Completed HTPC Build - Antec Fusion 430 (Black) (3 Viewers)

[armandp]

My HTPC Build Experience Log

When i started the original topic about one year ago i didn't anticipate the fact that the building/tweaking never ends. So in time this topic turned into an experience log and i'll try to keep this updated whenever i decide to make some changes. THe reason is so i have a good overview of how to reconfigure the system and in turn help other users with their setup. It's not only good to know how stuff is setup but also WHY stuff is setup so i'll try to explain the changes also.

Below you can find the general changelog. All sub sections of this huge post have dates also (to mark when they were updated).

Latest updates:

• (11-04-2009) Update to 1.0.1 + MPC Subs + For The Record 1.3.3.3
• (04-04-2009) Update to SVN 22162 + MPC Subs + For The Record 1.3.3.3
• (23-03-2009) Updated codec setup including the new Cyberlink (PowerDVD9) codecs
• (23-03-2009) Updated new remote control setup
• (30-12-2008) Installed dedicated videocard (passive!)
• (27-12-2008) Reinstalled OS - Back to Vista Ultimate 32-bit because of weird permission problems with 32-bit applications.
• (03-11-2008) Using MediaPortal RC3 SVN Builds again
• (20-10-2008) Reinstalled OS - Now using Vista Ultimate 64-bit
• (07-07-2008) Changed CPU from BE-2400 to 4850e
• (07-07-2008) Moved TV card (Digital Everywhere DVB-C FloppyDTV + AlphaCrypt) to WHS (also dedicated TVServer)

History

The solutions i've used before ...

- KISS DP-500 (one of the first standalone xvid/divx players/streamers)
- XBOX Softmod with XBMC (still kicks ass but no HD playback and DTV)
- Popcorn Hour A-100 (superb budget hd streamer but lacks GUI and DTV)

Requirements

My wishlist before i selected the hardware...

• Silent / Passive cooling / Energy efficient
• Watch digital (HD)TV and stream it over network
• Play 1080p&720p content - HDDVD/Bluray, x264 (both 5- and standard 4.1 profile)
• Hardware acceleration for video
• IR/Remote
• Casing fits surroundings (special mediacenter casing)
• HDMI (+audio)
• Digital optical out (raw)

Hardware (07-07-2008)

Thé solution for me as of today ...

Case: Antec Fusion 430 Black (demo)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H (mATX)
CPU: AMD Athlon X2 Dual-Core 4850e (ADH4850DOBOX) *
Videocard: Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD4550 (GV-R455D3-512I)
Cooling: Scythe Ninja Mini (Fanless)
Memory: OCZ DDR2 PC2-6400 Vista Performance Platinum 4GB Dual Channel
Harddisk: Samsung SpinPoint T166, 500GB (7200rpm, SATA II, 16MB, NCQ)
DVD-r/w: Samsung SH-S203B, OEM, Black
Keyboard: Media-Tech Rimini

Connectivity

My existing setup and how my HTPC is connected to it...

Display: Philips widescreen flat TV 37PF3321 37" LCD HD Ready with Crystal Clear III (ATI Radeon 4550 HDMI)
Receiver: Onkyo TX-SR606(Integrated SPDIF Optical Out / ATI Radeon 4550 HDMI)
Remote: Logitech Harmony 525 (IR)
DVB-C Provider: Casema DTV with SD/HD channels (FloppyDTV/AlphaCrypt using smartcard)
Network: Local network (including internet) connected to a WHS with TVServer (Integrated NIC)

Assembling

Some pictures of the build process are attached below.

Important notes:

• The case comes with only one pair of satapower connectors which are too short to reach both hdd and optical. To hook up both you need an extra molex/satapower connector.
• If you want to use a remote to power on/off your system, you have to connect the IR/LCD unit like explained here. For easy assembling i recommend doing this right after you fitted the motherboard into the case and before you connect anything else to the motherboard.

OS/Hardware Configuration

How i configured my HTPC ...

Bios (30-12-2008)

Version: F6 (GA-MA78GM-S2H)
Primary Display: HDMI
ACPI Suspend Type: S3(STR)
Very fast resume from suspend (3 seconds!), and case leds and fans will be off in suspended state.

