HTPC Show us your HTPC setup!

Are those parts part of the 'Bit-Tech.net' benefits package then Bindi?

Sofa looks comfy too.

 

I wish I had a job where "saving space" and "helping out the office" meant getting to take some nice hardware home.

 

Edit: this random question was actually meant for bindi...
is that the perspective from the camera or do you need to sort out your pj settings, the bottom of the pic looks a lot narrower than the top...

at the mo im using an optoma hd720x for projectorage, connected to my xbox 1 using xbmc, and my hCpc

gigabyte 690g board,
amd be-2350
1gb ocz ram
ati hd2600 fanless graphics card
2x500gb samsungs
hauppauge twin freeview card.
300W hiper psu
xbox hd-dvd add-on + powerdvd 7
win xp and gbpvr
thermaltake lanbox lite case, (i know its thermaltake, but for them is postively understated, quite a nice case for 50 quid i reckon)

gbpvr in action

Brucie kicking some butt

my av kit is all behind the pj screen

 

^^ Why do you prefer a black 'screen' to a white one?

 

the screen part of the screen is white

 

It's a 10mm lens and the only way I can take a pic without standing in the light

I was standing about 4 feet from the wall at the time, it makes the room look bigger than it is.

 

how are you liking the 780g board after spending some time with it bindi?

im considering selling my hd2600 and 690g to go for that instead for minimal power consumption and a possible low profile case upgrade in the future.

 

Well done fathazza for using the best htpc software in my view (new release 1.29). I haven't changed my spec since my first post other than the fact I gave virgin cable the elbow. Freesat will be my next thing with hdtv and then the pc will have to be upgrade for S2.

 

Love it - the quality of the HD 2600 should still be better given the extra shader horsepower, but its simplicity and capability to play anything I throw at it is basically why I gave it our excellence award (in terms of using it for a HTPC). We only recommend stuff we'd actually use ourselves.

 

why thanks very much, tis a great bit of software, way better than vista media centre on my main pc... and its free

i only bought the hd2600 for UVD... but i guess "if it aint broke dont fix it"... Tho the only games i play on it are trackmania united and defcon (seeing as you have a pj, you need to get defcon on it, it makes you feel like some evil meglomaniac when everything is that much bigger )

I tried colin mccrae dirt on it but the hd2600 couldnt even manage it at 640x480 without chugging crappy port

 

We've got a Wii60 for gaming, so don't really care for loading the HTPC with games. The Wii looks surprisingly good in composite on this projector but on anything else it looks like total crap.

 

how does the wii work with the layout of your room? dont tell me you play all that stuff sitting down?

just try defcon on it, trust me

 

Uh, yea. sensor bar goes at the end of the table and I play by wrist flick. Or, in the case of testing Bleach, two handed masturbatory action.

 

Here's one thing I found out about Philips: they make excellent plasma screens (I have a 32" at home), but they make crap DVD recorders. Good thing it was thrown in as a freebie with the screen.

Looking for a new DVD/HDD replacement, I found all of them wanting a bit. Most Japanese units are good, but have clunky interfaces. The Sony's are OK, but then I thought: hey, I'm a modder. A creator of l33t PCs. Shouldn't I be true to my geek-self and make my own HTPC? Of course I should.

So here is my HTPC in progress:



That's right, it's being built around an mCubed HFX passive case. Below the mobo (an Aopen i945GMm-VHL) test-fitted:



Since the Philips plasma comes literally as a display with a separate tuner box, I plan to use the Hauppage Nova-T-500 dual DVB tuner, so the HTPC drives both the display as a TV, and acts as a DVD/HDD recorder. It also will have a WD GreenPower 1 Tb HDD, a Core Duo Mobile T2700, and 2Gb memory.

I know, sounds expensive. But it needn't be --in fact, I'm managing to keep the whole project around £700,--. It pays to shop around, and eBay is your friend.

I'll slap up a brief project log soon.

 

Nexxo, How did you decide on the tuner card?

I currently have in my HTPC 2x Black Gold cards, and always thought of changing them.

 

Hauppage generally does good products that are compatible with Windows Media Center. In a HTPC, reliability is important.

I chose the dual DVB version because my plasma screen is basically just a display without its analogue tuner box. I need one for watching, one for recording. The possibility of recording two programmes simultaneuously is a bonus.

The Hauppage Nova T 500 is an odd bird, though. Some people report problems with it in their systems; others find it works flawlessly in their identical setups. Keep in mind that it is essentially two USB devices on a USB-to-PCI bridge, so how your mobo handles USB devices when suspending/waking up from S3 is kind of important.

Contrary to the manual, its accompaying remote works fine with Windows Media Center, by the way.

You can combine two cards to have 4 tuners --with a little (complicated) registry hacking or simply by using MCETunerApp.

 

I have wanted a HTPC for a long time and i DO love seeing other peoples efforts. Top notch so far and lots to think about.
The one thing that i would really love to see is a HTPC with a connection to a pay-per-view network (with Card reader etc.)

My main problem at the moment is having to re-learn TV standards as im moving to canada, although its good fun reading again Just need to save for that HD TV now.

 

a lot of those problems are down to people with windows xp and what version of usbehci.sys they have. Tho that was only discovered thanks to a 25+ page thread on the hauppauge forums which was pretty much ignored by hauppauge staff and only solved by some clever forumite....

give gbpvr a go nexxo, its not as pretty as windows media center but i find it a better experience to use and has a nice webserver that i can set recordings on by another computer or my phone when away from home.

 

Thanks for the tip.

Looks slick. I like the programming by remote feature...

 

At the moment I am running XBMC in my living room, and my A64 Shuttle with MCE (and a Hauppauge Nova-t) in my bedroom. When I get a job I'll probably relegate the Shuttle to HTPC duties - MCE does work very well and it seems capable of HD too.

For non-HD content (and obviously no recording), the XBMC is brilliant. I can't fault it at all. Considering what it's worth (About £50 these days ), it's perfect.