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RationalAppeal posted:Is there no way to run XBMC on a PC? I'm going to be setting up an HTPC once I get my new television because my understanding is that Xbox doesn't have the power to run 720p+ videos. I love the interface of XBMC and I don't want to spend time fighting some other piece of software. I've tried a couple of other media library programs and really not liked any of them, but I'd rather not shell out $500 for one of those upgraded Xboxes. It would be so nice if there was some sort of XBMC emulator or something for the PC. I used XBMC for a few years, but wanted something that could start displaying HD content. Windows Media Center for XP and Vista is all right, but it's just not as usable, intuitive, or customizable as I found XBMC to be.
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Apr 20, 2007 17:57
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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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I guess this is an HTPC question, but I'm not sure if what I'm looking for actually exists: I want to put a stereo in my master bedroom to listen to music shared from a media server elsewhere in the house. I want to avoid another actual computer in my house, so I was wondering if there's some product out there already that does this. Ideally it would have a little LCD screen built in that would allow me to browse and select music. Does such a product exist?
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May 28, 2007 19:49
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dfn_doe posted:Try one of the products available through slim devices. My neighbor seems pretty happy with his squeezebox and the interface seems real nice with an easily readable lcd display. Ah, cool. A bit expensive, but I expected that.
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May 29, 2007 18:16
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Does anyone know of a good partslist for a very quiet or silent HTPC? I'm not comfortable with liquid cooled anything, but maybe a motherboard with built in audio and video, and as quiet a power supply as they can make?
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Oct 8, 2007 14:12
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taqueso posted:The PSU should be high quality and have a 120mm fan. I like corsair/seasonic, but there are other good ones. Make sure every other fan in it is 120mm, replace them all with low speed yate-loons, and 7-volt mod them. Use a passive video card, or add a passive cooler to a non-passive card. Isolate the hard drive. You should be all set. I can take some pics of mine if you are interested. Check out silentpcreview.com, there is a ton of good info there. I'd love a picture, thanks. Is modding a fan difficult?
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Oct 8, 2007 22:20
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taqueso posted:Awesome post Thanks for this. I've got a desktop case running right now, and I think the CPU fan is what's making the most noise. It's not bothersome while I"m watching/listening to something, but it's annoying when there's no other sound in the room. I want to put together a nice, neat HTPC in an AV style case like this.
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Oct 9, 2007 22:24
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CCCP has never given me any trouble whatsoever. It's worked perfectly for me in both XP and Vista.
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Oct 11, 2007 13:41
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piezo4 posted:Prepare to go down a chain of silencing components. As soon as you silence the next loudest thing is going to start pissing you off until you just can't stand it anymore. I know what you mean. I bought a fan controller for the CPU fan. That's set on low now. I also replaced the Antec power supply in my case with a Seasonic I had in another machine. That cut down noise considerably (you can't really hear Seasonics at all). Now I think the loudest thing is the video card. I'm waiting for a fanless card to be delivered from Newegg now. After that, I don't think there's much else I can do. It's only audible when I don't have anything else on in the room, so I think that'll be good enough. My TV is the loudest part of my system now, believe it or not. The fan on that thing is crazy.
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Nov 3, 2007 18:58
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KaLogain posted:Well thanks for the help, I just unshared the folders and reshared them, and it worked. Thanks a lot. I also selected everybody to share to on the list of permissions, but I thought I had done that. In my experience, network sharing in Vista is hit or miss. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, and you never figure out why.
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Nov 11, 2007 06:14
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Uziel posted:If I'm looking to build a HTPC just to play both blu-ray and HD-DVD, what kind of specs am I looking at? Make sure your television is HDCP compatible if you want to watch HDDVD or Blu-Ray stuff. My HDTV isn't HDCP apparently, so I can't watch the movies I've legitimately purchased because apparently I'm actually a thief with criminal hardware. Also, I think the XBox 360 HDDVD player may still be the cheapest HDDVD player. It's usb, so it works fine connected to a PC.