OS & Drivers (23-03-2009)

OS: Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit + SP1 + latest critical updates
Chipset: Latest for GA-MA78GM-S2H (installed before ATI and Realtek driver update)
Audio: Realtek HD drivers 2.03 (ATI Radeon HD4550)
Video: Catalyst 9.3 Drivers (ATI Radeon HD4550)
LCD/IR: SoundGraph iMON 7.40.x (for IR and LCD, I removed the supplied drivers that came from Antec)

Other OS configurations (03-01-2009)

• Allow USB HID device for Trust Media Keyboard to wake the pc from standby (together with ACPI bios setting)
  Device Manager -> HID -> "Device" -> Properties -> Power Control tab
• Aero enabled (i can confirm better video quality when using EVR)

Partitions (27-12-2008)

1x 500GB HDD

1. VistaOS (100GB, OS and all other software goes here)
2. Pagefile (10GB, minimize fragmentation of the pagefile)
3. Data (390GB, some databases, media files, recordings and other non-installable resources)

Display and graphics

connected through HDMI

CCC:

Resolution: 1280x720
Default Refresh Rate: 50Hz (because of TV = PAL in my region)
Pixel Format: RGB 4:4:4 Full Levels (not sure about this, might try other stuff later, found this topic where they are discussing these settings)
Deinterlacing: Auto

note: If you disable Aero in Vista you get more deinterlacing options for the onboard HD3200 but you'll probably introduce tearing when using EVR. With the new dedicated HD4550 i don't ahve to worry about this anymore

Other tweaks:

• Disabled ATI Hotkey service (messes with CnQ and can cause HDMI desync)
• Disabled CCC on startup (driver is active but no loading of CCC)

Codecs (23-03-2009)

• AC3Filter 1.51a
• MPC Video Decoder v1.2.1004.0
• MPC Audio Decoder v1.2.1004.0 (only as middleman for formats that AC3Filter doesn't support like AAC)
• Haali Mediasplitter
• CyberLink Video/SP Decoder (PDVD9)
• CyberLink AVC/H264 Decoder (PDVD9)

I opted for a clean system so i have installed the above codecs manually. I made a Codecs folder on my D: drive and only dropped in the filters i need (see list above) into this folder (D:\Codecs). I registered the codecs using Radlight Filter Manager, but a tool like MONOGRAM Graphstudio (which i use to troubleshoot codec problems) will work also. As you might noticed it's not needed to copy the filters to the system32 directory. So now i have all my filters in one place and I'M in control myself.

The only challenge i had was with the new Cyberlink PowerDVD 9 codecs. These filters are imho the best filters out there for watching SD and HDTDV (best PQ) but they would require PowerDVD to be installed. I don't like that because i won't be using PowerDVD at all. The solution to this is again to install it (either on the same PC or another PC)and grab all the filtes from the Cyberlink/PowerDVD/VideoFilter folder. I made a subfolder in my D:\Codecs\ folder called "Cyberlink" and copied all the filters from the VideoFilter folder. The only filters to register are the CL264dec.ax (HD) and CLVSD.ax (SD) filter. Why did you copy all filters then you might ask.. well that's because the H264 filter needs the extra dll's in that folder and because i couldn't figure out exactly which one of these files are actually required i just copied them all (I will look into this later).

Important: The CL264dec.ax will ONLY work outside of PowerDVD if it's the PowerDVD9 Deluxe version (Ultra will NOT work).

I also did a registry change to make EVR the default video renderer used instead of VMR. I will go into details about this later.
Because mediaportal already picks EVR if you choose it it does not matter if you don't ahve this etup but the reason i did it anyway was to have Graphstudio always pick EVR instead of VMR.

TV Server (04-04-2009)

My setup officialy became multi-seat when I moved the FloppyDTV to my newly installed Windows Home Server. Setting up TV Server on my WHS was like a midsummer breeze and after importing my channels and setting the new tsbuffer/recordings disks i was ready to go. MediaPortal warns me about the fact that the OS isn't officially supported but I have absolutely NO issues to report at this time - it just works!

Version: 1.0.1
SVN: ...
Plugins:

• For The Record

EPG data is controlled by For The Record. I grab XMLTV data using MC2XML (7 days) which get overwritten by DVB EPG data (2 days) that is grabbed by TV Server so that i always have a detailed week guide.
The 4TR web interface also enables me to schedule recordings and/or view the guide from anywhere.

I have also setup a complete directory of TV channel logo's for my DVB provider (Ziggo - Casema NL).

