Just picked up my 92TXH....looking at HTPC setups...who has 'em?

[kazlx]

I finally picked up my Pioneer 92TXH the other day, which I'm stoked on. I'm buying a new computer and considering stuffing the guts from my older PC into a media case to run into the receiver. Just curious who is running a media center type PC setup, if so, what it is and how you like it. What is the best way to tie the audio video into the reciever?

 

[gus6464]

I finally picked up my Pioneer 92TXH the other day, which I'm stoked on. I'm buying a new computer and considering stuffing the guts from my older PC into a media case to run into the receiver. Just curious who is running a media center type PC setup, if so, what it is and how you like it. What is the best way to tie the audio video into the reciever?

It depends on what you want to do with the HTPC. If you want to run high def content or Blurays you will need an HTPC with a good cpu, lots of ram, and a good GPU.

Now since you have an HDMI capable receiver I would suggest the following parts at the very minimum in order to enjoy high def content and sound.

Core 2 Duo E7200
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115052

If you want to do encoding of high def content yourself I suggest you step up to this CPU
Core 2 Quad Q6600
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115017

GIGABYTE GA-EP35-DS3L
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128337

G.SKILL 4GB superb bang for the buck ram
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231122

Asus Radeon HD4850
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121253
The reason this is a very good card is because it has an HDMI output which can do 8ch MPCM. This means that you can connect it to your receiver through the HDMI and enjoy TrueHD, DTS-HD/MA, DD, DD+, DTS sound. Of course you will need either a BD drive or a video file with the corresponding sound format to have the sound.

Windows Vista Home Premium 64bit
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116488
This is needed in order for the system to read all 4gb of ram as 32bit systems can only read 3gb max. If you want you can get the Ultimate 64bit version for $80 more.

Other than that you are going to need hard drives and optical drives but that is up to you to decide what you want. As far as power supply is concerned I would go one with at least 500W like an Enermax or Antec. Both can found for around $80 at newegg as well. I am a bit biased towards Enermax units but both companies make great units for the price.

 

[kazlx]

Here is my new system. I am wondering if I should just tie this to the receiver somehow (not in the same room), or just build a media PC. I saw a post about a wireless access for connecting a receiver with a LAN port, but mine won't work that way. I would love to just be able to somehow run media from my computer to the receiver. Wireless would be ideal. This is my first real inquiry into this stuff though.


CPU Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 2.66GHz 12MB
Motherboard Intel DX48BT2
Memory 8GB PC10666 DDR3 1333MHz (4X2GB) Platinum
Graphics Card PCIe eVGA 9600GT 512MB
Hard Drive Western Digital 300GB 10000RPM Raptor SATA HD
Hard Drive Western Digital 750GB KS SATA2 Hard Drive X 2
CD-ROM Drive Pioneer 216D 20X DVD +/- RW SATA Black X 2
Network Adapter Linksys Wireless PCI Card WMP300N
Case ATX Medium Case - Antec Nine Hundred
Power Supply ATX Power Supply - 610W PC Power & Cooling
Operating System Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate 64Bit - OEM 1

 

[gus6464]

Here is my new system. I am wondering if I should just tie this to the receiver somehow (not in the same room), or just build a media PC.


CPU Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 2.66GHz 12MB
Motherboard Intel DX48BT2
Memory 8GB PC10666 DDR3 1333MHz (4X2GB) Platinum
Graphics Card PCIe eVGA 9600GT 512MB
Hard Drive Western Digital 300GB 10000RPM Raptor SATA HD
Hard Drive Western Digital 750GB KS SATA2 Hard Drive X 2
CD-ROM Drive Pioneer 216D 20X DVD +/- RW SATA Black X 2
Network Adapter Linksys Wireless PCI Card WMP300N
Case ATX Medium Case - Antec Nine Hundred
Power Supply ATX Power Supply - 610W PC Power & Cooling
Operating System Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate 64Bit - OEM 1

That's a good system for an HTPC but the case is huge so to move it all by your HT system would be a pain. Maybe you can just build yourself a cheaper HTPC with the parts I mentioned and have it sitting right next to your HT rack.

