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I've been awaiting a forum like this since discussion of HTPCs is pretty muted over in SH/SC, so let's talk HTPCs! I've been gathering components for quite a while now (years if you consider all the crappy software-encoding TV cards I've been purchasing since the 90s) but I've yet to actually build my HTPC yet. I'm planning on using MediaPortal since it seems pretty robust and free as my front-end interface. I'm also not too sold on using it as a PVR right off the bat since my TV cards are not readily supported these days in Windows (however, I could probably get decent results with my Matrox Marvel G400 in MythTV if I decided to try a dual-boot linux box). Initially, I'll just be using the HTPC to output DVI-to-HDMI for playback of HD content to my Panasonic plasma tv. The main reason I haven't built my HTPC yet, though, is that I've not yet got a case for it. My plan is (secret) but I'll post photos once I get the right part. It should be pretty cool once I'm done. So, let's hear about your HTPCs if you've already got one built and what tips you have for building one. Edit: There's now a new thread for discussion of HTPC software ("front ends"): http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=2874933 Edit: Since this has been stickied I'm going to start updating the root post (thanks for the suggestion Fiverson) Online Resorces Forums HTPC News - http://www.htpcnews.com Green Button - http://www.thegreenbutton.com AVS Forum - http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=26 Parts PC Alchemy - http://www.pcalchemy.com Guides http://www.geardigest.com/2005/10/0...ome_theater_pc/ (Windows) http://www.ramelectronics.net/html/HTPC.html (Windows) http://www.linuxis.us/linux/media/howto/linux-htpc/index.html (Linux) Odoyle fucked around with this message at 14:40 on Jun 13, 2008 |
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Mar 20, 2007 00:46
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HVD posted:I've read this thread, and I'm honestly utterly lost. Can anyone recommend a site somewhere that could take me through the basics of building an HTPC as well as the different options when it comes to software etc? As the above user said, building your HTPC depends entirely on what you want it to do. HTPCs can be playback devices for your entire CD/MP3 library, DVD upscalers, PVRs/DVRs, and more (or all of the above). I knew of a good guide that was more linux-centric at one point, but I didn't bookmark it. This is a pretty reasonable guide: http://www.geardigest.com/2005/10/03/building_the_ultimate_home_theater_pc/ Another guide I liked: http://www.ramelectronics.net/html/HTPC.html Great Linux HTPC guide, and a good thing to read to give any potential HTPC builder a good idea of scope: http://www.linuxis.us/linux/media/howto/linux-htpc/determining_your_needs.html Odoyle fucked around with this message at 16:22 on Mar 29, 2007 |
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Mar 29, 2007 16:13
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BrutusBeefcake posted:I guess I am kind of borrowing HVD's question, but I can be a little more specific. I am considering building a HTPC, but ALL I really want/need it to do is to play High Def (at least 720P) x264/avi files over HDMI/DVI with minimum 5.1 sound. I don't need to use it to watch tv, play DVD's, or do anything fancy. Can anyone point me in the least expensive direction? I would prefer it to have a decent sized hard drive, but that is not essential. Agreed with the above poster. And your build goals are essentially how I started out with my target HTPC, but I ended up wanting to add PVR functionality and stuff. I think for x264/avi 720p playback you're looking at getting a good codec (CoreAVC), a minimum 3.0 GHz processor, and about a gig of ram. I don't know what the current deal is on the video card market, but anything with DVI out should be good.
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Mar 31, 2007 03:19
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Binton posted:Just for reference I'm using Could be just just about anything, really. I'd make an image of your current install to make things easier later on and wipe the setup and install XP and see if that fixes anything. Before that, though, I'd see if there's anything like anti-virus or some background program that runs intermittently that's causing the stutter. I'd also try out some different drivers if you can find any. Also, I think 1gb of ram is a little weak for a Vista setup. Good luck!
