Ongoing First HTPC build (1 Viewer)

PistolPete

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January 29, 2009
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Hi All,


I thought as my first post I'd let you know about my first HTPC build!

I've been building PC's since I don't know when but I've never built a HTPC so I decided to give one a crack to
go underneath my Sony KDL-32V4000.

It's going OK, slowly getting there but I have a long way to go and a fair bit to learn - hopefully you guys will point me in the right directions!!

Aim:

Well, what do I need a HTPC for? I needed a few things:

1) Playback of my massive DVD collection - I have 600+ titles on 800+ discs and I want them to be available on the network. They will slowly be added in whatever format, either ISO or VIDEO_TS to my server that resides in the loft.
2) Playback of 720p MKVs.
3) Playback of Bluray / DVDs
4) Recording and playback of DVB-T
5) Music every once in a while.

I managed to get hold of an Antec Fusion Remote case, and I had a Gigabyte GA-73PVM-S2H board going spare.
I purchased an E5200 CPU and 2x1GB of OCZ Platinum DDR2-6400 RAM. OS is a new copy of Vista Ultimate x64.
As teh board has HDMI and I guess that the E5200 should do 720p fine I've not gone for a PCI-e graphics card.
I've never used Vista before, never had x64 before and never done a HTPC before...... it's gonna be fun!

I was originally planning on just using Media Centre, but to be fair to MS it's a bit pants, and most people were recommending MP so I got that.

I've initially built the OS on a 1TB Western Digital Green Power drive, creating a 50Gb partition and the rest as storage. I've rapidly come to conclusion that I'm not going to need that much storage in the HTPC as it's all going on the RAID5 upstairs. I may pull that drive and add that to the RAID5 (all the others drives in the RAID5 so far are WD 1TB Greens too) and put in a smaller drive but I'd like some feedback on that from others. Whilst streaming it's fine, but will that be OK when I start recording DVB-T? Network is gigabit, and I've got CAT6 running from the switch to the HTPC and pulling files from the server to the HTPC it peaking at around 500mbs so I'm guessing that would be enough. Also, just having a smaller drive backs backing up the system a lot easier.:D

Vista went on smoothly after some hassles with teh system not powering up correctly. I found that one stick of the OCZ was duff. I've replaced the 2Gb of OCZ Platinum 6400 with 4Gb of OCZ Gold 6400 and it's been fine since.
I've installed the K-Lite Mega codec pack as I've alway done for MKV playback. I've been reading that this is not an ideal situation, so I may have to revise that.

I've discovered very rapidly that the LCD on the case is pretty naff and the remote is not so hot.
I'd like to get them functioning properly if I can, but I'm not holding out much hope.

I've installed Media Portal and initially I've got it working sweet with MKVs. I've started to work out the best way to work with the DVD images - I could not get ISO's working with Daemon Tools, and I've not getting the VIDEO_TS folders working quite right with the IMDB bit - it's not showing the coverat as I would expect.

I've yet to get the Bluray drive, so I've not tested Bluray or DVD disk playback yet.... and I've yet to add the DVB-T card.

Overall, it's a little bit of a struggle but I'm getting there slowly. :D
 

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