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Nov 19, 2007 04:13
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Ubik posted:I just got my new TV today and I'm having a bitch of a time getting my Ubuntu machine to output video to it properly. It defaults to 1280x720 resolution, which would be all well and good... but the edges are all cut off to the extent that I can only see the very edge of the taskbars, making opening applications drat near impossible. I can't tell a way to get it to display at native resolution, or at least in a way where I can actually see everything. I'm using a DVI to HDMI connector for video output. Any suggestions? Can you manipulate the vertical and horizontal on the TV itself, so it fits correctly? That's what I have to do for my HTPC input. It outputs 720P fine, but for some reason the TV requires adjusting to fit everything in.
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Dec 17, 2007 07:00
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This might be a related question to the one above. I recently got HD-DVDs to play through PowerDVD using the SlySoft AnyDVD product to bypass the HDCP monitor requirement. Problem is, the video is slightly choppy. I'm on Windows XP. Athlon 64 3700+ CPU Nvidia 7600 GT video card 1 MB RAM Which of these components would be best to upgrade to get choppy-free video? Would a RAM increase even make a difference at all? I'm using the Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive, and I do have the Nvidia PureVideo codec enabled, if any of that makes a difference.
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Dec 18, 2007 01:00
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n0tqu1tesane posted:How are you able to run Windows XP on 1 MB RAM? Oops. GB
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Dec 18, 2007 04:08
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Treytor posted:My first guess would be the processor, and then the video card. Try ripping the DVD (using AnyDVD) to your hard drive and then play it to ensure it's not your external drive having trouble keeping up, which I doubt. It was my processor. The 3700+ is just under the limit that PowerDVD can work with, apparently. I was able to get a nice dual-core Athlon X2 chip from newegg.com for only ~$70. One of the last socket 939 chips I could find. I also got a fanless GForce 8400GS. The HDDVD movies play like a dream now. On a side note, the tiny fan over my northbridge sounds like satan raping a pile of cats if I leave it plugged in. Does anyone know if there would be any major heat problems if I leave it unplugged. I've been running for about 2 hours now with no issue, but I don't plan on turning the box off except for rare circumstances, and I don't want to burn my home down.
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Dec 25, 2007 07:11
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dfn_doe posted:I bet the the video card made a bigger difference than the processor. Since the 8xxx series cards support video codec hardware offload/accel and your old 7600 only supports mpeg2 processing. My system chugs at about 80+% utilization with hd-dvd playback and hardware accel disabled, with it enabled it pulls 4-6% utilization... Either way it was a really cheap upgrade with excellent results.
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Dec 25, 2007 19:49
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Can anyone suggest a good, as close to silent CPU heatsink/fan that will fit in an Antec Fusion case?
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Jan 9, 2008 17:47
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SFrost007 posted:I've got the Thermaltake Ruby Orb in mine, without the fan plugged in. The size of the heatsink and the 2x120mm case fans right next to it mean it's able to keep my X2 4000+ at around 40 degrees most of the time. It may depend slightly on the motherboard choice, if they've moved the location of the CPU socket wildly then you might have problems. Awesome, thanks a lot. That's exactly the processor I'll be using.
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Jan 9, 2008 18:15
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Wiseblood posted:If you really want silence you could probably get away with a fanless Scythe Ninja Mini: I ended up ordering one of these. I'm confident (hopeful) passive cooling will be good enough. The 120MM fan millimeters away should be ample. I've got a passively cooled video card, and now a passively cooled CPU. I've also got a spare Corsair PSU lying around in case the stock PSU from that case is too loud.
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Jan 10, 2008 19:22
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Question about sound cards: I want to be able to connect my HTPC to my receiver via an optical or coaxial S/PDIF connection. Can anyone recommend me a card that does this well in XP and/or Vista? Maybe there's some site somewhere that has a review roundup of various HTPC sound cards? Also, if I go this route, will I be able to get all sounds from the computer out of this connection? Or will it only output from specific applications that make use of it? Thanks.
