HTPC Build for Review: Sanity Check

[GamingDaemon]

Hi Everyone,

Another one of those threads... Can folks sanity check this build for me before I pull the trigger?

Here’s what I want in a HTPC:

• Play all of the 1080p Blu Ray movies I have ripped to my Home Server PC
• Play any other personal videos I have taken that are stored on my Home Server PC
• Access the internet to round out my ability to see movies and TV online (I have DirecTV and Vudu, but I know there are other options open to me like Hulu and YouTube)
• Future-proof to some degree, as much as is possible

The parts:

• SILVERSTONE Black 8.0mm aluminum front panel, 0.8mm SECC body GRANDIA GD04B Micro ATX Media Center / HTPC $73.99
• GIGABYTE GA-Z68M-D2H LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s Micro ATX Intel $104.99
• ASUS ENGT430 DC SL/DI/1GD3 GeForce GT 430 (Fermi) 1GB 128-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video (Already purchased from Amazon for $74)
• Antec NEO ECO 400C 400W Continuous Power ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power $34.99
• Intel Celeron G530 Sandy Bridge 2.4GHz LGA 1155 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics $51.99 from NewEgg, or $42 from Amazon (AntOnline seller for Amazon)
• G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL $29.99
• SAMSUNG Black Blu-ray Combo SATA Model SH-B123L LightScribe Support $51.99

Thank you in advance

 

[sholling]

I retired my HTPC in favor of two much easier to navigate network appliances. Another member (BSA) is about to give one a try himself so it might be worth waiting a day or two to see what he thinks. For me the most frustrating thing about a HTPC is navigation. I have yet to find a HTPC control device that I like.

http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/home-theater-pc-htpc-media-servers/76353-neotv-550-media-player.html

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

So far I agree with sholling - yes - I built Atom/Nvidia ION htpc and it worked great, but devil is in the details
(A bit of background - I'm a PRO IT person with many years of experience and many custom builds)

a) HDMI - I was never able to make it work
b) HDMI color range was incorrect so black levels looked terrible - I had to switch back to vga cable
c)ION chipset does not support hd audio pass-thru (only lpcm )
d)One of most prominent PC HTPC software - Boxee (for PC) haven't been updated in over a year (Boxee hardware receives steady updates)
e)my current system (specifically mobo) appears to be dying, and thou I successfully fixed mobos before (caps rework) I'm having a hard time finding the root of the issue
f) Remote control issues/questions
g) Power consumption and noise

etc....

Short version - for $100 for Netgear and even less for Roku box - that could be much cheaper to get what you want without much more expensive htpc

p.s: Browsing internet on 10ft interface (aka from couch) is not that great

 

[sholling]

So far I agree with sholling - yes - I built Atom/Nvidia ION htpc and it worked great, but devil is in the details
(A bit of background - I'm a PRO IT person with many years of experience and many custom builds)

a) HDMI - I was never able to make it work
b) HDMI color range was incorrect so black levels looked terrible - I had to switch back to vga cable
c)ION chipset does not support hd audio pass-thru (only lpcm )
d)One of most prominent PC HTPC software - Boxee (for PC) haven't been updated in over a year (Boxee hardware receives steady updates)
e)my current system (specifically mobo) appears to be dying, and thou I successfully fixed mobos before (caps rework) I'm having a hard time finding the root of the issue
f) Remote control issues/questions
g) Power consumption and noise

etc....

Short version - for $100 for Netgear and even less for Roku box - that could be much cheaper to get what you want without much more expensive htpc

p.s: Browsing internet on 10ft interface (aka from couch) is not that great

In my case (also an IT pro of 20 years) I was able to get my E350 based system working just fine and even get the color pretty decent by dedicating enough memory to video but the build was expensive plus Blu-Ray playback software wasn't cheap. After trying a couple of hundred dollars worth of HTPC keyboards trying to find something to duplicate the ease of a remote control I retired my almost new HTPC. It was just too much of a PIA to use to be enjoyable.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

