HTPC Specs - Input anyone?

[natrlhy]

Opus4,

My mistake. You are absolutely correct in stating that the DualTV does have two separate S-Video inputs on the card.

http://www.htpcnews.com/index.php?op...=174&Itemid=31

I think this is why I was looking into getting the Nvidia card over the Hauppauge PVR-500 for this very reason. I'm just going blind overthinking all of this...

If most feel that other single cards have better video/PQ then I may still go the single card route.

[natrlhy]

According to the review on the AverMedia 250 MCE at HTPCnews.com the only con to this card is that the black levels need to be adjusted:

http://www.htpcnews.com/index.php?op...1&limitstart=4

Is this done through adjusting your TV or can this be done with some software or driver for the card? Just wondering.

After seeing the feedback I've got it narrowed down to these cards:

Hauppauge PVR-250
Nvidia DualTV (I like the output reviewed at HTPCnews.com. Very vivid and punchy)
AverMedia Purity 3D MCE 250

I do lean towards the Nvidia Card due to the fact that it does have 2 S-Video inputs and this does indeed meet my needs for DirecTV receivers if I were to connect two receivers to the DualTV. I was premature in some of my earlier statements regarding it to be a "waste"...

[ybrew]

Just to make sure I understand something....

I'm running an AMD XP2600 w/ 512 RAM and about 1/2 terrabyte of storage, with a TI4400 Graphics card.

Assuming this box stays in a closet and I get a 3000+ Proc, 1gig ram, High end Video, for my client, this'll be fine for HDTV?

I was expecting to have to upgrade my server with a 3000+ proc, but if I don't need to, this is even better.

[blade]

Originally Posted by ybrew

Just to make sure I understand something....

I'm running an AMD XP2600 w/ 512 RAM and about 1/2 terrabyte of storage, with a TI4400 Graphics card.

Assuming this box stays in a closet and I get a 3000+ Proc, 1gig ram, High end Video, for my client, this'll be fine for HDTV?

I was expecting to have to upgrade my server with a 3000+ proc, but if I don't need to, this is even better.

It will be fine. The HD signal is already encoded when it's transmitted so the HD stream you receive is just written to the disk, there is no encoding or anything else cpu intensive involved in capturing HD.

[ybrew]

Well this makes my decision to go Sage even better (if possible).

Probably won't build a client capable of decoding HD for awhile. (never if they ever have an HD extender) But not needing to upgrade my server is still great news.

[sunray]

Originally Posted by natrlhy

Hello Sage members!

I will be buying my HTPC components this week and wanted the members input since I might be using SageTV as my frontend.

All questions welcome!

HTPC Build Specs:
Running total as of 8/12/2006: $1390 (includes estimated shipping and tax)
Green = Already own



Case: Silverstone Lascala LC10M (Clean, VFD, roomy)

You DONT want this case. I speak from experience as I own one. Yes, its roomy but it has very poor cooling. The two 60 mm exhaust fans it comes with dont cool the case very well and are loud which is a very bad thing on a HTPC. Getting quiet 60 mm fans is expensive (I paid $16 apiece for mine) and relatively difficult to find. Even with the quiet fans it runs hot which will make the PSU fan speed up and make it noisy.

Also the IMon IR (InfraRed)receiver and VFD (Vacuum Florescent Display) only work with the IMon remote control. IMon uses special timing for its IR (infrared) signals that no other remote can do so no universal remote will work with it. The software that comes with the IMon ito allow you to control other apps is mediocre at best. You need to get a better cooled case expecially if you are going to do some gaming.

[natrlhy]

Originally Posted by sunray

You need to get a better cooled case expecially if you are going to do some gaming.

What would you suggest?

What components are contained in your LC10?

I'm looking for a case that is of course quiet, can take an ATX motherboard, has a VFD that is very compatible with most remotes (not a show stopper though) and I don't have to mod or swap out all the fans to keep the guts cool.

[Polypro]

LC17. No VFD, but how far away will you be sitting (Will you even see it?).

P

[natrlhy]

I have a pretty narrow living room so I would be about 6 feet away from the HTPC and Plasma.

[geogecko]

If I had my case to do over again, I wouldn't get the VFD. Partly because it gets glitchy after a while (Matrix Orbital--could be software/hardware related, I don't know), and partly that about the only thing I use it for is hard drive space, and a clock.

