Newbie Needs Assitance Building A HTPC For Australian Use! (3 Viewers)

[Maz78]

Hi All!

I've checked through some of the forum posts and have found some great information, now before everyone tells me to "Use the search button"! LOL, I just wanted to ask a few questions that are more specific to my needs and region.

Firstly, I am a PC savvy individual, but am new to the whole HTPC "thing". Basically, here are my requests / requirements for my HTPC:

* Be able to watch / record HDTV in PAL. "No need for dual tuner as I'm not too concerned about this for the time being but I assume it can be upgraded later". (I don't have a HDTV "Yet" but will be purchasing one in the near future).

* Be able to copy / burn DVD -> DVD and TV Shows -> DVD

* I'm not concerned about games, I already have a dedicated game / work PC with a 6600GT so I basically want to know what is the best "cheap and effective" VGA card for this sort of setup.

* Sound card - Which one??!!? Onboard, stand alone Sound Blaster? What inputs / outputs are required and how are the onboard sound cards and do they handle DTS and DD 5.1 / 7.1?

* Motherboard? What are the truely ESSENTIAL requirements?

* Case - I'm looking at one of the Silverstones, probably the LC10 / LC10M


* CPU - Is a P4 1.8g and 512mb ram enough for what my requirements?

* How compatible is MediaPortal in regards to Australian programming and receiving of the EPG? Any Aussies, please chime in!

Sorry for the ridiculous questions, I just wanted to clear a few basics up for myself. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

 

[fathead]

Just a few comments.

The motherboard is the starting place really. The new Nvidia Tforce chipsets for socket 939 are a good place to look, they feature directx9 compatible onboard graphics, HD audio & all the usual features such as SATA, RAID, network etc. If you still want to buy a graphics card or soundcard you can do, any graphics card will do but your best if they support DX9. I would recommend the ASUS A8N-VM CSM motherboard.

Tuner wise, there is a list of tuners compatible with MP. You could buy a single tuner card now & then upgrade or go out and get a dual tuner card now - up to you. With Mp it is perfectly possible to use mulitple tuners of different types in the same system, so your not limited in the same way you are with MCE.

Case is up to you. The LC10 is farily large, depending on what motherboard you choose, something like the LC11 or even LC02 might be a good choice.

As far as I'm aware Australian EPG isn't a problem, though I am not suing it. There are Aussie users who I'm suer will chip in.

 

[jawbroken]

EPG is easy enough to grab, getting extended information such as description and genre can be tough, but there is work being done on an excellent solution to this that will hopefully be seen soon.

fathead: He says he has a P4 1.8gHz, so a socket 939 motherboard is not going to help him too much =D

Tuner: The Dvico Fusion HDTV tuners, I believe, are the best for Australia as far as I know. You can just pick up a Lite, which will give you single tuner SD and HDTV digital television. If you want more than that, the Plus comes with a remote as well as composite/svideo inputs (not really usable in MediaPortal, but helpful if you want to back up old tapes or whatever digitally using an external program). Finally, they have just come out with the Dual Digital, which has two digital tuners, one of which uses the PCI slot for transfers, the other one uses a USB2.0 slot (an internal plug is provided, I believe, so you don't have to use one of your external plugs and have a messy cable). While the Dual Digital is not officially supported at the moment, people have got it working with a simple file edit and it seems to work fine.

DVD: Being able to copy and burn DVDs will just require a DVD recorder drive on the hardware side. There is no really easy way to burn/copy/rip DVDs from within MediaPortal at the moment (that I know of) so this may have to be done manually (which I don't mind as I like to control the process, but this is a concern for some people).

VGA Card: Believe it or not, the 6600GT IS the recommended card for HTPCs, because of its component output (on some/most versions of the card) and because it is the cheapest graphics card that supports some of the nice Nvidia decoding features such as spatial-temporal deinterlacing, which can be important for relieving CPU load for HD viewing/playback/etc. Perhaps a cheaper card can work for you, or a onboard solution as mentioned above. Someone else with similar hardware will have to help you out on that one though.

Sound Card: Not my area of expertise, but most people seem to use the SPDIF out on their sound cards to put out a digital sound stream to their home theatre receiver.

Motherboard: No idea for Pentium's, I haven't personally had a Pentium CPU since the Pentium 90 (that was a sweet 90mHz of power right there).

CPU: If you already have the CPU you can give it a shot. It is hard to say if it will struggle a little with HD content or not. 512mb of ram is fine though, no more is really necessary.

