HD-HTPC Build - My expereinces.
Hi-Def HTCP Build.

Firstly, I must thank all those individuals both in here and AVforums for their support, suggestions. Whilst I did the work, it was a team effort, and so thank you all. In particular, Adam especially as this ‘write up’ is similar to his. His write up works and is an effective one – so why re-invent the wheel.


I have another thread in here relating to the possible specs of the box, but I thought I would start a new thread with the actual build and software installation.

My AV system consists of a Denon 2900 Mk II DVD player, an outstanding universal Player, but was the last generation of player before HDMI became a generally available. This is connected to a Fuji 50 inch plasma display via component; and the AV amp by SP/DIF (and 6 channel audio for DVD-A and SACD). My V+ cable box is connected to the plasma by HDMI and the amp by Optical Toslink.

My Cyrus CD player is cable audio as is my Denon Digital Radio. The existing PC is connected by Digital cable and DVI-HDMI


Existing HTPC:

I have built two PC’s recently, one is an office based machine whilst the other is pseudo HTPC, the specifications can be found here.

A7N8X-E Deluxe motherboard, AMD Athlon XP3000 and 1GB of Crucial DDR400 Memory
1 x Gigabyte GV-N66256DP 6600 256MB Silent pipe AGP Video Card (N-vidia graphic card 6600)
80GB Hard Drive (IDE), 250 GB Mirror array (SATA)
Liteon 16x48 IDE DVD-ROM Drive
NEC DVD writer
Nebula DigiTV Card
Black Gold DigiTV Card MCE
MCE 2005
Fujitsu P50XHA58EB (DVI--> HDMI) and an Acer 8ms Widescreen AL1916W 19" 500: (1440 x 900) Monitor (VGA; set as primary) both set to 1320 x768 or what ever the resolution is.

It is in an Antec Sonata Tower Case. Whilst not loud, when the room is quiet, the whine of either a hard drive or fan can be heard.


I have recently started to down load HD clips and other stuff. Whilst it is early days and my knowledge is limited, I am starting to have issues with HD playback.

As such I am contemplating whether to build a truly dedicated HD-HTPC with Blue ray and HD-DVD. So the question is do I rebuild this existing PC or do a new rebuild?

As there is nothing wrong with this PC, and several times I asked myself, do I need a new PC, I decided against cannibalising this PC for the ne one. Rather I will relegate this else where and use it for another office machine, remote accessing from the HTPC if I need to, if Mrs Sapper is working on the Office PC. As such the software on the new HD-PTC is purely windows OP (MCE) and relevant media software. Oh and a Viral monitoring software package.

Currently the only item cannibalised is a DVD Drive for software installation.


Hi-Def PC:

Having decided that a new PC was indeed required, I had several ideas in mind of what the PC will be used for:

1. TV Capture and recording.
2. Photo Library / Home Movies
3. DVD & Movie files
4. Music server
5. HD-DVD & Blu-ray HDD playback.
6. Work/Office Backup storage – mainly through remote access

Design Factors

Similar to Adam, I had a list of factors, wish list regarding the HTPC. These are listed below in order of priority.

1. Performance / PQ / SQ
2. Aesthetics
3. Very Quiet
4. Cool running
5. Using existing PCL cards
6. Price

GPU

I have read several times that playing HD material utilises CPU intensive rather than GPU intensive, and as such that a motherboard board with on bard graphics would be sufficient.

However, maybe I am old fashioned, but I felt more comfortable with a slightly juicy Motherboard that can offer support. Also I wanted a silent GPU, and have been happy with my existing NVidia Graphics card.

As such I opted for the MSI 8600GT Silent edition 256MB DVI HDTV PCI-E card; with a hefty heat sink; As such it is silent in operation


CPU

I have always been an AMD Athlon geek, mostly by habit but I didn't see the point in straying from them now, I had read various articles on CPU brand and speed, and finally opted for AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ (2.5GHz) Socket AM2 Energy Efficient. I had considered the AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+. Several people have commented that the slightly slower CPU works well with Hi-def, but I thought a little extra would be worth while and was only an extra £15 or so. It also has several good reports of over clocking.

Motherboard

My previous home builds were Asus Motherboards, based on recommendation from colleagues here at in the IT dept at work. I had not had any problems with them and so why change.

I looked at various ASUS boards including ATX and mATX. In the end I opted for the ATX, mainly as it has more connectivity in terms of SATA, IDE and PCL slots etc.

So which motherboard? I opted for the Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe motherboard with wireless. However due to the location, I regret this option though it wasn’t much more expensive. Again the motherboard has good right ups, and is easily clock able, though not yet looked into this.



RAM

Currently using the Recommended in the thread, I opted for the Kingston 2GB KIT (2X1GB) DDR2 667MHz/PC2-5300.


