Ok, thanks for all of the input, looks like now i just need to pull the trigger and order the parts and put the setup together. Once that is done I will probably be asking more questions in regards to software, tweaking the system etc.

Not sure if this is the right place to ask but more than likely will I require something like PowerStrip to get a proper screen size setup via HDMI on my 50" DLP?

Also my main reason for building an HTPC is instead of wasting 4 hours taking an avi video file which has been compressed from what it originally was and then having nero encode it and burn it to a DVD and have all these dvd's lieing around I would rather have a simple computer to have the files on and be able to play them from there. Will there be a noticeable difference in quality of the picture between playing a downloaded avi video file from an HTPC via HDMI to my DLP vs. the same video burnt to a DVD ? I always seem to have black crush issues and the picture doesnt ever look as good as I would think it should so these are the main reasons I want to venture into HTPC territory. I am concerned though that I will need to find files that are in VIDEO_TS format rather than the usual .avi which are very common and easy to find/download.

Not sure if this is the right place to ask but more than likely will I require something like PowerStrip to get a proper screen size setup via HDMI on my 50" DLP?

Very unlikely that you will need this. The alignment issues are only with component connections to TVs. There were only DVI/HDMI alignment issues back a couple of years ago. From all that I have read and experienced, this is a thing of the past.

To your question on video playback, if there is no data there, then there is little that can be done (Black crush). However, an HTPC with a good NVidia or ATI card is (short of some special circumstances) the very best upscaling or down scaling video output device you can have.

The special circumstances are:


Using a $5000 Silicon Graphics based video processor.
Using a PS3 for DVD playback.


As for my personal experience, a good DivX file of an HD show still looks better than the SD or DVD equivalent.

Hello,

Like many others I'm thinking of building a HTPC.

I've built desktops before, but it's been a while, and I'm not quite up to date on all that's available.

First off, I already have a PVR, so I'm not looking to use it for recording tv. At least not off the bat, perhaps a Tuner card upgrade down the road.

Basically I'm electronically lazy, I have quite a few DVD movies 200+, which I don't usually watch because I'm too lazy to go get it and put it in the dvd player. So I'm looking to transfer the majority of my movies to the HTPC. This will require quite a lot of storage, so I figure I should start there.

To sum up
Two main questions I'm not quite sure of yet.

q1: what O/S is best for a HTPC? my desktop is XP home, labtop Vista.
q2: Storage, RAID?

What I'm looking for in my HTPC:
1. Lots of Storage(at least 1 terabyte)
1: used for DVD and multimedia storage, and playback
2. Quite
3. Upgradeable for Tuner, and HD (DVD's and Broadcasts)
4. Controlled using Harmony 880 remote(if possible)
5. Aesthetically Pleasing Case

Display for the HTPC is a Panasonic 37" HDTV.
HTPC will be stored on a open ended Stand(glass, not enclosed)

Any tips to help me get started would be great,

Thanks

q1: what O/S is best for a HTPC? my desktop is XP home, labtop Vista.

Really, the best route(s) is/are XP with Sage or Beyond or XP Media Center 2005.

q2: Storage, RAID?

RAID is not a terribly good idea for the average user even if you are not average. A good idea that I am about to pursue (as are several others here) is a dedicated PC/Server that runs the new Windows Home Server operating system. WHS allows for much easier expansion of server storage space than any other setup that has been out in the past. From there, you build a thin client PC that has the appropriate amount of video horsepower but does not need gobs of storage space for itself.

I would target using 500 GB drives as they are now the best price/storage value out there and would allow a fair amount of storage in a PC case that holds a large # of drives. If you can hunt down one of those chen ming type cases (The really tall Thermaltake/Antec cases), you can squeeze 8+ drives into them.

If you are doing up 200 DVDs and are not going to compress to DivX, then you are looking at needing 1.75 TB of space right away so you may want to look at having at least one 1 TB drive in whatever you build.

As for system components for the HTPC, the last list posted by Stealth1 is a very good place to start.