 

[fathead]

fathead: He says he has a P4 1.8gHz, so a socket 939 motherboard is not going to help him too much =D

He didn't say he had one, just asked whether it would be good enough :wink:

 

[jawbroken]

Ah, yes. Fair enough. P4 vs AMD is mainly a preference thing, but AMD chips are said to have better performance per watt of heat, which is ideal for HTPCs (I guess this is a result of them doing more work per clock, allowing them to run at lower clock speeds than the ~equivalent Pentium chips)

 

[Maz78]

Hi All!

Many thanks for the informative responses, I really appreciate it. You're basically forcing me to spend a lot of cash I don't really have at the moment! LOL

Jawbroken, intersting name, hehehehehe, just wanted to ask you as to what setup you have (Hardware / Softwre) as you are from Melbourne as well?
I have contemplated some of the smaller Silverstone cases but am worried as to the number of cards they can hold and if expansion will be an issue in the future. Thanks again for your replies, and if you have any other info, especially I guess in the motherboard dept as I haven't been up to date on some of the current ones, especially the smaller mb's, I'd appreicate it!

Thanks again!

 

[Callifo]

I dare say if your planning to get dual cards in the future and use HDTV then a 1.8ghz wont be fast enough. If it was only SDTV youd probably be fine.

 

[Marcusb]

You haven't said whether you have the P4 already. I'm guessing so, but if not, then go for AMD all the way.
The new NForce motherboards by nVidia are especially made for HTPC applications. I like the Albatron model. It has built in Gfx optimised for HTPC use, ie best tv out and mpeg optimisation.

Best of all, this range of motherboards only cost around $140.
I like the Asus model already mentioned, but I think it's stupid that the TV out is an optional extra and is also not available in low profile. So much for the HTPC ideals... It also only has one VGA out, while the albatron has DVI, RCA, SVideo and Dsub as well as an optional componant cable.

As for cases, I have a little Aopen one. It is still available, costs around $120 and looks very nice and simple amongst the rest of the av gear.

As for tuner cards, I love the Compros. You can get them in Melb for $129 with Analogue (software only) and Digital as well as the AV inputs.

I also have a Dvico lite but don't like it as much. It is upstairs on my testing machine.

 

[Maz78]

Thanks for the replies folks. I noticed in one of the other threads, a fellow member suggested one of the Asus mb's with everything on board, much like what Marcusb has suggested.

Any ideas if this will fit the bill, and meet my requirements?

http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=15&l3=210&model=766&modelmenu=1

OR

The gigabyte alternative
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/MotherBoard/Products/Products_GA-K8N51PVMT-9.htm

I can source either for $140 in Melbourne. Will this save me from buying a Geforce 6600 for the Pure Video support as it's on board? I noticed it does NOT feature "Spatial Temporal De-Interlacing". I still haven't quite understood that feature and many people have suggested going for the 6600+ series for this feature. Can someone clear this up for me and what it does??

Basically, as long as I can watch / record up to 1080i HDTV, I'm happy. (And copy TV shows (standard def I'm guessing) and burn dvd's).Games are not an issue. If this MB can do what I need plus a CPU, I'm guessing around the 3000+ AMD series, I should be good to go??

And of course, true surround sound output without the need of a seperate sound card.

Many thanks again!


FYI: I noticed the 6150 which is listed as onboard this mb, ISN'T listedo n the Pure Video list of supported cards on the Nivida site??

 

[jawbroken]

Spatial-Temporal deinterlacing is just a fancy form of deinterlacing. Deinterlacing is used because computer monitors/graphics cards are used to displaying progressive video, which means that all the lines on the screen are updated on each "pass" of the screen. The i in 1080i, however, is for interlaced. This means thatall the even lines are drawn on one pass, then all the odd lines on the next.

Spatial-Temporal deinterlacing is just a way of turning the series of odd and even lines into a single picture (which is not just as easy as adding them together because the camera is moving, etc). I assume spatial temporal deinterlacing just means it looks at not only the current frame (spatial) but also what things looked like in previous frames (temporal).

Basically it is just a good-looking deinterlacing method.

As for my setup, it is not totally finalised/purchased at the moment, but I am looking at:
Gigabyte K8NF-9 Motherboard
AMD 3200+ Venice CPU
512MB RAM
Gigabyte 6600GT (As I need component video output and couldn't manage to get it working acceptably on my Radeon 9800pro).
Dvico Fusion HDTV Dual Digital tuner

That is about it asides from DVD burner (which is a matter of preference really, and what you can get to be region free, if that is important to you), etc.

Oh, and I am thinking about a thermaltake tenor case as they take full ATX motherboards and power supplies and are reasonably priced ($175 from CPL http://www.cpl.net.au)

Edit: The 6150 IS listed as supporting PureVideo, so it should be fine, I would think. http://nvidia.com/page/purevideo_support.html