HTPC Advice Needed

[hypperboy]

I was hoping that someone could give a newbie some help in regards to setting up a Home Theatre.

Currently I have a PC that I use basically to store all my movies/tv shows and download. Its not a huge storage system at 650GB but its okay for now (I would like to get a permanent solution though).
As of right now I am streaming the content from my PC to my Xbox 360 wirelessly which at times can be slow (I would like to possibly add a signal booster?)

I have been thinking about building an HTPC, possibly building a NAS and I would like to have a snazzy interface to use (I have heard people talking about JRMC, Sage, Beyond TV) Problem is that I am not very advanced in this field and I have no idea where to begin.

Should I avoid the HTPC and just use the Xbox with my current set up, get a signal booster? What do you guys suggest?

[TorontoColin]

Do you want to watch TV on this thing? If so which is your provider (cable or satellite?) and what kind of TV do you want to have on this thing?

How powerful is your computer?

Personally I use Vista Media Center with TV Pack. Since you have an Xbox 360 you can use it as a media center extender which allows you to run a snazzy interface remotely, keeping your PC away from your TV. It'll also do most of the heavy lifting which allows you to use a low-power PC as your Media Center, especially with regards to the video card.

Vista Media Center is pretty easy to use and set up. It comes integrated with Vista Home Premium and Ultimate. If you're married to XP then there's also XP Media Center Edition 2005, which can also use the 360 as an extender. It's only Media Center that can use the 360s, other programs like Sage use their own hardware for extenders. TV Pack is only important if you want to mix sources and still have the right program guide info, for example I use two analog tuners, one which is connected to my analog cable and the other is connected to a SD digital set-top box. TV Pack is an OEM only Microsoft update, so you can't get it from Microsoft directly but you can find it around.

If you want to watch TV you'll need a TV tuner card. If you want to capture from analog cable or an SD digital box you'll need an NTSC tuner. I'd recommend one with an onboard MPEG2 encoder, it will convert the analog signal to digital for you which takes a lot of stress off of your processor. For my analog channels I use (and recommend) two Hauppauge PVR-150s. You can also get the PVR-500 which is two NTSC tuners in one. They can connect to cable using coaxial or to a set-top box using S-Video and composite connections, and an IR-blaster to change channels. When I had satellite I used them for that too. The only issue with PVR-150s is they have trouble with computers with 4+ gigs of RAM.

If you're lucky enough to live somewhere with QAM access (unencrypted digital channels through your coaxial cable without a box) you can use an ATSC tuner to pull in those. There are lots of them out there, however I'm not sure if they'll work with Windows other than Vista with TV Pack. I know they won't work with Windows 7 as of the moment, but that could change by RTM.

If you want to watch OTA (Over the Air) digital (including HD) channels you'll also need an ATSC tuner. I'd highly recommend looking into this if you haven't already, OTA has changed a lot since NTSC-only days, it's free and legal and the easiest way to bring HD into Media Center. Digital Home has a fantastic OTA forum that I suggest you check out.

Microsoft disabled ATSC OTA in Canada, however there are registry hacks to make it work in MCE 2005 and Vista pre-TV Pack. If you need/want TV Pack (or even if you don't) I'd highly recommend the HDHomeRun. It's a little box that looks like a switch, it has two coaxial connections that can connect to either QAM cable or an antenna for ATSC OTA, and connects to your Media Center PC via a network port so you can put it anywhere in your home network. It's the only tuner that presently supports ATSC OTA in Canada with Vista TV Pack without complex hacks and workarounds. Their support guys are also absolutely fantastic.

If you want to connect an HD set-top box to your PC you only have one choice, the HD-PVR from Hauppauge. It connects via component cables and uses an IR-blaster to change channels. At the moment it has native support from a few programs but none of the Windows Media Center platforms. To make it work in Media Center you can use a third party program called DVBLink which makes it look like an FTA Satellite card to Media Center allowing it to work. I've never used it so I can't comment on reliability but I've heard it works pretty well. There are rumours of HD-PVR native support for Windows 7 but nothing really confirmed. There are no options to connect via HDMI, yet.