MediaPortal Configurationn (04-04-2009)

Version: 1.0.1 (TV server located on dedicated WHS server)
SVN: ...
Custom: MPC-HC Subtitle Engine (Subtitles + DXVA!)
Skin: StreamedMP (or Blue3Wide depending on updates)
Plugins:

• MiniDisplay (for the LCD)
• Shortcut'er (to add some missing actions to my remote)
• For The Record (replaces the TV Server Client plugin)
• MP-TVSeries 2.2.3361
• Moving Pictures 0.8.0.* (Developer Build)
• My Trailers 2.0.2 (Developer Build)
• TV Gemist 2.3

Whenever i install a new SVN update for MediaPortal i have to compile a new version of the For The Record TV Client plugin. This is actually just an empty dummy file with an assembly version that needs to be the same as the SVN version.

Remote Control Configuration (IMON + Logitech Harmony 525): (23-03-2009)

For now i will not go into step-by-step detail for setting this up (i will probably make a tutorial later) but there are 3 elements in this configuration that needs to be setup:

1. The actual remote, in my case the Logitech Harmony 525
2. The IR receiver, this is an IMON device that came with the Antec Fusion case.
3. MediaPortal

To start with of with the Logitech remote, setting it up is very straightforward. Using the harmony setup software you can load pretty much any existing IR remote profile in the harmony. To keep it simple i choose to set it up as a default MCE remote.

With the harmony setup as MCE i proceeded to the IMON Manager. You can download the latest IMON manager from SoundGraph. I believe you can download version 7.20 but the actual latest you will receive when updating it after installing 7.20 using the IMON updater. You will end up with 7.40. In the IMON manager i once again set the remote as a MCE (as my harmony will mimic an MCE remote). I added MediaPortal.exe as a new program to IMON Manager and after this i mapped the common MCE buttons to keystrokes. For instance i mapped the MCE Play button to the keystroke "P" and the MCE Stop button to "B".
it helps when you print a list of the default mediaportal keys before you do this, it shouldn't be much work. There are some keys you should leave mapped only under Windows Commands: UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT, ENTER and ESC i have mapped these to the MCE buttons: UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT, OK AND BACK respectively.

Now when the buttons are mapped to the correct keys we are left with some special commands like "LiveTV, My Videos" etc... by default mediaportal does not have keys for this and we need a special plugin like Shortcut'er to get what we want. After installing this plugin we can setup new keys (or key combo's) to get to sections of mediaportal. I choose to setup CTRL+SHIFT+<KEY> combinations for the missing stuff like LiveTV. Going back to the IMON manager and mapped the correct key combinations to the actual MCE buttons and voila.. fully working remote!

Related resources:

* iMON Remotes mapping for MediaPortal
* Help with iMON, Minidisplay and RM200 remote setup for Antec Veris Max case

in the past i've been using IR Server Suite but recently i discovered setting it up this way is much cleaner.

TV Crop settings: (27-4-2008)

Because i don't have any overscan (PC Mode on my TVdisables that) on my HTPC output i need to crop the TV image that FloppyDTV is giving me to ensure i don't get to see, what i believe is called VBI, on some SD channels (ea. NGC).

I have set the following settings from within MediaPortal, TV -> (info) Crop settings: top,left,right: 10 bottom: 0

Video Codec Configuration: (15-03-2009)

TV

• MPEG2: Cyberlink Video/SP Decoder (PDVD9)
• H264: Cyberlink PDVD8 AVC/H264 Video/SP Decoder
• AUDIO: MPC Audio Decoder
• Postprocessing Filter #1: AC3Filter

DVD

• NAVIGATOR: DVD Navigator (default)
• VIDEO: Cyberlink Video/SP Decoder (PDVD9)
• AUDIO: MPC Audio Decoder
• Postprocessing Filter #1: AC3Filter

Video

• MPEG2: MPC Video Decoder
• H264: MPC Video Decoder
• AUDIO: MPC Audio Decoder
• Postprocessing Filter #1: AC3Filter

Because i have AC3Filter as postprocessing filter all sounds will be handled by AC3Filter. The MPC Audio Decoder only acts as middle-man if AC3Filter can't decode the content. This happens with some Apple Trailers using AAC , MPC connects between Haali and AC3Filter to do the AAC decoding. When not in use the MPC Audio Decoder is in the graph but is passive (not connected).

