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HTPC Stuff... was AC3 AVI vs AAC MP4 LOL

zeppelinrox said:
joebshmoe said:
you millionaires out there should go with the oppo bluray player. they've even ADDED to their supported media formats with MKV support.
Click to expand...
yeah, if I were to buy a set top player, that would be the one.
But my xbox is still doing a great job of streaming movies from all pcs on the home network to my big screen.

When the time comes though, I'm just gonna build a HTPC with blu ray and a DTS/Dolby sound card.
Click to expand...

not to get too off topic here, as this seems to be going, but I have really been curious about HTPCs lately, and I think we should start a thread for those who have built HTPCs and their experiences / recommendations. I for sure am interested in this in the near future.
 
for a while my "HTPC" was just my linux server, but that was way overkill.

you just need a low end machine with lots of storage and a video card (hdmi ftw). on linux go for nvidia >= 9600GT and you should be set for video. choose a 32bit OS as that is much more supported for multimedia.

there are several linux distros designed to be used as HTPC and with ffmpeg/vlc/mplayer being so well supported now that seems like the best option
 
ThrowgnCpr said:
not to get too off topic here, as this seems to be going, but I have really been curious about HTPCs lately, and I think we should start a thread for those who have built HTPCs and their experiences / recommendations.
Click to expand...


I would be interested in this too. I have next to no knowledge of home theatre PCs. It might be off topic, but I think zeppelinrox has had his question pretty much answered anyway, so...
 
Changed the title of the thread.. maybe it could be moved to General Discussion or something.

As far as HTPCs go, I had looked into building one about a year ago but never did.
The main things are:

A good video card. Preferably with HDMI. This would upscale DVDs better than anything else you can find. ATI cards with Avivo was looking great when I was looking.
A great sound card. Preferably with DTS. There were only a couple when I was looking. I gotta step out so will elaborate further a bit later.
The CPU can be low end, as long as it doesn't run hot. Forget about Pentium cpus. Those run way too hot. Any AMD Anthlon 64 or Sempron will do. For intel, anything after their core2 chip came out.

A real nice box. Preferably laying horizontal, with remote control and some front inputs for easy pluggin in of camcorders and stuff like that. Some have a nice LED display too which shows cpu temperature and other info.

Add on a blu ray drive, and you're set for years to come.

It would replace alot of hardware like a blu ray player, AV reciever, amplifier. Not to mention all the crazy wiring!

In the end, you get results better than if you spent thousands of dollars an a top of the line home theatre setup.
 
HTPC Spec

Athlon 64 X2 3800+, 2.0 GHz
2Gb Ram
Radeon HD2600XT 256
200Gb HDD + 1TB NAS (Gigabit)
DL DVD (Blu Ray for chrimbo)
2.1 Audio
Win 7+VLC+Winamp+TotalMedia Theatre
Wireless Keyboard/Trackball

one of the best things ive ever had in my lounge :) plus i can surf the web, play games and when my area eventually gets freeview i can plumb that in as well.

i will be changing the keyboard at some point as the trackball is a pain in the arse to use but im not sure what to go for. can anyone comment on the usability of touchpad/keyboards or other input methods?
 
great stuff guys!!! thanks. Now, if you were starting today from scratch, what pieces would you choose to build a new HTPC machine (maybe with approximate cost for each thing)?
 
Well, now that's a very good question.
It would take quite a bit of researching and some HTPC forum would know alot more than I do.

I did have a thought to get a prebuilt HTPC from HP or whatever but I dunno.
When I looked into it, I found that AMD's platform is called Maui
here are a couple of articles.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/win ... ,2159.html
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article918-page1.html
Keep in mind that this PC can replace an external amplifier or AV receiver, a PVR, external DVD or Blu-ray player, a cable/STB or Tivo box, and any TV tuners installed in the flat panel TVs — the power draw is more than offset by the power of components you can eliminate from around the entertainment center.
Click to expand...
WANT

Edit: I came across an AMD@Home blog that actually answers your question http://blogs.amd.com/home/2009/10/12/bu ... et-part-2/
It's a cool blog and mentioned this inexpensive and cool looking Dell Inspirion Zino HD HTPC which starts at only $229 :eek:
http://blogs.amd.com/home/2009/11/12/th ... on-zinohd/
 
If your HTPC is running Linux and you need a mouse, you can't go wrong with a Wii remote, nunchuk and sensor bar. C and Z buttons are click and right-click respectively, and you can use the remote as a mouse with very little initial setup, on Ubuntu at least. It requires Bluetooth.
 
Ghostcut said:
If your HTPC is running Linux and you need a mouse, you can't go wrong with a Wii remote, nunchuk and sensor bar. C and Z buttons are click and right-click respectively, and you can use the remote as a mouse with very little initial setup, on Ubuntu at least. It requires Bluetooth.
Click to expand...

Funnily enough i was thinking about trying out linux on my HTPC only last night. i have a spare BT dongle knocking around so i might give this a go this weekend. thanks for the heads up GC.
 
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