underpools Machine

underpool · 2008-09-09, 20:26

underpools Machine

Introduction

I started to build a HTPC recently and now it is finally finished (beside I still have a few smaller problems with some functions, but I will solve them

).
The reasons for me to build such a Media Center were that I want to have a All-In-One solution to watch TV, Pictures with slideshow, listen to music and radio and so on.
Additionally, our old TV broke down and so we need a new one. So we bought the Philips Aurea TV Full HD with HDMI connection. So it was certainly obvious that the Media Center should have an HDMI ouput connector.
Further, we got a Satellite unit with DVB-S (digital TV). We had cable TV, but that was expensive and we want to be independence. So the Media Center would get a DVB-S card to view high definition television.
As you see, we had a bigger modification in our living room and the HTPC is only one part of it.
So here we go:

Wishlist

This were my requirements for the HTPC:

Very low noise or quiet
Energy efficient
Support for the Full HD TV
Blu-Ray Support
Remote Control /IR
Network streaming support to connect to our NAS (network storage device)
Internet access
Seamless integration in our living room
User friendly, easy to use for my whole family

Hardware

It took a long time before I decided which hardware is the right for me. For almost every hardware part I read benchmarks and compared devices, because I want to have something good which I can rely on. I can only recommend to you all to do this the same way. I was really suprized about how many problems can be caused by the wrong hardware. Its really worth it to spend an hour more for that.
The following hardware is now installed in my HTPC:

Case: Antec FUSION V2 silver
Power Supply: Antec 450 Watt Supply
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H (miniATX)
Graphic Card: onboard ATI Radeon HD3200 with HDMI out
Memory: 2x Corsair XMS2 1024MB DDR2
CPU: AMD Athlon 4850e 2500MHz Dual Core
Cooler: AMD CPU boxed Cooler, 2x 120 Case Fans
Sound: onboard ALC889A HD Audio 7.1 Channel with DTS Connect and Optical out
HDD: Western Digital WD5000AACS 500GB Green Power
Blu-Ray/DVD Drive: LG GGC-H20L black
TV-Card 1: digital everywhere FloppyDTV S2 (DVB-S2)
TV-Card 2: Hauppauge WINTV Nova-HD-S2 (DVB-S2)
Card Reader: Akasa AK-CR-01BK Combo Multi Card Reader
Remote Control: Auvisio VRC-1100 Ro
Keyboard: KeySonic ACK-540RF wireless

Connection to other devices

The new Media Center has connection to internet, satellite and other devices:

2x Connection to satellite for recording and watching at the same time
Connection to LAN (100 Mbit/sec, 1000 Mbit/s soon ) for Internet connectivity (6 Mbit/s) and NAS access (Photos, Videos, Music)
Stereo Connection to hi-fi system with dolby surround
Connection to USB Webcam for Voice-Chat (Skype)
HDMI Connection to Philips Aurea TV (full HD), but only picture, no sound (-> hi-fi system)

Operating system, configuration and software

I thought about installing Windows Vista on my HTPC, but then I took Windows XP. The reason: I use Windows Vista as my "normal" system to work and play. But why should I install it on my HTPC? Vista needs more resources and more RAM (despite the SuperFetch mechanism) than XP and is not that stable than XP with SP3. The resources should be taken for watching TV and Blu-Ray and not for the OS which runs in the background.
So here is my software:

Basic:

Windows XP with SP3 (customized with nLite)
All available Windows Updates
Removed thing I don't need on a HTPC (Outlook Express, MSN, Games)

MediaPortal:

MediaPortal 1.0.0.0 RC1 with TV server 1.0.0.0 RC1
SVN-Snapshot installed: svn-07-11-2008--10-18-Rev19603
Monochrome Skin 2.2

Plugins:

KeyBoardInputPlugin 1.1.0.0 for the remote control
HDStarter - Blu-Ray/HD-DVD Player with PowerDVD for watching Blu-Ray Discs
MultiShortcut 1.0 for starting Opera Browser
WebEPG

Additional:

Cyberlink PowerDVD 7 for Blu-Ray Playback (delivered with the Blu-Ray Drive)
Opera 9.5 (customized) for Surfing
Haali MediaSplitter
ffdshow Codec
Skype for VoIP

Special Solutions:

Blu-Ray:

Like I said, I use PowerDVD for playing Blu-Ray Discs.
I integrated it to MediaPortal with the help of MoPhat's great Plugin. See here for details. The Plugin integrates PowerDVD seamless into MediaPortal. That means, you can access PowerDVD directly from the MediaPortal Main Menu with one Click. MediaPortal minimizes and PowerDVD maximizes. A skin from MoPhat for PowerDVD (monochrome style) makes it possible that PowerDVD looks like MP.
With the help of the script, the keys on your Remote Control are the same than in MP. When you click on your back button, PowerDVD will exit and MP will maximize. Its great!

