Home Theater project - need input

DaMaN · Post by **DaMaN** » Sat Dec 25, 2010 11:19 pm

Hey all I hope all had a wonderful holiday. With the holiday closing out today a project came to mind for me to do in the next few months.

I planned on upgrading my PC to an i7 or sandy bridge setup so I wanted to make use of my old parts (see my sig)and build a really quiet and kick ass HTPC to put on my AV rack and reside underneath my flat screen TV.

Generally, I wanted to just use it to play DivX and other movies on as well as browse the net and browse and play my mp3 library on. It will have an Ethernet connection so streaming is not necessary. No Netflix, No Blueray, No DVR capabilities needed.

I wanted to pull my cpu/mobo/ram and my 2TB drive for storage as well as acquire a small / quick SSD drive (80GB) to run the media player and net browser on or I may re-purpose my Kingston SNV425-S2 for that role to save $$.

What I need help with deciding is the case (Must look at home on a AV rack) as well as the media player to pull it all together.

I have considered the ANTEC FUSION REMOTE MAX or similar but not decided. PSU may need to be purchased to fit the application.

I also need to know what the best vid card would be to get with HDMI out so I can go direct to my LCD TV.

For media player I was going to go Windows 7 Media Center but am unsure if that is the most efficient bug free way to go.

So with that start I look for your experience or advice. I hope to keep this thread as a living one with updates and feedback from us all.

Thanks in advance,

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Sun Dec 26, 2010 8:22 am

I can highly recommend Windows 7 Media Player. All three of my HTPCs are running Win7 MCE now.

Win7 MCE has built-in Divx, XVid & DVD support, so no need for codecs. Win7 MCE also has the Netflix client built into it which is very convenient. I have folders shared on my server with my MP3 library, Divx/XVid TV shows, and DVD rips, and even my photo albums. Each unit has a TV tuner and I use them as DVRs as well and share the recorded content among all of them.

I use a Windows Media Player remote, and one of these cool Rii mini wireless keyboards on each unit: http://usb.brando.com/rii-mini-wireless ... 34d15.html

As for HDMI, the big question is does your TV require audio to be carried over the HDMI cable or do you have at least one HDMI input with separate audio input jacks? Getting HDMI out of any vid card that has DVI jacks is easy - you just use an adapter - but you won't get audio via HDMI that way.

Does your HDTV have a VGA input? If you want to save money consider using VGA. Honestly for TV you're not going to see any major difference in quality and you probably have a vid card lying around you can use. I'm running VGA on all of my HTPCs, one of them at 1080p and the other two at 720p.

DaMaN · Post by **DaMaN** » Sun Dec 26, 2010 8:46 am

Thanks FP, my HDTV have a VGA input. That will save me lots of headaches with the HDMI audio.

I have Windows 7 on my main rig so I'll play with the media center while I contemplate on the rest of the parts.

I have been looking at HTPC looking cases on newegg and can't say I am in love with any that fit my need to be ATX/ desktop (AV component appropriate) and are easy on the eye & wallet+ are gargantuan. It may be worth my while to get a microATX mobo. That will be my plan B for now.

DaMaN · Post by **DaMaN** » Sun Dec 26, 2010 8:59 am

FP really nice remote. What does the receiver look like on the PC end of the signal? USB dongle? How did you integrate the MCE remote with the setups as well? My last remote question, is there a keyboard / remote combination that can act as a mouse that will integrate all into one device and perhaps act as a universal remote control for my other stuff?

DaMaN · Post by **DaMaN** » Sun Dec 26, 2010 9:53 am

What does everyone think about these cases:

nMEDIAPC Black Aluminum / Acrylic / Steel HTPC 6000B ATX Media Center / HTPC Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811204037

APEVIA Black SECC Steel / Aluminum X-MASTER-BK/500 ATX Media Center / HTPC Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811144231

SILVERSTONE Black Aluminum / Steel LC13B-E ATX Media Center / HTPC Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811163117

SILVERSTONE Black Aluminum front panel, 0.8 mm SECC body LC17-B ATX Media Center / HTPC Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811163055

SILVERSTONE Black Aluminum / Steel LC10B-E ATX Media Center / HTPC Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811163118

As you can tell I am trying to keep it around +/- $100.00

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Sun Dec 26, 2010 12:22 pm

The Rii mini wireless keyboard has a small USB dongle.

The Microsoft MCE remote (and most MCE remotes) has a large IR USB receiver. The receiver needs to be facing you so the remote can hit it. Most MCE remote receivers also have IR emitter "bugs" that allow MCE to remotely change channels on a cable box, if you have one. I use this feature on my living room TV which has a cable box.

Logitech and others make Media Center remotes with build in mouse (usually a roller ball or a touch pad). Logitech also makes some very nice multi-function universal remotes that support media center. They aren't cheap though.

Keep in mind that you can control Media Center from just a mouse or a keyboard. The MCE remote is just a lot more intuitive and easier.

Another option for a small HTPC running MCE is a laptop. Even a cheap budget lappy with 2Gb is powerful enough to run MCE Win7 just fine as long as it has an NVidia or ATI video chip (avoid anything with Intel video like the plague).

