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Home Theatre PC Guide 303
Greg Ridder writes "For those of you who are interested in possibly putting together a Home Theatre or Media PC, I stumbled upon an excellent guide. It discusses basic hardware requirements, four software choices (BeyondTV, SageTV, MCE2005 and MythTV), controlling your cable or satellite set-top box and much more. Based on the research that I've done in the past, this is the most comprehensive guide that I've seen to date."
melrose place? (Score:5, Funny)
Did anybody else read this waiting for the punchline???
Re:melrose place? (Score:2)
No, but after reading this I have different ideas of what I want to punch.
Re:melrose place? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:melrose place? (Score:2)
Now that's just plain rude. As soon as I find my touque you're gonna get yours.
Re:melrose place? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:melrose place? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:melrose place? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Next up on Punch-line...Idle Worship. (Score:3, Funny)
Well, I guess I do tend to just sit in front of the TV not doing anything worthwhile...
Oh, wait! You meant "Idol Worship"! Nevermind.
Full mirror (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Full mirror (Score:2)
Re:Full mirror (Score:2)
Bah! (Score:4, Informative)
I chose to go with the Mac mini solution, and will be submitting a review of the pros and cons of going the route I went (warts and all) in the near future over at modmini.com
Re:Bah! (Score:3)
They do make pretty good playback clients, but not sure i'd consider a hacked xbox a full soup to nuts HTPC solution. *shrug*
e.
Re:Bah! (Score:2)
Personally, I don't even have TV service, although I am thinking about broadcast HDTV and some sort of PVR. How much are those HDTV tuner cards now?
Re:Bah! (Score:2)
I think it was USB2, though that seems unnecessary since e.g. my PVR500 encodes at 1MB/s (or actually only 900KB/s), under 12Mb/s anyway.
Re:Bah! (Score:5, Informative)
For those that haven't seen it, Anand Lal Shimpi tried the Mac Mini as an HTPC and wrote an article about it: The Mac mini as a Media Computer [anandtech.com]. (16 Feb 2005)
My summary of the article: The Mini is very nice for importing HD video via FireWire and HD video editing with iMovie HD. However, HD playback is unacceptable with current OS X software and DVD image quality (using Apple's DVD decoder) is not up to par. The Mini has potential as an SD DVR, but DVR software with "media-centric interface" is currently lacking for OS X.
Re:Bah! (Score:3, Interesting)
Unfortunately, Shimpi overlooked the EyeTV 500, with which I've been enjoying perfect HDTV playback and recording.
The secret is that the file is not compressed or encoded in any way. The pure, unadulterated MPEG stream is simply passed along.
Also, I must disagree with the analysis of the Apple DVD player. Anamorphic DVD's look fan-fucking-tastic on my 119" projection screen via the mini and OS X's "Apple DVD Player." Some cheaply-made disks (such as a few of my anime disks) do experience a little bit of combing during playback, but I can always whip out VLC on those occasions, and run a deinterlace filter on them.
Re:Bah! (Score:4, Informative)
The big problem for me is the lack of a gigabit ethernet adaptor in the mini. Not a problem if you're not intending to move large video files around your network, but my intention with my hometheater PC is to be able to serve MP3s and MPEG4 to any PC on my gigabit backbone [linksys.com].
The lack of gigabit on the mini is almost unexcusable. I've got a mini, ordered on launch day, and I love it to death... but i'd pay +$100 for gigabit on it at this point...
Re:Bah! (Score:3, Interesting)
However, if you are sharing video files all over your network, I would not advocate using any living-room computer for the server.
Build a big, fast, noisy beast of a server with a nice RAID for storage, plug it in somewhere like your basement cellar, and leave it there.
Then the mini can play large video files off it by mounting the storage drive and selecting films using something like Matinee.
The only downside to this method is if you want to rip DVD's on occasion. You would either need to rip them over the network or else go down to the cellar, plug in a keyboard, monitor and mouse, and sit down at it to rip them at the server.
