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I have an old HTPC that I love to death, but the thing is huge. Not huge for an HTPC, but larger than I would like. I have been looking at mini ITX and C7 processors, but can find no performance comparisons. I don't need bleeding edge speed, but with AMD's new format on the horizon and mini itx core2duo boards coming out I would like to see some sort of comparison between even a budget mobile intel proc and the 2dhz c7. I just dont want to spend 200 on the proc board and 100 on a case only to have it run media like poo poo.
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Mar 20, 2007 03:11
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Wiseblood posted:How small are you wanting to go exactly? Silverstone makes a MicroATX case that's a little less than 4 inches tall: Way smaller than that. A mini-itx system is more in line with a Mac Mini size wise. That silverstone is only slightly smaller than what I have. I am looking at something that I could just put in my backpack and take to a party.
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Mar 20, 2007 03:43
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Technowrite posted:I'm working on a PC for one of my classes this semester, and the perk is that we get to take it home when the class is over with. Since I have no real use for a desktop, i've been thinking about turning it into an HTPC. I know the specs suck, but I was wondering what you guys suggest I should upgrade for it in an affordable price range? If you go linux mythTV is the only good choice in my opinion. I also don't really belive linux shines in the HTPC market. I just think there is a lot of crossover in the markets(guys that want an HTPC also end up bring DIY's people, and linux users). Mediaportal, meedio(out of business, but has sprouted another project and still can be used) GBPVR and a tone of commercial projetcs all work great. Don't forget Media Center, which is actually a great piece of software. More ram and a tuner is really all you need unless you want to do full HD, and at that point you would need a totally new machine. My low spec htpc (onboard everything, pvr150, 512 ram and an old xp2800) does everything an HTPC needs to do perfectly. Great emulation box too.
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Mar 22, 2007 05:41
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The xbox honestly has some of the best analog video output you can get for an HTPC. The thing is designed to hook up to a TV in SD so it shouldn't be suprised. The Resolution is a tricky issue, because in reality your card decides how the output is handled. First off your drivers should have an overscan/underscan configuration option. That will let you deal with the black bars. As for resolutions you just need to play around with them, but realize no matter what it won't look as crisp as your xbox's output most likely.
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Mar 22, 2007 06:49
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HDMI is just DVI with a different connector and audio channels. Going DVI-HDMI is just a simple adaption, and is why you should never be tricked into spending a lot of money on the adapters. As long as your TV has proper input it will be like using a monitor, and look fabulous.
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Mar 22, 2007 07:26
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They have some videos of linux MCE out there, and it is what you would expect from a linux media center. Overly complicated, to many features and lovely UI. It honestly has one of the worst UI's I have seen in a media center app, and I have seen a lot. It suffers from "use every square inch of the screen" syndrome and shows no design cohesion. Seriously, feature wise it seems awesome, but function wise it seems unusable. Lord forbid someone that isn't a serious user has to handle it because I am pretty sure they would die from overload.
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Mar 22, 2007 21:29
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VulgarandStupid posted:On the input hardware side of things. I used to have some TV Tuner card that worked fairly well for a while. My brother lent it off to a friend and I'll never see it again. What I do have now is an Adaptec Game Bridge USB-TV. So, it has all the same connections as the card I had before, except its USB2.0 instead of PCI. So, there is Composite, S-Video, L/R Audio, and cable coax. What sort of problems could I run into? I have it working on my desktop. If I later made a HTPC (also a desktop), would there be an real disadvantages to using this vs a PCI card? Lack of support. I have no idea if something like the gamebridge is supported in software. Does it actually have a fully working cable tuner?