 

[Adam]

I'm not that familiar with them, but you may also consider an Apple TV. They are used to let people stream content from their computers to their TVs and receivers.

 

[gus6464]

I'm not that familiar with them, but you may also consider an Apple TV. They are used to let people stream content from their computers to their TVs and receivers.

Apple TV while good for SD content is absolutely abysmal for HD. Once you try to play back a 1080p feed it will start to stutter. HD content is very CPU intensive and a good GPU is required in order to offload the CPU. Even my current machine which is a dual core opteron, 2gb ram, and 9600GT GPU has problems sometimes with 1080p video files (h.264 especially).

I built my friend an HTPC a couple of months back based on the Q6600, 4gb GSKILL, Palit 9600GT w/HDMI, and 7300 Nforce mobo and it has been very good for video. He mostly deals with 1080p mkv and 1080p x.264 and the system does a good job. He has had to keep adding HDDs as HD video takes up a ton of space and he started out with 500GB and now is up to 1.5TB. He will be adding a 1TB HDD very soon as he is almost out of space once again. The new Radeon 4850's are just awesome for their ability to process audio and video through the HDMI.

 

[kazlx]

At this point, I'm thinking it might be more hassle than it's worth. It looks like I would have to basically build an entire new computer. Seems easier to just use my ipod and ps3. I was thinking about it just to use the old computer for something, but I don't think it's going to have the grunt to get the quality I would want.

 

[krzywica]

Apple TV while good for SD content is absolutely abysmal for HD. Once you try to play back a 1080p feed it will start to stutter. HD content is very CPU intensive and a good GPU is required in order to offload the CPU. Even my current machine which is a dual core opteron, 2gb ram, and 9600GT GPU has problems sometimes with 1080p video files (h.264 especially).

I built my friend an HTPC a couple of months back based on the Q6600, 4gb GSKILL, Palit 9600GT w/HDMI, and 7300 Nforce mobo and it has been very good for video. He mostly deals with 1080p mkv and 1080p x.264 and the system does a good job. He has had to keep adding HDDs as HD video takes up a ton of space and he started out with 500GB and now is up to 1.5TB. He will be adding a 1TB HDD very soon as he is almost out of space once again. The new Radeon 4850's are just awesome for their ability to process audio and video through the HDMI.

I would agree that the Apple TV's are rubbish for HD content.

If you aren't willing to anty up for a full blown HTPC I would look into one of these. I have heard nothing but great things about them and they will do full 1080P. They can stream from another source or be a stand alone unit (with the addition of an HDD). So you would be looking at around $350 for the unit and a 1TB drive from here.

Although I wouldn't ever want a substitute for my HTPC. I love it to death! Even though I threw it together using components I pretty much had sitting around, except for the case of course.

AMD 4400X2
8800GTS 640MB
2GB DDR500 Crucial
Asus A8N SLI Deluxe
250GB SATA2 WD HDD
LG Blu-Ray/HDDVD optical drive
Windows Vista Home Ultimate







EDIT: I just remembered that ATI/AMD's new cards will do VC1 and H.264 acceleration so technically you could throw a slower single core CPU in there and you would be fine just as long as you were playing files in the correct container, such as .m2ts and .wmv. But getting .avi's and .mkv's to run with video offloading is very spotty.

 

[itschris]

I've been knocking around the HTPC for some time now. I've read all I can, researched until my fingers hurt... my conclusion... it's not worth the hassle at this point. Until you can have better software integration where you don't have to run this program to do this, tinker with that one to do that, and play around with this to get that going, it just seems like too much hassle... for the time being. I think another year will go by and we'll see a lot of maturity.

