HTPC

[CaptainInsaneO]

I'm really interested to see if anyone on the forums has built their own Home Theater PC. If so, can you post some tips/hints/help here for others? What are some good parts you'd recommend? I'm having a problem choosing a TV tuner. Over the next 6 or 7 months I'll be planning a build and will post updates here if anyone is interested.

[CaptainInsaneO]

Well here's the update I promised. This thread I guess is for anyone that's interested in building one of these things themselves, I've built many gaming machines in the past but never anything having to do with media so I'm expecting to find some unseen challenges, which is what I thrive on.

 

Lately I've had some extra time on my hands so I've really dove into this project whole-hog. The project design is coming along nicely, I haven't had a chance to start calculating the wattage of the final system because I'm still trying to figure out exactly what I want the system to do. So far it has to:

 

a) Play Blu-Ray without a hiccup

Pause, record, rewind and fast forward live TV, both digital cable and OTA (over-the-air) HDTV.

c) Rip DVDs and Blu-Ray, and save those rips to my media server for access later.

d) Be able to play content from sites such as Hulu without a hiccup.

e) Have blazing fast start-up times, I don't want to leave this thing running constantly so this is important (I'm talking 10 seconds or less here.)

f) Do not consume a whole lot of power while switched on, this means I will need to find a highly efficient power supply that does not suck power while doing menial tasks, such as playing a dvdrip.

g) Be completely silent (i.e. I cannot hear it from my couch) WITHOUT the use of water for cooling.

h) Look sexy as hell.

 

Following are the parts I've got on my list so far, with plenty of room for flexibility of course. Note that I haven't picked out a TV yet. I have a 37 inch Hannspree flat screen in my bedroom that I might use til I can get my hands on a set for my living room where this machine will ultimately reside.

 

Case: SILVERSTONE LC13B-E HTPC Case

Link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811163117

 

TV Tuner: Hauppauge WinTV-HVR 1800

Link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6815116015

 

PSU: FSP Group ZEN 400 400W ATX PSU

Link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817104035

OR

PSU: SILVERSTONE Nightjar ST45NF 450W ATX PSU

Link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817256047

 

Wireless Adapter: Rosewill RNX-N2X USB2.0 Wireless-N 2.0 Dongle

Link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6833166027

 

HD Antenna: Rosewill RMS-DA8300 Amplified Directional Indoor HDTV Antenna

Link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6882021106

 

OS: Probably Windows if I decide to use MCE. I think I might use xbmc for the frontend and if that's the case I'll definitely go with Linux instead since it's lighter and more configurable.

 

 

I know the list is fairly sparse at this point but as I said, a lot of parts are still up in the air. I haven't even got anything on paper yet but once I do I think this project will really start to flesh out. I'd like to add I'm not normally this picky about projects, but with this one I'm even scrutinizing the fans that are going into the case. If they're too loud (above 15 decibels) they're scrapped from my ideas list. But I swear I'm not this anal most of the time, in fact I'm a pretty laid back guy

 

I welcome input if anyone wants to add something to this thread. Once I get all the parts together I can put together a build video if there's enough interest in this.

[GnatGoSplat]

I have 3 simple HTPCs.

Here are some pics of the one I built 4-years ago:

http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y15/GnatGoSplat/HTPC/

I still have it in the same case, but NOTHING internal is the same anymore. It's now hooked up to a 50" Panasonic industrial plasma (the one in the pics is a 42") and I'm using a completely different motherboard and tuner cards now. I'm using a pair of Hauppauge cards, I forget the model # but they're the low-profile ATSC tuners. Current motherboard is an Asus M3A78-EMH and I think I have either 2 or 4gigs of RAM. CPU is an X2 3800. I changed the DVD drive to a Pioneer slot drive that I painted silver. HD is a Hitachi 500GB. I don't have any Blu-Ray, but my setup is far more than adequate for HDTV.

 

Here's the one I use in the basement for watching movies:

http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y15/Gn ... apstation/

Its guts have been totally replaced as well, it now has an MSI Speedster A4R motherboard and a Core Solo (mobile) processor to reduce power requirements. I wanted it low power because I built it into an old Zapstation. Zapstation was a PC-based media player with an actual PC Flex-ATX motherboard in it. I gutted the case and modified it to accept a Micro ATX motherboard, but I reused its old 166W PSU. I now have an ATI 650 ATSC tuner in it, Twinhan DVB-S card, and am using the original Zapstation DVD-ROM drive. The original Zapstation VFD is serial so I wrote a custom .NET tray app that detects MCE state and puts the status on the VFD (which unfortunately no longer works under Vista).

