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OT: Home Theater PC
mwong168:
For my HTPC I'm running Mediaportal (http://www.team-mediaportal.com) use the MyFilms and MyTVSeries plug ins and work great for the last 2 years. I haven't had a chance to really play around with XBMC but heard great things about it, but Mediaportal works great for me and does everything exactly how I like it.
Now to the original poster, what type of files will you be playing on this HTPC? Any HD or Bluray rips? If you are just playing strictly DivX (700meg-1.5gb) avi files then you could get away with a nice ITX ion motherboard with integrated dual core atom cpu from Zotac. With regards to the case, there is plenty to choose from and I guess buying a receiver for cheap <$10, anything more than that you might as well buy a computer tower or desktop case. I went with the Thermaltake DH-102 case which I paid nearly $500 for but it has a nice touch screen interface on the front and displays some information when on and came with a remote as well.
Would I do it again? Probably not but it blends in real nice with my other AV equipment :applaud: It was my first attempt at incorporating a HTPC in my living room area and wanted to go all out. Since then put together a dedicated 12tb media server in my basement which can be accessed by my HTPC in the living room and other computers, laptops and netbooks on the network using mediaportal.
If you need some suggestions on build specs let me know your budget, type of files you will be playing back, size and look of the case, etc I can probably start to answer some of your questions.
mwong168:
Here are some screen shots from my mediaportal setup
Also can change up the skin but functionality remains the exact same
Friends and family are blown away when they come over and see how much is available at their finger tips and best of all no need to get up and change dvds either. If you do decide to go with media portal I can help you get everything setup this way to show imdb rating info, amg movie review and impawards movie poster art.
bkenobi:
AVSForum.com is a really good resource for all things AV. I don't know if they have the best source of information on HTPC's, but they would have a lot of threads that cover similar topics.
reko19:
I just started looking into this, so not sure what kind of files I'll be playing, ect. For audio was planning to re-rip my CDs in LAC I guess, not sure about video. I would definitely be looking for a nice case similar to the one used by mwong168. I don't mind spending some $ on the hardware that would last me some time instead of doing it on the budget and having to build another in a year. I need to do some homework, but if someone is willing to give me a hand with components selection I could start pocking around on Newegg to see how much money I need to spend.
One question I have is how good is a DVR interface. Right now I have Comcast DVR and the interface is pretty easy. I could schedule recurring and one-time recording right from the channel guide, etc. Is there a way to do it with the HTPC? How about premium channels that require their box for access?
Regards.
mwong168:
Ok, some advice regarding the case. The case I have is nice and gets all the oohs and ahhs when people see it :notworthy: honestly i hardly ever use the touch screen on it nor pay attention to the information it displays such as local weather, cnn news, cpu hard stats such as cpu temp, hard drive space, etc...
Now I can tell you when the touch screen would be useful is if you have this setup to a projector and screen. Now say for example you want to listen to your music, the touch screen will allow you to access for media files whether it be music or video without having to turn on the projector to navigate through media portal or windows media player. This will save your projector's bulb life from having to turn on and off frequently just to play music files. Aside from that it is just for the PIMP factor :afro: Trust me, I've built many of these for friends and family and if I could have offloaded my Thermaltake case for close to what I paid for it (~$520CDN) I would gladly do it. I didn't know any better and my first build so I wanted to go big or go home.
Now depending on if you have decided between tower or desktop case, I would recommend getting this Antec NSK 2480 case if you are after something that sort of looks home theatre-ish. They also sell this same version with a 2 line LCD text display that is configured using some software called iMON.
The main advantage of this case is that is uses a standard sized power supply which are readily available and inexpensive compared to these other smaller form factor ones found in these microATX or ITX cases such as this other Antec offering which is a smaller desktop profile is the Antec Minuet 350.
I find the cost to replace these specialized power supplies you are almost better off just buying a new case. Also by being able to accommodate a standard sized power supply gives you more brand options for after market power supplies. If you are worried about this HTPC being noisy in your living room you can look at power supplies made by Seasonic, I have one and it's really quiet. The case itself comes with a good quality power supply but some people might be a bit more anal about noise.
This case is also very well designed in terms of noise reduction by having rubber mounts for the hard drives to minimize vibration and also heat and air flow. I believe this case retails for around $135-140CDN up here in Toronto. Again if you don't care for a desktop style case and can live with a tower then your budget can easily be cut by half of this cause generic towers are cheap.