HTPC - Get me started already!

[g0dM@n]

I've been meaning to do this since I moved in with my gf this past Spring.

I have already built a mid-tower machine, but perhaps it's too big. If mATX is a better choice with an HTPC-type box, then please be honest and let me know I should just do that. I want to salvage what I have, but if I'm better off selling some of these parts and doing it "right", don't be ashamed to tell me. I'll work something out and perhaps this time my girlfriend can chip in since it's for the both of us. Why am I always the one doing and paying for all the techie stuff!!

Alright, here we go:

• Motherboard - Abit IP35 Pro brand new
• CPU - E7200 Retail kit brand new (have aftermarket cooling for it)
• RAM - I have 2GB 1066 kits, 2GB 800 kits, and 4GB 800 kits to choose from
• Video - So far I've got a brand new eVGA 8600GTS 256mb but will upgrade if I need to
• Case - Aspire X-Dreamer II mid-tower with plenty of airflow (this case is like 7 yrs old, from one of my early AXP builds)
• Power Supply - Antec 550W
• Optical Drive - DVD Player / CD Burner (I don't need to burn DVDs, but maybe I need a Blu-ray)
• Hard Drives - I had 3x 750GB drives in Raid5, but I just sold one of the 750s since this brand new build was physically built but doing nothing for once... just got sick of watching it depreciate in value while doing nothing...
  Right now I have 2x 750GB Seagates, and a Hitachi 750GB in an enclosure I could pull out. Also, I have a brand new 1.5TB Seagate maybe I can use as external... or perhaps I can just buy 3 or 4 1TB drives for Raid5. This will depend on if you think I should keep the mid-tower or not. If I should go with an HTPC box, then I'll just use an external drive or a network drive from another machine
• LCD/HDTV - Philips 47" 1080p - will use the HDMI input
• Surround Sound - Denon HTIB, 1000 watt max, 5.1 surround, dolby digital support - I could use optical or coaxial digital input, NO HDMI, so I have to work around this one!! I'm not buying a new receiver since this already kicks ***.
• Operating System - Windows XP Pro SP3

Background:
I put this whole machine together with all of the same parts above, except right now there's a 2GB DDR2-800 kit in there, and there WAS an HD3870 that I sold. I can put the 8600GTS in there or let me know if there's a better choice.

O/S:
I installed WinXP Pro since that's all I've got, but obviously want the best budget HTPC O/S out there, so let me know if I can work around XP or what other choices I have.

Remote Peripherals:
What should I use as far as a mouse, keyboard, and remote?

What I want!!:
I have about 400 DVDs. I might want to rip all of them to have them stored on a hard drive. My friend has Apple TV and he ripped all of his 200-250 DVDs on his MAC and into his iTunes and his Apple TV synchs with it... quite awesome I must say.

BUT... I also want HD movies located on the hard drive as well. I'd definitely love to rip my HD-DVDs and perhaps Bluray discs when I get a Bluray player.

Other Choices:
As mentioned just above, my friend has Apple TV, which I think costs like $150-200. If that's an awesome choice and would work with one of my XP machines upstairs wirelessly, I could do that as well. I could just sell off all of the parts from this HTPC and use it to fund a nice NAS and one of my other desktops... to have the Apple TV work off of.


I NEED TO STOP TELLING MY GIRLFRIEND ABOUT HOW AWESOME THIS HTPC IS GOING TO BE AND FINISH THE DAMN THING ALREADY!!

THANKS FOR YOUR HELP!!

 

[AngryArtichoke]

I literally would have crapped my pants if you said you were installing linux to run MythTV. I suppose you want to make this easy on yourself

Are you going to slap a tuner card in there?

I'd recommend any WIRELESS mouse and keyboard. I spend too much time on the floor working on my HTPC because the mouse and keyboard won't reach the recliners.

Remote: Something with a high number of programmable buttons?

 

[MRD]

I do what you want and much, much more using mythtv running on Linux. It's all free, and it's not too bad to set up now (although back when I first set it up in 2005 I think it took me about 10 days of full time efforts).

www.mythtv.org

 

[g0dM@n]

I literally would have crapped my pants if you said you were installing linux to run MythTV. I suppose you want to make this easy on yourself

Are you going to slap a tuner card in there?

I'd recommend any WIRELESS mouse and keyboard. I spend too much time on the floor working on my HTPC because the mouse and keyboard won't reach the recliners.

Remote: Something with a high number of programmable buttons?

What other options do I have other than MythTV if it's that much of a pain in the hooha?

And, what's the point of a tuner card if I won't be able to tune without my cablevision box? Are there tuner cards out there that will support Cablevision's cards??? I thought that Feb 2009 will be the end of all that stuff and I'd have to be using my digital cable box anyway...