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Jan 11, 2008 22:56
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.Nathan. posted:I think most mother boards these days have optical out and can do this without issue. I have a toslink cable running from my HTPC to my receiver and can output DD and DTS without issue. For things not encoded in a surround format the signal just gets passed through as stereo and the receiver handles it however you want. The most important thing is setting up all of your audio and video codecs so that they know to just pass through the signal. My motherboard doesn't have that, unfortunately. Is there a codec pack you recommend that makes it easy to setup pass through like that?
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Jan 11, 2008 23:20
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Anyone have any experience with the Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1600 NTSC/ATSC/QAM card? I think I've heard good things about Hauppauge in the past, but I'm sure people here know better than I do. I just switched from Comcast to DirecTV over the weekend. While I wait for them to add my local HDs, I figured I'd go the QAM route, as it apparently works pretty well where I live (Colorado Springs).
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Jan 21, 2008 18:23
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Do you have to have digital cable to get the QAM unencrypted channels? I stopped my Comcast service a few days ago, and the standard cable still comes through, but I couldn't pick up anything with QAM, so I'm thinking maybe digital cable has to be turned on. I guess it's an OTA antenna for me until DirecTV gets HD locals in Colorado Springs.
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Jan 25, 2008 16:52
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vanilla slimfast posted:No, I was doing QAM capture for 6+ months before I signed up for digital cable. I don't think there's any easy way for them to turn it "off" anyways. When you do a scan for all the QAM types (64,128,256) and for the correct frequency/channel ranges? Its possible you didn't pick anything up because you didn't look in the right place. Check that Silicon Dust link I posted above to see what QAM channels come in for your zip code, that will tell you the type and channel range to scan for them. Interesting. The QAM scan got a lot of channels, but ALL of them had no video, and only 1 of them had audio (sounded like a Comcast channel that advertises Comcast services). I use the WinTV software in Vista. It appears to be a piece of poo poo. This sucks... I don't know whether to get an antenna or not.
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Jan 25, 2008 19:20
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vanilla slimfast posted:You could research what channels are available and at what strength based on your location: http://www.antennaweb.org I know the channels are available, but if the card/software I have can't get the QAM channels that are there, I don't want to waste money buying an antenna only to have the retarded card/software be unable to get any channels.
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Jan 25, 2008 21:27
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vanilla slimfast posted:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atsc I have a Hauppauge HVR-1600. I know it supports QAM and ATSC. My fear is simply that if the card sucks at getting QAM (something it SHOULD be getting and something that is available in my area), then why should I assume that it will be any better at getting the ATSC OTA stuff? It seems to me that ATSC is better supported by more software products, so maybe the WinTV software that's included with the card just really loving sucks and can't tune to channels. Hell, it couldn't even tune normal, analog channels that Vista's media center had no trouble whatsoever picking up.
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Jan 25, 2008 23:03
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dfn_doe posted:Make sure you don't have too many splitters on the line, low signal strength will result in a poor analog picture and inability to get a proper lock on digital channels too. Every 1>2 split is at least a 3.5db drop in signal strength (more with crappy splitters or bad splices) which mean even the strongest cable-drops (usually 11db from the pole) can become unusable if they split to several rooms in your house and then to several devices in the rooms. It isn't uncommon for the pole drop to go directly to a 1>4 way splitter where it enters the premise which means that each wall jack will have 4db or less total available signal. The splitters must have been the problem. I was able to hook up a nice amplified antenna, and now I get all my HD channels just fine. On a side note, the Vista Media Center PVR functionality is incredibly good. I've used Tivo, Comcast's boxes, and DirecTV's boxes, and none are as responsive as a good HTPC is.
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Jan 28, 2008 19:44
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I got an Antec Fusion HTPC case for my HTPC. It's a great case and all, but I can't figure out how to get the LCD to work. I plugged in the usb adapter thing into the motherboard, but the instructions are incredibly terrible and I can't figure out what I'm missing (there's no power to the LCD at all). There's a little wire with three prongs on the end of it, that I'm not sure how to hook up... could that be the issue?