Issues

Flickering overlay with EVR
This is really a bug in the MP software so i can't solve this yet. I did notice that it's most noticable when watching interlaced content (like TV) and more noticable when using fancy skins like StreamedMP compared to Blue3 Wide in which it is almost unnoticable

Overclock settings (Deprecated - Based on initial hardware - CPU: BE-2400)

To let the @5.1 profile 1080p play flawlessly without hardware acceleration (software decoding) i took a chance and overclocked the BE-2400. With my current setup (Scythe Ninja+ 2x 120mm TriCool of Antec) the system seems pretty much stable.

FSB: 244 Mhz (200=default + 44)
Multiplier: 11.5x (default)

I will take note of my system's stability during the next few days with these new settings. Sofar looks promising!

Result: 2x 2.8Ghz (~5600+)

Performance (07-07-2008)

Bluray: smooth playback (hardware acceleration - DXVA)
x264 1080/720p @ 4.1 : smooth playback (hardware acceleration - DXVA)
x264 1080/720p @ 5.1 : smooth playback (software decoding - CoreAVC or PowerDVD HD codec)

Read more about why i also want to be able to use software decoding in this thread on the AVS forums: x264 Encoding Options for Hardware Compatibility & DXVA - AVS Forum

23-04-2008: Another reason to want to have software decoding support is the fact that currently if I want to use subtitles (DirectVobSub), DXVA get's disabled. I have read in another topic that Media Player Classic has a custom EVR method to use subtitles and DXVA so I think it's a matter of time before this will also be possible with other players (MP internal).

Cooling & Temperatures

The airflow "design" of the Antec case is quite nice as shown below and helps keep the temperature low.

using the supplied air guide extensions you can redirect the flow over your cpu. So i set this up also.
See image below

The northbridge on this motherboard becomes quite "hot" but this seems to be normal.
To be safe i have decided to buy a special northbridge cooler (see wishlist). Will update these results when i put it in the case.

Idle (Based on old hardware - CPU: BE-2400)

( AMD Cool&Quiet is enabled )

System: ~29
CPU: ~23
Northbridge: 81?

Full Load (15 minutes)

System: ~30
CPU: ~38
NorthBridge: 84?

Full Load (15 minutes) (27-05-2008)

Hot weather + a/v cabinet door closed (high room temperature)

System: ~40
CPU: ~50
NorthBridge: 87

TODO / Wishlist

Hardware and/or configuration i want to change or am planning to in the near future.

Configuration:

Planned additions/changes: (27-12-2008)

• Bluray drive (when the price is right - still waiting no rush really )
• HDMI 1.3 Soundcard that supports bitstream for DTS-HD MA / Dolby TrueHD:
  ([Xonar HDAV 1.3 or Auzentech X-Fi HomeTheater HD
• IMON IR connection with PWR ON/OFF connector (view)

Nice to have: (07-07-2008)

• Extra FloppyDTV + AlphaCrypt cam to fully support viewing/recording at the same time
• SmartWi (SmartWi® Multi Room Solution. Products) (if i get the extra tvcard)

Pictures

I attached some more pictures of my setup to the post:

- The keyboard (with broken scroll wheel that is, did not take a picture earlier) and the logitech remote.
- My current setup - which is gonna be changed really soon.. the case is on the floor for now because it didn't fit the cabinets (which i'm gonna replace by just one new, yet to discover, cabinet).
- a close-up of my MP start screen (not very interesting)

Blog

I have started a blog about my experiences on the following location: Project HoME. The entries that were previously located here are now moved to the dedicated blog.

 

[BennieBoy]

Hi,

Just like to know.
How are the Temps doing with the passive cooling and therefore, little airflow over the mainboard?

Nice setup, success,
Ben

 

[funkstar]

Looks good. I'm surprised that monster cooler fints in there!

I've just built a Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H based system with a BE-2450 in a Silverstone LC19 case.

I used a Akasa low profile cooler and it is completely silent as far as I can tell. I haven't had any heat issues although I haven't tried decoding HD footage yet.

 

[armandp]

Looks good. I'm surprised that monster cooler fints in there!

The antec case seems to be a perfect fit for the nijna. I think there's 5-10mm space left between the top of the cooler and the case-deck.