 

I run Vista Ultimate (Media Center) in those two, and I have a 3rd in the wife's exercise room that I run XP MCE which is just in an old PC tower case. As far as tuners go, I prefer the ATI 650 over the Hauppauge, they seem to have stronger signal pulling strength and don't get as hot, but I got a good deal on the Hauppauge ones. I like Vista Media Center for its user-friendliness, its wife-acceptance factor is extremely good - we actually switched from Tivo and my wife had absolutely no objections whatsoever. I use S3 suspend for powering on and off so I don't worry about boot times, it wakes and sleeps very quickly, just a few seconds. The power button on the MCE remotes can take the machine in and out of S3 suspend. VMC also automatically wakes the computer to record and can automatically go back to sleep after recording ends (although sometimes I find mine on at odd times so the automatic sleep doesn't always work right).

[CaptainInsaneO]

Thanks for the great input, especially concerning motherboards and TV tuners. As I said, I'm having some issues getting out of the "gaming rig" mindset, and motherboards have been a real issue with me. I spend about 30 to 40 minutes looking at Micro-ATX boards with HDMI out before I start venturing over to the ATX behemoths that make me drool. lol I know for a HTPC a Micro ATX with onboard video is usually the way to go, and I have to mentally discipline myself when I find I'm getting away from that school of thought.

 

I'm also having a hard time finding a TV tuner because I have NO experience whatsoever in those. I'm a Network Engineer by trade, I only build machines as a hobby. I have a very narrow viewpoint when it comes to building machines, and that is to make the best, most hardcore gamer possible. I'm going to look into the tuner that you suggested. I've looked into Hauppauge before and they looked like they were pretty good but the reviews I've been reading lately have been shitty.

 

It's because of the issues I'm having that I made this thread: to provide good information/insight to those of us on this forum that might have an issue if they decide to build their own box. I really appreciate you taking the time to help out!

[GnatGoSplat]

When it comes to Media Center, all TV tuners work the same, so if you have a good strong OTA signal, it really doesn't matter which one you get. If it's compatible with Media Center, it'll work. I just like the ATI 650's because the one I have seems to have really good signal pulling strength with just crappy old rabbit ears in the basement.

If you plan to use XBMC, I think the tuner and whether there are Linux drivers becomes a lot more important.

[timg]

I had been considering building a dual boot hackintosh HTPC using an i7 920 processor... Just the thought of it makes me drool (and my wallet quiver).

 

However, the latest version of Plex really makes me think about the Mac Mini. Add a Blu Ray player, giant networked external hard drive, a TV tuner, and you would be done. The mac mini will already do 1080P DVI output, has low power consumption, instant on, optical digital output, and works with Logitech remotes out of the box. Plex has instant access to your pictures, music, movies, South Park, the Daily Show, Colbert Report, Hulu, Joost, Apple Movie Trailers, and more. Handbrake provides one touch ripping of DVDs which can include the complete DD or DTS soundtrack. The downside is that the Mac Mini wouldn't play BluRays natively (though that's what a PS3 is for). To make it play BluRays and HD-DVD's, you need Windows with an external blu-ray player (and maybe AnyDVD HD). If you rip the BluRays to disk, then they will play in OS X.

 

Both options seem to add up to near $1k unless you already have some of the required parts.

 

Tim

[CaptainInsaneO]

However, the latest version of Plex really makes me think about the Mac Mini. Add a Blu Ray player, giant networked external hard drive, a TV tuner, and you would be done.

 

I recall reading an article/howto somewhere on the net that was done by a guy who did exactly this. He seemed very happy with the results. I'm not really a Mac guy myself (I tried to learn C++ on one many years ago and it really left a bad taste in my mouth ) But if you can get one for fairly cheap and already have some or all of the add-in parts, this sounds like a very viable option.

 

Oh and concerning your NAS idea, I've been looking at getting an HP Mediasmart Server for that. The new ones even interface with the Mac OS! I've actually been looking at getting one for awhile now (more than a year) but have never pulled the trigger, hoping they'd come out with an upgraded model and they did early this year.

[wiretap]

I've been building HTPC's for about 10 years, more specifically in the later years oriented toward HD video.

 

Here's mine..

 

 

I'll list a set of components for you guys that will playback any HD video out there, using hardware video decoding. It will be the *best* option based on numerous factors (cost, hardware decoding specification specifics, heat, noise, software compatibility, etc).