Browser:

I modified the script from MoPhat to seamless integrate my Browser to MP. I installed the MultiShortcut Plugin to start Opera Browser (a nice browser

). It works fine, but to reenter MP, I need to close Opera and then click in MP that it gains focus again to navigate with my remote control.
So I had the idea with the script of MoPhat. I got the source code generated with AutoHotkey and opened it with my editor. Then I changed It to open and close my Browser instead of PowerDVD. I recompiled it and set MultiShortcut to open this script. Now I enter Opera with one click in the main menu and get back with my back button on my remote. Its fantastic!

If you have questions to this special solutions and need help, don't hesitate to contact me. I explained those both solution only short here, I know.

Hardware bought at...

Here I want to give a short overview where I bought my hardware:

Satking.de: FloppyDTV DVB-S2 Card
Caseking.de: Antec Fusion V2 Case, Akasa Multicard Reader
PEARL: Auvisio Remote Control
Mindfactory AG: All other stuff (Mainboard, CPU and so on)

This was my overview about my MediaCenter. I hope you like it. If you have questions, suggestion for improvement or comments please contact me or reply on this post.
Thank you all here in this great forum for the help you offered me to solve the problems I had with my MediaPortal. Further I want to say thank you to all Members of the MediaPortal Team for this great software. You did (and still do

) a great job. Iam absolutely happy with my solution and my whole family is it, too.

Greetings,
underpool

UPDATE:

Now Updated to:
MediaPortal 1.0.0.0 RC2 with TV server 1.0.0.0 RC2
and SVN mediaportal-svn-09-06-2008--11-16-Rev20143

All working beside some problems with the TV server. It crashes sometimes (MP hangs up) when clicking on My TV in the main menu.

FlipGer · 2008-09-09, 21:42

Hi,

great report!

Flip.

Dubyahjay · 2008-09-09, 22:38

good lookin' setup. congrats! (and thanks for the write up)

MPUserFromGER · 2008-09-10, 22:30

Hi,

is there any reason why you havn't choosen the
GA-MA790GP-DS4H
motherboard?

I am currently thinking about upgrading my setup and the MA790GP chipset has, compared to the MA78GM chipset, a better graphics (HD3300) and 128MB GDDR3-RAM. However, I think it consumes also more power...

underpool · 2008-09-11, 16:04

Thank you for your comments!

@MPUserFromGER: Yes, there are reasons. First of all the motherboard you mentioned consumes more power and it has an ATX form factor. My case is made for mATX (microATX).
When I bought my hardware, I made my choice on this site: -- GIGABYTE -- AMD 780G Series Motherboards - Not your average IGP!

kszabo · 2008-10-01, 22:37

Underpool, you could mount a Scynthe Ninja Mini CPU heatsink without fan! I have this on a Phenom X3 8450, only with the 2 case fans of the antec case, CPU Temps under 40 °C.

dlisalde · 2008-10-07, 20:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by kszabo

Underpool, you could mount a Scynthe Ninja Mini CPU heatsink without fan! I have this on a Phenom X3 8450, only with the 2 case fans of the antec case, CPU Temps under 40 °C.

With Ninja mini you lost two memory ram slot, however you're using two of four slots

Do you know noctua products? Are very silence.

Ahh great HTPC

underpool · 2008-10-07, 20:46

Hi!

Thanks for your cooling tips.

I know these products and I know Noctua poducts (Iam using some fans of them).
But my CPU is very cool and the fan is very quiet.

But thank you very much for your post!

Greetings!

dlisalde · 2008-10-07, 21:33

Fantastic, congratulations for your HTPC one more time!!

