Ongoing My bedroom HTPC (1 Viewer)

Johnyd

Portal Member
February 11, 2009
30
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Home Country
Im currently on the slow and steady path of upgrading my computer system into a HTPC setup.

Its devloped from my simple HP DV2533tx laptop (which unfortunately wont play 1080p HDDVD, or the mkv rips from them)

The road so far:
Hp dv2533tx laptop (T5450 1.66ghz dual core, 2.5gb ddr2, 160gb 5400rpm, 8400m gs 64mb)
Can not manage to play 1080p HD DVD's or rips of them. Can play high quality 720p rips but not using hardware acceleration which seems to make it worse. Battery life is good enough to stream a complete dvd movie over wireless.

22" Asus MW221u lcd screen (bought before I decided to head towards a HTPC)
Not the best contrast on this screen, terrible "black" looks like an off white.

320gb external hard drive to store movies/music/photos
Xbox 360 HD DVD player
Kenwood HTIB 5.1
Good sound (for my bedroom setup anyway) Cost around $500 at the time I bought them, and sounded better than the Yamaha set that was in the shop at near the same price. The surround speakers seem to need to be set 3 above the rest of the system to be in balance with the rest of the system, and they are the closest to the chair. Once thats set the speakers have good surround and good bass when the sub is turned all the way up using its independant volume control.

Creative Xfi 5.1 usb sound card (laptop wouldnt hook up to kenwood reciever)
It works cant say much else about it. MP3's do sound better when run through its crystaliser feature.
1tb external hard drive (320gb one was full)

The road ahead:
Upgrade to a desktop with large amount of storage and power + TV tuner
Upgrade 22" screen to 32" (cant fit any bigger in my room)
Build some stands for my rear speakers
Do some better cabling so I dont trip over rear speaker wires all the time
 

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