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Mar 22, 2007 22:57
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Mister Biff posted:Which package was this? MythTV looks like just about every other piece of software out there. LinuxMCE is something new that is supposed to be competition for mce. The problem with the interface is they have what they call a "media centric" idealogy, which means clusterfuck. If your playing media your menus overlay, it's hard to read, and there are a million of the things. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4422887272477313460&hl=en That is apparently the software. Notice how they try to cram ALL the options and menus into an overlay on the screen. MS isn't trying to have their software dominate your media, they want your poo poo to be READABLE, and this isn't. It seems like a case of trying to pack to much in, and killing yourself. Do you really need to have loving bluetooth smartphone datafeeds etc? It is what happens when a person forgoes design and usability for features.
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Mar 23, 2007 01:42
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King Hotpants posted:The narrator in that LinuxMCE video has possibly the most "Linux" voice on earth. The subtle disdain for Microsoft, the air of superiority, the nasally overtones. It's all there. It really is "why doesn't MCE know how to communicate with my microwave to pop my popcorn and it beems music to my Smartphone" Seriously, how is using a goddamn gryro mouse and having 20 menus a better interface. He also talks about the media like you can't mount network shares in just about every goddamn media app on earth.
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Mar 23, 2007 02:10
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Sam Fujiyama posted:- It just does not crash, I'm sorry but you are out of touch here. Pre 0.2 was a bitch, but that was then and this is now. Umm,yes it does. MediaPortal still has plenty of issues, and still crashes. It is a lot better for sure, but it still has plenty of stability problems in its Release TV engine. It is a million times better than it was even just a year ago, but it is far from perfect. Sam Fujiyama posted:- x700 + A64 3200+ was my setup for a year, it wasn't even remotely slow. You shouldnt need a system that fast for simple PVR
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Mar 25, 2007 22:10
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Sam Fujiyama posted:Not for 99.99% of the normal tasks you would do on an average day. I have an amd xp2800, a pvr 150, and a 6600. The tv engine constantly crashes out just when watching tv on top of a fresh install and update of widows and the drivers. I know plenty of people that have the same problem. This isn't about fringe stuff, Mediaportal is still buggy.
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Mar 25, 2007 23:36
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I ran mediaportal for over a year and a half, have tried svn's and worked with the developers submitting bug reports. I stopped bothering after the December release. it isn't anyones fault, but to say that Mediaportal still doesn't have stability issues is silly, because it does. When they move to the rewritten TV engine I am sure they will be much farther along. This isn't isolated in the least. The old TV engine still had a lot of bugs. I don't see how this is suprising considering some of the things that got ignored across versions that were glaring issues (problem with skins that used views that were wider than tall come to mind, big deal to when looking at widescreen support).
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Mar 26, 2007 00:46
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Meedio is great, but the company was bought so there is no more ongoing support. The meedio project is being resurrected as a new project that will hopefully rock just as hard, but be a little more friendly. If mediaportal is solid for you it is the best free for use HTPC frontend available. Their are other comeptitive TV DVR packages, but if you are looking for the full package Meedio is your best bet by far. In my opinion the best rmeote option is a Usb UIRT and Girder. The USB UIRT will accept any and all IR signals from a remote device, and using girder you can bind the keypresses of your remote to keyboard keys, combinations, LUA scripts and windows commands. If you are savvy it can allow you to make an amazing and seamless remote setup with any remote you want. For example I wrote a LUA script that makes my Remotes power button act like a momentary switch. Hit it and it won't accidentally turn off your HTPC, hold it for 2 second and it will go into sleep, hold it for 5 and it reboots. The USB UIRT is also an IR blaster
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Mar 26, 2007 03:36