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Jan 29, 2008 19:13
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SFrost007 posted:There should be a special cable coming from the PSU that you connect to that wire, which carries the power and lets the IR receiver bring the PC out of standby. I see. First thing I did was swap out the PSU with a spare Corsair one I had.
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Jan 29, 2008 21:49
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Gromit posted:I didn't find anything wrong with the stock PSU, but then I've only got 1 HDD in my system. Any particular reason you swapped out the power supply? Noise and rounded cables. I never checked to hear how loud the stock one is, but if you say it's good, then I'll swap it back in and see how it goes.
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Jan 30, 2008 03:49
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Gromit posted:I've never heard my Antec Fusion Black case make a noise. When I'm not using it for video or AudioSurf, I press a button on my wireless keyboard and send it to sleep. For all I know you want to sleep next to it while it's on, though. I switched over to it last night. It's as quiet as the other PSU, so I'm happy. Problem is, the LCD really sucks and is pretty much useless.
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Jan 30, 2008 16:26
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SFrost007 posted:I seem to have the controversial opinion that the LCD (actually VFD) isn't that bad, if it didn't lock up all the time. Having said that, the Fusion Black has a completely different display than the Silver, which I have heard plenty of bad things about, so if you've got that I'll let you off Do you know if there's a way to have it ONLY display the current time? I can get it so that it's scrolling the date and time, but not just the time itself. I can turn it off, but then it uses that terrible, terrible, terrible, comical, terrible, horrible, awful, terrible, horrible font for a clock, and make it too small to see from my chair.
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Jan 30, 2008 20:30
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SFrost007 posted:I presume you have the black version then, with this type of screen? Yep, it's that one. I honestly can't believe someone looked at that font and approved it.
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Jan 30, 2008 22:45
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Explosm posted:You can change the font, but none of them are much better. It's the contrast that's the problem. Unfortunately you can't change the font. 
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Jan 31, 2008 05:15
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Something went awry last night, and I lost access to my ATSC channels. Vista media center no longer senses a digital antenna attached. Media Portal can't autotune any of the channels. Is there a way to determine whether the ATSC tuner portion of my tuner card is dead, or whether it's the antenna? Maybe some program to measure the signal strength from the antenna?
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Jan 31, 2008 13:52
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Can anyone suggest a good place to get support or ideas to fix my Hauppauge HVR-1600 card? One night the ATSC tuner just seemed to stop loving working. It receives absolutely no signal for the antenna (I've swapped out antennas to see if that was the problem, but no luck). The Hauppauge site sucks. I can always return it to newegg, but gently caress me if I want to wait forever only for a new one to come and have it turn out that that wasn't the problem either. Can anyone suggest anything? This is the most loving frustrating thing I've dealt with in a long time.
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Feb 5, 2008 01:09
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diis posted:Does anyone have any input on a good HTPC keyboard? I'm looking for one with an integrated pointing device, BT or RF, and preferable rechargeable. I've been using an old IR Logitech keyboard and mouse, and I hate having the signal drop out all the freaking time when the cat decides to sit in front of the IR receiver. I use this keyboard. It's wireless (RF) and has a built-in mousepad. It's designed for the PS3, however, so it doesn't have a windows button. Has worked perfectly for me for about 8 months. It's not very big, and is really light. Uses 2 AA batteries, though.
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Feb 16, 2008 07:55
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Does anyone use Vista Media Center to watch HDTV? I recently upgraded to SP1, and for some reason, NBC no longer shows up in Media Center. I have two other tuner programs on my HTPC, and both detect it fine and it comes in at 100%, but Media Center doesn't see it at all. Any ideas? How is this even possible?
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Mar 30, 2008 20:20
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Does any sort of parts guide exist for HTPCs? I'm looking to dump some extra cash into a new HTPC for my living room. I'm willing to spend a bit more to increase stability and lessen heat and noise. Are the mini motherboards the way to go now? Are there any good sites with a build guide that contains current, up-to-date parts?
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Feb 10, 2009 08:22
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