For now, I'm using the home media gallery in my 94 to access my music. it works perfect and is all I need for the timebeing. If you do want to connect up, there's several good boards that have HDMI connections. If you can keep it simple, it should be a huge deal, but if you want PVR, Blu-Ray, and all that, it'll be a lesson in frustration unless you have a really deep deep understanding of the stuff... a lot of time... and a lot of patience.

My I.T. guy just went through this. He was having constant audio dropouts only to find after 2 weeks that there was a manual edit he needed to make in the registry. He only found out because he ran into someone over the HTPC section at AVS, but he first had to read through about 27 thousand pages before he found an answer.

 

[krzywica]

I've been knocking around the HTPC for some time now. I've read all I can, researched until my fingers hurt... my conclusion... it's not worth the hassle at this point. Until you can have better software integration where you don't have to run this program to do this, tinker with that one to do that, and play around with this to get that going, it just seems like too much hassle... for the time being. I think another year will go by and we'll see a lot of maturity.

For now, I'm using the home media gallery in my 94 to access my music. it works perfect and is all I need for the timebeing. If you do want to connect up, there's several good boards that have HDMI connections. If you can keep it simple, it should be a huge deal, but if you want PVR, Blu-Ray, and all that, it'll be a lesson in frustration unless you have a really deep deep understanding of the stuff... a lot of time... and a lot of patience.

My I.T. guy just went through this. He was having constant audio dropouts only to find after 2 weeks that there was a manual edit he needed to make in the registry. He only found out because he ran into someone over the HTPC section at AVS, but he first had to read through about 27 thousand pages before he found an answer.

I would tend to agree with you that building and configuring your own HTPC is not for the majority of people. Certainly not for users that are not computer savvy.

I'm a computer engineer and even I got frustrated at times when things would not work the way they were designed. But once you get everything configured the way you want, and it works the way it should, its a very good experience. Being able to sit on my couch and access hundreds of movies and thousands of music tracks is simply amazing. Not to mention having the internet right at your fingertips, its like having a giant laptop! Oh and don't forget the games!!! They don't make Crysis for consoles, so seeing it on a 50" plasma screen is pretty stunning.....all while sitting nicely on my couch....

Oh and the Logitech Dinovo Edge bluetooth keyboard really was the cherry on top for my system. With a built in touchpad for the mouse and a piano black finish it looks stunning!

 

[itschris]

I don't disagree with you at all. I'm just not sure I have the patience anymore. I know quite a bit about builing pc's, but it causes me to rethink my potential effort when people a lot more knowledgeable than me get completely frustrated with simple things like trying to get a power button on a case to function correctly with an IR remote, only to find that there some stupid work around no one at the manf. bothered to share. If that happened to me, I'd probably chuck the thing out the window and drive over it a few times with my SUV.

I will be building an HTPC though. My main goal is to have a state of the art music server, but the others things are important to. I'll likely be going with an Oregin AE case and will definately be using the Logitech Dinova too - it was the first and only thing I haven't changed my mind on.

I would tend to agree with you that building and configuring your own HTPC is not for the majority of people. Certainly not for users that are not computer savvy.

I'm a computer engineer and even I got frustrated at times when things would not work the way they were designed. But once you get everything configured the way you want, and it works the way it should, its a very good experience. Being able to sit on my couch and access hundreds of movies and thousands of music tracks is simply amazing. Not to mention having the internet right at your fingertips, its like having a giant laptop! Oh and don't forget the games!!! They don't make Crysis for consoles, so seeing it on a 50" plasma screen is pretty stunning.....all while sitting nicely on my couch....

Oh and the Logitech Dinovo Edge bluetooth keyboard really was the cherry on top for my system. With a built in touchpad for the mouse and a piano black finish it looks stunning!

 

[kazlx]

I was thinking of a way to use up the parts from my old computer, but what it's looking like is that is you need relatively current PC components to handle any decent video. Seems like a hassle at this point when I can just pop in a DVD or plug in my iPod for music. I like the idea of some of the hubs that can be streamed to. I think that may be just what I was looking for.