Re:Bah! (Score:3, Informative)
1. Low price
2. Low noise
3. Small size
4. DVI Out
5. Built-in Firewire, USB2
6. Airport/Bluetooth available
By the time you add the HD tuner, USB audio, and lots of memory, it's no longer a budget-box system, but it still works out to less bucks for the bang of the big Microsoft HTPC solutions, and looks really nice in the living-room cabinet.
Re:Full mirror (Score:2)
Not quite full. The first eight pages only. I guess I need to wait for things to quite down on the real site to finish reading.
Re:Full mirror (Score:2)
Comment removed (Score:2, Funny)
Re:What about... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:What about... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:What about... (Score:2, Informative)
Am I the only one? (Score:5, Interesting)
I really want a MythTV, but I don't have the time right now to really play with it and search for the best hardware. I was thinking that I'd be willing to buy a computer, with linux and MythTV all installed and configured properly (to work with my local cable box even?). Having someone else take care of all the hardware and software installation details would be great.
In the end, I may just build it myself, but there are lots of people I know that don't have the time, patience, and/or knowledge to build one from scratch, but are smart enough to take advantage of such a system (and maintain it). Does anyone know of a company offering such a service? Does anyone think that this has merit as a business idea?
Re:Am I the only one? (Score:2)
Re:Am I the only one? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Am I the only one? (Score:5, Informative)
It is VERY difficult to make a PC for less than $500. We were, of course, using Shuttles or Shuttle clones (Aopen XC Cubes, actually). Anything bigger does not fit in an entertainment center.
Case/mobo = $200
CPU = $100
RAM = $50
CD/DVD = $50
120gb hard drive = $100
Add another $150 for a PVR card and you've broken most budgets. Consumers won't pay $800 for a VCR.
We did offer to turn old PCs into VCRs for some friends. Basicly, they were upgrading and we took the old shit and dropped in a PVR and Linux. These went OK, but still took a LOT of tweaking.
On top of all that, MythTV is a bear ro set up. We are on an unlisted cable network unwilling to provide listings in XML format. It was impossible to make MythTV just record evert Thursday at 9pm. That's basic functionality in my book. Sorely lacking.
I've been assured that Myth works flawless on listed networks.
In any event, you're looking at $800~$1000 per MythTV box. No way to make a good model around that.
Re:Am I the only one? (Score:5, Interesting)
I just priced one the other day. it was about 500$ for all components included.
50$ mobo
50$ case+PS (don't need a high capacity PS for this one)
50$ CPU (don't need a real fast one, see below)
50$ RAM (512MB, generic Mushkin or similar)
60$ DVD-Burner (can go cheaper here; figured may as well have the latest burner tho)
30$ Cheapo video card with reasonable SVID out
60$ Cheapo HDD (have storage space on the net.)
100$ PVR-150 (Comp-USA price, lower elsewhere)
This will get you a basic PVR for under 500$. The only thing I would do is beef up the HDD and you're up to 500 then (if you don't have a central server; I do already!).
I'm actually thinking about throwing a PVR-150 in the server to do the timed recordings there; then I can use a generic tuner that I already have in my MythTV box. Additionally, I already have a 30GB HDD and a Geforce4 to throw in the box, so that cuts my costs down even a little more.
You could even scrape older parts (P3 or Athlon ~1ghz) together if you're using a PVR-150, since it does all the encoding by itself. Decoding is fairly easy; encoding is kind of rough (even MPEG2 - My 2800+ sits at about 50-60% encoding one stream realtime of MPEG2 640x480 + Mpeg Layer3 audio)
you bought a noise generator! (Score:3, Informative)
Noise Matters! Especially in the lounge. And double-especially if you will be leaving it on 24x7 or watching DVDs or playing some gentle music.
Here's my recommendation (from experience folks - I have done this and been very happy with the results):
Option 1
A quiet PC built around a fanless VIA EPIA mobo, plus external power supply + quiet (and large) Samsung or seagate HDD and quiet Samsung DVD.
