The Ultimate Touch-Screen-HTPC-Case-Thread

[MJGraf]

I've been trying to set up a htpc solution for a long time now. The perfect setup for me would be a beamer connected to my htpc and the htpc sitting in a case with a built in touch screen. So there would be no need to switch on the beamer if I just want to listen to some music.

In this thread I want to collect as much information and experience with this kind of setup as possible. The first question is which cases are available and what specs do they have. The second question is what and how to display on the touch screen, i.e. clone mode or the beamer as primary display and some kind of "remote" control software on the touch screen as secondary display.

Work in Progress... I'm still about to give this thread a little bit more structure...

1. The Cases

Up to now, I have found 4 different cases with a built in touch screen - please feel free to add different ones or correct me with the specs. If you would like to add additional information or just your personal experience with that case, this would also be very appreciated.

a. Silverstone Lascala LC 18

• Link: http://www.silverstonetek.com/products-lc18.htm
  
  General
  
  
• Color: black or silver
• Motherboard: ATX or micro ATX
• Dimensions: 425 mm (W) x 170 mm (H) x 425 mm (D)
• Net Weight: 6,5kg
• Drive Bay External: 2x5,25'' and 1x3,5''
• Drive Bay Internal: 5x3,5''
  
  Front
  
  
• I/O Ports: optional via 3,5'' bay
• Buttons: Power / Reset / 5 buttons to control the touchscreen via OSD (including touchscreen on/off)
• LEDs: ???
• Wheels: ---
• Cardreader: ---
  
  Display:
  
  
• Size: 7''
• Aspect Ratio: 16:10
• Native Resolution: ???
• Supportet Resolutions: 1600 x 1024; 1600 x 900; 1360 x 768; 1360 x 1024; 1280 x 1024; 1280 x 960; 1280 x 768; 1280 x 720; 1152 x 864; 1152 x 720; 1024 x 768; 960 x 600; 848 x 480; 800 x 600; 640 x 480
  
  IR-Receiver:
  
  
• ???
  

b. Origenae X15e V2

• Link: http://www.origenae.com/product_x15e.htm
  
  General
  
  
• Color: black or silver
• Motherboard: ATX or micro ATX
• Dimensions: 435mm (W) X 155mm (H) X 420mm (D)
• Net Weight: 5,94kg
• Drive Bay External: 1x5,25'' and 1x3,5''
• Drive Bay Internal: 4x3,5''
  
  Front
  
  
• I/O Ports: 2xUSB; 1xFirewire; 1xLine in; 1xLine Out; 1xMicrophone
• Buttons: TFT Power / TFT Mode / TFT Menu / 2 TFT Menu Select / PC Power
• LEDs: PC Power
• Wheels: ---
• Cardreader: ---
  
  Display:
  
  
• Size: 7''
• Aspect Ratio: 15:9
• Native Resolution: ???
• Supportet Resolutions: 1024x768; ???
  
  IR-Receiver:
  
  
• optional (???) IR-Trans Receiver (Is there also a built in IR-Trans transmitter?)
  

c. Zalman HD160XT

• Link: http://www.zalman.co.kr/eng/product/...x=232&code=029
  
  General
  
  
• Color: black or silver
• Motherboard: ATX or micro ATX
• Dimensions: 435mm (W) X 160mm (H) X 460mm (D)
• Net Weight: 6,9kg
• Drive Bay External: 1x5,25'''
• Drive Bay Internal: 5x3,5''
  
  Front
  
  
• I/O Ports: 2xUSB; 1xFirewire; 1x Microphone; 1x Headphone
• Buttons: PC Power / 4 buttons to control the TFT / 4 Arrow Key Buttons (left, right, up, down) / 1 enter or multimedia app launcher button (is this configurable ???) / 1 backspace or previous button
• LEDs: PC Power LED
• Wheels: 1 wheel for volume / mute
• Cardreader: 1 Card Reader Slot (MS/Pro/Duo, CF/Micro drive, MMC, SD,SM)
  
  Display:
  
  
• Size: 7''
• Aspect Ratio: 15:9
• Native Resolution: ???
• Supportet Resolutions: 1024x768; ???
  
