Best HTPC setup (1 Viewer)

[UncleTrvlingJim]

I'm in the beginning stages of spec'ing out a home theater computer and have been reading a lot on avsforum, silentpcreview, and htpcnews... but thought I'd post here for suggestions since there are some pretty smart people here. I've kind of written out my overall goals, what I have now, and different scenarios and their pros and cons. I wanted to get some feedback on anything I haven't thought of, and other general advice. Appreciate any suggestions:

My Goals:
1. Store DVD's, music, photos and play them from living room HT setup (receiver, speakers, tv)
2. eventual streaming to other rooms in the house
3. PVR
4. High def capability
5. Buy/rent movies online (downloading them, etc)
6. IPTV maybe

My “infrastructure”:
1. “hub” in a utility closet for cat5 and RG6 cables
2. From hub – 2 cat5 to office (1 data, 1 voice), 1 cat5 to living room media bookshelf (data), 1 cat5 to bedroom (not decided yet); 5 RG6 to media closet; 5 RG6 to attic/roof; 1 RG6 to bedroom
3. FiOS
4. DirecTV

Hardware Setup 1:
Home built HTPC in the living room media bookshelf
Pros:
1. all-in-one solution
2. Only three components on the shelves – receiver, htpc, surge protector
Cons:
1. Still unsure about building a quiet machine that cools efficiently and still looks like a HT component

Hardware Setup 2:
Minimal computer in the office, either home built or bought
Hdhomerun or similar device in the living room media shelf to capture tv and send back to the computer
Media extender to play tv, music and movies on the HT system
Pros:
1. could be cheaper – xbox is only $300 and a minimal computer could be bought for $600, hdhomerun is only $180
2. easier to build/procure
Cons
1. more components
2. If I ever want to integrate my media center with D*'s theoretical pci card, I'll have to pull cables from the attic to the office – which is a pain.

Software 1:
Microsoft Media Center (wait until after Vista is patched at least once)
Pros:
1. Less compatibility issues
2. Should be easier to use for wife and kids
3. more online services/less hacks – re: ease of use
Cons:
1. Performance hog – probably requires more cpu, memory, etc
2. Have to buy it




Software 2:
Linux with MythTV
Pros:
1.Free
2. should be possible to build a cheaper PC to run it
Cons:
1. Not sure how easy it'll be for my wife to use... don't mind tinkering to set it up, but should be fairly simple for someone else to use – watch tv, movies, listen to music, download a movie, etc
2. Not sure about support for things like Netflix downloads
3. Not sure about high def movie support

 

[Ted]

I don't think I've ever subscribed to a thread before, but I might to this one as I'll want to do this in the not too distant future. I like the idea of using computer running vista as the media server/DVR and xboxes in other rooms as clients. Seems like a simple system which, as you say, is imperative as my wife can barely switch from DirecTV to the DVD player.

 

[UncleTrvlingJim]

There's tons of good info out there... it gets a bit overwhelming. The last time I built a computer was 1995, and I pretty much just threw components together without thinking much about it.

Now, if I build a computer I'm wondering if I get the cheaper Intel E4300 and overclock it - which seems the best value, but I wonder about cooling. I'm still trying to figure out what kind of video card i really need to play the h.264 content that I might use. Then there's the linux vs. microsoft -- i'd go with microsoft just b/c of the perception that it would be easier to setup like a set-top box except, I keep thinking i can probably save a few hundred dollars in hardware by using the less resource intensive linux... Setting up linux and mythtv isn't that difficult at all... i'm just not sure how well remotes will work, online services (buying movies), etc...

fun stuff....

 

[Severum]

You definitely did your research and covered all the basics. All the hardware/software setups you mentioned should be able to do the job. Most of my experience is with aio setups.

WAF and software support on the mythtv box are valid concerns, most casual users will find mce/v more appealing. I wouldn't expect a huge performance difference between either OS when using a decent CPU and GPU. A good 120mm HSF takes care of CPU noise and most video cards can be reasonably silenced. Storage can always be networked, but a couple low noise 500GB-1TB drives wouldn't be too bad.

I'm only using an A64 3800 X2 and 7600GT on my general use HTPC, but it's handled everything pretty well. The main tasks are HD/SD satellite via PCI DVB, DVD/CD ripping, and mpeg2/xvid downloads. Haven't tried much h.264 yet. Using Windows for my preferred DVB software and a few other apps/games.

 

[UncleTrvlingJim]

Let me know how well your set up works with h.264 -- I've heard that the maximum theoretical throughput can be pretty high requiring lots of CPU and GPU.

Also, am I correct in assuming the overall capture process is not too resource intensive? So, i can use some relatively inexpensive components for my backend server, and just need the juice on the media extender (or more likely just buy a premade one like the xbox or netgear)...

 

[Severum]

I've played clips that performed well, 1080p reached ~80% peak on the CPU, would be touchy without the GPU acceleration. I would get faster components if I was building now.

Playing ~15mbps 720p and 1080i ExpressVu content uses around 5-20% CPU on my system, recording isn't noticeable but it's an exact stream copy. If you're using a hardware mpeg encoder the CPU requirements are minimal.