Option 2
A diskless, fanless PC booting from a flash card, plus a quiet optical drive. This is the MythTV front end. Then put a large, cheap PC elsewhere in the house. That is the server. Front end plays recordings and live TV delivered from the server.
I use option 1, and put it in an HTPC case so it looks just right beside the amp.
A measure of success is that the S.O asked me to get more disk space because we record so much stuff (kids programs mainly). I've just added another 400G :-). We went away for 2 weeks and came back to every episode of ER, CSI*, and The Magic School Bus you could ever want.
Re:Am I the only one? (Score:2)
I stuck it in an old Celeron 500, and there is your backend. There is an awesome setup script [blkbk.com] to get Myth running on your xbox.
So after only $200 and a couple of hours of tinkering, I had a fully functional Myth setup
Re:Am I the only one? (Score:2, Funny)
I kid, I kid!
Re:Am I the only one? (Score:5, Informative)
Here [newegg.com] is one specced out with a Pundit for $463. A Different [newegg.com] one with MicroATX and an Athlon64 for $508. The Pundit is actually $10 more expensive but the other system has higher end features. Add $10 for a Serial IR receiver/Transmitter if you need that. Some TV capture cards have remotes that work in Linux and some don't. Cheaper than your estimates- about the same as a Tivo+DVDrecorder. If you build yourself.
If someone really wants me to build them a MythTV box, email me and we can work something out.
Re:Am I the only one? (Score:2)
They may not sell any units. But all of the HTPCs that I have seen that run the Windows media center OS are in the $1,500 to $2,500 range.
Re:Am I the only one? (Score:4, Informative)
Actually I've seen pre-built mythtv boxes around for a while now...
Here are some examples... [pvrblog.com]The pre-built ones that I've seen are a little too expensive for my taste. You can get a Tivo and a lifetime subscription as well as have a bunch of money left over for the price of some of the pre-built mythtv boxes. I built my own mythtv for the following reasons:
a) I wanted a PVR
b) I wanted to learn more about the inner workings of the linux Os.
c) For the sheer pleasure of saying that I built it myself.
Granted, it took me months before I had a stable box with all of the features that I wanted, but I learned A LOT. If you are only looking for reason a, then save yourself a bunch of time/headaches and buy a Tivo.
s l o w (Score:2, Funny)
Buy of the shelf (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Buy of the shelf (Score:2)
Speaking of features... (only OSS ppl read!) (Score:2)
Or even better make the RSS display a screensaver feature. Why? Because I've been looking for a RSS screensaver for about a year now. I'd like to have my own on screen news crawl (huge feature) or even a slick screensaver that did something fancy with showing the feed contents.
like, don't use this stuff in a commercial product...
Re:Buy of the shelf (Score:5, Insightful)
I've got four home built PVRs in my house. I like the freedom of not being tied to a corporation. E.g., not being screwed by Tivo's recent pop-up ads.
I like the ability to have the PVR do what I want, and not what some corporation wants. E.g., Microsoft's Media Center's inability to record shows to DVD.
But most of all I like the price. A PVR built by Sony would cost a couple thousand more than what you could build one yourself for. The ones I have at my house are merely built from left-over parts from my own system. But even if you built one completely from scratch, you could probably do it for less than $800.
Re:Buy of the shelf (Score:5, Informative)
I equate the grounding strap to be more of a lucky charm than utilitarian.
Re:Buy of the shelf (Score:5, Interesting)
I live in hope though.
Re:Buy of the shelf (Score:2)
Other HTPC resources (Score:5, Informative)
ATI All in Wonder (Score:3, Informative)
Re:ATI All in Wonder (Score:2)
The whole point of the article is to review all the options, positives, and drawbacks of building different HTPC versions. If a truck magazine put out a review of different models of trucks for construction usage with options, would you send a comment about why doesn't everybody just buy a Chevy F250 with a crew cab?