Case

As with several other people, this seems to be the hardest decision involved in a HTPC build. The only easy choice for me was the colour in silver as nearly all my other components in my AV set up are silver, if they are hidden from view by a black cloth.

This involved lots of searching, lots of options, including the Silverstone series, one DVD Drive bay, or two? One factor that I wanted was at least 4 hard drives capacity, which the X11A2 from OrigenAE had, though it only had one internal 5 inch drive bay. An inbuilt Infra red receiver became a must have to for the MCE remote control.

Whilst still having some doubts, I opted for the OrigenAE X11 Case. It is a lovely looking case, well engineered and heavy. It also has plenty of underside ventilation slots together with a cooling fan, and two exhaust fans on the rear wall. Inside it seems reasonably well thought out a huge expanse at the back for the Ps supply and motherboard. The front area was slightly fiddlier but nothing unworkable. Just need a screwdriver with a strong magnetic head.

It came with three 80mm fans, which I discarded for three quiet fans that I use to cool my AV cupboard. When the system is running with the lid open there is some noise, I am guessing it is the CPU though it could be the PSU fan.

As already suggested, It also takes a Full ATX PSU which is great. I opted for the 430w Seasonic S12-430 aPFC PSU which is meant to be quiet, hopefully. I need to ascertain if the noise is the CPU or PSU; and also how loud is it in situ.

Remote / VFD

Just need to resolve my VFD issues at the moment, and in particular my Infra red receiver. Also I want to edit the text on display.

Sound

Sound for me in the longer term will be important, and I will invest in a more audiophile sound card possibly. However my mother board can support the new formats (I hope) and I will look into this in the future. Until then I will connect it up via SP/DIF digital connection.

My AV amp has only one set of connections for 6 channel audio, and that is taken up by my Denon player for Multi-channel music. So need to look into this later.


Storage

Currently working with 2 x Samsung Spinpoint 500GB drives. One is partitioned currently to 30GB for the C:\ partition, and the rest as data. The other drive is formatted into 500GB. Both connected by SATA obviously. I may increase this later. Or look into network attached storage. Guess it depends if I rip my DVD’s to hard drive.


OS & Software

I already have an aging copy of MCE 2005. As such I installed this, and, what surprised me was there were no activation issues, as I have probably loaded it too many times on a couple of machines.

Having installed Command antiviral software, I then connected to Microsoft’s servers using the update option, and left the Pc over night and more to upgrade, needing some 120 updates including SP 2 and the MCE SP.

I have yet to start installing anything else, but software to download/install include:-

• CoreAVC
• MatroskaSplitter
• ffdshow
• Slysloft’s AnyDVD
• Cyberlink’s PowerDVD Ultra 7.3
• Theatretek
• Asus diagnostic & monitoring software
• Media Portal????

I will try out with the free software first, but I am prepared to invest if I have to.

Any links, suggestions would be useful, though there is a good how to guide else where on the web site.


Performance

As the system is barely running I have not been bothered to monitor the performance etc, though I will when I have installed the software and watched a few films. I also need to install the motherboard monitoring software, unless you can recommend any other third party packages.

Summary of stuff so far:

Motherboard Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe motherboard
CPU AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ (2.5GHz) Socket AM2
RAM Kingston 2GB KIT (2X1GB) DDR2 667MHz/PC2-5300
Graphics Card MSI 8600GT Silent edition 256MB DVI HDTV PCI-E
Hard Drives Two Samsung Spinpoint 500GB SATA 2 Drives
Case OrigenAE X11 A2 Case with three silent fans
PSU 430w Seasonic S12-430 aPFC PSU
DVD Drive NEC writer (temporary)

OS: Windows XP – MCE 2005

Total Budget ~ £630

This is not including any HD drives, though I ordered the Xbox360 HD DVD drive for about £110 inclusive of p&p. I did look at flea-bay; but they kept going closer to £80. At that price I would prefer to buy one brand new for and extra score or so.

Future plans:

I would like to install a blue ray drive, possibly a dual drive when they become affordable, and resell my HD drive on flea-bay. But this will be a while yet I guess.

I also intend to install a TV capture card. I will probably install my existing black gold initially, but would prefer a dual tuner. Whist not used often it is a god send on occasion, as we keep the V+ box for recording HD. I wonder if I could also use the black gold dual card (~£100) as well as my single card.

As already mentioned, may need to increase my storage capacity as and when.


Initial Conclusions

I have thoroughly enjoyed this PC build, more than any other. There are more challenges to face, but that what makes it fun (with hind sight) and I feel I have done a good job although cable tidying still needs some work

I will post more photographs on this thread together with other information and software updates.