The clock is probably the biggest thing, because it replaces the good old VCR clock.

[natrlhy]

Forget the VFD

I just need a case that is quiet, roomy , keeps things cool and looks good.

I've read the HTPCnews.com reviews and builds with the LC-17 and all are good. I'll take ya up on the LC-17 suggestion. Newegg even has it at a discounted price of $124.99

Others have said stay away from the 60mm fans on Silverstone cases, and the LC17 has none.

[blade]

Quite is relative. I have a Silverstone case (I forget which model) that I bought to use as my HTPC, but it was far too loud for my taste. I even tried it with just the 80mm PS fan and a Samsung drive (was the quietest 3.5" drive at the time) and the seek noise and the fan annoyed me.

I ended up building a mid-tower that I could tuck away out of sight behind a chair in the corner and placed the drive in an aluminum sandwich and suspended it in a 5.25" bay. It has four 80mm fans running at 5 volts and I have to look at the light on front to tell if it's on or not. It can't be heard from more than a few inches away.

Smaller cases can be difficult to get quiet while fighting heat problems. If you're going to have tuner cards and storage drives it's going to be even harder. Just depends on how much noise you can tolerate (or how good your hearing is).

[geogecko]

Very true. Depending on how much money you want to blow, you could spend about as much as you already have racked up there, on just a case from A-Tech...(don't let that bug bite you unless you've got cash, because one you get bitten, you can't stop refreshing the site, waiting for what is new).

Even my A-Tech case, with the hard drives mounted in the case, I could still hear the seeks, which were still quieter than my regular office computer, but still annoying in the living room, with nothing on. And this was with the Samsung drives.

I've since put all the drives in a mass storage case (passive, of course), and now I have to concentrate, and listen closely to hear seek noises.

blade is right, it is relative. Most people though, would say that even with the most quiet components, there is still a slight amount of noise that you can never get rid of.

It's all about compromise, I guess. Silence for heat, and vice versa.

The only real way to get past this, is to use a server client setup, with the client only having a video card, and maybe a 2.5" hard drive, of course, sound isolated. If you could run a diskless client, even better. No noise at all, if you can find a passive solution.

Maybe the A-Tech Mini-Client?

[sunray]

Originally Posted by natrlhy

What would you suggest?

What components are contained in your LC10?

I'm looking for a case that is of course quiet, can take an ATX motherboard, has a VFD that is very compatible with most remotes (not a show stopper though) and I don't have to mod or swap out all the fans to keep the guts cool.

My HTPC has a 3.2 ghz Northwood P4, 1 gig of RAM, ATI 9800 Pro video card, MadDog 7.1 sound card and 3 PVR-250 cards. I have two hard drives, I'm using a Zalman 7000 AlCu CPU heatsink/fan. For silence and cooling purposes I did the following:

I replaced the stock fan on the 9800 Pro with a VGA Silencer which exhausts the video card heat directly out of the case. I replaced the 80mm intake fan that comes with the case with a 92 mm fan with is mounted on rubber grommets. One hd is suspended in a 5 1/4 bay with rubber bands, the other is mounted with rubber grommets. The two 60 mm SilenX exhaust fans are also mounted with rubber grommets. I have a 400 watt Seasonic Super Tornado PSU with 120 mm exhaust fan and 78% efficiency. At the time I put the HTPC together these were the just about the best components available for silence and (air) cooling.

I drilled holes in the top of the case over the CPU to try and introduce cool air into the case and quiet it down. I used to have 3 hds but the heat made it run too hot and noisy. Removing 1 of the hds allows it to run relatively quiet for a while but when I'm recording 2 or 3 shows at once the case gets hot and the temperature controlled PSU fan speeds up and becomes noisy. I also tried the Silverstone PSU muffler which was a waste of $25.

If I was putting together a HTPC now I'd use a Origen/Uneed X11 case or its modified clone the Zalman HD160. The X11 is a ATX case and comes with a VFD and remote control that is much more compatible with other (universal) remote controls and HTPC control software. It also has two 80 mm exhaust fans which should be quieter as the larger the fan the slower is has to rotate to move the same amount of air and the less noisy it can be. It's also much easier and cheaper to find quiet 80 mm fans if the stock ones arent quiet enough.

