New guy... my HTPC build

[MegaHurtz]

Hi all,

First time poster here. I figured my first thread should be about myself and my HTPC setup.

A brief history:

I've lived in my current house for just over a month. I'm renting a lower suite from landlords who don't have any cable or DBS service. Faced with the possibility of having to pay for cable every month (after having satellite included at my previous place), I wondered if it was even necessary. I had a PC with a couple hundred movies and a few TV shows stored on it that I never used, since buying a laptop a few months prior. I thought it would be a fun project to find some good HTPC software to play with.

After looking around for a couple of weeks, I stumbled upon MediaPortal and knew that it was exactly what I wanted. Since then, I've spent countless hours playing around with it, adding plugins and skins, programming my remote and so forth. I am to the point now where the PC is nearly 100% dedicated to MediaPortal.

My setup:

It's hard to know where to start... the PC is nothing out of the ordinary, running an Opteron 170, 2gb RAM, 4 hard drives (250gb, 250gb, 500gb and 1000gb), 7900GTX 512MB video card and Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty. The case is still a regular desktop case, although if I stick with this project, it may turn into a nice HTPC case in the future.

The main display is a Westinghouse TX-47F430S 47" 1080p LCD. I find it to be a very nice TV, like most sets, it's not without it's quirks and little issues, but overall I'm very happy with it. Lots of customization, 4 HDMI in and a really nice look. The secondary display is a Dell Ultrasharp 2005FPW 20" LCD. It doesn't do much these days, as I normally use pcAnywhere when I need to be at the console.

For sound, I am running an Onkyo TX-SR705 receiver. Those who know it, know it. 3 HDMI 1.3a in, support for TrueHD, DTS-HD MA and so forth. It is probably my favorite piece of equipment in my setup. The speakers are all Wharfedale Diamond series, with CS center, 9.5 mains, 9.0 rears and SW 150 sub. These are some killer speakers, I highly recommend checking them out if you can find them.

Additionally, and not part of the home theater setup, I have a Sony PS3 for gaming and Blu-ray, and a Toshiba HD-A35 HD DVD player, which seem to be collecting a lot of dust in the wake of this new project. I use a Logitech Harmony 880 to control the entire system, including MediaPortal via the IR reciever on my Hauppauge TV card. Everything is connected via HDMI and all the network is hardwired with CAT5.

Pictures:

I will have to post some pictures of the HTPC in action later, as I am currently working on cataloging my movies, so I am not running MediaPortal right now.

A view from the back of the living room, showing the business end of the setup. Almost all of my equipment is shown in this picture. The HTPC is on the floor between the desk and left main tower, towards the left side of the pic.



Alternate view of my living room. Gives you a better idea of the layout. That big comfy couch towards the back wall is where my butt is firmly planted for hours on end.



The receiver, HD DVD, center channel and PS3. That mess of wires in the back is driving me nuts, putting it together when I moved in was a rush job and I haven't yet had the time to get back in there and fix it. Notice the receiver sitting on 4 coasters to keep it from sitting directly on the carpet.



The left rear speaker, on a stand, hiding in the corner behind my chair.



The right rear, on the other side of the room. I'd kill to have a way to hide that speaker wire.



I had to install raceway in front of the fireplace in order to hide the wire. It seemed like the easiest and most practical solution. It was very easy to install and I am really happy with how well it blends in.

[takagari]

very Pretty setup ryan.
Now i know what I must do to out do you