Dvb-s htpc (1 Viewer)

[Towelie_NLD]

Inspired by forums like this I convinced my parents to buy a HTPC with their new full HD television.

Purpose:
- Watch and/or record television (simultaneously)
- Watch photo's
- Listen to music collection
- Watch full HD video in different formats/containers (eg x264)
- Watch DVD & Blu-Ray
- Internet / Email / Google Earth

They are able to use an Windows based computer, so the HTPC will be based on Windows Vista.


HTPC needs to work with:
- Television: Philips 42PFL9803H Full HD
- Soundsystem: Pioneer XV-DV55 5.1 DTS
- Remote: Logitech Harmony 525
- Signal: We both have analog cable signal as well as encrypted DVB-S signal (Caiway in the Netherlands).


Problems:
Vista WMC
With DVB-S the quality is better and it has more channels. My first thought was to use Windows Vista Media Center, however as far as i know it has two disadvantages:
- Poor WMC codec support: they will quite frequently watch downloaded video files
- No official WMC DVB-S support: the only option would be a FloppyDTV&Alphacrypt combination (€250): expansive but a good solution

Solution -> MediaPortal

Double tuner
- Since they want to be able to both record and watch different channels simultaneously it needs a double tuner. The cable company charges €20 for a second smartcard, and a fee of €2/month. This is acceptable. However if I would stick to the WMC + FloppyDTV/Alphacrypt solution that would cost me €500 for just the tuners.

Possible solutions
-> A more affordable combination of a DVB-S tuner with HD & CAM support, which is supported by MediaPortal.
-> A second analog tuner: eg Hauppauge WinTV HVR1100: I expect it will only occur a few times/year when they want to record and watch two different channels. With those occasions they will have to be satisfied with a lower record quality.


Possible hardware setup:
There is no strict budget, they trust that I buy what needs to be bought

Requirements:
- Silent
- Nice looking
- Futureproof

Setup
Casing
Antec Fusion Remote Black
Nice looking, enough space, simple display, IR buildin (MediaPortal compatible?).

Basic Hardware
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-73PVM-S2H
Onboard HDMI and optical spdif
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 boxed
Fast enough to decode 1080p material, fast enough to record/play video simultaneously.
RAM: Kingston ValueRAM KVR800D2N5K2/4G
2x2GB RAM: cheap/normal brand
HDD: Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EADS, 1TB
Big/fast/got some fancy green label or something
Cardreader: Sweex CR005V2 internal card reader all-in-1 USB 2.0 black
Cheap normal multimulti cardreader

HT Equipment
FloppyDTV C/CI
AlphaCrypt Classic
Hauppauge WinTV HVR1100
Sony BDU-X10S BluRay drive


Questions:
Software
- MediaPortal looks good, I love the feature specification, but: how bugfree and -more important- parentproof is it?

Hardware
- C2D platform: i've chosen for a Core2Duo setup, however AMD seems to be competitive with their tripple cores..
- Motherboard: is there a problem with the onboard video, HDMI and spdif support?
- HDD: is there a more silent and/or energy efficient HDD?
- Cooling: is the casing high enough and the processor cool enough for, say, a Scythe passive cooler?
- BluRay drive: is there a better alternative? I'd prefer a BluRay drive which could also burn DVD's.
- TV Tuners: is their a cheaper solution with Mediaportal?
- Is the buildin IR receiver compatible with MP?

 

[iancalderban]

- Watch and/or record television (simultaneously)
- Watch photo's
- Listen to music collection
- Watch full HD video in different formats/containers (eg x264)
- Watch DVD & Blu-Ray
- Internet / Email / Google Earth

exactly what I use my htpc for. To do the same with consumer h/w, is 4 or more boxes. Plus the massive gain of all files being on the same system so interchange of formats is really easy - burn a TV programme to a DVD for use on your portable for example. I believe the HTPC is just coming of age. The complexity makes building it still an enthusiasts game, but once its built, someone who can use a remote can drive it.

Setup
Casing
Antec Fusion Remote Black
Nice looking, enough space, simple display, IR buildin (MediaPortal compatible?).

Basic Hardware
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-73PVM-S2H
Onboard HDMI and optical spdif
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 boxed
Fast enough to decode 1080p material, fast enough to record/play video simultaneously.
RAM: Kingston ValueRAM KVR800D2N5K2/4G
2x2GB RAM: cheap/normal brand
HDD: Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EADS, 1TB
Big/fast/got some fancy green label or something
Cardreader: Sweex CR005V2 internal card reader all-in-1 USB 2.0 black
Cheap normal multimulti cardreader

the antec IMON displays are media portal compatible and give you nice text info of name of track / station/ programme, time played, remaining etc. I tried to use the IR reciever in mine (antec microfusion, so basically the same Imon unit as you are looking at) but really couldn't get on with it. Its a cheap-nasty IR receiver, the
off-axis reception angle is terrible. Budget for an external wide-angle IR receiver, or use an RF solution (what I did).

I can't speak for that mobo as I have gone AMD. However, in general beware of integrated GFX on 1080i material. They all talk about 1080p performance (bluray). But actually, 1080i is harder, which if you are watching HD broadcast TV, is what you get. So look carefully at the de-interlace performance of your integrated GFX. You may need to add a discrete card toi get vector-adaptive or equivalent de-interlace. If it will only do bob, it will look nasty. ATI 4550HD is enough (what I use), and I think nvidia 8500, but don't quote me on the nvidia side.

You might want to build with a 2.5" laptop drive for silence, and put the 3.5" media storage in a NAS in another room (or a server PC if you fancy building them one), that gives you room for more storage expansion too. I am a SPCR enthusiast, I couldn't cope with the noise of the 3.5" drive in my htpc, so now all my media storage sits in a server in my office.

Questions:
Software
- MediaPortal looks good, I love the feature specification, but: how bugfree and -more important- parentproof is it?

after you have spent quite some time testing and debugging the system, and build a system recovery partition to get back to a known stable state, its pretty parent or WAF proof. I cannot over-state the test stage or the use of backups. Sometimes mediaportal will stop working on your and you will not be able to figure out why. Maybe it was a codec, maybe it was a config change. maybe it was nothing at all - I have even had _content_ cause MP to stop working. (this was content that must have recorded badly and was full of errors). So you use your backup. Took me a month to be happy (from no previous experience of MP) with a system that could stand the WAF (and 3 yr old) tests .
Stick to MP1.0 release, and do not use any plugins or fancy features until you have basics working.

Hardware
- C2D platform: i've chosen for a Core2Duo setup, however AMD seems to be competitive with their tripple cores..
- Motherboard: is there a problem with the onboard video, HDMI and spdif support?
- HDD: is there a more silent and/or energy efficient HDD?
- Cooling: is the casing high enough and the processor cool enough for, say, a Scythe passive cooler?
- BluRay drive: is there a better alternative? I'd prefer a BluRay drive which could also burn DVD's.
- TV Tuners: is their a cheaper solution with Mediaportal?
- Is the buildin IR receiver compatible with MP?

answered some of your questions already. Look on SPCR ( silentpcreview.com) for cooling help, more than you will ever need. I think the antec fusion takes the mini-ninja which can be run passive with the right low power cpu. I have no experience with CAM-capable dvb-s, I only watch FTA content, so can't help you there. Blu-ray, I only just started to try myself.

Ian