I do what you want and much, much more using mythtv running on Linux. It's all free, and it's not too bad to set up now (although back when I first set it up in 2005 I think it took me about 10 days of full time efforts).

www.mythtv.org

Thanks for the info. I totally had forgotten about MythTV. Someone told me about it back several months ago when I first wanted to start this.

-----------

So anyway... how does my setup look so far?? Should I go with an HTPC box and have the HTPC point to a NAS for storage??

 

[JamesXP]

Tuner card, would accept the input from your cable box, there was a few tuners with card slots but i don't think that that they caught on very well..

 

[AngryArtichoke]

MythTV is a very powerful program. I'd either go with that or just use some windows app.

If your cable box doubles as a PVR, don't bother with the tuner cards.

You could just make your HTPC the NAS

 

[MRD]

MythTV doesn't have to be hard. You can even by livecd distros that work out of the box like KnoppMyth (although it is not quite as customizeable I think). MythTV had a reputation for being impossible to set up... and it was. I did it back when it was awful. I recently redid the whole thing from scratch and it was a piece of cake. Granted, I'm very comfortable in Linux, but even so, it's not so bad now.

MythTV is more powerful than anything else out there, and includes things like recording to DVD's with menus and chapters, video archiving to a file server, multiple frontends connected to one (or more) backend, multiple video game console emulators, unlimited storage space on as many boxes as you like, as many tuners as you like, weather modules, news readers, tv web browsers, a web server that lets you remotely control the system and set recordings, a music player / ripper, commercial splicing, transcoding, video conferencing support if you have a webcam, automatic connections to netflix, and a number of other features.

And it's free (GPL), as is the OS it runs on. (Clients and servers must be running Linux, there is no Windows client that is any good and the server is 100% Linux.)

 

[g0dM@n]

MythTV doesn't have to be hard. You can even by livecd distros that work out of the box like KnoppMyth (although it is not quite as customizeable I think). MythTV had a reputation for being impossible to set up... and it was. I did it back when it was awful. I recently redid the whole thing from scratch and it was a piece of cake. Granted, I'm very comfortable in Linux, but even so, it's not so bad now.

MythTV is more powerful than anything else out there, and includes things like recording to DVD's with menus and chapters, video archiving to a file server, multiple frontends connected to one (or more) backend, multiple video game console emulators, unlimited storage space on as many boxes as you like, as many tuners as you like, weather modules, news readers, tv web browsers, a web server that lets you remotely control the system and set recordings, a music player / ripper, commercial splicing, transcoding, video conferencing support if you have a webcam, automatic connections to netflix, and a number of other features.

And it's free (GPL), as is the OS it runs on. (Clients and servers must be running Linux, there is no Windows client that is any good and the server is 100% Linux.)

The BOLD above might be an issue depending on what I do. I feel like I should just buy an HTPC box with a mATX board and just get a NAS or file-server.

Having a mid-tower right by our TV looks okay, but I don't have a huge place... still debating on this.

Tuner card, would accept the input from your cable box, there was a few tuners with card slots but i don't think that that they caught on very well..

But I thought they accept input only as good as component. I wouldn't be able to do digital, could I??

MythTV is a very powerful program. I'd either go with that or just use some windows app.

If your cable box doubles as a PVR, don't bother with the tuner cards.
My cable box is also a PVR, but obvoiusly willing to stop paying the extra ~$10-11/month if I can make my HTPC my new PVR... I truly don't know how I could do that if it's even possible.
You could just make your HTPC the NAS

 

[MRD]

I use a microatx case on my frontend (although I could easily use a mini itx case too, and I could network boot with PXE on the frontend to go diskless). The backend is upstairs and does the actual recording and transcoding. The frontend is just downstairs for playback. (Actually, the backend doubles as a frontend too so I have it in my room.)

 

[g0dM@n]

I use a microatx case on my frontend (although I could easily use a mini itx case too, and I could network boot with PXE on the frontend to go diskless). The backend is upstairs and does the actual recording and transcoding. The frontend is just downstairs for playback. (Actually, the backend doubles as a frontend too so I have it in my room.)

I've never used PXE... is network booting easy? That sounds pretty cool!! But... I guess I don't truly need it if I go with an ATX (mid or micro) case anyway. I was thinking of using a 36gb raptor.

 

[MRD]

It's pretty easy to boot Linux or small DOS images. I haven't managed to boot bootable windows iso's yet... working on that still. You just need a fileserver somewhere with tftp active and then you copy a few files, write a config file, and you're good to go.

I didn't know how to do it when I set up my MythTV system. It's really nice though to just hit a key to bring up a menu on boot that will load rescue software, livecd's, partitioning software, dos (for bios flashing), memtest, etc.

 

[Wicked Klown]

You could take a look at say MeediOS, GB-Pvr, SageTv, just to name a few there is also Vista Home Premium which has MCE built in. For ripping a 1TB HDD will hold 116 8gig DVDs, just to give you an idea. For a remote any of the Logitech Harmonys would work, just remember you need an IR blaster for it. Also you might have had better luck posting this in the HTPC area.

