Completed Antec Fusion Black - HTPC finally working perfect (1 Viewer)

[ppeterr]

Just discoverd this topic, and i would like to share a little of my first htpc setup.
I was strugeling with some heating problems, but now thats fixed, i am really satisfied with this setup.
I dont have pictures yet, with the case open. But there are a lot of users, with alike cases,
and hardware like mine - so, ofcourse if anyone would like to see it, or anything not shown
on the pictures - i could show later on.

here we go, what do we see....

actual HTPC

CPU: AMD X2 5000+ Black Edition (Scythe Ninja Mini passive)
MEM: 4GB OCZ DDR2 1000MHz
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H
Graka: 780G igp
HDD: 500GB Samsung T166 x 2 (1tb total)
DVD: Samsung SH-S203
PSU: 480Watt Antec NeoPower
Case: Antec Fusion Black

Screens

50 inch Pioneer plasma (hdmi)
21 inch HP LCD (dvi)

Audio:

Denon AVR 1800 - fed through SPDIFF (in the cabinet)
Chario 5.1 setup (look close next to the htpc to see the mid speaker)

TV
Humax decoder (ziggo) -> to be replaced for or floppydtv or a stand alone humax pvr
- also connected optical to the Denon amp.

Remote:

logitec harmony 785
thrust media center keybord


Oke that was sort of the hardware

Now for the software

Windows Vista Ultimate - ALL updates
Ati catalyst 8.9 + all normal recent gigabyte drivers
Speedfan
Media portal 1.0 (blue3wide)
deamon tools
Imon software (most recent)

Ffdshow tryouts (latest)
Ac3 Filter
CoreAVC/hali
PowerDVD 8.0

Thats it for the software, nothing more, as clean as possible. This plays it all nice and without problems.

I encounterd some heating problems, with the cpu totally passive, so i place a second fan right on the
side of the cpu. This one controlled by speedfan, and runs really slow (around 800rpm), and only
should go faster if the heating would be above 50 degrees (didnt happen yet).
On the attick i have a media server, running on linux, doing download jobs etc, ofcourse this is
networked with the htpc.

So thats it, i am one happy Mediaportal user

 

[drealit]

You have a 780G chipset yet you're not taking advantage of DXVA and using CoreAVC etc. instead?

I had a 5000 BE in my system originally (I now have a BE-2400 oced to 2.8ghz) with a passive Mini Ninja also... my temps were perfectly fine with the 2 fans on the case itself. Are you sure you seated your heatsink correctly?

 

[ppeterr]

Well.. i have only 2 fans, one on the mini ninja, speedfan controlled, and one outtake on the case at slow rpm. And that works oke, keeps it pretty cool.
And yeah your right, for now i dont use dxva, since this works out pretty well. For sure i will retry to get dxva working for me, as soon
as external subtitels work oke with that. (there is a threath running at this forum with mpcht + dxva + subs).

ps: at start, i used only the casefan, and yes that was almost good enough - but that was with the htpc on top of my cabinet, since i
wanted it inside the cabinet (or at least, underneeth the glass) - i placed the controlled fan, on the most left side of the ninja.

 

[drealit]

Somebody correct me if I'm wrong... doesn't the MPC HC Video Decoder do DXVA and work with media that has subtitle tracks (mkv for example)? I never bothered figuring out subs since I usually don't need them (American and I don't find many foreign films I'd want to watch... the ones I do want to watch I manually burn the subs in to avoid the hassle). I could have sworn I read somewhere that due to EVR (i think... not positive on this) it is now possible to have dxva and subs at the same time.

 

[ppeterr]

The mkv's we watch overhere, almost all have external srt subtitels, as i understand mpc filters dont use dxva with externals (for now)

 

[flintstone99]

Kontratulation and question

Hi ppeterr,

I have a quite similar HW setup, especially the keyboard and a logitech remote (This one is a 555 in my case however)
two questions:
- did you get the media keys to work, those right from the star (monitor picture button, disc, music note and "i") and if yes, how did you do?

- How did you program the remote??? I have almost given up on that...

thanks in advance
flintstone

 

[ppeterr]

Hi ppeterr,

I have a quite similar HW setup, especially the keyboard and a logitech remote (This one is a 555 in my case however)
two questions:
- did you get the media keys to work, those right from the star (monitor picture button, disc, music note and "i") and if yes, how did you do?

- How did you program the remote??? I have almost given up on that...

thanks in advance
flintstone

* the keyboard, is just for setting up and config - so didnt give any attention to the extra media keys etc

* about the remote, since i dont use the tv options, i got it pretty basic working. So this is how (might be helpfull)

- take from the logitech database the pre configured "mediaportal" settings, and upload this to your remote
- install most recent Imon software
- add mediaportal.exe as a windows program in the imon software
- Load (can be found anywhere(but also attached)) mediaportal.imo as configuration for the newly added exe
- check all settings needed in this configuration, and change to MCE remote for the things needed
and if needed, re assign to a useable button on your harmony.

Missing functions can be easy be added through the macro function in the Imon software.
Just assign any keyboard shurtcut to a unused remote button.
I made a macro, for the topmenu with settings for subtitle/lang etc, emulating a mouse click,
and assigned it to "blue" - but this could be anything.

I hope it helps you - good luck