Time to spec another PC! HTPC this time...

Percy1983

Kingston are one of the better manufactures of ram so all is good there, there can be a benefit to faster if you wanted to play games as the apu graphics uses the ram too but for your uses don't worry.

Strangly enough I watch the F1 on RTL when not on the BBC.

Your old remote probably will work actually, MCE runs off basic keyboard commands and media keys which is probably all you remote does.

Editor

Hi everyone-it's been a long, long time since I've been on here. But guess what-I'm just about to build the same thing.

irisandalex wrote: »

This replacing an ancient computer I was using as a HTPC which almost still does the job!

Detail on the old one please. I've an old AMD64 based tower with an AGP HDMI card, win XP, 2GB Ram that I want to try this with. Sort of proof on concept & pandering to my own inner geek. I've this idea about a blu-ray player drive & then I'm a bit stuck on the PVR & HD tuner bit (did see the black gold post)

Actually I'm having some trouble with the card setup-is there a better place to ask about that rather than hijack?

Percy1983 wrote: »

Hi,

Glad to see you are back again, interestingly I have just finished a media PC build for myself so have put quite a lot of time into this.

full details please chap. Your requirements are identical to my main ones, although I might need to repeat at a lower level (i.e. no PVR no tuners needed but Blu-Ray yes) in the GF's office. <thinks> box from Sony would do this easier I reckon. She's no tech head & it needs a soundbar or cheapy 2.1. Can't be full frequency explosions as it's our whelping room & mums don't like sudden bangs.

Sorry to dive in but this is so relevant.

Percy1983

Seem very relevant to the current discussion.

I will admit I over spec'ed in many respects, but as mentioned it may have to run 4 HD channels at the same time while transcoding for other devices.

But my HTPC is as follows.

AMD 3870k APU
8GB ram
Black gold 3600 tuners
LG blu-ray/HD-DVD/DVD drive
Seagate 5900rpm 2TB hard drive
Antec Mini Fusion Case

I will say older PCs can generally make good HTPC's as you generally don't need masses of power. On the flip side you can build a decent spec machine which will be powerful with low power consumption, the specs really can vary.

Editor

Percy1983 wrote: »

Seem very relevant to the current discussion.

I will admit I over spec'ed in many respects, but as mentioned it may have to run 4 HD channels at the same time while transcoding for other devices.

But my HTPC is as follows.

AMD 3870k APU

interesting chip-looks like a canny choice. What mobo is it in please?
http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/pc-components/processors/amd-a8-3870k-black-edition-apu-1057509/review/page:3#articleContent

http://www.overclock.net/t/1274862/amd-a8-3870k-apu-benchmarked-with-and-without-6670-dual-graphics/100 (as usual that threads been a bit derailed!)

I'm not familiar with the newer graphics on board chip tech. I preseume the mobo has HDMI out on it as well as the usual ports?

Does your LG drive need software for it's blu-ray capability?

Thanks for that. Off to research up how to set up this Asus Radeon 1024 MB AH4650 Graphics Card AGP with HDMI. Currently I have a monitor on the VGA & the HDMI to the TV but it's proving tricky to get full screen on the TV in single mode & it all crashes if I drag the DVD over to the TV in dual. User error I have no doubt at all! If either of you have a link about solving this or a quick solution I'd be incredibly greatful.

Percy1983

when say trouble getting it full screen do you mean black boarders all round it? in theory you current graphics is up to the job.

For bluray playback you do need software, a lot of the drives come bundled with power dvd oem which is limited to stereo sound.

In theory your gpu could playback bluray will just be worth checking if agp changes anything.

irisandalex

Sorry, only just back reading this thread, but it seems Percy is giving you all you need Editor!

I got my HTPC running yesterday, seems to work perfectly, in fact I'll be sticking with the SD DVB-T card for now, no point upgrading everything at once! Compared to an old freeview box powering the projector via composite connection, the freeview quality is already a massive step up! Will just have to cope without getting RTL F1 coverage.....

Quick question Percy, I'm considering sticking my old optical drive in the HTPC, but it's IDE PATA. Obviously I can just buy one of these, but do you know if that'll just slow the rest of the system down at all?

Alternative is I leave it in the external enclosure, but that means using an extra power supply which spoils the eco credentials.....

I'm really surprised, but googling the subject I find no mention of it. Am I the only one that doesn't want to bin a perfectly good optical drive when building a new PC?

Percy1983

To be hoenst I can't give a definitive answer, on the flip side SATA connections don't slow to the flowest device like the ide days so you can run SATA1/2/3 together and they will all go at native speeds.

With that I still have an early SATA optical drive in my PC and it shows as IDE unlike the newer ones which makes me think the early drives where IDE with SATA bridges.

So from what I know, it shouldn't cause any problems.

I guess most people just stump up for a new drive as they are generally better.

As for missing RTL, get a DVB-S card and off you go.

irisandalex

Thanks Percy.

So the next big decision is software!

I have a licence for DVBViewer, but that seems to be rather outdated these days and doesn't offer series record from what I can see.

So Windows Media Center (WMC) seems the best bet for TV recording.

But what for audio? Up until now I have never seriously used a computer over a CD player, due to the loss of quality. However now that the HTPC outputs a digital signal to my amp I'm guessing when I test it out properly the quality will be pretty close to the CD player (although I guess my CD player might have a slightly better digital/analogue converter than my amp)....

So it seems I might as well start playing CDs with the HTPC and automatically in the background ripping the CDs in a lossless format.

So my questions would be:

1. Is Windows Media Center the best for TV management?
2. If using WMC, is there a good reason to use another software, like XBMC, for media consumption?
3. Following the above, should I just allow WMC to do the ripping automatically, into the lossless WMA format? Or use some other software and CODEC?

I'm interested to hear what you propose Percy!

I'll then have to figure out the best streaming option to my HP Touchpad, but that's probably a subject best taken elsewhere....

Percy1983

Personally I would stick WMC for TV management, I would say XBMC does have some nice features but its a lot of messing and generally not as stable.

As for audio, WMA-lossless is as it says lossless, but I would rather use flac, with that I am happy with MP3 myself.

I say flac mainly because its takes longer to encode to is easier to decode which can make a difference when skipping around tracks, secondly WMA will use DRM (Digital rights management) which may not seem a problem until you try using it elsewhere.

As for a server, I can't recommend enough DVBlink, in short it turns my 4 tuners into network tuners and I can use them on any PC in the house aswell as a web interface and andriod app for when I am not at home.

The main reason I use DVB link is it lets me mix tuners per channel, ie BBC one shows as one channel with 4 tuners (2 freeview and 2 freesat) rather than 2 channels which will happen by default.

I will say setup took a while as I had to manually join a lot of channels etc, but once done its great.

irisandalex

The problem with flac is that is isn't supported by WMC, so I can't imagine it will be as simple as just playing a CD and it getting automatically ripped and added to the library.

So what do you use for audio playback?