[sunray]

Originally Posted by geogecko

),

The only real way to get past this, is to use a server client setup, with the client only having a video card, and maybe a 2.5" hard drive, of course, sound isolated. If you could run a diskless client, even better. No noise at all, if you can find a passive solution.

Maybe the A-Tech Mini-Client?

I finally went with a media server setup that holds my hds but not my capture cards which are still in the HTPC. I'm putting the media server in a another room so I dont have to care about the noise. That room doesnt have a cable outlet so I cant move the capture cards into the media server.

[natrlhy]

A HUGE thank you to everyone that assisted me in my HTPC hardware selection!

As of today I have officially purchased all of these items. As a note for other buyers interested, I paid a final price of $1,478.27 USD (that includes tax and shipping).

My budget started at $1,000 but I began to realize that it needed to be $1,500 in order to include a good case and the tax and shipping.

THANKS EVERYONE!


HTPC Build Specs:
Final total: $1478.27 USD (includes shipping and tax)
PURCHASED!!!
Green = Already own

OS: Windows XP Pro SP2
Case: Silverstone Lascala LC17
CPU: AMD Athlon 3800+ 64 X2 Dual-Core
DVD R/W: LG GSA-H10N
Floppy Drive: NONE
Hard Drive: Western Digital WD5000KS 500GB SATA II (smaller OS partition, 2nd partition 64K clusters)
Memory: CORSAIR XMS2 1GB (2 x 512MB) DDR2 800
Motherboard: ASUS M2N-E
Remote: Microsoft MCE remote (comes with Nvidia DualTV card)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12-430 ATX12V (The MSI 7600GT recommends 400W minimum)
Keyboard: At a later time
Mouse: At a later time
Sound Card: Onboard
Video Card: MSI Geforce 7600GT (NX7600GT-VT2D256EHD)
TV Capture Card: Nvidia DualTV MCE
HD Capture Card: Vbox Cat's Eye DTA-150
DVI-HDMI Cable: 10 ft. DVI to HDMI cable
CPU Cooler: Arctic Cooling Alpine 64 (Cheaper than Zalman 8000 and cools just as good)

TV: Pioneer 50" Plasma PRO-1110HD
Satellite Box: DirecTV HTL-HD Receiver
Remote: Sony RM-AV3000

[Silky1]

Originally Posted by geogecko

The only real way to get past this, is to use a server client setup, with the client only having a video card, and maybe a 2.5" hard drive, of course, sound isolated. If you could run a diskless client, even better. No noise at all, if you can find a passive solution.

Maybe the A-Tech Mini-Client?

I'm triing to wrap my mind around client/server and where the horsepower needs to be. If I have a mini-client diskless config as you suggest. The client only needs to be able to run the video playback from the Server PC, right? And the server has my capture cards and hard drives, or would I capture from the client, leaving the server to soley be responsible for storage?

[MeInMaui]

Originally Posted by Silky1

I'm triing to wrap my mind around client/server and where the horsepower needs to be. If I have a mini-client diskless config as you suggest. The client only needs to be able to run the video playback from the Server PC, right? And the server has my capture cards and hard drives, or would I capture from the client, leaving the server to soley be responsible for storage?

All capture and storage (and streaming to any media extenders) would be on the server. The client needs enough horsepower to drive your display. There still seems to be much disagreement where the horsepower actually needs to be. One camp says that it should be on your server if you are going to be transcoding video to media extenders and placeshifter (and doing commercial detection). Others say it should be on the client if you are going to drive HD resolutions. I guess you have to think about your intended usage and make your decisions based on that. At any rate, your best video card should be on the client unless you are planning on also watching tv on your server (at HD resolution). Hope this helps a little.

Aloha,
Mike

[geogecko]

Server: Hard Drive storage, tuners, and server for SageTV
Client: (Maybe an OS Hard Drive), and a good video card.

So, you'd want the biggest drives in the server, and also your tuner cards.

Edit.
^^^What he said...

[blade]

As Mike said it depends on what you're going to be doing. If you're using a media extender and transcoding video, running commercial detection, etc.. the server may need more power than the client. If the server is used for nothing but capture then the client should have more power.

My server is a celeron 366 and you can't get much slower than that. It does fine capturing 4 shows at once and streaming to 2 clients. I wouldn't recommend a system that slow, but you get the point of how little power is required. Of course there is no way I'd dream of trying to use a media extender with my server.