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EC posted:Out of curiosity, can you Media Portal guys post some screenshots of the basic menu navigation and things? I could never make MP as "pretty" as Meedio, even though Meedio didn't have a DirectX interface and animated menus. Never seemed worth it for me. Pretty how? As a Skinner who has worked with Meedio and Media Portal both have their pro's and con's. I love how media portal is DX based because unlike Meedio it can draw transparencies a lot faster. Also it uses a fixed resolution system for building the skins. I like that because instead of having to worry about how the controls fall apart on 16:9 versus 4:3 it will just stretch it. It might not look as nice, but it is nice to work with and very consistent. Meedio has way more control/command options which allowed it to have some really off the wall features. The plugins were able to send system wide messages that, if the skinner wanted, could be read globally which allowed for cool things. The downside was with so many option I really only remember one or two really solid skins that utilized them. Look wise Media portal can look much nicer than Meedio could, at higher resolutions and little to no speed hit. You won't see the same level of Plugin integration you had with skins like HDeeTV in Media portal as of now. Meedio's skinning and Media Portals were annoying in different ways. I prefer Media Portals xml'ish approach. It is more consistent and easier to read. I Prefer Meedio's idea of a base skin that plugins can appropriate. Media portal has way to many individual skin files in my opinion. This would be remedied by having them sorted by plugin. As of now every skin file is in the skins root directory, and there are a ton of individual files. Juriko fucked around with this message at 03:50 on Mar 26, 2007 |
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Mar 26, 2007 03:47
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EC posted:I guess module integration was a big thing for me. I could always make Meedio look fairly consistent across the board, with little to no tweaking files manually. Most, if not all, of the popular plugins have screens that work with the two biggest themes, HDeeTV and MenagerieSE. The interface was always easy to use, fast, and nice to look out, even without animations and DX support. I think the advantage here is that if you want to you can easily make a new screen for whatever skin you need in Media portal. The skinning system is really simple to play with for anyone that knows basic xml concepts. You should be able to edit the skin tio match up fairly quickly. Mediaportal now is actually way flashier too then it was even 8 months ago. HDeeTV and MenagerieSE were simply beasts that Meedio was lucky to have. HDeeTV in particular was extreamly advanced, well thought out and just great. I actually feel bad for the guy that meedio went under after all that work.
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Mar 26, 2007 20:40
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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? The first thing we need to know is what you would want your HTPC to do. and HTPC is just a computer with a few specialized parts and software, and recommendations will vary based on how you want it to function.
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Mar 29, 2007 13:24
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ShaneB posted:I installed Meedio and am having issues playing back videos, in that many videos have audio but black screens. I usually can diagnose this to a codec issue, but they play fine in Media Player Classic. I only seem to be able to select "Default", "Overlay", "VMR7", and "VMR9". If I select WMV9 my framerate goes to poo poo. I don't know what's happening when I select that, but more videos appear to work in Meedio. I only have an athlon 2000 running at 200x10, so it's not exactly blazing fast. Any ideas? The Overlay, VMR9 etc options are video overlay settings. VMR9 is a dx9 based overlay that, if you have the right hardware, will run best. I don't know about codec compatibility in overlay mode in meedio though.
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Apr 5, 2007 20:16
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Allen Fiverson posted:Not really. I use Fair Use for DVD conversion, which not everyone likes but works fine for me. Sony makes one and it works with MCE. It costs around 500 dollars I belive.
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Apr 6, 2007 22:46
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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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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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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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You can actually use MKV files through frontrow now thanks to the latest version of perian. All you have to do is pick up a script called movie2itunes which will make a small 4 k alias to the movie, and after that frontrow can load them.
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Jul 3, 2007 04:18
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m3jsh posted:I'm current using Mediaportal and think it's pretty neat, are there any reasons though that I should be using Windows MCE or Vista instead? Not really. As long as Mediaportal runs solidly for you I would stick with it, but be sure to backup this install if you decide to upgrade.
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Jul 19, 2007 18:21
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Sam Fujiyama posted:Anyone checked out the new DirectX version of GB-PVR? Although not open source it is free, so I admire that the owner dared say his product is 1.0 quality. GBPVR is rock solid in its old form, and a great application for what it is. The problem with it to me is it is very PVR oriented, and as such its built in media functionality sucks.
