Ongoing First HTPC - shuttle based (1 Viewer)

[r2vape]

Hey Everyone,

This software is excellent.

I had borrowed from work a Shuttle S32G2 to test this functionality with and was so impressed I have ordered my own hardware.

It was basic speed hardware but proved it worked.

core2duo 1.8ghz, 1gig ram, vga out, intel onboard graphics, GMA3100?

This played 1080P mkv content wonderfully. No skipping or stuttering. However, i could only use stereo audio out


Hardware purchased:

Dual Hybrid S2 pci-e card from DigitalNow - tested and fully supported by MediaPortal
Microsoft Media Center keyboard and iR remote - tested and fully supported (I use a Harmony 728 to emulate the remote)
Shuttle S33G5 - 1gig ram, windows xp, core2duo 2.4ghz, dvd burner, optical out/sp-dif out, HDMI...
640gig WD hdd (the new 2 platter drive)

This HTPC will also be used for Ultrastar (open source Singstar clone) and that is the reason for the keyboard.

After playing with the test equipment, browsing the web from the couch is so much fun - for my wife. I get to continue playing games instead of alt-tabbing for the banking or something

I am so impressed with the progress of HTPCs in general I wonder why i never got into it sooner.

One remote.

One device.

One set of cabling to the tv and amp.

So neat and tidy.

XP Media center does not compare to what MediaPortal can do.

Anyway, I will update you when the hardware gets here and i can install it!

 

[r2vape]

Well - hdmi AND the pci-ex slot cannot be used at the same time.

Even when a tuner card is in the slot - not gfx.

There are jumpers on the mobo that select either the slot, or hdmi - not both.

Purchased Hauppauge NovaT 500 for the PCI slot and works well, got it up and running but HD tv is a little blurry during movement. Working on codecs with ffdshow to see what is going on there.

Updated to RC2 - very nice but somehow i got the pc hung when checking tv while recording. Now corrupt sql database haha. Last night tried uninstalling and reinstalling with Mysql and it would not create database failed to create during install.

Will be formatting and re-doing windows tonight from scratch.