Re:ATI All in Wonder (Score:4, Informative)
most frustrating project ever (Score:4, Funny)
It's either actually doing this myself on a budget - and it was painful - I never seem to buy stable powersupplies, or supported hardware, and blood is surprisingly conductive.
or making it through the reading of the article
Too bad they forgot commercial skip on the server (Score:5, Funny)
HDTV solution (Score:4, Insightful)
What are the best HDTV capture cards, for Over the Air or for backside-of-the-cable/satelite-box? The article only touches on this, but it will be of greater concern for the home enthusiast/hacker in the next two years.
And by the way, what packages support this? MythTV, Freevo, etc.
Re:HDTV solution (Score:5, Informative)
"Best" depends on what you're using to watch TV. For MCE, the FusionHD or ATI HDTV Wonder work equally well (if you want QAM tuning of non-encrypted cable signals, you want a FusionHD). For "backside of the cable box" you may as well just do firewire capture - providing a box that supports this is an FCC requirement now; your cable provider has to give you one if you ask.
Keep in mind you have to also have an analog tuner for MCE, even if you don't use it. (Most people will want one, though, unless they want to be stuck with only 12 or 13 channels, some of which don't even broadcast all the time.)
If you're not using MCE, then the MyHD line of cards is probably best - they do hardware MPEG2 decoding (note I said decoding - unlike analog capture cards, all an HDTV card needs to do when capturing is stream the digital TV signal to the hard drive). They can be finnicky to set up, though, and you don't want to buy one if you have MCE because hardware decoding is not supported in MCE.
Re:HDTV solution (Score:2)
They do make component recorders, but they're extremely expensive. If someone made one for under $400, there would probably be a decent market for it.
That said, most TV shows available by bittorrent are in HD, so I just download them into my HTPC and watch them when I get a chance. Only cost is that of a cable modem, which I have anyway. I wrote a program to start BT for the shows I watch, and I run it nightly.
Don't forget the Linux HTPC Howto (Score:5, Informative)
ahref=http://www.linuxis.us/linux/media/howto/lin
Is it simple enought? (Score:2)
Otoh average people tend to use stuff like MSN Messenger etc, I think it's a decent way of making a living: I just put together a SFF such as shuttle, MCE or linux on it and the price can be premium compared to what you get for your casual PC, the question is are 'normal' people willing to spend that extra cash for that?
Missing the Point (Score:4, Interesting)
With PC Theatre software, the program manages your recordings, schedule of records and ties into other medias such as videos, mp3 and CD collections and even digital cameras.
Also, when you have a PC based home theatre you usually have the output running through a highend sound system and large screen TV or project, not your 17" monitor and $12 speakers.
Beleive me, once you start using a properly configured PC based TV system, your methods of watching TV completely change.
High(er) quality capture (Score:2)
I can see why the media cartels would want to limit the capture of high quality streams (if you can record the hi-def version for free, why buy the DVD?), but surely somebody's got a PC solution for capturing higher quality video?
But if copy prevention has been forced on us, in the form of HDCP etc., then surely we can now make compliant devices that can capture unencrypted DVI/HDMI video signals? That's what copy prevention is for, right? Don't allow copying of restricted media, but allow it for unrestricted media?
I'd really like to put a homebrew PC in my setup to act as a PVR, but have it record at component video quality. Are there any solutions? If so, are they any that have open source drivers?
All comments appreciated.
Not the way you're thinking (Score:2, Interesting)
Component video out to your TV from an HTPC is easy (well, besides tweaking it to fit just right).
The best ways of getting high def content into the box are
1. An off the air HD tuner card (HD3000 from pchdtv.com or the Air2PC card)
2. A slim chance of firewire output from a high def digital cable box.
3. Rip your own DVDs. This makes sense if you want to setup up something like every Baby Einstein video on demand (I do).
4. I heard once that someone downloaded high def tv shows from teh Intarweb.
Re:High(er) quality capture (Score:2)
I'd say it is down to availabilty of devices to hook up to. In some countries, RGB is extremely rare. In others (those with SCART hookups), it's very common as an input. However, the only common outputs of RGB here are DVD players and games consoles. Most camcorders etc use S-Video, others composite.