In my case (also an IT pro of 20 years) I was able to get my E350 based system working just fine and even get the color pretty decent by dedicating enough memory to video but the build was expensive plus Blu-Ray playback software wasn't cheap. After trying a couple of hundred dollars worth of HTPC keyboards trying to find something to duplicate the ease of a remote control I retired my almost new HTPC. It was just too much of a PIA to use to be enjoyable.

a) I meant sound thru hdmi

Regarding color - I don't think that memory was an issue - it was the old issue of PC RGB scale of 0 to 255 vs movie standard of 16 - 235 - The issue shown it's ugly head using only hdmi and not with vga connector.

p.s: It's not PIA - Common term is PITA

Regarding remote control - I used a USB IR Receiver bought on ebay off MS MCE DELL box. I was able to train my universal remote some of MCE (keyboard) commands so it worked OK - not great.

Again - one of my worst annoyances was a boot up time. Wake from sleep didn't worked right with boxee - so exit software+hibernation was a necessity.

 

[sholling]

Regarding remote control - I used a USB IR Receiver bought on ebay off MS MCE DELL box. I was able to train my universal remote some of MCE (keyboard) commands so it worked OK - not great.

I tried several. The Dinovo's touch pad and lack of a scroll wheel were frustrating. The IOGear was better but still frustrating. The Lenevo was okay but not quite there - perhaps the new one is better. The Android app was best of all but it was locked out with every Windows system popup and I needed a HW keyboard to clear the the system popups. All were a pain to use with my BD player software but it does have an Android app of its own.

Again - one of my worst annoyances was a boot up time. Wake from sleep didn't worked right with boxee - so exit software+hibernation was a necessity.

I solved that with an SSD which brought my HTPC boot up times down to 30 seconds from power on to ready to use. I had audio and video working just fine but I haven't turned it on in a moth or more but it will eventually become my third file server.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

NETGEAR NeoTV 550 (NTV550) Review - Page 1

So my far my biggest issue is 550 incorrectly detected frame rate on a couple of MKV files with DivX 5 video with 25fps

And auto fps function doesn't seem to work with my equipment

But that is really a minor issue - The Big news - BD ISO playback does work !!!
I did see DTS-HD MSTR for the first time !! Woohoo !!! (My spouse was less enthusiastic about it for some reason )

 

[jinjuku]

In my case (also an IT pro of 20 years) I was able to get my E350 based system working just fine and even get the color pretty decent by dedicating enough memory to video but the build was expensive plus Blu-Ray playback software wasn't cheap. After trying a couple of hundred dollars worth of HTPC keyboards trying to find something to duplicate the ease of a remote control I retired my almost new HTPC. It was just too much of a PIA to use to be enjoyable.

I picked up a Compaq Sempron 145 system for $230 at Staples. Added a 5K Radeon with 512MB ram for $49, a 92mm HSF for $20, BR Drive for $80 + TMT. So at the time is was $370. I had color correction done with Avia II in no time flat and I sold the WD Live and Asus OPlay. They sucked compared to MCE + My Movies.

Now days you can get AnyDVD and JRiver MC to play back Blu-Rays.

Love my HTPC. BTW my first computer was an Atari 800 in 84'.

 

[jinjuku]

system popup and I needed a HW keyboard to clear the the system popups. All were a pain to use with my BD player software but it does have an Android app of its own.

Turn off Windows Update. In MSCONFIG kill all non MS services (Java Updater Etc). Disable the MS Security service. Pop-ups gone.

 

[jinjuku]

a) I meant sound thru hdmi

Regarding color - I don't think that memory was an issue - it was the old issue of PC RGB scale of 0 to 255 vs movie standard of 16 - 235 - The issue shown it's ugly head using only hdmi and not with vga connector.

p.s: It's not PIA - Common term is PITA

Regarding remote control - I used a USB IR Receiver bought on ebay off MS MCE DELL box. I was able to train my universal remote some of MCE (keyboard) commands so it worked OK - not great.

Again - one of my worst annoyances was a boot up time. Wake from sleep didn't worked right with boxee - so exit software+hibernation was a necessity.

I find that odd since reviewers like Anand and Toms hardware routinely show cards like the Radeon besting $2000 BR players.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

I find that odd since reviewers like Anand and Toms hardware routinely show cards like the Radeon besting $2000 BR players.