 

[AngryArtichoke]

Ooooo... The moderator posted a thread in the wrong category... what shame.

Also, tuner cards can accept digital signals, they just need to be unencrypted. So you can plug a tuner with HD capabilities directly into the wall and get all the local HD channels (required by law if you are on a cable connection). It will also pick up all the analog channels (2-71, I think) assuming the tuner card supports both (most digital HD ones do). The Feb 2009 conversion only applies to the over the air channels you receive with an antennae (I'm pretty sure). By not using the cable box though, you miss out on the encrypted channels, such as HBO, STARS, etc. This is only an issue if you pay for an extended video package and actually get these channels. Otherwise, you can eliminate the cable box completely.

 

[g0dM@n]

You could take a look at say MeediOS, GB-Pvr, SageTv, just to name a few there is also Vista Home Premium which has MCE built in. For ripping a 1TB HDD will hold 116 8gig DVDs, just to give you an idea. For a remote any of the Logitech Harmonys would work, just remember you need an IR blaster for it. Also you might have had better luck posting this in the HTPC area.

I actually looked for an HTPC section but didn't see one... didn't know it was in VIDEO and SOUND. I moved it, and thx for the all the info!

Ooooo... The moderator posted a thread in the wrong category... what shame.

Also, tuner cards can accept digital signals, they just need to be unencrypted. So you can plug a tuner with HD capabilities directly into the wall and get all the local HD channels (required by law if you are on a cable connection). It will also pick up all the analog channels (2-71, I think) assuming the tuner card supports both (most digital HD ones do). The Feb 2009 conversion only applies to the over the air channels you receive with an antennae (I'm pretty sure). By not using the cable box though, you miss out on the encrypted channels, such as HBO, STARS, etc. This is only an issue if you pay for an extended video package and actually get these channels. Otherwise, you can eliminate the cable box completely.

See I'd so love to do that to save money, but I need access to PPV b/c I don't miss UFC events. =/... and I often have ppl over to watch it!!

 

[AngryArtichoke]

See I'd so love to do that to save money, but I need access to PPV b/c I don't miss UFC events. =/... and I often have ppl over to watch it!!

That's definitely reason enough to keep the cable box. Someday they'll have capture cards widely available on the market that can decode that stuff right out of the wall. but sadly, you won't really find it floating around today.

That simply means that you have to keep your cable box, however, can the box record shows like a TiVo does? I'm not sure you mentioned that or not, but I'm trying to make the case that the tuner card is able to do such a thing. If anything, you can always just use a splitter on your cable and have both!

 

[g0dM@n]

That's definitely reason enough to keep the cable box. Someday they'll have capture cards widely available on the market that can decode that stuff right out of the wall. but sadly, you won't really find it floating around today.

That simply means that you have to keep your cable box, however, can the box record shows like a TiVo does? I'm not sure you mentioned that or not, but I'm trying to make the case that the tuner card is able to do such a thing. If anything, you can always just use a splitter on your cable and have both!

So far I can record anything I watch over the cable box. I record UFC events all the time to watch it again and again.

 

[AngryArtichoke]

Nice. Screw the tuner cards then. If anything, you can dual boot for a while and see which OS you like better.

 

[MRD]

The new encrypted digital cable is a pain for HTPC's. The main issue is that when you have an analog line (old style), you get all the channels transmitted at once on the line, and you pull out the info you want.

With the cable, the box transmits a request to the cable company, and it streams only one channel. It's not a matter of unencrypting the others, they simply aren't sent. Thus to tune more than one you need more than one cable box. The new htpc's require you to have multiple cable boxes controlled by irblasters, one for each tuner/channel. It's a huge pain. I hate that they did this... it's very unfriendly to htpc's/pvr's, but I suppose they like to make us pay per channel and want us to watch commercials.

 

[g0dM@n]

The new encrypted digital cable is a pain for HTPC's. The main issue is that when you have an analog line (old style), you get all the channels transmitted at once on the line, and you pull out the info you want.

With the cable, the box transmits a request to the cable company, and it streams only one channel. It's not a matter of unencrypting the others, they simply aren't sent. Thus to tune more than one you need more than one cable box. The new htpc's require you to have multiple cable boxes controlled by irblasters, one for each tuner/channel. It's a huge pain. I hate that they did this... it's very unfriendly to htpc's/pvr's, but I suppose they like to make us pay per channel and want us to watch commercials.

And I have to pay for a damn cable box ONLY because I want PPV available for purchase. That's THE ONLY reason I have a cable box.

 

[AngryArtichoke]

With no tuner cards, MythTV installation is a very simple process. I'd very much recommend that you install ubuntu and give it a shot.