2008-09-09, 20:26	#1 (permalink)
underpool Portal Member Join Date: May 2008 Age: 23 Posts: 9 Thanks: 1 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts Country: My System	underpools Machine underpools Machine Introduction I started to build a HTPC recently and now it is finally finished (beside I still have a few smaller problems with some functions, but I will solve them ). The reasons for me to build such a Media Center were that I want to have a All-In-One solution to watch TV, Pictures with slideshow, listen to music and radio and so on. Additionally, our old TV broke down and so we need a new one. So we bought the Philips Aurea TV Full HD with HDMI connection. So it was certainly obvious that the Media Center should have an HDMI ouput connector. Further, we got a Satellite unit with DVB-S (digital TV). We had cable TV, but that was expensive and we want to be independence. So the Media Center would get a DVB-S card to view high definition television. As you see, we had a bigger modification in our living room and the HTPC is only one part of it. So here we go: Wishlist This were my requirements for the HTPC: Very low noise or quiet Energy efficient Support for the Full HD TV Blu-Ray Support Remote Control /IR Network streaming support to connect to our NAS (network storage device) Internet access Seamless integration in our living room User friendly, easy to use for my whole family Hardware It took a long time before I decided which hardware is the right for me. For almost every hardware part I read benchmarks and compared devices, because I want to have something good which I can rely on. I can only recommend to you all to do this the same way. I was really suprized about how many problems can be caused by the wrong hardware. Its really worth it to spend an hour more for that. The following hardware is now installed in my HTPC: Case: Antec FUSION V2 silver Power Supply: Antec 450 Watt Supply Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H (miniATX) Graphic Card: onboard ATI Radeon HD3200 with HDMI out Memory: 2x Corsair XMS2 1024MB DDR2 CPU: AMD Athlon 4850e 2500MHz Dual Core Cooler: AMD CPU boxed Cooler, 2x 120 Case Fans Sound: onboard ALC889A HD Audio 7.1 Channel with DTS Connect and Optical out HDD: Western Digital WD5000AACS 500GB Green Power Blu-Ray/DVD Drive: LG GGC-H20L black TV-Card 1: digital everywhere FloppyDTV S2 (DVB-S2) TV-Card 2: Hauppauge WINTV Nova-HD-S2 (DVB-S2) Card Reader: Akasa AK-CR-01BK Combo Multi Card Reader Remote Control: Auvisio VRC-1100 Ro Keyboard: KeySonic ACK-540RF wireless Connection to other devices The new Media Center has connection to internet, satellite and other devices: 2x Connection to satellite for recording and watching at the same time Connection to LAN (100 Mbit/sec, 1000 Mbit/s soon ) for Internet connectivity (6 Mbit/s) and NAS access (Photos, Videos, Music) Stereo Connection to hi-fi system with dolby surround Connection to USB Webcam for Voice-Chat (Skype) HDMI Connection to Philips Aurea TV (full HD), but only picture, no sound (-> hi-fi system) Operating system, configuration and software I thought about installing Windows Vista on my HTPC, but then I took Windows XP. The reason: I use Windows Vista as my "normal" system to work and play. But why should I install it on my HTPC? Vista needs more resources and more RAM (despite the SuperFetch mechanism) than XP and is not that stable than XP with SP3. The resources should be taken for watching TV and Blu-Ray and not for the OS which runs in the background. So here is my software: Basic: Windows XP with SP3 (customized with nLite) All available Windows Updates Removed thing I don't need on a HTPC (Outlook Express, MSN, Games) MediaPortal: MediaPortal 1.0.0.0 RC1 with TV server 1.0.0.0 RC1 SVN-Snapshot installed: svn-07-11-2008--10-18-Rev19603 Monochrome Skin 2.2 Plugins: KeyBoardInputPlugin 1.1.0.0 for the remote control HDStarter - Blu-Ray/HD-DVD Player with PowerDVD for watching Blu-Ray Discs MultiShortcut 1.0 for starting Opera Browser WebEPG Additional: Cyberlink PowerDVD 7 for Blu-Ray Playback (delivered with the Blu-Ray Drive) Opera 9.5 (customized) for Surfing Haali MediaSplitter ffdshow Codec Skype for VoIP Special Solutions: Blu-Ray: Like I said, I use PowerDVD for playing Blu-Ray Discs. I integrated it to MediaPortal with the help of MoPhat's great Plugin. See here for details. The Plugin integrates PowerDVD seamless into MediaPortal. That means, you can access PowerDVD directly from the MediaPortal Main Menu with one Click. MediaPortal minimizes and PowerDVD maximizes. A skin from MoPhat for PowerDVD (monochrome style) makes it possible that PowerDVD looks like MP. With the help of the script, the keys on your Remote Control are the same than in MP. When you click on your back button, PowerDVD will exit and MP will maximize. Its great! Browser: I modified the script from MoPhat to seamless integrate my Browser to MP. I installed the MultiShortcut Plugin to start Opera Browser (a nice browser ). It works fine, but to reenter MP, I need to close Opera and then click in MP that it gains focus again to navigate with my remote control. So I had the idea with the script of MoPhat. I got the source code generated with AutoHotkey and opened it with my editor. Then I changed It to open and close my Browser instead of PowerDVD. I recompiled it and set MultiShortcut to open this script. Now I enter Opera with one click in the main menu and get back with my back button on my remote. Its fantastic! If you have questions to this special solutions and need help, don't hesitate to contact me. I explained those both solution only short here, I know. Hardware bought at... Here I want to give a short overview where I bought my hardware: Satking.de: FloppyDTV DVB-S2 Card Caseking.de: Antec Fusion V2 Case, Akasa Multicard Reader PEARL: Auvisio Remote Control Mindfactory AG: All other stuff (Mainboard, CPU and so on) This was my overview about my MediaCenter. I hope you like it. If you have questions, suggestion for improvement or comments please contact me or reply on this post. Thank you all here in this great forum for the help you offered me to solve the problems I had with my MediaPortal. Further I want to say thank you to all Members of the MediaPortal Team for this great software. You did (and still do ) a great job. Iam absolutely happy with my solution and my whole family is it, too. Greetings, underpool UPDATE: Now Updated to: MediaPortal 1.0.0.0 RC2 with TV server 1.0.0.0 RC2 and SVN mediaportal-svn-09-06-2008--11-16-Rev20143 All working beside some problems with the TV server. It crashes sometimes (MP hangs up) when clicking on My TV in the main menu. Attached Thumbnails Last edited by underpool; 2008-10-07 at 20:50.