The key word is Radeon . Most of Ion faults lie with it's creator - Nvidia
No doubt that this platform without help of Nvidia's chip (ION is Atom plus stripped down GeForce 9400 GPU ) could never even dream of showing 1080p video, but the promise of perfect implementation was empty one and this is the last time I'm getting anything made by Zotac. Lesson learned.

p.s: I'm getting perfect playback of Bluray ISOs with a $99, fully silent (zero moving parts), low power and instant stand-by to on box which even includes a decent remote...

 

[jinjuku]

The key word is Radeon . Most of Ion faults lie with it's creator - Nvidia
No doubt that this platform without help of Nvidia's chip (ION is Atom plus stripped down GeForce 9400 GPU ) could never even dream of showing 1080p video, but the promise of perfect implementation was empty one and this is the last time I'm getting anything made by Zotac. Lesson learned.

p.s: I'm getting perfect playback of Bluray ISOs with a $99, fully silent (zero moving parts), low power and instant stand-by to on box which even includes a decent remote...

I tried those boxes and really missed the flexibility, the ability to DVR shows, play FM radio etc, OTA (over the air) local programming. I dumped cable ($60 / month) and just use Netflix. Been watching 24. The My Movies plug in just KILLS anything else I have seen.

Been using the Logitech Mouse Server and iPhone.

The distinction needs to be made that a more than adequate HTPC with the right parts can be made.

To the OP: I think you made some poor choices personally. You should have picked up a Brazos based system and been done with it. For $120 you could have gotten a motherboard with CPU/GPU (now called an APU) that would have done everything you need with 2GB of RAM ($20).

Your setup is over complicated for HTPC which is usually the first step toward frustration. The Radeon lineup is proven.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

• SILVERSTONE case
• GIGABYTE Micro ATX Intel MB
• GeForce GT 430 1GB graphics
• Antec 400W PSU
• Intel Celeron G530 2.4GHz LGA Dual-Core CPU
• G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 RAM
• SAMSUNG Black Blu-ray Combo SATA Model SH-B123L LightScribe Support $51.99

I use ATI Radeon since I can get DTS-HD & Dolby TrueHD w/ PowerDVD.

I don't know about DTS-HD & Dolby TrueHD w/ GeForce.

I use SilverStone case, Intel CPU, Radeon Graphics, & I don't have issues with HDMI on my HTPC.

 

[sholling]

I tried those boxes and really missed the flexibility, the ability to DVR shows, play FM radio etc, OTA (over the air) local programming. I dumped cable ($60 / month) and just use Netflix. Been watching 24. The My Movies plug in just KILLS anything else I have seen.

You have a specific need for more functionality than the dual box solution that I prefer. I have a cable DVR so DVR functionality is of no interest to me. What I was looking for is super easy SAF friendly playback of media that I've purchased over the years.

To the OP: I think you made some poor choices personally. You should have picked up a Brazos based system and been done with it. For $120 you could have gotten a motherboard with CPU/GPU (now called an APU) that would have done everything you need with 2GB of RAM ($20).

Your setup is over complicated for HTPC which is usually the first step toward frustration. The Radeon lineup is proven.

I agree with this. Just be careful to choose the right APU/motherboard because not all have a good enough sound processor for DTS-HD support and a Realtech ALC889 is about the minimum to look for. I used a Sapphire Pure Fusion board ($150) because of its Realtek ALC892 audio processor. A bit more RAM ($50+) 1GB of which is dedicated to video, a 64GB SSD ($100), 2nd HD ($50-100), and a small HTPC case ($70). Roughly $400-450 for hardware plus $100 for a Windows 7 license and another $50-100 for Blu-Ray playback software. All together about $600 plus a couple of hundred more in search of the perfect HTPC keyboard.

The advantage of the AMD APU over more powerful CPUs is low power draw. It has plenty of power for 1080P playback while the motherboard is only drawing 18w.

My HTPC Build

HTPC Keyboards
This one needs an update because I've since tried the IOGear which I prefer over the Logitech.