I am having trouble pulling the trigger on getting purchasing this stuff. I think my plan for O/S is to run XP and use video players like WMP or Nero Showtime to view the movies. I am considering using MediaPortal but I am not sure if it is way over my head in terms of getting setup properly eventhough all I want to do is be able to watch videos on my DLP rather than burning DVD's of them.

From what I have seen the main function of MCE or MediaPortal is for setting up TV recording, viewing etc. The other use of it is for organization and use with a remote setup so you dont have to use a keyboard etc to navigate to find movies. Am I correct in these programs being mostly for convenience and not necesity? Right now I would rather not spend $130 on MCE 2005 if I dont have to.

Here is where I am at now for my list to purchase, on the fence whether to get 2 500gb HD's now since they are a good price right now or if I should stick with the single for now.

Samsung SH-S202J/BEBN IDE Black DVD-Writer 20xDVD+R/-R 8xDVD+RW/6xDVD-RW 12xDVD-RAM 12xDVD+/-RW Dual Layer 48xCD-R 32xCD-RW W/Software OEM
$35.19

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ (65W) Dual-Core Socket AM2, 2.3GHz, 512KB x2 L2 Cache, 2000MHz HT, 65nm (ADO4400DDBOX)
$95.99

Belkin 25' Cat6e Snagless RJ45 Patch Cable Black
$9.99

1m HDMI to HDMI Single Link M/M
$17.39

Antec NSK2480 Desktop Case w/380Watt PSU, Black/Silver
$101.99

2 x Western Digital Caviar (WD5000AAKS) 500GB SATAII 7200RPM 16MB Buffer
$109.99 each

2 x Crucial Rendition 1GB DDR2 667/PC5300 240-pin
$29.99 each

ASUS M2A-VM HDMI Socket AM2 AMD 690G Chipset ATI X1250 GPU Dual VGA 6-CH Audio Firewire Dual Channel DDR2 800/667/533 Micro ATX
$82.99

Total w/ Taxes and Shipping = $719.90 with the 2 500GB hard drives

Am I correct in these programs being mostly for convenience and not necesity?

Yes for convienience but it is a necessity if you have a signifigant other that is going to use it. And even if not, the reality is that you will become discusted with having to fuss with a keyboard and mouse. Using a remote with one of the HTPC 10 foot interfaces is just too nice to go without. The only justification that I could see for not having a 10 foot interface is if I was not 6 to 10 feet away from the TV, so basically sitting in front of a monitor.

Right now I would rather not spend $130 on MCE 2005 if I dont have to.

Keep in mind that a copy of XP Home is $99 so you are really only paying $30 for the MCE software that is in the MCE edition. If you don't like MCE and choose to use another package, you simply disable the MCE services and install your new choice of HTPC software.

Well I can get XP for free so that is what i mean in saying I would rather not spend the $130 on MCE 2005. I figure go with the cheapest route with that and then if I find the other programs difficult etc I can always swap to MCE 2005.

I know I will definitely want to go with a remote setup down the road but right now its just an added cost to me and isnt necessary. I will see how long I will last with a keyboard setup and go from there.

Thanks for the tips,

I like the idea of a WHS, The only problem I can see is I live in a fairly small appartment, and although I can have the HTPC hardwired to the network, but the only room I could house a desktop computer would only have wireless, and unfortunately not feesible to run a patch cord to that room. So my concern would be streaming media from the WHS to the HTPC. Would that be possible? or would it be best to be hardwired for both?

Would be great when I have a house (assuming the house has been wired for networking), and I could store the WHS in a basement cold room. one day...

Maybe I'll look at capping my HTPC at around 1 TB and just copy movies I'm likely to watch frequently. Or opt for Compressing.

In which case I guess my task would be finding the minimum requirements to keep power consumption and heat down to a min.

Thanks for the help, defienately more ahead now then when I first thought about doing this.

Ok I've looked at Steath1 list above, and used it as a blueprint, and I think a similar if not identical build(apart from maybe case and OS) would work for me.

Thanks for the blueprint stealth1.

couple concerns

I'm thinking I could get away with the onboard video aswell up until the point I want to play back HD media, in which case I could upgrade to a standalone vid card. would that be correct?