This is what I bought for my last HTPC, not wanting to spend much money: http://www.walmart.com/ip/eMachines-EL1 ... w/15062989

I have it sitting on it's side so from the front it looks like a narrow DVD player. Not very powerful but good enough for the job - especially with unnecessary services disabled. I also don't have any AV installed to improve performance, since these are only HTPCs and the only web browsing I do is bookmarked news sites like NPR, CNN, FOX and weather sites, and I use Firefox with NoScript. In the 6 years I've been running MCE's I've never bothered installing AV on any of them. I also don't install Windows updates except for MCE specific updates.

I added a PCI-E half-height tuner card in both of them to record TV. They make USB TV tuners as well, but they tend to rely more on the CPU and might hurt performance on an underpowered system like this.

BTW: This is the best forum to get info on HTPCs: http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/
A gold mine of information.

DaMaN · Post by **DaMaN** » Mon Dec 27, 2010 4:25 pm

Thanks FP. Do you RIP DVDs and play them through MCE?

If so do you rip them to the Native .VOB files (I have all mine this way currently )or is .ISO better? I just want to prepare for the migration to MCE and wanted your perspective.

Thanks,

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Mon Dec 27, 2010 5:41 pm

I play them in Media Center. If you link them in MCE as a "Movie" folder location (not a video folder location) and put each DVD's VIDEO_TS folder in it's own named folder, MCE will display an icon for it in the "Movies" section using the name of the folder.

I rip them all to native VOB using AnyDVD & CloneDVD.

I then put a jpg file in the folder called FOLDER.JPG with a cover art image of the DVD which MCE will use as the icon image. I use a 350 x 500 JPG which works perfectly and coincidentally is the same size as the standard cover art graphic on Amazon.

normalicy · Post by **normalicy** » Mon Dec 27, 2010 5:48 pm

I highly recommend either setting up a server to stream your stuff or just using the HTPC as the server thus avoiding ripping anything.

If you do end up deciding to go with a video card, the Radeon HD3450 & 4350 are both great options because they do audio over HDMI as well as assist in decoding HD content & can frequently be had for under $30. Sometimes under $20.

As for the case, don't forget to check out the desktop style cases as well:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi ... ageSize=20

I ended up buying a broken receiver & doing some major custom work to it & shoving a standard ATX PSU, MATX mobo, & hard drive into it. It was a labor of love though.

The biggest trick is just keeping the thing quiet.

DaMaN · Post by **DaMaN** » Mon Dec 27, 2010 6:54 pm

Thanks FP.

Normalicy, I have them already ripped to .VOB files so was hoping that I could use them as is. Thanks for the Vid-card tip.

normalicy · Post by **normalicy** » Mon Dec 27, 2010 8:33 pm

You can play the VOB files straight up with Windows Media Player Classic. Not sure on other players.

DaMaN · Post by **DaMaN** » Tue Jan 11, 2011 10:33 pm

Well all my less fortunate friends / family didn't want my garbage picked HP Compaq Presario SR1620NX so I decided to keep it and spruce it up for my HTPC project.

Here are some parts I picked up from family, my spare parts or online this week cheap to get it a little peppier:

CASE: COOLER MASTER Elite 360 39.99 from the egg
MOBO: MSI MS-7184 v1.0 (can you say 2005 people?)
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3500+ w/Stock HSF (nice & quiet)
RAM: 1.5GB DDR SDRam PC3200 (System only supports 2GB Max)
Optical: Stock Compaq - HP DVD / CDRW
PSU: ZALMAN ZM500-RS 500 Watts ATX12V 29.99 from the egg
HD: OCZ Agility 2 OCZSSD2-2AGTE60G + 2X1GB WD SATA II 99.99 from the egg
GPU: MSI GeForce 7900GT

Coupling that with a fresh Windows 7 Install how do you think it will perform to do this plus play Xvid / x.264 up to 720p movies over a DVI / VGA cable to my LCD TV and browse the net?

I am pretty sure I will be using Media Center to play all my mp3's, DVD rips but
kinda would like to use my barely used Ipod touch (2nd Gen) as a remote. Is anyone using their Ipod / Ipad to control Media Center?

DaMaN · Post by **DaMaN** » Tue Jan 11, 2011 11:06 pm

Found this site with a review of the power supply I picked up. I was really impressed with the technical review. Check it out: http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Zalman-ZM500-RS-Power-Supply-Review/882/1

normalicy · Post by **normalicy** » Wed Jan 12, 2011 10:53 am

I had to convince myself not to grab that PSU. I've already got about 10 in a closet.

That 7900GT doesn't do much for HD video acceleration. However, I'd try it before trying anything else. I've found the Radeon HD4350's to be perfect HTPC video cards.

DaMaN · Post by **DaMaN** » Wed Jan 12, 2011 10:55 am

agreed, that PSU was too good to pass up. It has a fairly small footprint too so it fits the bill of this build great. I will try the 7900 since it was free for now and will stalk the forums and ebay until I can nab the HD4350. Thanks!