New build !

[Humpz]

Hi
I have spent a while now looking at other build threads and reviews etc and have decided to go ahead and build my first ever HTPC

I have a decision to make and was hoping for some advice, i was going to go with the following spec.

Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H 780G Socket AM2+ onboard VGA 8 channel audio mATX Motherboard

Sapphire HD 4670 512MB GDDR3 Dual DVI TV Out PCI-E Graphics Card

Antec Fusion Remote Veris Silver MATX Media Center Case - No PSU

AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+, AM2, Dual Core, 3.1GHz

500 GB Samsung HD502IJ Spinpoint F1 Harddrive

4GB (2x2GB) Corsair TwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC2-6400 (800)

520W Corsair HX Series Modular PSU

Scythe Mini Ninja Heatpipe CPU Cooler

LG GGC-H20L Lightscribe SATA 16xDVD±R +RWx8/-RW x6 Also READS - Blu-Ray & HD Disc's black - Retail

The reason i have selected the Graphics card is because i understand the Gigabyte motherboard onboard graphics have caused alot of problems with certain televisions.

Some suggestions on the specification would be very helpful and weather or not it would fit in the case!!!

Do you still get a greta picture when using an HTPC for blu ray instead of a blue ray DVD!!!

 

[ou_phidelt]

The picture quality between a stand alone BR player and a HTPC should be pretty much the same.

I am not familiar with your case so I can't comment on the fitment issues.

I haven't seen much mention of issues with 780G chipsets, quite the contrary actually. It is usually billed as the best choice for a HTPC. Plenty of power for the application eliminating the need for a dedicated card.

Before going with the 4670 check and make sure the drivers have been updated. The early drivers gave some HDCP issues so you need to make sure those were resolved.

Are you going to add a tuner? If so may want to upgrade your HD to a larger size. Take a look in the general forum as there are a couple recent threads on HTPC builds.

 

[Humpz]

Thanks for the quick reply, i will not be adding a tuner card at the moment or in the near future.

I think i will go with a larger hard drive i think its the 650 gb version of the F1 Samsung

As its my first build, i was wondering how hard it is to set up blu ray playback and also what do i need for HD sound?

I was thinking an amplifier and some nice speakers?

again thanks for the quick reply

 

[LandShark]

the Antec Fusion is one of the best HTPC case imho (I'm building one using this case myself too ). and the Ninji Mini (also what I'm using) will fit in perfectly fine.

as for pic quality, well, it "should be" the same even tho it might not be the case most of the time. depends on what you are looking for.

 

[Humpz]

the Antec Fusion is one of the best HTPC case imho (I'm building one using this case myself too ). and the Ninji Mini (also what I'm using) will fit in perfectly fine.

as for pic quality, well, it "should be" the same even tho it might not be the case most of the time. depends on what you are looking for.

What do you mean most of the time? iam looking for the quality of a blu ray disk, the quality it should be

ive heard great things about the case

 

[LandShark]

What do you mean most of the time? iam looking for the quality of a blu ray disk, the quality it should be

ive heard great things about the case

well, are you going to use it as just simple bluray player? or you are going to back up your bluray to the HDD and play it from there? if backing up, are you gonna recompress it? or just as pure as it is (e.g. ISO, original folder)? going to watch on where (what type of TV/monitor/screen/etc.)?

last I've check, I think ATI card still has 24fps issue (which is a big deal to me, but might not be to you! that also could be depends on what type of TV you are watching).

also, the 780G offer full HA. and it should be a pretty good htpc chipset. I'm not sure about it's issue w/ certain TV tho.....

on the other hand, nvidia's 8200(AMD)/9300(Intel) chipset is the current best htpc chipset imho. it offer perfect 24fps support!

if backing up first, pic quality might be altered depends on what type of method you are using to back up your disc. I'm a purist, and I want nothing but the original best quality, and b/c of my viewing equipment, I would never recode a bluray to watch, it's just waste my time and $! but others might find that recoding a bit might not be as big of a deal and still giving your "almost" as good pic quality as the original tho.

as for HD sound, again, the depends on your personal preference. for me, I do not like the pc touch/alter/downgrade any sound signal, thus bitstream is the only for me to go. however, there's current no full reliable working bitstream solution for htpc atm! the next best thing is to let the pc/bluray player to decode the HD sound format for you into LPCM and have it output to your AVR via HDMI. (problem is, I don't trust the pc/bluray player enough that it doesn't alter/touch anything! *see the next note) or another way to do is using the analog connection. the play will decode the HD sound format (AND downgrade the sound quality from 48khz/24bit to 48khz/16bit!) output it via analog connection.