So, when they are designing cards, they'll go for the one that'll sell the most. Not many folk want to capture games, and DVD is pointless as you need to bypass macrovision, but if you're going to so much bother, just DeCSS it and you have the original feed digitally copied.
closed captioning for the google-impaired (Score:5, Funny)
For those of you who are interested in possibly putting together a Home Theatre or Media PC but don't know how to use a search engine, I stumbled upon an excellent guide.
Re:closed captioning for the google-impaired (Score:2)
I think it's a good guide that distills alot of the questions a newbie might have to sort through the myriad of possibilities and avenues out there.
I plan on pointing many a newbie in my DIY PVR forum [byopvr.com] to this guide when they come in posting "I don't even know where to begin?!!?" posts...
Besides, wiseguy... how do you think this guide will be found via the search engines, if it doesn't get linked to on places like slashdot =)
Sure there are other guides out there, but this one is a pretty thoughtful, but not too heavy look at the decision making involved.
*shrug* I liked it...
e.
Re:closed captioning for the google-impaired (Score:2)
I just think there should be a higher standard than "Look at this neato website I found!" for Slashdot submissions. I know, "Slashdot? Standards? You must be new here!"
Re:closed captioning for the google-impaired (Score:2)
True enough.
especially the color scheme =)
I just visited your site...pot, kettle, nuf ced. :)
I wanted a more "blue collar"/lowbrow/brass tacts discussion
AVS isn't all millionaire videophiles. Heck, they've got a DIY screen forum for folks who don't want to spend $200 on a pull-down Da-Lite! And they split the projector forums up by cost - expensive, ludicrous price, and plaid (maybe they use different names tho...)
ps, from you handle can I surmise that you do GIS work?
Yup, mostly ArcObjects development these days, but I was a lowly mapmaker back when I joined /. From your userid can I surmise you joined /. a few months after I did? Around summer 1999 or so?
MythTV vs BeyondTV (Score:5, Informative)
MythTV != Novice.
I could never get a season pass to work, never did record "quite right", never got the thing to run smooth, never got the parsing of the xml guides fully automated, Hardware problems with ATI AIW cards. Fix was available, but messy.
BeyondTV = Simply Works.
It worked out of the box, I could access it anywhere in the world via web and record at home, had "season pass", no messing with xml converters, scripts etc. It just works on my hardware (ATI9700 AIW)smooth and simple. I can stream out the shows all over my network and have never regretted purchasing it.
So? In the end I paid the $50.00 to get a TIVO like service on my PC via Snapstream's BeyondTV. It's not as flexible or customizable as MythTV, but for it's specific purpose it wins hands down.
Don't get me wrong, while the 4 weeks spent aggrivated with MythTV was worth it just for the fun, I'm just not enough of a Nerd to keep at it and I paid to have something that was reasonable priced, and worked.
Yo Grark
Re:MythTV vs BeyondTV (Score:2, Informative)
Re:MythTV vs BeyondTV (Score:2)
I just set one of these up... (Score:5, Informative)
Best computer for the job: an intel with a cool-running CPU and fan. Dell 400SC's, if you can find them, are whisper quiet and perfect for the job.
Best card for the job: ATI or Nvidia, yada, yada. The TV card is what you care about. Hauppauge is the rage, and they just came out with a dual-tuner card (ostensibly only for MCE, but if you believe that I've got a Mac to sell you)
Best remote for the job: Snapstream's Firefly. Yeah, $50 is pricy, but, let's admit it: we're trying to make somethings as good as Tivo and this remote is the only one that does it. Remember that awesome Tivo IR blaster? Firefly is RF, baby, and you can edit XML to set up functions.
Best software for the job: BeyondTV. I tried Sage, Myth, even GB-PVR (don't get me started...it's good and free, but man is that shit finicky - release the SOURCE!!!). Anyway, BeyondTV is incredible, bullet-proof, supports two tuners out of the box, integrates with Firefly, and I got it for $50. Almost Tivo.