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Apr 9, 2007 01:16
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m3jsh posted:So I was thinking about buying a Slingbox, but then figured that since I'm going to build an HTPC relatively soon, if I put a TV Tuner card in it I can stream content to the internet that way as well. What sort of software would I need for that functionality? What kind of content, exactly? Streaming TV broadcasts is likely going to run you into some licensing issues. I think that BeyondTV, MythTV, and at least a few others have some sort of IP content streaming available OOTB.
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Apr 10, 2007 04:04
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Wiggly posted:Kind of to go along with what warning posted above, I am interested in possibly rolling my own HTPC box with DVR capabilities. When you have a digital cable box, how do you get around the box and tuning the channels? Do you just split the signal before the cable box and let the TV tuner in the PC handle it or is there something else involved? What I'm planning to do is split the signal and let the HTPC handle/record the < 99 channels that are still analog. I don't think I'll invest in OTA ATSC HD recording until I move to an area that gets a signal (duh). There's an alternative that involves the IR Blaster product to control the STB from the HTPC (it's a serial-controlled IR led that snakes up to your STB and is taped to the IR receiver) but I am not really well educated on that sort of setup.
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Apr 24, 2007 16:38
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sofakng posted:HDMI is the highest quality when compared to Component and VGA, right? Yes. sofakng posted:Can I buy a simple DVI to HDMI cable to connect my computer to my Sanyo PLV-Z5 projector? (720p native) Yes. sofakng posted:I've heard you can ruin your projector (or television) by using a DVI to HDMI cable. I don't see why that would happen. HDMI video is pin-for-pin the same as DVI. sofakng posted:Also, can I buy a cheap $25 PCIe video card and get decent quality? ...or do I really need a $100+ video card to get decent DVI/HDMI quality? From what I understand, DVI/HDMI are digital so I would think even a $5 card would work fine... (unless the card itself was defective or something) The only thing that the big-dollar cards offer over a $5 DVI video card is hardware acceleration for certain codec playback and gaming. It's Sofa King simple!
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Oct 16, 2007 21:14
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Frontend goons, I just got a great deal on a Hauppauge WinTV HVR-1600. I think it's a pretty good PCI HD tuner card. What front-end will run/record HDTV over QAM?
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Jan 14, 2008 04:06
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dfn_doe posted:I have a pair of these cards and as far as I can tell, since the QAM uncoding isn't REALLY part of the official spec sheet for them the only program which seems to work for doing it is the one they come bundled with. Otherwise they are only useful for ATSC and analog. Thanks for the info. Is it a hassle to launch the bundled program (or even possible to do so) in Media Portal or MeediOS or MythTV or something? I don't get a single ATSC signal out where I live and QAM is my only shot at unencrypted HD. Does that bundled software need to be launched for viewing live QAM, recording QAM, or recorded QAM playback (or all of the above)? I'm guessing once the transport stream is on the HDD, any player will be fine for playback.