Thank you for reading, and I hope it is worth while. A work colleague whom I introduced this site is now thinking of buying and building a HTPC. One concern he has though is the lack of a “How to guide”. If he goes ahead with it, may be we can write one together.

A note to the mods: If you would like this to be edited for your project page, I am more than happy to assist.



Adrian
June 8th 07

Edited Again 14th June

I had several issues regarding some of the drivers that came with th e motherboard; in particualr the inbuilt sound card.

These issues have generally been resolved by reading the FAQ on the Asus motherboard, and uninstalling the drivers that came with the CD, and down loading the latest drivers from the manufactuerers web site.

EDited 30 July 07

So to summarise the content of the PC

Motherboard Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe motherboard
CPU AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ (2.5GHz) Socket AM2
RAM Kingston 2GB KIT (2X1GB) DDR2 667MHz/PC2-5300
Graphics Card MSI 8600GT Silent edition 256MB DVI HDTV PCI-E
Hard Drives Three Samsung Spinpoint 500GB SATA 2 Drives
Case OrigenAE X11 A2 Case with three silent fans
PSU 430w Seasonic S12-430 aPFC PSU
DVD Drive Pioneer Blue-Ray DVD recorder Combi (Pioneer BDC-202BK 5x BD-ROM + 12x12 DVD±RW Serial ATA Dual Layer ReWriter )
HD Drive: Xbox HD-DVD drive
TV Card: Black-Gold PCL single DVB (freeview) card
Satellite Card: Techno-trend s2-3200 Budget card

OS: Windows XP – MCE 2005

Software includes:

• CoreAVC
• MatroskaSplitter
• ffdshow
• Slysloft’s AnyDVD
• Cyberlink’s PowerDVD Ultra 7.3
• AC3 Filter
• Graph-edit & Film-merit
• DVB-viewer
• Cant remember any more at the moment

Costs: Since the innitial £630, I have bought,,

(Costs are rounded and approx)

HD DVD DRive at £100
Blueray DVD Drive £150
Sateliite Card: £100
Media card reader and another drive £100

Cost of software is harder to determine, but with PowerDVD, AnyDVD and the othes i would guess in the region of £100

So a total in the region of £1250

Is it worth it?

To be honest a good question. I can downlaod any film format tat i wish to or wathc and DVD foramt I chose to. The only disc foramt that i cannot play is SACD, though I have never really explored, as yet DVD-A capabilities of this ystem as it is only connected to teh amp by SPDIF lead.

I has been fun and challenging not tomention challenging. I would like to resove the EPG issue, and now enjoy it for a few months, with all formats, Certainly inniital thoughts suggest that the DVD playback ability is as good as my Denon DVD player if not better. Ilaso need to learn further about how best to implement upscaling in packages like MCE and Theatretek, msost of the reports use Mediaportal or Vista based sstems as far as i understand. So more reading and research is requird in this area as well.


30 July 07


Pictures of the Case

Excellent write up there.

I'll put this up in the projects section if thats ok. What would be good is; the final spec for the HTPC (in a list) and would be great to see some of the photos of the build as well

I will do that shorlty...

Some pics already linked in this thread onthe OrigenAE cases here http://www.projecthtpc.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=22&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=15

Okay

Summary of stuff so far:

Motherboard Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe motherboard
CPU AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ (2.5GHz) Socket AM2
RAM Kingston 2GB KIT (2X1GB) DDR2 667MHz/PC2-5300
Graphics Card MSI 8600GT Silent edition 256MB DVI HDTV PCI-E
Hard Drives Two Samsung Spinpoint 500GB SATA 2 Drives
Case OrigenAE X11 A2 Case with three silent fans
PSU 430w Seasonic S12-430 aPFC PSU
DVD Drive NEC writer (temporary)

OS: Windows XP – MCE 2005

Adrian

Having installed Windows MCE and updates, it is now time to install the media software.

Innitially, I am intending to use the information described else where on this web site.

http://www.projecthtpc.co.uk/htpc_software.html

1. Ensure Windows software is up to date:

checked and installed updates for

DirectX9
Microsoft .NET Framework Version 2.0
Windows Medial Player 11


2. Codecs Installation.

The following codec software was downloaded and installed.

CoreAVC
MatroskaSplitter
ffdshow ("ffdshow tryouts official beta2")


Whilst i have installed all of the suggested codecs,; innitially, Ihae decided to use DFDshow to do all the decoding.

I am sure I will change this at some point.

However it seemsthat whilst Iam able o play -Def files, some mre basic DVD content cannot be played. assuch, as a temporary stop gap I DOQN LOADED PowerDVD 7 as a stop gap, which works.