Best keyboard for the job: Definitely, definitely, the BTC 9019URF. It has a built-in joystick, handles, etc., and killer range.
There you have it!
Re:I just set one of these up... (Score:2)
It's an excellent framework, with a huge community, tons of plugin/mods/skins, and they've got a PVR/tuner plugin/module in beta last I looked.
To give you an idea: BeyondTV is a very good PVR application, but doesn't do much of the HTPC stuff (that's why they came out with a partner product call beyond media, but i digress)...
SageTV is a good PVR application with a blend of HTPC functions.
Meedio is a full/flexible HTPC framework, with a PVR module added.
at least that's my take =)
e.
Re:I just set one of these up... (Score:2)
A GyroMouse is a superb addition. I've seen a Gyro Mouse and Keyboard combo for like $40 online.
That is the way to go.
Media Portal (Score:2)
Capture card recommendation (UK) (Score:3, Informative)
I chose the Nebula DigiTV [nebula-electronics.com] card, and I have to say, I cannot recommend it enough. 110UKP gets you a PCI card, remote and a bundle of good software that covers pretty much everything - including letting your PC become a TV server on a network. The best bit about the card though... It's got a built in Freeview decoder.
Yup, the quality of the recordings is absolutely amazing - read cable quality - and the PVR software easy to use and if you don't have any special requirements it could be the only software you need.
All in all, incredibly chuffed - especially after some lacklustre forays into more mainstream TV cards a few years ago. Now all I have to do is build another PC to put it all in.
free as in speech, cheap as in beer (Score:3, Funny)
What I want is a $300 PC that will replace my mortgage, property taxes, and/or car insurance.
Coral web cache link (Score:2)
http://www.2cpu.com.nyud.net:8090/articles/113_1.
You'll want a faster CPU (Score:3, Interesting)
And second I'll point this part out. "This will depend on whether or not you're an "audiophile". If you don't have a surround sound speaker package setup, than almost anything will do."
At a minimum buy something like the cheap chaintech Via Envy which will give you very good audio quality and more importantly SPDIF out. Are you really going to go through all of the trouble of buying hardware and setting it up only to use some shitty realtek card that causes hiss when you playback music or TV shows? That applies even if right now your not doing surround sound.
I'm not being snobby here either. These are basic things any decent HTPC guide will tell you.
Re:You'll want a faster CPU (Score:3)
SPDIF is essential if you ask me. Computers are terrible audio sources, there is far to much RF noise in them. Get a digital audio out and keep the analogue audio stage out of the PC. A surround amp can be picked up for next to nothing nowadays.
Re:You'll want a faster CPU (Score:3, Interesting)
A Via M10000 will just about do SD software MPEG2 decoding, but forget about HD. The CLE266 supported by Unichrome and Via's own drivers (and integrated into their Xine fork: VeXP) works well, but follows the model of MPEG2 in, fram data out (dunno if it does YUV->RGB conversion). Most players (mplayer, xine, vlc) use this model: they have a decode phase which can benefit from hardware assist (and, as noted, Via's VeXP and the free Unicrome drivers leverage the CLE266 this way). However, not all hardware works that way.
ATI's X225 Xilleon chip, used in Roku Labs HD10000 "Photobridge" eats MPEG2, demuxes, decodes, and provides digital audio and component (as well as SVideo and composite) video, to HD resulutions.
There are vlc patches to run on this hardware (which is a really slick, fanless, thin client), but it does software MPEG2 decode to drive the graphics overlay buffer (limited to 1024x768, IIRC, so you can't do native 1080i). I'm surprised the X225 has the oomph to do that (It's a MIPS core). It would be nice to use the overlay for decoded SPUs (i.e. DVD menus), and leverage the X225 hardware decoder for the MPEG2 audio and video. Unfortunately, there is no display model in Xine, or VLC, where the display accepts undecoded MPEG2.