Will the HTPC be handling all your DirecTV viewing and are you sticking with SD until they [hopefully] offer a PCI tuner? Any plans for OTA HD?

 

[UncleTrvlingJim]

I'm undecided on what I want to do about DirecTV. I pretty much have it for sports and NFL Sunday ticket. If I could watch live sports (college baseketball, NFL) with decent PQ over the internet at a reasonable price, I'd dump D* in a second. Not that I have problems with it... I just don't watch much regular programming -- pretty much wait until a season's out on DVD and watch it then.

I'll probably get an OTA HD tuner card and let the htpc handle that. I'm not in a hurry to pay for any high def programming -- if D* did come out with a PCI card that would be a big plus for me keeping them and going to a full high-def format.

I don't have a high def TV yet -- i was probably going to wait until the 58 panny's come out in a commercial model and came down in price -- although the 50" ones out would be fine. I don't really need 1920x1080, since we'll be sitting 11 feet from the screen and will have a max screen size of 60". Doubt I'll notice the difference between 1080p and 768p.

On a semi-related note -- can computers act as a sound processing system with an output to an amplifier? I'm pretty happy with my yammy receiver, but my upgrade path does have a separate pre/pro and amp down the line -- i was wondering if would be possible to just beef up the computer and have it act as the pre/pro with a separate amp.

 

[Severum]

Something like a Creative X-Fi would be an option if you go that route.

 

[UncleTrvlingJim]

That looks pretty cool.... and it's cheaper than what I found:

http://www.s1digital.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=S7075A

On a side note... why is Dell so freakin' expensive for parts? I have enough AMEX points that I could get a $500 gift card to Dell, and I figure, hey, they're probably a bit more expensive than newegg, but with the gift card it'll make it worth it... wrong. I'm talking like 30% price difference on cpu's and video cards. Hard drives are closer, but still like 10% more... geez.

 

[Severum]

The X-Fi would still require a regular amplifier so the final cost would be pretty high. What kind of speaker setup are you going with? Simplifi could be underpowered at 50W/ch with larger speakers.

I only shop at Dell during the larger sales promotions, occasionally have good deals on Canon camera gear. Newegg has been doing everything right, Anandtech did an interesting tour of one of their older vacilities.

 

[UncleTrvlingJim]

Yeah, I guess it would help if I looked at the specs... . I have a Triad Bronze InCeiling system.... works great for an Inceiling/multi-purpose room. Overall, I'm pretty pleased with my sound system portion, and that will be the last piece to be upgraded... I'm not an audiophile, in that I can tell the difference between really high end systems, I just don't think it's worth spending that kind of money past a certain price point.

I found an interesting discussion on this topic here:
http://msmvps.com/blogs/chrisl/archive/2007/01/24/516487.aspx

At the moment, I'm leaning towards just building and keeping it in my living room -- going with a fairly basic configuration, and then upgrading and maybe moving it to the office later...

I need to play around with linux a bit more... i'm pretty sure my final setup will be with Vista (i'm betting there will just be more functionality that's easier to use in the future)... but I might play around with a linux setup first. I don't know anything about linux file systems, and whether I can just partition my disk, rip my dvds to a different partition than the OS, and later change the OS to Vista. I'm guessing Vista won't be able to read whatever linux uses for a file system, and I'll have to re-rip my dvds...

 

[Severum]

Knoppmyth or similar livecds make it pretty easy to try out. FAT32 would probably be the best FS for dual use, not sure how Linux NTFS write support is doing (mainly a FBSD user).

 

[UncleTrvlingJim]

Ahh.. you're one of those real geeks -- I'm thinking of going geek-lite with Ubuntu on an old P3 that i have. Looks pretty easy, and I don't have to spend hours learning how to do things in it... I might go Gentoo eventually if I feel like learning how things really work.

Hmmm... I think I might lean towards building an HTPC for the living room, but not worry about making it super quiet yet. I'll use linux to prove the concept -- data partition will be fat32. This will let me build it a bit sooner -- like in May instead of August, while I save up money for more parts and maybe Vista. I can then convert to Vista later and keep my data partition.

The only downside to this is that if I do go the server/extender route, I will have spent a bit more money on the processor than I really need, but who complains about too much power?

 

[Severum]

Most of my mythtv experience has been in Gentoo. Ubuntu is a good choice. Could get by with a lower end video card while you use Linux and SD. Nvidia has a new round of mid priced DX10 cards coming out in a few months, should be pretty affordable later this year.

 

[UncleTrvlingJim]

I'm trying to avoid buying a video card twice... i might go with a motherboard with onboard video while i'm on SD, and then when i go high-def, i can get a nice video card...

I'm leaning towards linux right now, simply b/c i can do it for free -- and if i later want some functionality that vista provides (mainly cablecard/directv pci card)... i can then go that route. i think i'll also just keep it in the living room for now, and if it's too loud, or something i can move it at a later date.

of course, since i'm probably not building may time frame, i might change my mind....