Advice for building a HTPC

[anonymous-user]

I'm just about to build a HTPC based on Win7 64-bit and XBMC. I'm planning to use it for everything including Music player through my Hifi to ripping all my Blueray and DVD movies. I'll also fit a dual channel satellite card for Freesat watching/recording. The Idea is for it to be a one stop shop for all music, TV and Video entertainment.

I'm going to boot from a SSD and use a 3TB drive to store my recorded media.

Will this work in practice or be a balls ache to use? Anything to watch our for or tips?

Thanks.

[TEKNOPUG]

If you are intending on having the HTPC in your living rooom, ala AV equipment, then you may actually want to consider housing the large data TB drives in a simple NAS somewhere else. Nothing more annoying than trying to watch a movie/listen to music, with a HDD chuddering away in the background.

I'm building a PC/HTPC at the moment and one of the most important considerations for me was to ensure that it's as quiet and discreet as possible.

[TEKNOPUG]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Dunno, it's not my build

Maybe the OP doesn't want to route a whole load of cables all over their house? Maybe they do?

[Mr_Yogi]

Definitely think about the chassis, cooling and noise as Techopug suggested if it's going into your main living room. A NAS is the only real sensible solution if you are going to incorporate a lot of storage, unless it's all SSD's.

Consider quiet low RPM case/ CPU fans, GPU's with quiet coolers and quality PSU's with low noise levels, or even go fanless. An SSD is a good idea for the OS.

Also if you are thinking of adding a TV card, take a look at MediaPortal, which has very good TV support. It even supports a client/ server config whereby you can watch Live TV/ recordings and even set recordings from any supported device on the LAN. So for instance if you record the F1 and when you are ready to watch it your Mrs is in the lounge watching Enders. Just take your laptop into another room and watch it there. It's a brilliant piece of software, and it's free.

[anonymous-user]

Thanks for the feedback. I have a 2TB NAS which stores all my music and supports DLNA although it does have a tendency to drop off the network when not in use. I've mapped a network drive to it from the XBMC pc abd that works a treat. I also robocopy any newly downloaded albums to it on a scheduled task. Works really well.

Don't really need a big HDD therefore on the HTPC so will rethink that. I started speccing a PC and quickly got carried away. Assuming I get a small desktop PC with Windows 7, what's a sensible spec in terms of processor, memory and video/sound? I'm thinking now of keeping the Humax freesat PVR I've got. It works well and it's no bother switching the TV between 2 different sources. I'll still use the PC for playing and recording movies to my NAS though.

Does all of the above sound sensible?

[idiotgap]

I have an intel i3 based machine in the lounge with dual satelite tuner for freesat. I don't use windows though, I run XBMC on top of ubuntu linux. The nas is in the basement.

The PVR functionality isn't easy to get going, XBMC doesn't do it by itself so you have to install a separate back-end. I use mythtv for that which don't get me wrong is abolutely amazing, but is a pain to get going and an administrative burden. I regularly need to use my linux shell scripting and sql database skills to get things to work properly which isn't really as it should be. It's only that I've already invested so much time in it already that I persevere - I wouldn't have bothered if I had known what I was getting into. This applies to PVR functionality only - I would never now be without XBMC on our main tv for watching stored content.

[Mr E]

This is exactly what I have done, except I have a quad tuner Freeview HD card rather than satellite.
It's used for pretty much everything.
I run an i5 with a Nvidia 650 GFX card, and the largest fans I could fit in the box.
You *can* hear it when everything else is off, but it's not intrusive. The GPU is probably the nosiest bit.

anonymous said:

[redacted]

I would say that the SSD was the change that yielded the most dramatic improvement to be honest. And given the current price of a 120Gb SSD, I would always fit one.

[Mr_Yogi]

With regard to getting a desktop PC, I'd be very careful of the noise some of those little PC's create, cheap PSU's, small high speed chassis fans and OEM CPU heatsinks and fan arrangements. Might be fine in a office environment but not so good in your living room.

I'd just build your own from well reviewed and trusted kit, or spec those bits of kit and get it built for you.

I've got a cheap Silverstone ITX chassis that came with a 300W PSU as my main media centre server and that is surprisingly quiet. My other media PC uses a very low profile Silverstone cassis which required a special low profile CPU heatsink, this is a bit louder, even though it has a fanless PSU and upgraded quiet chassis fans. By comparison my desktop PC at work can make quite a din when it's working hard, although it's not that noticeable over the chatter, printers, etc. so only stands out when I'm working late and most people have gone home.

[TEKNOPUG]

wormus said:

Thanks for the feedback. I have a 2TB NAS which stores all my music and supports DLNA although it does have a tendency to drop off the network when not in use. I've mapped a network drive to it from the XBMC pc abd that works a treat. I also robocopy any newly downloaded albums to it on a scheduled task. Works really well.

Don't really need a big HDD therefore on the HTPC so will rethink that. I started speccing a PC and quickly got carried away. Assuming I get a small desktop PC with Windows 7, what's a sensible spec in terms of processor, memory and video/sound? I'm thinking now of keeping the Humax freesat PVR I've got. It works well and it's no bother switching the TV between 2 different sources. I'll still use the PC for playing and recording movies to my NAS though.