The closest one can do is use the streaming function of VLC to feed MPEG2 TS (it will transcode PS to TS just fine) to a TS player leveraging the MPEG2 hardware on the X225, and reserve the graphics overlay for SPUs. Sadly, one can't display SPUs without a video window on which to overlay them, requring MPEG2 video ES decoding.
I wonder them, how hard it would be to modify vlc's MPEG2 decoder to not decode picture, but to display black, for this purpose, overlaying the SPUs, and writing to the graphics overlay page, and splitting the stream into a remuxed (PS to TS) copy to drive the harware MPEG2 decoders. Unfortunately, this would only work for players that can stream: vlc, but not xine, or mplayer. And, it would be a hack at that (the SPUs would be out of time sync with the rest of the program, but that's rarely a big problem for menus).
A decoder/display model where the decoder does nothing, and the display does the decoding would work better here.
where is the excellent? (Score:2)
I have a hush with an el cheapo DVB-S card in it and it gives me a PVR that uses 10% CPU (50% when recording 4 channels and watching a fifth);
OK lets break this down:
- hush = no fans! heat pipe cooled VIA EPIA M 10000 CPU with 512 Mb RAM and puny 40 Gb HD, and with unichrome driver you get accelerated MPEG2
- VDR software for recording (does not require MySQL which is why I chose it instead of MythTV)
- vdrxine plugin
- vdradmin web administration interface
- plugins ad nauseum including burn to DVD
LIRC used to work before i "upgraded" to FC3 it was a real joe six pack machine. Point remote, pause live TV.
I am working on something better based on ubuntu.
Stay tuned
The three most important features of a PVR (Score:3, Informative)
Honestly - you guys are all talking about putting big drives in a tower, or having P4's vs encoders, blah blah blah. When you finally get your system up and running you are going to have a loud hum, a whine, lots of clicks and occasional buzzes when watching tv or movies or listening to music.
Noise makes a difference. Design for noise first. As many people have pointed out, any old PC can be a myth box. Any old grunty PC can be a MCE box. Thats easy. To have one that you want to share your living room with? Thats another matter.
Here's a test - put your P4 home PC in your living room and then watch a DVD. Notice the noise? I sure did.
Best choice I made was designing around noise first, heat second (because of reducing noise) and then CPU power/memory/HDD size third. Trust me, you wont regret it.
So what can you do...
Re:Howto build Media PC (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Howto build Media PC (Score:2)
Re:Howto build Media PC (Score:2, Interesting)
The mac mini includes firewire and USB2 ports. People using it for a media PC will generally use external hard disks and media capture cards. The EyeTV capture cards [elgato.com] seem to be particularly popular -- You can even get HDTV working with a mini.
One of the nice things about a mac is that the non-PVR features of a HTPC, like watching DVDs, playing music, managing your picture library, and burning DVDs are Apple supported best of breed apps.
Re:Howto build Media PC (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Howto build Media PC (Score:2)
Re:Howto build Media PC (Score:5, Interesting)
3. Wait for a stable release.
While CenterStage looks promising, it's a new project that hasn't even reached its second alpha yet. Let's give the developers some time before we start giving people unrealistic expectations.
(I've got a lot of hope for this project - the fact that ATI has already contacted the developers to add support for their Remote Wonder products is awesome!)
Re:Howto build Media PC (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Howto build Media PC (Score:2)
There's also the elagato eyeTV stuff with plextor convertx USB for mac...
e.
Re:Howto build Media PC (Score:2)
so for $1k you can have a Mac Mini PVR
Re:After you have a home theatre (Score:3)
netflix.com
Decent TV content:
This is obviously subjective, but there's a number of shows out right now that have some potential. Lost, Deadwood, The 4400, Battlestar Galactica, Good Eats, Simpsons, Smallville, The Office (this show is excellent) have all either proven themselves worthy to be recorded or are showing progress. The Office is probably my favorite show in years. Good Eats is a must see for any nerd that likes cooking. Smallville has had some poor episodes and some good ones, so it's hard to say if it will get better or worse. Lost is intriguing enough that I'm completely hooked, but it has the potential to get cheesy if they don't stick with what's worked so far. Finally, The 4400 seems interesting after the first 5 episodes, so hopefully it will continue to be good once they start back up again.