 

Case: Whatever HTPC case you find fits your room or a/v rack. I used the Antec NSK2480 with the Antec 380w PSU (comes with the case). It's a dead silent case when you turn the 120mm fans on the lowest speed. If you choose a different case and silence is what you're shooting for, go with the quietest 120mm fans you can, such as Yate Loon low/medium speed. Use rubber mounting grommets for anything that can vibrate like hard drives or optical drives.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811129034

 

Power Supply: As I listed above, the Antec Earthwatts 380w is what I use for most HTPC builds I do. They are extremely quiet and will pump out plenty of power for the components I'm going to list below.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817371005

 

Motherboard: ASUS M3N78-VM. It has the Nvidia 8200 chipset onboard. It has HDMI which will output 1080p24 video + 7.1 LPCM audio. That will do native HDDVD and Blu-ray playback without a hiccup, and it will also do DXVA and CUDA hardware decoding up to L5.1H profiles with 12-16 reference frames.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813131318

 

CPU: AMD X2 4850e. It's a 45w dual core processor that runs very cool, and it still has enough power for whatever you need it to do in the HTPC environment. With the hardware decoding of the graphics chipset, the CPU will hardly be doing work anyhow.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819103255

 

CPU Heatsink: Scythe Ninja Mini. You can run this passively without a fan on that 45w processor. Pure silence = awesome.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6835185046

 

Memory: 2GB (1x2GB) Corsair DDR2-800. The amount of memory in a HTPC isn't as crucial as you think. As long as you can run the OS smoothly, you're good. With Vista SP1, 2GB is fine. But with memory being so cheap, you could even throw in 4GB if you wanted. Just remember with a 4GB memory kit and a 32-bit OS, you're limited to being able to utilize only ~3GB of that memory anyway.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820145590

 

Optical Drive: LG Combo HDDVD/Blu-ray drive. This is the *best* drive I've ever used in all the HTPC builds I've done. They also make a BD-R version for some extra money if you want to burn Blu-ray disks. But the drive will playback/read both HDDVD and Blu-ray movies without a problem. I haven't run into any movies it had problems with.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6827136133

 

Hard Drive (OS): You'll want to keep your OS drive and data storage drives separate when possible. For the OS, you'll just need a small hard drive. A regular 80GB 7200rpm SATA drive will work, or if you want a silent drive, go with a 32GB SSD operating system drive. The SSD's cost a bit more and some models have problems, but for the most part all the problems have been worked out of them.

Regular HDD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822136195

New SSD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820609331

 

Hard Drive (storage): For a storage drive, I recommend the Western Digital GreenPower drives. They aren't super high performance, but they are plenty fast, quiet, and run very cool. They use very little power and are perfect for HTPC use. Another option is to use a file server like I do, and stream your multimedia content across the network to your HTPC. That factors in the cost of a whole other computer though.

640GB GreenPower: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822136298

1TB GreenPower: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822136317

1.5TB GreenPower: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822136351

 

TV Tuner/Device: There aren't many good options with so many different formats.. Over the air, analog cable, digital cable, satellite, encrypted QAM, clearQAM, etc. I recommend going with the Hauppauge HD-PVR and call it a day. Just hook it up to your cable/satellite box and be done with it. It avoids encryption because it's basically a capture device that doesn't need to tune or decrypt any signals. Otherwise, you'll have to settle for a pre-built CableCARD PC, or just use over the air tuner cards and only get a few channels.

Hauppauge HD-PVR - http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/data_hdpvr.html

Over the air tuning - http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/ ... r2250.html

 

Operating System: For HTPC use, Windows Vista Home Premium or Ultimate are the best options right now. 32-bit version only! With 64-bit, you can run into tons of problems with specific codecs that need directshow capabilities and integration with media center.. (example: Haali Media Splitter). Also, if you choose to throw a HDTV tuner in your computer, the 64-bit drivers are terrible for most tuners, especially Hauppauge. I have also been using the beta of Windows 7, and I have to say I'm very impressed and I'm going to be jumping right on that as soon as the official version is released.

 

Software: I actually made a high def playback guide on [H]ard|Forum you can use to setup your HTPC for high definition video playback. Take a look at using Vista Media Center in conjunction with MyMovies, or even look into using Media Portal, XBMC, etc..

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1276654

 

I store all my movies on my file server, then stream them across a gigabit network. If you're wanting to stream high def video, stay away from wireless networking (yes, even wireless-N). A 100mbit wired network at the minimum is what I suggest. There's too much variability with wireless-n, and it doesn't stream consistently because of overhead and security interrupts. Having said that, forget wireless a/b/g as well..

 

But as you can see, you can setup a nice HTPC for just a few hundred dollars. You can also build smaller mini-ITX based HTPC's for special situations where you don't have much space available, or if you want something portable.

 

Here's some other projects I've done..

 

WORKLOG: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1315634

 

WORKLOG: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1342325