2008-09-09, 22:38	#3 (permalink)
Dubyahjay MP Donator Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Atlanta Posts: 144 Thanks: 8 Thanked 6 Times in 5 Posts Country: My System	good lookin' setup. congrats! (and thanks for the write up) __________________ So you run and you run to catch up with the sun but it's sinking Racing around to come up behind you again. - Time, Pink Floyd

2008-10-07, 21:33	#9 (permalink)
dlisalde Portal Member Join Date: Jun 2008 Posts: 21 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts Country: My System	Fantastic, congratulations for your HTPC one more time!! __________________ Now watching : Xamd's Lost Memory & Heroes 3v "villians" Playing: LBP Ps3

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2008-09-09, 21:42	#2 (permalink)
FlipGer Super Moderator Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Leipzig, Germany Age: 33 Posts: 2,286 Thanks: 33 Thanked 56 Times in 42 Posts Country: My System	Hi, great report! Flip.

2008-09-10, 22:30	#4 (permalink)
MPUserFromGER MP Donator Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Germany Posts: 322 Thanks: 8 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post Country: My System	Hi, is there any reason why you havn't choosen the GA-MA790GP-DS4H motherboard? I am currently thinking about upgrading my setup and the MA790GP chipset has, compared to the MA78GM chipset, a better graphics (HD3300) and 128MB GDDR3-RAM. However, I think it consumes also more power...

2008-09-11, 16:04	#5 (permalink)
underpool Portal Member Join Date: May 2008 Age: 23 Posts: 9 Thanks: 1 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts Country: My System	Thank you for your comments! @MPUserFromGER: Yes, there are reasons. First of all the motherboard you mentioned consumes more power and it has an ATX form factor. My case is made for mATX (microATX). When I bought my hardware, I made my choice on this site: -- GIGABYTE -- AMD 780G Series Motherboards - Not your average IGP!

2008-10-01, 22:37	#6 (permalink)
kszabo MP Donator Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Germany, Würzburg Age: 35 Posts: 309 Thanks: 28 Thanked 25 Times in 24 Posts Country: My System	Underpool, you could mount a Scynthe Ninja Mini CPU heatsink without fan! I have this on a Phenom X3 8450, only with the 2 case fans of the antec case, CPU Temps under 40 °C.

2008-10-07, 20:46	#8 (permalink)
underpool Portal Member Join Date: May 2008 Age: 23 Posts: 9 Thanks: 1 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts Country: My System	Hi! Thanks for your cooling tips. I know these products and I know Noctua poducts (Iam using some fans of them). But my CPU is very cool and the fan is very quiet. But thank you very much for your post! Greetings!