Re:After you have a home theatre (Score:2)
I just have Myth on my linux box. pvr250 and dxr3. I just use myth to schedule and record everything. Since I rarely watch television when it's actually on... it's the only way I catch the shows I like.
It's not something everybody is going to want to dump money into and for the investment cost was minimal.
The set top unit I'm going to eventually build will replace all of this. It will come in at around 500 for all the parts I have to purchase. Most everything else is taken from my various dead laptops.
My strategy has been to wait for deals on things and slowly gather pieces and occassionally I get some decent hardware free from my friends. ie, this is dead, you can have it
Re:Hard drive setup (Score:4, Insightful)
My HTPC has a surprisingly quiet 15k RPM drive for booting. I don't use it for PVR yet though, but I do have a separate, slower drive for storing audio and video.
I think an argument can be made for keeping the hard drive storage system in a closet somewhere and a super quiet system with only one drive in the living room, as a RAID system uses a lot of drives that do generate noise.
Re:Hard drive setup (Score:2)
Since the article is about building an HTPC, then you will indeed be writing a live stream to them all the time. That's how you can pause and rewind live TV.
But your idea has merit. Perhaps it would be a good idea (since drives are so cheap) to have a dedicated drive for the software/OS, one for live recordings, and a RAID5 for archives.
Re:Hard drive setup (Score:2)
Re:Hard drive setup (Score:2)
Separate drives for the OS and streaming video is a good idea since the constant reading and writing of video data will most likely result in it failing first. If it fails, you just replace it and you only lose any unarchived video, and there is no need to reinstall the OS or apps.
True, there are 5400 RPM drives... (Score:2, Informative)
http://www.weaknees.com/ [weaknees.com]
Re:Hard drive setup (Score:2)
Think a bit before you rip the CDs and DVDs-- CDs are fine, they don't soak a whole lot of storage. But DVDs, those burn through a hard disk in a hurry.
Say, ferinstance, you're a science fiction geek, and you bought Babylon 5 on DVD. That's 5 boxed sets of 6 DVDs each, at around 8 GB per DVD, or on the order of 250 GB of data right there (a little less with those numbers, but those five boxed sets don't include the box o' movies or Crusade...)
Now, you can do some crunching to save some space, but I've not run into any software yet that will let you keep your DVD menus and special features intact when you crunch the video using xvid or similar). So we'd prefer not to do that, but it takes a whole 250 GB hard disk to keep just Babylon 5 online. I'd guess most relatively small DVD collections are notably larger than the disk space one is willing to throw at the problem, unless they're willing to give up DVD special features.
-JDF
Re:Hard drive setup (Score:2)
Of course I personally don't have a 5.1 system and can't tell the difference between the AC3 and MP3 anyways (I'm not an audiophile
Re:Home Theater Recommendation? Heard of Prof. Aud (Score:2)
You mean building speakers into the walls/ceilings? I would have thought that might be a bit of overkill. Remember that you don't have to have monstrously-sized speakers to have a good sound, so you could quite easily have a perfectly good not-built-in speaker set that doesn't take up much space.
I would, however, recommend taking this opportunity to have speaker cable wired into the walls/ceiling, leading to where you think you'll want to place your speakers, with banana plug sockets at the end, all ending up at where you want to have your amplifier. After this, just pick out your own better value 5.1 or 7.1 system and connect it up. If you have wires for a 7.1 setup, you can buy a flexible 5.1 speaker package initially, and upgrade later if you feel the need (your connections are already there!).
Unless you really trust your contractor, I'd recommend you pick out your own speakers.
Hope that helps.
Re:Home Theater Recommendation? Heard of Prof. Aud (Score:2)
Re:All HTPC cases suck (Score:3, Informative)
Look at the Silverstone web site for example