Does all of the above sound sensible?

Depends upon budget. An i3 on a Micro ATX board with reasonable on-board graphics would do the job. Don't need massive computing power/memory. Obviously ripping movies etc will be speed dependant upon processor but if you have the tasks scheduled anyway....

You can then get a dedicated HTPC case, which is a more pleasing form-factor that a PC tower. You could spend as little or as much as you want in all honesty.

[Mr_Yogi]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

For the price of a 60GB-120GB i'd say it's a no brainer as they are quick and silent. That said I've only got a 1TB hard disc in my main HTPC and it is surprisingly snappy. That's partially because there is very little crap installed on it and because it's only ever in sleep mode and is always running the media centre software, in my case MediaPortal.

As for the CPU, mine run Sandy Bridge Pentiums and are more than fast enough. The main HTPC even uses Intel graphics, and isn't noticably different to the HD7750 in the other HTPC.

Ripping can be quick for older DVDs or it can takes ages for some newer DVD's, as the latest encryptions can be a bi*ch. The speed of the CPU doesn't really help here, it's more down to the DVD drive, which are all pretty much the same. If however you are going to transcode DVD's to a more efficent CODEC such as H264 to save space then a fast quad/ oct core would be very beneficial.

[Mr E]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Boot time is pretty important for that "always available" feel. I'll admit I just threw a lot of money at mine and it's overspecced for the job it does.
I ran a HTPC with a core2duo and standard HDD for 5 years, and it didn't annoy me that much, so you can certainly get away with it.
Also budget for the various bits of software you'll need (bluray playback isn't free it seems).

On that note, if the OP wants an old DVB twin tuner, I think I have one that's looking for a home.

[Mr E]

TEKNOPUG said:

You can then get a dedicated HTPC case, which is a more pleasing form-factor that a PC tower. You could spend as little or as much as you want in all honesty.

I run in a large case that looks a bit like my amp.
http://attachments.team-mediaportal.com/2010/08/12...

Nice case, indifferent power supply and stock fans.

[Mr E]

Oh, and replying to the thread again (sorry); I believe that there are issues with DVB-T2 (Freeview HD) codecs and the onboard intel graphics in some motherboards. The video "flashes" sporadically and it's very annoying.

I stuck a GPU in for 3D, and the problem went away.

[Magic919]

TBS make some nice satellite cards. I've used the quad input PCI-E ones. Good driver support for Windows and Linux.

[Mr_Yogi]

Mr E said:

Oh, and replying to the thread again (sorry); I believe that there are issues with DVB-T2 (Freeview HD) codecs and the onboard intel graphics in some motherboards. The video "flashes" sporadically and it's very annoying.

I stuck a GPU in for 3D, and the problem went away.

I use a Black Gold Dual DVB-T2 tuner and Intel Graphics from my Sandy Bridge Pentium G840 without issue. I know there was/is an issue of stutter with 24fps content as used on Blurays, but I've no idea if thet's still an issue with the Sandy Bridge chips let alone the Ivy Bridge (newer) or Haswell (current) chips, as I haven't got a bluray drive. I use Asus motherboards BTW.

[Mr E]

Mr_Yogi said:

I use a Black Gold Dual DVB-T2 tuner and Intel Graphics from my Sandy Bridge Pentium G840 without issue. I know there was/is an issue of stutter with 24fps content as used on Blurays, but I've no idea if thet's still an issue with the Sandy Bridge chips let alone the Ivy Bridge (newer) or Haswell (current) chips, as I haven't got a bluray drive. I use Asus motherboards BTW.

I have a Haswell and with onboard GFX I had an issue just with freeview HD. Everything else was fine.

[Mr_Yogi]

Another great thing about PC PVRs (both FreeSat and FreeView) is that each tunner can connect to a different MUX (group of channels) and you can then watch and record as many of the available channels as the PC can handle, which is a lot. For example you can watch one channel in the lounge, watch another channel in the family room, another channel in the office and record a number of different channels at the same time. All with only a dual tuner, providing all the channels are contained within the same 2 MUX's. I know MedisPortal can do this but I think other servers can also do this. I'm not sure if Tuner cards need to specifically offer this though, but the Black Golds do?

[Mr_Yogi]

Mr E said:

I have a Haswell and with onboard GFX I had an issue just with freeview HD. Everything else was fine.

I would ask if you updated to the latest drivers but as it's Intel, I assume there aren't any

[Justin Cyder]

Out of interest, why run WIndows & XBMC when you could just go with Win media centre? Is it just a preference?

As for the HD, I run three in my case, a 50gb SSD to run Windows & all the software & two 500gb SATA drives that store all the media which is itself backed up on an external, or at least the stuff I wouldn't want to lose. It's all in am Antec fusion case & looks like an amp sat under the TV.

[anonymous-user]

I like XBMC for all the Video Add-ons you get for free and there's loads of VOD available, loads more than say Netflix. Amazing piece of software, opensource and free!!

I'm liking the look of some of these: http://www.fiercepc.co.uk/home-theatre-pcs/