Whils ettingFFDshow as the main codec, or II thought, obviously Ihave not as I do not always see the green on screen display when playing some video content.

As such can I be sure that when playing DVD in MCE, that FFDShowis in fact upscaling?Setting FFDshow for all codecs did not seem to resolve this query..

Multi-Regio Hassle:

The DVD drive is not currently multi-region. So I downloaded the 21 day trail of Slysoft's "AnyDVD - HD'softwre to see if this cold be changed.

It worked with several non region 2 DVD's being played.

My Movies:


http://www.mymovies.name/

Just down loaded my movies - a huge improvement since my last investigation.

Concluding Comments on June 11th

In theory i have most of the software that I now need to use this box as a media player.

However I am concerned that in soem modes, iin particualr 'SD DVD' that FFDshow is not upscaling.

My be I have mis read other poeople's posts but I was under the impression that it would.

I will have to do some more reading over the next few days. Also look into Theatretek as well.

Adrian

Very nice write up there, I laughed out loud at the bit about a screwdriver with a strong magnetic head talk about Deja-vu!

If you want some help with the VFD and software just let me know, I have pretty much all of it sussed now

(kiss of death )

Cheers,

Adam

Sapper,

I've modified the following which will hopefully make things a bit easier to follow:

http://www.projecthtpc.co.uk/software3.html

Let us know how you get on.

Motherboard Issues:

Currently having two issues...

Firstly sound is very poor, but found a possible fix from the asus website..

Selecting the AM2 processors and the M2N-SLI Deluxe motherboard..

from here

http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us

Also another glitch..

Whist watching a DVD from PowerDVD7 Trail version, it crashes within in 2 minutes consistantly casuing a BSOD error, according th o the MS error reporting it is a device driver issue; not that these can be accurate.

However palying a DVD in MCE or widows medai player seems to be fie, thoguh i have not wathed an entire film as yet.
Have unloaded it but ant wathc DVD at all now...

No basic MPEG 2 CODECS I guess..

When I have the sound resolved, I will possibly down loadPowerDVD 7 Ultra for the HD content

Adrian

Sound much better now but no 5.1 it would seem....

Adrian

What is the issue with the sound your having? and is this via the SPDIF optical?

Sound Issues:




There were several issues before iI down loaded the updated driver from the Asus web site.

Currently Only using the SPDIF Digital, my optical connection to the V+ box is not eeasy to get too...

However, I still only get sound from the two speakers...

If I connect the system as two speaker system and set the amp to prologic or DTS Neo I get the vocals coming from the centre channel

However I fi specifly the 5.1 option, I only get sound from the front two speakers. All Dialogue from the centre speaaker is absent however. It is as if the PC is sending two channel but my AV amp is recognsing only the two channels.

It was fine on the old HTPC set up - will try that again tomorrow as it is still in the same front room...


Might do a another google search later...

Adrian

Some Good news though:

Some good news, I downloaded and purchased the PowerDVD ultr and installed it.

Unlike the trail version, so far it has been fine and not casued a BSOD error, though only played soem parts of the The Pianist HD DVD

The picture on my small screen looks good, so cant wait till i get my plasma connection glitch resolved.

So it seems that I have HD DVD working


Adrian

Well, wth the SPDIF, you need to make sure you've set your sound card software to output from it. Then to get a proper 5.1 signal, you need to play a DVD with either DD or DTS. You would need to make sure PowerDVD is setup to output via the SPDIF, and select Dolby Digital or DTS from the actually DVD menu too.

Your amp should then light up saying its decoding a DD or DTS signal.

I think I can see the problem, you were obviously completely off your head when you wrote this... try again when you are sober

LOL

I wish I had been drinking.

PC tinkering and alcohol do not mix. It is my bad typing late at night...

Mmmmmmmmm

I am still unsure as to what the problem is...

I might invest in a Toslink cable to see if that helps...

But the problem is this at the moment...

Using Windows media player and MCE to play music, the stereo is fine.

However when setting up the sound in MCE and selecting the 5.1 speaker set up, only the front two speakers work.

When playing multi channel sources, the front speakers work, but none of the effect speakers including the centre speaker.

However, having installed PowerDVD ultra, playing a DVD with DTS produced an intact sound field for all 6 channels.

But MCE is not...

The motherboard comes with a HD sound ready SoundMAX Audio.As you say Phil, I should select the SPDIF option. However, there isnt one.

With a fresh mind, I have just searched the ASUS website and found more recent drivers than what I found last night, so I will try instlaling this this evening.

Maybe it would be easier to invest in another sound card, this is a future possibility due to more audiophile conponements.

But again there is always the free number of slots for additioanl cards. i would like a dual card tuner, and possible a freeto vire sateliite decoder for BBC HD.

Adrian