  IR-Receiver:
  
  
• built in (which one?)
  

d. A-Tech 3000, A-Tech 4000EX, A-Tech 6000

• Link: http://www.atechfabrication.com/HTPC_cases.htm
  
• All three cases can be combined with a touch screen and are all very customizable

e. Origenae S21T

• Link: http://www.origenae.com/en/htpc_s21t.htm

2. How to Use the Touch Screen

a. Clone Mode

My first thought on how to use the touch screen was using the clone mode of my nvidia driver. But soon I realized that this wouldn't be as easy as it looks...

The clone mode requires your touch screen to have the same resolution as your beamer. So if you go for a 720p beamer, your touch screen must support a resolution of 1280x720. From what I found out (please correct me if I'm wrong) only the Silverstone case and the Origenae S21T can handle this resolution. Now, since 1080p beamers get cheaper (ok, not really cheap, I know, but the new Sony really looks interesting...), there's only the S21T to supoort this - and this case costs nearly as much as a 720p beamer...

b. UltraMon

To get around this resolution problem, I found this little utility. I didn't try it, yet, but it seems that it can handle different resolutions in clone mode. However, I read somewhere, that it would make it impossible to use the DirectX acceleration of your graphics card, which would make it useless for MP. Can anyone confirm this?

c. Remote Control Interfaces

Finally, if I refrain from displaying the same content on the touch screen and on the beamer, I could make the beamer my primary display (so that it can make use of the DirectX acceleration) and the touch screen my secondary display. MP would only be displayed on the primary display. Then I would launch some kind of remote control software for MP on the same computer and maximize this one on my touch screen.

This software could be the web remote interface for MP, but it seems that it is not very suitable for touch screen use (still something I have to try out...)

Then someone opened a thread (just trying to find it again...) where he wanted to develop some kind of PDA remote control software. This should be usable by a touch screen and would also work on a normal Windows PC.

My last idea would be VNC. Did anyone try to use this on the same machine but on the secondary display? Again something to try out...

[MJGraf]

OK... as I can see, the public interest in touch screen cases is huge ;-)

Anyway I'm gonna finish my overview as soon as I have some more time!

My biggest concern atm is the resolution of the touch screen. Only LC18 is able to display 720p in clone mode. None of the above can display 1080i/p. I know that it doesn't make sense to view the windows desktop in this resolution scaled down to the native resolution. This would just be for cloning MPs interface from the primary display, which would be a beamer in either 720p or 1080p.

Has anyone tried something like this?
http://www.converters.tv/products/co...erters/81.html

Any help appreciated!

[wertzui]

what i think would be interesting is the cheapest price and where to get it.

[bloasfist]

Originally Posted by MJGraf

..
To get around this resolution problem, I found this little utility. I didn't try it, yet, but it seems that it can handle different resolutions in clone mode. However, I read somewhere, that it would make it impossible to use the DirectX acceleration of your graphics card, which would make it useless for MP. Can anyone confirm this?
..

Hi,
I can confirm that there is cloning support in ultramon, but that you'll indeed lose the directx functionality on the cloned display, thereby making it useless for MP.

My situation is that i have a 12.1 inch touch screen. I bought it a couple of years ago (impuls purchase); now i finally found a purpose for it: i'm using it to control mediaportal. Despite the lack of a true touch-screen skin this is working quite ok in cloning mode. I have the luxury that the touch screen can display my LCD-tv's native resolution (1368*768).
However, there are a few problems, so i'm not entirely happy with the situation as is... The following problems pop up in my head right now:

• inability to leave a music visualization (as far as i know it can't be done with mouse right now)
• inability to directly control volume when watching a video (the volume slider is only available in the menu-mode, not in the viewing mode)
• difficulties when accessing items from other than basic home screen (cycling list is hard to control with only a touch screen)
• (minor): unable to 'hover over' buttons.

