Completed LC10M Show and tell (1 Viewer)

[Mew]

After trying out various versions of MediaPortal (since October 2006) and then TV Server and MediaPortal I have recently completed (well for now anyway) construction of my first purpose built HTPC using a Silverstone LC10M case.

It is running TV Server and MediaPortal on Windows XP Pro SP2 as a Single Seat installation.

I have added full details and further pictures in the Home Theatre Showroom section of the Wiki.

http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/HomeTheatre_showroom/Mew


I would like to say that I really appreciate the work of the developers, testers and designers who have made MediaPortal the excellent product it is today.
I would also like to thank all the people who post on the very active forum boards, as without their questions and answers it would have been very difficult to have solved the various problems I encountered during the installation.

 

[dm15644]

Nice one! How much noise do these two fans in the back produce? Maybe it doesn't matter when you have the doors of the cabinet closed.

Why are you feeding your TV through composite? It looks like a decent TV which should have S-Video input and your video card has S-Video output. This should give better picture quality than composite and is fairly simple to archive. Just get an S-Video or S-Video-to-Scart cable, depending on your TV's S-Video connector.

/jayrock

 

[Mew]

Jayrock

Thanks for your comments.

The fans that came with the case did make too much noise. I have replaced the rear 60mm fans and the front 92mm one with AcoustiFan dustproof fans. The only noise I can now hear from them is the whooshing of the moving air (especially from the front fan) rather than motor noise. I originally fitted in-line resistors to lower the voltage but I was concerned about heat levels inside the case after fitting the Asus EN8500GT. The heatsink of this does get quite hot. I will have to monitor and replace them if I am able.

The main motor noise I could hear was the stock Intel CPU cooler, but I replaced this yesterday with the Zalman CNPS8000. I had to get fairly low profile as there is only 100-110mm above the CPU. I turned the included FanMate2 down to the point I could not hear the fan motor. However after the HTPC was on for 3 hours last night when I checked the CPU temperature in the BIOS of the CPU it was 57.5oC which is rather too close for my liking to the 60oC maximum temperature Intel specifies (the board temperature was only 39oC though). I will have to adjust the speed up a little which will increase noise but help my piece of mind. It doesn't help that I have had to turn of hardware acceleration on the Asus EN8500GT because otherwise video stutters after resuming from hibernation. Hopefully the new Nvidia drivers due sometime in June will reslove this.

I am aware it would be better to feed the TV directly through SVHS. The TV has a SVHS input but unfortunately it is at the front. This means I would have to have a cable running from the back of the PC round to the front of the TV, have the drop down flap of the TV open and the cable sticking out. Now I wouldn’t particularly worry about this but the wife would not be impressed, so it is not going to happen. I guess we have to live with compromises sometimes.

The PC is connected to the TV (via the VCR through socket unfortunately) using Scart. Neither this socket nor either of the 2 on the TV (which currently have the VCR and DVD connected until I can safely retire one) will properly take a SVHS signal (the picture is black and white which is a limitation of the sockets). I therefore had to stick a SVHS to composite convertor on the end of the SVHS lead from the graphics card and plug this into the Scart convertor. I understand a company in America makes a SVHS to Scart convertor that doesn’t have this problem so I may buy in one of these in the future. It would be a lot easier with a flat panel but as the TV works fine I can’t justify that replacing it at present.

Saying all of that , as building the HTPC means we now have digital TV the picture quality is noticeably better than the analogue we otherwise have so still a good result.

 

[dm15644]

Jayrock

The PC is connected to the TV (via the VCR through socket unfortunately) using Scart. Neither this socket nor either of the 2 on the TV (which currently have the VCR and DVD connected until I can safely retire one) will properly take a SVHS signal (the picture is black and white which is a limitation of the sockets).

Hi again,

what's your TV model? Have you tried if toggling the inputs on your Sony TV does cycle the inputs through different modes? I had two scart inputs on my Sony KV28 and after just one press on the input the second Scart would go to Composite. I had to press two times to get it to S-Video.

/jayrock

 

[Mew]

Hi Jayrock

Thanks for your excellent advice.

The TV sounds the same (or very similar) to the one you had. It is a Sony KV-28WS2U and I dug the manual out. The right hand Scart socket does indeed cycle from normal video to SVHS. So the first time it switches it is composite and black and white and on the second press, colour. I can ditch a phono to phono lead and the SVHS to composite adapter which is great.

I have plugged the Sony DVD player into the pass through on the SVHS/Composite to Scart adapter and it is still working as before. Strictly speaking I could remove the Sony DVD player but as I tend to mess up the HTPC every once in a while when trying to “improve” it I shall leave there for the moment.

I have updated my HTPC Wiki details to reflect the change.