For dvd drive I'm thinking just a basic 16x dvd drive, just something to play dvd's so it can replace my dvd player. Ripping of dvd's will probably be done on another computer then transfered.

Keeping it as quite as possible yet still cool. I was looking at the Zalman ultra quite cpu cooler, yet I'm not sure I have the clearance in the case to support it.

case I was thinking of was 'Antec Fusion black', mainly because everything else on my entertainment shelf is black as well and it would look the best in my setup.

Any other tips or ideas on building this as quite as possible?

----------------

Edit

Another concern is Digital Audio, I'd like to be able to use either Optical or Digital conection to my receiver, but not sure if that's supported through the onboard audio Jacks(from what I can tell it just has the stereo jacks). Also in terms of DTS playback, would that be possible through software? or will I need to get a Stand alone Audio card to produce that.

'Antec Fusion black'

Another really good option for all black and that would allow you to have a larger number of drives is the Silverstone LC17. It does not sell with a power supply but that is not a really big deal as it uses standard power supplies.

Keeping it as quite as possible yet still cool. I was looking at the Zalman ultra quite cpu cooler,

In all actuallity, the packaged AMD coolers and the Cool'n Quiet function makes for a near dead silent operation. I have one in my bedroom and my wife is not even aware that there is noise (Of which you have to literally put your head on the case to hear it) from it all night long.

Another concern is Digital Audio

The Asus HDMI board has a riser card that contains the HDMI port and a coax digital output. There is no optical but where you stated either would be fine,the Asus does meet your needs. There are other AMD 690G boards that have optical right on the ATX breakout along with the other connectors and does not rely on a riser card.

Would that be possible? or would it be best to be hardwired for both?

SD/DVD content would stream alright but not HD. It would be better if it was hardwired. So with that, that is why at the top, I suggested the Silverstone LC17 as it would allow you to install a large amount of storage in one case and then later, split up the storage into a second server when you are ready.

Good luck and have fun!

I'll check out that case, and remove that Zalman cpu cooler from my build.

Thanks for your help, I think I'm about ready to find everything and go build.

I'm thinking I could get away with the onboard video aswell up until the point I want to play back HD media, in which case I could upgrade to a standalone vid card. would that be correct?


Even then, your on-board video may suffice. GPUs are built to render 3D animations in games. Most of the work of playing HD streams is done by the CPU. I am not aware of any GPU that offers HD-DVD or Bluray hardware acceleration.

Most of the work of playing HD streams is done by the CPU. I am not aware of any GPU that offers HD-DVD or Bluray hardware acceleration.

This is not exactly true. HD accelleration is paramount when dealing with resolutions higher than 720p. The entire ATI X1000 and HD2000 lines of cards are hardware accellerators. And due to the programmability of the ATI design, they keep adding capabilities. On top of that, the ATI chips will do all of the HD processing tricks that ATI comes up with.

NVidia, on the other hand, designs the most attractive features at the hardware level. The most dramatic choice on their part lately is that the GF8600 is actually a better HD playback card than a GF8800.

Now, as I pointed out (I think I did), there was a recent 1080p and DVD upscaling shootout (www.firingsquad.com) that shows that although there is nothing "wrong" with the current ATI drivers, the NVidia 8600 is the current choice for HTPCs.

Having said all of that, Tom's Hardware did a review recently that confirms what ATI/AMD has been claiming about their 690G/X1250 onboard video. That is, when you have a decent enough CPU (To make up for the onboard nature of the GPU. The x1250 onboard is accellerated but only so far), you can readily play back 1080p content.

So mr_raider is somewhat to mostly right. You very well may be fine for a long long time using the onboard video. If you choose to upgrade video cards, you will have to check at that time to see who is doing it better (Driver changes are the biggest impacting factor) and then once you have chosen, know that you are relieving your main CPU of a great deal of work.

After digging around, it seems both ATI Avivo and Nvidia's PureHD offer hardware acceleration for decoding Blu-ray and HD-DVD streams, as well as h264, mpeg and divx codecs. So cards with these technologies would definitely help when decoding from those sources. However, when viewing analog TV, standard DVDs and ATSC TV, on-board graphics should be satisfactory.