You can also mix some or all of these options, if you post with what you want to use I can give you a recommendation on a software choice.

As far as your wifi goes, wifi should be acceptable for SD programming, but it really isn't up to snuff for HD yet. I'd highly recommend running ethernet cables if you can, it makes a huge difference.

[the_bigd]

I have been thinking about building an HTPC, possibly building a NAS and I would like to have a snazzy interface to use (I have heard people talking about JRMC, Sage, Beyond TV) Problem is that I am not very advanced in this field and I have no idea where to begin.

Have you considered a WD-TV?
Considering what you get for the price, they are pretty hard to beat....

[dP21]

Take a look at the DNS-323 for a good NAS box. It can get 'homebrew' software installed on it using a think called fun_plug. It gives a bunch of features like running Torrents, media serving and backup. It costs ~$139 from NCIX or Dell.

[James]

so let me get this straight...

I am just considering upgrading my family pc which is about 3 or 4 years old, its a HP Pavillion, we use it to record and watch SDTV in the kitchen and in the family room via a xbox 360 connected via ethernet (on a 10/100 router).

I am not in the loop anymore with HTPC's but I was hoping to upgrade so I can record HD and stream to my Xbox 360 - so is this still not possible with a new HP Media Center PC like the one's they sell out of the box at bestbuy?

http://www.bestbuy.ca/search/searchr...B22&search=KWS

[TorontoColin]

You can indeed, what hardware you need depends on the HD source.

If it's ATSC OTA or QAM cable you need an ATSC or QAM tuner.

If it's off of a STB you have one choice: the Hauppauge HD-PVR. To use it with Media Center you need a third party program called DVBLogic.

Edit: Most media PCs won't come with any of that, you'll need to buy it separately. That said, the HD-PVR is a USB device and there are USB ATSC/QAM tuners so you don't need to open your PC if you don't want to.

[ScaryBob]

You can most likely record and stream HD with the existing PC. All you need is an HD capture device. That would be an ATSC tuner card for OTA or Hauppauge HD-PVR for satellite or cable HD. There are some other methods, such as firewire or USB, for certain cable or modified satellite receivers. The other important upgrade is a very large hard drive, since HD recordings use a lot of disk space.

You also don't need a media PC. Almost any PC can do this with the correct version of Windows and/or third party software. Vista Home Premium or Windows 7 Home Premium will both do the job for an Xbox 360. There are workarounds required to get them to work with digital OTA in Canada. There is a thread here on that (don't remember which one off hand.) All new Vista systems should now come with a free Windows 7 upgrade.

[hypperboy]

Alright what I did was buy a CAT-6 cable and run it directly to my 360 and I hid the wire as best I could. Seems to have worked and fixed my connection problems. Need some more advice though.

For my backend I am running a AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Newcastle edition with an ASUS K8VSEDX motherboard and only 512 DDR400 PC3200 Ram. I am using Windows XP I have about 300 GB of HDD space. What I am asking is, is that good enough for a backend server. I am purchasing 2 more GB of Ram and I am waiting for a deal on some 1TB Drives.

Is that enough or do I need a new system?

[Michael DeAbreu]

I faced the same dilemma. It galled me that 2GB of dual-channel DDR-400 cost about $100.00 which could have bought me:

• 4 GB of fast DDR2-1066 dual channel memory, or
• a new AM2+/AM3 motherboard with integrated video and 5.1 HDMI audio, or
• a 65W energy efficient Athlon 64 X2 5200 (2.7 GHz) CPU

But, I'm cheap. The computer worked. The SATA drives and PCIe peripherals could be eventually moved to a new computer. I have the feeling that you aren't into assembling your own computers. Also you don't have much to work with. So a new system is going to be expensive. On the other hand, if you are still satisfied with the HP's performance, it does have Gigabit ethernet which you hard-wired to your XBOX. 1TB SATA drives are future proof.