My conclusion so far: MP has great potential for use with touch screen, but a suitable skin/plugin should be developed. This could be very simple, by adding optional buttons here and there.
Going one step further (and this would be more relevant for you): a plugin/feature which makes overlay cloning possible would be the best solution. Then you could have MP running on your touch screen, and the beamer cloning your overlay (movies). As far as i know, this isn't possible right now.

[MJGraf]

@wertzui: Well this would be the next step after deciding which one to bui ;-) But anyway... I'm not sure if it's allowed in this forum to post prices and links to some resellers. At least on some forums this is not allowed. Can someone give a hint on that?

@bloasfist: No solution for your problems from my side, unforunately. I think you are right that this is not possible atm.

I like the idea of the "optional buttons" done by a plugin. But as you already pointed out, this would not be a solution for the resultion thingy. I would love more a plugin that enables another application (started on the secondary display = touch screen) to control MP without the use of directX. I wouldn't need any fancy graphics on my touchscreen, just the necessary buttons and lists to control what's happening.

Your idea of an overay-clone will unfortunately never be possible - if I got that right - because overlay is not longer used. VMR9 is used which seems to be "state of the art" by letting you mix different sources, etc. I can understand this decision made by the programmers completely, since all these nice things like transparent OSD etc. are only possible with VMR9.

cheers, Michael

[Marcusb]

Hi Bloasfist,
I know this isn't an ideal solution, but I would probably suggest getting a cheap MultiMedia USB Keyboard and then ripping out some of the HID buttons.
For example, you would have the touch screen then under it there would be a small number of buttons. One would be the "Home" button then maybe the volume up and down and any others you think are useful.
Depends on your useage of the touchscreen. If it was wall mounted then this would work well. You do need to be handy with a soldering iron and know your way around keyboard electronics, but it shouldn't take too much just to extend the buttons to nice looking switches mounted under the screen.

As for the original topic, I like the concept but am not ready to implement anything like this yet. That's why I usually just lurk in these type of threads and don't post often.

Cheers,

Marcus.

[MJGraf]

Hi Marcusb,

the I-only-read-these-kind-of-threads-approach is what I have done for quite some time now. Very interesting but in the end I was not able to find all the answers I needed to make a decision. And before I make a decision regarding a > 500€ htpc CASE, I want to be sure that all my questions are answered ;-) The result was this thread...

Any kind of feedback, thoughts, etc. is very welcome!

Cheers, Michael

[dero]

I've got a silver Zalman HD160XT. It's a great case. The fan control and IR-receiver/RC is an OEM of vlsys.co.kr's stuff.

The native resolution of the TFT is imho 800x600. It also works with 1024x768. It can be used as first or second monitor.

About the fan control:

It has 4 fans, two in the rear (for CPU/MB), one at the bottom (for ODD), and one at the left side (for HDD). The two in the rear form channel 1 and the other two channel 2.

It has 2 temperature sensors: one for channel 1 and one for channel 2. They are NOT labelled. You have to warm one by your hand and check which chanell's temperature is increasing to identify them.

The fans are controlled by a piece of software called MPlay-ZINI-HC (MZHC). It's a piece of ****: The MZHC let's you select either fixed speeds for the fans, or you can control them by a CPU-load or a temperature-threshold in the following way:
If temp. is below x °C, switch fans off, if temp. is above x °C, switch fans on to y %. Nothing more. You cannot select any min/max-ranges.

The RC is also managed by MZHC, you can map keys depending on the foreground application to emulate key-events.

I wrote my own fan control and RC-tool (for MP), see Zalman HD160XT remote control with Media portal
or go here!

Regards

dero

[Muschi]

The HD160XT remote control is based on a FTDI component and the driver converts usb <-> serial.
To connect the remote control direcly to Mediaportal you can use the Mediaportal Setup Remote / SerialUIR.

[MJGraf]

Hi Muschi,

Thanks for your info! It seems any of those touch screen cases has one or the other problem... In case of the Zalman it seems to be the fan control and the remote control part.

At the moment I'm heading towards the Origenae S21T. It just looks awsome...

cheers,

Michael