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Jul 23, 2007 04:40
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Gromit posted:I uninstalled everything and just put the CCCP on. Everything seems to play with no skipping at all with Zoomplayer (but not MPC), so I can't thank you enough. I've yet to do exhaustive testing, but so far so good. Honestly on my old media center I got so tired of having small, random problems with certain codecs and containers so I just set up profiles and re-encoded them to a standard format. Now a days everything I have stays as h.264. I know, re-encoding is icky, but the unnoticeable amount of compression it adds is so much better than the random issues that popped up when I was attempting to run so many codecs and containers.
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Sep 12, 2007 06:41
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shaitan posted:So Nvidia has announced the new 630i series of Motherboards that feature a Geforce 7 series graphics chip integrated (7150). Depends on what you mean by "better". The whole point of the apple tv hardware is size, not speed. My old 2800 Athalon xp performs better than the apple tv, but it is also 12 times the size. A c2d will crush the apple TV in performance.
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Sep 30, 2007 12:32
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shaitan posted:The whole point of the AppleTV is an easy way to watch movies. The fact that it comes in a small sleek package is just the fact that it is Apple. Unless you want to game yes. While higher end cards have some decoding acceleration for certain software setups your better off using the graphics card money to just buy a slightly faster processor. Accelerated decoding is still spotty. Apple TV HD support is fairly minimal. and something you could do on just about any cheap, low end computer you can make now. The only thing it does different is the form factor. If you don't need it that small you can probably do better for the money as long as, like most PC users, you have some parts laying around. My point is you can make a solid media center pc if you have media center already for the same price as an apple tv, but what it wont do is set itself up and fit into a box half the size of a mac Mini. There is no competition when it comes to speed and flexibility, the apple TV is a very targeted device that does what it does well, but isn't going to have the playback support of a C2D machine.
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Oct 1, 2007 06:27
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Noghri_ViR posted:Ok I've seen all the love of Media Portal cause it's free, but compared to the retail products out there, does it hold up? Like most free products the functionality is there ,ad the look is close, but the setup and maintenance is all over the place. After you get it setup and stable it is awesome, but it can be a little anoying to setup depending on what you want.
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Oct 28, 2007 23:13
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Noghri_ViR posted:Ok here's a follow up question. If you had the money and the choice to use anything out there, which one would you load up? It depends on what you want. If you don't give a poo poo about extra media playback and just want PVR I would go with GBPVR. It isn't the prettiest but it is rock solid and works great. It has crappy music and plugin support though. If I didn't care about plugins or skins I would probably just go with media center. It is solid, consistent and just works. If I was willing to tinker around, and work out possible stability issues, I would probably go with Media Portal. Once it gets going it goes great, but for the love of god if you get it solid back up the install and don't upgrade until you have to. One thing I have learned with tinkering with media PC's is nothing is more frustrating than an update breaking you seamless setup. In all cases I would be running girder too, because girder is amazing. At the end of the day I would tell most people just to et media center, because it works. Personally I am working on a side project and coding my own media frontend, but I don't see that a being viable for most people.
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Oct 30, 2007 20:18
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kri kri posted:The MediaPortal team has announced MediaPortal II. An alpha build should be up soon I guess. I honestly hope this project picks up steam and sees a non alpha release soon. Media Portal has had a lot of potential, and was good in its own right, but was full of issues related to bad planning. Hopefully with their current experience, MP codebase and planning they can make a really strong product.
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Nov 20, 2007 08:47
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EC posted:All of the Harmony remotes will work on PCs if you have an IR receiver. Sometimes they come with the remote, but you can buy the standard one here. I have that and have had no issues with it (well, none that relate to the receiver anyway, I hate the Harmony I have for controlling the PC). Most of the software front-ends out there will support it as well. usbuirt and girder can make any front end feel seamless depending on your ability and dedication. Before my media PC died I had managed to set it up so that, with lua scripts and basic girder binds, all my buttons could be context sensitive to the app I had and I could do things like single power tap suspends and holding the remote button for full shutdown etc using lua and timers. It is fun to start an emulator from your couch and have the number buttons go from being bound to from channel buttons to save states etc.