Well, the system stays pretty cool because my living room is well ventilated. But to be on the safe side i recently hooked up the two case fans (that come with the Antec Fusion) and put them on LOW to see what the noise would be and it's still very silent so i decided to keep them on. I will do some temperature tests when i have the time, putting some load on the cpu and mb with fans on/off.

currently occupied with making the htpc software "girlfriend"-friendly

 

[Swooosh]

I'm going to build about the same system (see Hd-htpc - 750€ - Forum de Luxx.
So what about the temperatures? How quiet is your system?

 

[armandp]

With the two case fans off you don't hear a thing (the only fan running then is the psu that comes with the case and it's very very quite). If i put the two case fans on and set them to LOW it's still quiet and only audible if you focus on it.
I decided to let these case fans on to create some "active" airflow and keep my cpu/mb cool, the summer is coming and my living room tends to warm up quite a bit then and i don't want to fry my components although they seem to cope quite nice without the case fans.. better safe than sorry right I will do some HD or 3D tests to stress the system to see what the temperature does (with fans on/off)

Oke first simple report about the temperatures. System has been running pretty much all day (for 8 hours). MediaPortal with TVServer running and watching tv. (Case fans on LOW)

System: 34 degrees celcius
CPU: 27 degrees celcius

 

[Ur[s]uS]

interesting, just had a very similar setup made for me

the two main differences, for ref:
- 9600 gpu, with zalman cooling, for light gaming and HD movies
- pioneer 202-bk brd, for blu-ray playback

antec case is alot bigger than i imagined (i could have measured, i know) - but does look very well in living room
the volume knob is nice looking, but wasted space with spdif out to sound system
the mini ninja and (for me, zalman on the gpu) are very effective, it's whisper quiet
i'm vista home premium and getting comfortable with the changes from xp and my old mce setup

having moved plugins around on mp and using xface (my current favourite skin), including changing the picture inset for the mypictures logo to a pic of my wife and i, the setup is starting to take shape for wife acceptance
but am not too pleased with the out-of-the-box ir experience, have not yet setup my harmony to work nice with it
using accuratus toughball for keyboard, it's pretty nice with the red trackball in top right, so far am happy
but that's not as wife friendly

will sub this thread and keep an eye on your next move for ideas !!

 

[armandp]

I agree on the IR experience. Still waiting for the IR Server Suite and/or CybrDisplay plugin to fully get along with the IMON hardware (LCD/IR) but i can use the Harmony (in combination with a custom imon manager setting) for the most basic stuff (no full MCE remote button mapping yet though, but Cybr is close).

Also i have to "rewire" the LCD to the mainboard to use power on/off with the remote but there for i need to open the lcd unit as decribed here.

Dunno how the IMON plugins turn out but i would like to map the volume knob to NEXT/PREVIOUS in a audio/video playlist or something (prev/next in slidehow for pictures and prev/next channel when watching tv). Also using SPDIF so volume control is pretty useless.

 

[Ur[s]uS]

I agree on the IR experience. Still waiting for the IR Server Suite and/or CybrDisplay plugin to fully get along with the IMON hardware (LCD/IR) but i can use the Harmony (in combination with a custom imon manager setting) for the most basic stuff (no full MCE remote button mapping yet though, but Cybr is close).

Also i have to "rewire" the LCD to the mainboard to use power on/off with the remote but there for i need to open the lcd unit as decribed here.

Dunno how the IMON plugins turn out but i would like to map the volume knob to NEXT/PREVIOUS in a audio/video playlist or something (prev/next in slidehow for pictures and prev/next channel when watching tv). Also using SPDIF so volume control is pretty useless.

yes - cybrdisplay has me ok so far, but it's something i'll be looing into when i get time
like, i want Prev to act like escape key not backspace key
i want play, fwd, rew etc. to do what i expect ... if you figure all that out, please do share in this post !

 

[cybrmage]

Still waiting for the IR Server Suite and/or CybrDisplay plugin to fully get along with the IMON hardware

Rather than WAITING.... why don't you HELP OUT!!!

The more feedback I get, the faster the support will be completed.... I've had 3 people provide feedback for the test versions I have provided...

i would like to map the volume knob

i want Prev to act like ....

if you figure all that out, please do share in this post !

If you want specific features, then you nedd to PARTICIPATE!!!

I'm not a mind reader.... without feedback, you get the feature that I think are important.....

I'm glad that the CybrDisplay plugin works for you.... If you appreciate the work that has gone into making it, show your appreciation by helping to make it better....