supposed to be some super efficient h264 codec. Still nothing. Matroska is a container. Media player classic can play it as it natively understands the container. You can find filters to read the format here. http://www.matroska.org/downloads/windows.html I personally recommend haali's splitter as its updated frequently (it says last october there, but its been updated at least 5 times since then. The link is to the latest however)
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May 25, 2007 02:30
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trinary posted:Decent-quality region-unlockable DVD players are so cheap it's kind of ridiculous. Between that and DVD-playing game consoles, I have never needed nor wanted to play a DVD using anything but a dedicated piece of DVD hardware. I have one of the old Philips DivX/XVid players, and it cost me less than $50. Optical sound output, component, great picture. Oh I have a cheap-rear end MAGNAVOX from Walmart that works just fine, but it's such a hassle for me to switch inputs manually to my tv, which is ancient. I also have my sound stuff set up the way I like it through my amp. I just need a program that can handle playing DVDs well off the drive. VLC is not cutting it right now.
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May 25, 2007 03:01
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Ryokurin posted:Matroska is a container. Media player classic can play it as it natively understands the container. You can find filters to read the format here. http://www.matroska.org/downloads/windows.html Wow, that fixed it. WMCE plays everything now. Thank you!
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May 25, 2007 16:23
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Does anyone have experience with getting the hardware acceleration to work with the 8500/8600 series cards? I've got a new 8500GT, Vista, and the latest versions of powerdvd and nvidia drivers. When I try to play an x/h264 file I can hear it but all I get for video is a blank green screen.  If I turn HW accel off in the cyberlink filter settings or powerdvd itself, the videos play fine, albeit w/o hardware acceleration, which is the whole point...
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May 25, 2007 20:43
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