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Nov 26, 2007 03:50
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Explosm posted:Here's another "Is this practical?" question. Look up girder, buy girder. If you don't have a IR component buy a USB-UIRT , get girder and then be amazed as you can use any IR device to control your PC.
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Dec 1, 2007 23:33
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automated posted:Or you could use http://www.byremote.com.au/HIP/Default.htm , which is free and easier to use than girder. I don't have a box I can test this on, but does it have the same windows command controls (IE targeting individual apps for shutdown) etc? I am curious to know how much of girders functionality could be replicated on it. I love girder, but it is a pain in the rear end for the average person. If this was easier to use but had a lot of the same functionality I would probably start recommending it.
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Dec 7, 2007 18:56
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dfn_doe posted:Well, you /should/ be able to use it for whatever sort of interaction you desire, although I'm not sure who goes the hassle of building an HTPC and then wants to get up and fiddle with the front of it to do UI interaction. I however would be very interested in seeing something like a fusion with a decent sized screen on the front which could display media info imdb,allmusic,etc but the touch capability seems pretty worthless especially when you look at the price premium for it. The biggest advantage of a front mount touch display is in situations were you need access to non visual media without turning on the primary display, which is often a projector. Some people just use a small display but a touchscreen integrates better. The also normally accept crazy high res input compared to the display so you can properly clone a 1080p desktop which helps avoid res switches. Great for music media.
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Jan 17, 2008 04:15
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Strict 9 posted:Exactly. I'm not sure how much of an actual benefit I get through that, of course, but I did follow the guide posted here. I'm using MediaPortal as a front-end with MPC as my player (I believe - I'd have to double check that). You really shouldn't be post processing ay HD files. It is ridiculously cpu intensive and can lead to a lot of issues. Processing makes sense when upscaling but that is about it.
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Feb 29, 2008 22:19
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Crackbone posted:Exactly the sentiment above. That's why I asked about postprocessing. While I read AVS as well, those people who postprocess are usually obsessive freaks with "golden eye" syndrome. If you're doing anything other than playback of x264 files through FFDSHOW, turn off the other junk. I find most of their processing to actually be really destructive. Some of the lighter stuff can be nice but the actually effect is so small I don't see why anyone cares. Some of the processing they do artifacts so badly at times I wonder how they can think it is better.
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Mar 1, 2008 22:56
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Harminoff posted:So looking at my htpc I notice that part of the picture is cutoff (top and bottom) Pretty much every SD CRT in existence has some degree of overscan. CRT's used to have lovely geometry and cheap CRT's still do, so the solution was to just cut off some of the corners artificially so people couldn't notice. You either need to get into the service menu of the tv, or compensate for the overscan in you videocards drivers.
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Mar 14, 2008 07:56
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Jowogra posted:Im looking into to getting HDTV for my HTPC, but hooking up a HD cable box would be a pain and not work well, so im looking into getting a Cablecard, i know i need a adapter to hook up the card to the PC, and the PC has hdmi out. A cablecard is all you need. The problem you will find is that, as far as I know, you can only get a cablecard in an OEM machine. It is not something you will be able to pick up on your own.
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Mar 20, 2008 17:37
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Crackbone posted:I doubt you'd find a niche port plate like that, since usb adaptors are far easier to use/buy. This is my recommendation as well. I mounted my wireless receiver in the inside-front of my case and it is nice to just be able to use the 360 controllers to the point I wish I could get some sore of receiver to do the same thing on the ps2. I would love to have 1 set of wireless controls for all my gaming.
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Apr 3, 2008 20:15
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Not a bad Idea. I would love to discuss the pros of each front end. I just recently started setting up, skinning and using XBMC on a windows PC and it is just amazing. I don't need tuner support so it is just a brilliant option. Much better than media portal over all. It takes a while to get going since it is technically an alpha, but it is actually pretty drat solid. I can imagine how awesome it will be when finally ported over completely.
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Apr 20, 2008 23:48
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