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Jan 14, 2008 14:39
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It's been 13 months or so since I started this thread and I think I'm finally satisfied with my HTPC setup - at least as far as usability and functionality is concerned. I wasted a good 10 months postponing the project as I searched for a satisfactory case. I really wanted to make my own case to match my entertainment center stack (my ideal case target was an as-is Yamaha home theater receiver) but after so many months of dashed hopes and empty-handed trips back from garage sales and Goodwills I gave up and began looking for a HDTV card. My deadline was the Lost season debut since I was going to have classes that night in conflict. All my other hardware was just what I had on hand. Decent 2.8GHz cpu, 80GB HDD, 2GB ram, and a Radeon AIW 8500dv. The Radeon was an old piece of crap (no hardware mpeg stuff) so I upgraded to a cheap X300 just for the home theater acceleration. I needed a good PCI HD capture card and I liked the Hauppauge HVR-1600 so I got one on Ebay. I did my research and got a model that did QAM capture (since my Panasonic PX75U's tuner picked up a dozen clear QAM channels and I really wanted to record LOST on ABC-HD). Well the Hauppauge tuner and turned out to be a bunch of poo poo either because I got a lemon product, their engineers are dipshits, my cable signal was crap, or the tuner components are just weak. The bundled software never locked onto a signal, and neither did Media Portal for that matter. TS Reader Lite (an amazing piece of diagnostic software) was able to tune the HVR-1600 to a bunch of QAM freqs but only for a minute at a time, and there were frame dropouts at about every 10 seconds. I took the whole HTPC to a different state while visiting family and got it to pick up a half-dozen QAM stations there, so I knew the card had potential, just not where I live. I was really disappointed, gave up, and decided to put the card up for sale. About the same time I took a chance on Silicon Dust's hardware because I heard that their tuners were really strong in the HDHomeRun. Such hardware was contrary to my HTPC goals of doing this whole project on the cheap - not to mention that at this point I'd already missed my deadline. I ordered it bundled with a Streamzap remote from MythicTV - the package arrived with standard shipping in about 50 hours. Top notch service. The HDHomeRun is a magnificent piece of technology! I was getting a dozen clear QAM channels with no drops over two simultaneous tuners in less than an hour's time. Great success. Setting up Media Portal's program guide took a good bit of hacking but it was eventually up and working and allowed me to set up scheduled recordings of any network show I wanted. I really missed the Hauppauge remote, though. The Streamzap remote has a bare minimum of buttons. No Previous Channel, no Home, no Guide, no Live TV, no Music... I really should have gotten an MCE remote instead. So since I had already broken my cardinal rule (do this on the cheap) I really broke it again. I got a Harmony One. Man, I could go on about this but I'll save it for later. At this point, like I say, I'm satisfied with the functionality. It plays my music collection, all of my DVDs, timeshifts HDTV, and has a very smooth interface (Media Portal Monochrome). All I have left to do is to transfer the hardware to a better case and maybe add an analog tuner for the other 100 channels I get unscrambled. Oh, and my wife did find a suitable defunct AS-IS receiver the day I got the Harmony. I'm working on modding that to be the HTPC case and I'll post pics of the project once finals are over with. I'm happy to finally get to post about my HTPC project in this thread 
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May 1, 2008 04:11
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Echo_ posted:Okay that works now. I hear that VLC will transcode .dvr-ms files to something more standard that you can do x264 from. That's what I aim to work out now that I can actually record HDTV. As for x264 GUIs, I hear that the default "megui" that comes with the x264 codec is a good starting point - http://x264.nl/ As for settings, I have no idea. I'd like to get 42min TV shows down to 1.4GB or less.
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May 1, 2008 04:15
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vanilla slimfast posted:What format would said movies be in? Playing media from a BluRay/HDDVD optical drive? Or x264 encoded video files? There's no way anything less than a top of the line new machine would play BluRay media.
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May 2, 2008 03:28
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That MeediOS Vintage and Aeon interface looks awesome. I'd like to give it a try. I've got a working (and stable) Media Portal 0.2.3.0 setup now and I tried RC1 on a test box but couldn't get the TVServer setup working with my HDHomeRun. From what I see in the MeediOS forum, to use the HDHomeRun with MeediOS requires MediaPortal's TVServer, and even then it's a bit of a test to get it up and running properly. Anybody here have success with MeediOS, HDHomeRun, and MP TVServer?
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May 30, 2008 14:16
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What do people want/need in a front-end thread main post? I'd be happy to start one, edit it as needed, and update the root post of this thread to link to it. Just let me know. I use Media Portal and can contribute a little to the thread on that end, however with RC1 out now that I haven't got working I'm limited to an aging 0.2.3.0 setup that's stable. And that's without TVServer. I haven't got any experience with others, though MeediOS has piqued my interest but the setup 1) looks like a bitch and 2) requires Media Portal TVServer for my card (HDHomeRun).
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Jun 12, 2008 20:08
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Ok, I made us a HTPC front end thread: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=2874933 I hope it meets expectations and can provide a good place for discussion outside of this apparently hardware-oriented thread.
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Jun 13, 2008 14:32
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