now you see why I say it "might"? it's all depend on what you want and looking for. if you want bit perfect 1:1 solution from HTPC, or if you are using some nice decent higher end equipment, then, no, there's no perfect HTPC bluray output yet! (which it might change in the coming weeks tho, at least on the sound department) on the other hand, if you are using some average or midrange equipment and just want to first test the water, then yes, it's working fine. and even w/ it's current problem, it's still much better than DVDs.

good luck.

 

[Humpz]

well, are you going to use it as just simple bluray player? or you are going to back up your bluray to the HDD and play it from there? if backing up, are you gonna recompress it? or just as pure as it is (e.g. ISO, original folder)? going to watch on where (what type of TV/monitor/screen/etc.)?

last I've check, I think ATI card still has 24fps issue (which is a big deal to me, but might not be to you! that also could be depends on what type of TV you are watching).

also, the 780G offer full HA. and it should be a pretty good htpc chipset. I'm not sure about it's issue w/ certain TV tho.....

on the other hand, nvidia's 8200(AMD)/9300(Intel) chipset is the current best htpc chipset imho. it offer perfect 24fps support!

if backing up first, pic quality might be altered depends on what type of method you are using to back up your disc. I'm a purist, and I want nothing but the original best quality, and b/c of my viewing equipment, I would never recode a bluray to watch, it's just waste my time and $! but others might find that recoding a bit might not be as big of a deal and still giving your "almost" as good pic quality as the original tho.

as for HD sound, again, the depends on your personal preference. for me, I do not like the pc touch/alter/downgrade any sound signal, thus bitstream is the only for me to go. however, there's current no full reliable working bitstream solution for htpc atm! the next best thing is to let the pc/bluray player to decode the HD sound format for you into LPCM and have it output to your AVR via HDMI. (problem is, I don't trust the pc/bluray player enough that it doesn't alter/touch anything! *see the next note) or another way to do is using the analog connection. the play will decode the HD sound format (AND downgrade the sound quality from 48khz/24bit to 48khz/16bit!) output it via analog connection.

now you see why I say it "might"? it's all depend on what you want and looking for. if you want bit perfect 1:1 solution from HTPC, or if you are using some nice decent higher end equipment, then, no, there's no perfect HTPC bluray output yet! (which it might change in the coming weeks tho, at least on the sound department) on the other hand, if you are using some average or midrange equipment and just want to first test the water, then yes, it's working fine. and even w/ it's current problem, it's still much better than DVDs.

good luck.

thanks for the very quick reply, i will be just playing the blu ray's from there disks.

basically i want to be able to put in the disk and watch it on my television (32" Samsung LCD) with the same quality as a dvd player would

would the onboard graphics be good enough in this case?

what do you use currently for sound?

again thanks for the help, iam a real newbie at HTPC's

 

[LandShark]

thanks for the very quick reply, i will be just playing the blu ray's from there disks.

basically i want to be able to put in the disk and watch it on my television (32" Samsung LCD) with the same quality as a dvd player would

would the onboard graphics be good enough in this case?

you

yes, the onboard video should be more than enough for bluray playback, so you can use a lower end CPU for less power usage, lower heat output! with this setup, you should have no problem to output great pic quality image with LPCM sound. just make sure your HDTV is HDCP enable, if not, you can always buy the AnyDVD HD software for it.

what do you use currently for sound?

you mean the sound system in my living room (which only use for TV viewing) or my dedicated home theater (I've refused to go to cinema for movie ever since I've built it! )?? or from my HTPCs?? from HTPCs I'm using either HDMI out for both video & audio, or using SPDIF out.

 

[Humpz]

The sound from HTPC to my tele, i have 3 types on connection the tele.

HDMI connection
DVI audio Connection
one that just says AUDIO

whats the best to go with and do you just run the cables from the inbuilt soundcard to your tele with no problems?

again thanks a bunch

PS, whats LPCM sound?

 

[Wicked Klown]

LCPM stands for Linear pulse code modulation. I would use the HDMI for audio and video.

 

[LandShark]

yup, if there's just the HTPC and the TV involved, use a single HDMI cable would be the best, simplest, and cleanest way.