If you consider replacing the entire system, your weak points are:

• Single core CPU
• AGP graphics
• PCI expansion slots
• DDR-400 memory
• HP pavilion case and power supply

Basically, there is no upgrade path. If any component fails, you cannot replace it with newer, cheaper and better performing components. Any peripheral you buy cannot be carried forward into a new computer.

For about $600.00 you could assemble a new energy efficient, low noise computer:

• 780G Socket AM2/AM3 motherboard with integrated HD3200 graphics, 5.1 audio, HDMI 1.2 video
• 4 GB dual-channel DDR2-1066MHz memory
• Athlon II AM3 dual core 65W CPU
• Case (I have the Antec Sonata II but I like the nMedia HTPC cases)
• Windows 7
• Nmedia wireless keyboard and remote

This system will easily handle HD material and eventually upgrade to BD playback. Shop carefully (or wait 6-months) and you could move to a 785G AM3+ motherboard with HD4200 integrated graphics, 7.1 audio and full dual stream BD video processing, Phenom II triple core CPU and 6GB triple channel DDR3-1333 memory and a BD player.

For your new system, skip Crossfire and maximize the number of PCIe slots.

Damn, now I want to upgrade!

[ScaryBob]

hypperboy,
That system will be Ok for a back end server, providing any transcoding/encoding is done in hardware (i.e. on the TV tuner.) I wouldn't purchase more than an extra 1GB of RAM. That should be enough for a back end server. I see some Corsair (very good brand) going for $30 (after rebate) so it shouldn't break the bank. I also see 1TB WD green drives on sale weekly for well under $100. Just Google "1TB WD green drive canada".

I picked up 2GB fast RAM, Gigabyte mobo and AMD 5050E for about $185. But then, I'm really cheap. Could have gone for even cheaper stuff but wanted it to work well for HD. I checked weekly specials and aggressively price matched for those prices. Got free shipping too.

The last PC I built (suitable for HTPC) cost about $230. It has an Apex low profile case ($45), the parts above and the DVD/hard drives from another PC. OS and remote would be extra (had those too.) That's not exactly high end but beats throwing that much money at an old PC.

[hypperboy]

All I am using the server for now is to stream movies and tv shows to my xbox 360. I was hoping that my adding tv tuner card I could be able to watch and record live tv on the 360...am I dreaming?

[TorontoColin]

As long as you have hardware encoding on any NTSC tuners it should be no problem. I ran a back-end server for over a year with a celeron and it ran smooth as silk. Multiple tuners might be an issue, but 2 gigs of RAM is overkill, 1 will do just fine.

[James]

Originally Posted by TorontoColin

You can indeed, what hardware you need depends on the HD source.

If it's ATSC OTA or QAM cable you need an ATSC or QAM tuner.

If it's off of a STB you have one choice: the Hauppauge HD-PVR. To use it with Media Center you need a third party program called DVBLogic.

Edit: Most media PCs won't come with any of that, you'll need to buy it separately. That said, the HD-PVR is a USB device and there are USB ATSC/QAM tuners so you don't need to open your PC if you don't want to.

I visited FS, and was considering the
Hauppauge WinTV external HDPVR Video Recorder

http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/pro...59&catid=25615

1) does this unit actually save to a harddrive via a USB connection?
2) can I watch the recorded HD programming on a XBOX 360?

[mlord]

The HDPVR (aka. HD-PVR) is simply a video capture box.

It has no tuners, and no storage. It is not a PVR at all; just a dumb capture device, albiet a rather expensive one.

It connects to the analog outputs of a cable/satellite receiver using component video cables, and captures the HD video/audio and encodes it into a digital H.264 bitstream. It can also capture digital audio directly from an SPDIF connection.

Those streams are sent from the HDPVR in real-time, over a USB2 connection to a PC. One must install/run suitable software on the PC to control the HDPVR, schedule recordings, save the streams to files, and later play them back.

1) does this unit actually save to a harddrive via a USB connection?
2) can I watch the recorded HD programming on a XBOX 360?

No, and *maybe*.

[James]

so how does this unit save to your HD?

here are the front and rear panel
http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/data_hdpvr.html

component in from from the cable box and component out to the TV