Perhaps the OP can use the on-board GPU for now, and later buy a discrete GPU when he /she buys the new DVD drive. Most likely, the next generation of GPUs from both makers will incorporate these features in their x3xx and x4xx level cards.

Perhaps the OP can use the on-board GPU for now, and later buy a discrete GPU when he /she buys the new DVD drive.

The ATI/AMD 690G does do AVIVO but due to the slow clock speed of the onboard GPU it needs some extra power from the main CPU. Not much mind you and typically only 1080p content requires the extra power. SD/DVD (480i/p) content barely makes a dent in the CPU utilization on my X2 4000+ when using the 690G onboard video.

Also, as is discussed on other threads and I believe somewhere back in this massive thread of mine, the latest integrated Catalyst drivers provided a MASSIVE increase in performance (This is again a plus for the programmability of the ATI design). The testing that I did showed that even on a X2 4000+, the CPU utilization dropped by a good 15% to 20%. This put 1080p playback at only a bit above 55% with max peaks at only 65% (Testing done with PowerDVD 7.3 and hardware accelleration on).

NVidia has yet to answer the 690G call to arms. The best that is available from them is now the 7 series of onboard video and I have yet to see/read reviews or comparisons. The one nice thing is that they support PureVideo HD so it is very likely that they are comparable to the 690G solution.

In all actuality, either the 690G or the newest NVidia onboard options would do well for resolutions up to 1080p for a very long time.

Really been wanting to get into the HTPC thing for a while. Been reading these threads for months on and off. With the release of MB with HDCP compliant HDMI/VDI ports and optical outs, I think I am ready as the price point is low enough for me now. I am probably going to buy:

ANTEC NSK2400 DESKTOPCASE 380W PS
CORSAIR TWIN2X2048-5400C4
GIGABYTE SKT.AM2 AMD 690G M.ATX
LG 16X DVD ROM BLACK
SEAGATE 500GB SATAII 16MB
AMD ATHLON64 X2 4600 SKT. AM2 (1MBX2)
Will connect to LAN by wire, not wireless.

Purpose to play HD material on a Sanyo Z5 projector from the PC through DVI (out) to HDMI (in on projector) port.
No recording, just playback - already have Rogers HDDVR.

Probably going to use Mediaportal, J. River Media Centre or Snapstream

I would like to be able to control everything with my Logitech Harmony Remote. And a remote IR keyboard.

If I buy the MS REMOTE KB WINXP MCE (OEM) , which comes with a keyboard and IR receiver, will it be able to control Mediaportal, and will my Logitech Harmony remote be able to work with it all also?

If not, does anyone have an idea of what I can use?

Thanks,
Allan

Unless the Rogers box can be recorded into the HTPC with firewire then it won't work.

Most HTPC in canada only can view OTA HD.

There is the new antec case now 2480 which replaced the 2400.

I got a silver drive for my antec case. You may want to consider as black may not look that good.

Don't forget about sagetv as another choice.

I personally use BTV (snapstream)

Hi Q. Thanks for the reply.

I only referred to the Rogers DVR just to mention that I will not need the HTPC to record. I do not plan to connect them, the HTPC is just for downloaded material, and in the future when the HDDVD and Blueray players come down in price.

What DVD player did you get that is silver?

Anyone know which is better to go with (more reliable):
GIGABYTE GB-MA69GM-S2H
or
ASUS M2A-VM HDMI

I know the Asus has coax SPDIF, while the Gigabyte has optical out.

Otherwise not sure if there is a real big difference.

Thanks,
Allan

Anyone know which is better to go with (more reliable):
GIGABYTE GB-MA69GM-S2H
or
ASUS M2A-VM HDMI

I have the Asus HDMI board but in retrospect, I would go for the Gigabyte or a Sapphire board due to the better overall design. Specifically, the foolish riser card for the ASUS board to get HDMI and the coax. The reason that I did not mind it for where I used it is because the TV that it is running is DVI and only stereo audio.

The only other reason to avoid the ASUS board is that ASUS is traditionally slow with BIOS updates, compared to the other board makers.