Assassin's Simple/Beginner HTPC Buying Guide - Page 327

I am using the onboard graphics but am in the market for a discrete card. The GD04 case manual says it can accomodate a card up to 11" long. Height seems to be the limitiation at 120mm or 4.72 inches. A lot of the fanless cards have the heat pipe/tines running out on top of the card making it taller than what the case can accomodate.

I have less than a week of experience with it so far, but i elected to go with the ASRock Pro-3m. It has everything i need for this HTPC. In the silverstone case i have a Blu-Ray optical drive, an SSD, a 2TB Green drive, and a 750GB drive, all of these things work properly, and if at some point down the road i want to add a discrete graphics card i have room to do it in this case with this board. In short i'm happy with the build quality and the placement of connections on the board. YMMV.

Thanks. This looks promising. Though it's weird that a case that's smaller in all dimensions than the Silverstone holds more drives.
http://www.nmediapc.com/htpc7000b.htm

I am still unsure about reading some case specs. The Silverstone specs say:
http://www.silverstonetek.com/produc...id=233&area=en
External

5.25" x 1 Internal

3.5" x 2 , 2.5” x 1 or 3.5" x 1 , 2.5” x 2 I read this as holding, at maximum: 1 Blu-ray drive 2 internal drives Is that right? I'm thinking about a system with 2 x 3TB drive. I estimate I need 5 TB to hold all my media, including DVDs and Blu-rays ripped but not transcoded. (I watch special features, don't want to discard quality, and want to minimize setup time, so am leaning towards rips only) I need at least two internal drive bays and an external (for the blu-ray). If I add an SSD, then three internal bays and one external. If I understand, I can't use a Silverstone GD04/05 for that setup. Discs Size Ea. (GB) Total (GB) DVD 200 9.7 1940 Blu-ray 75 30 2250 TV (hrs) 100 6.6 660 Music 400 15 Windows 25 Total 775 4890

I have a URC MX-850 remote and the update software has codes for Windows Media Center. I know this remote will successfully navigate in Media Center from other posts i have found, but none mentions what hardware i need. I'd really like to get this accomplished so i can put all the other remotes and keyboards and mice away. Do i just need to get the Windows Media Center Receiver and connect my URC IR repeater to it?

http://www.amazon.com/Genuine-Dell-M.../dp/B003QQOHZ4

EDIT: Once, again i missed the first page of this post where assassin recommended the Flirc USB adapter.

http://flirc.tv/

This seems like it might be the way to go. Does anyone know if these play nice with URC remotes, or specifically the MX-850?

So i just placed an order with amazon for this:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...=AWSTL9OR9CVRW

It's a Windows 7 Vista XP remote with the IR receiver for only $13.60. This is the remote from the first post, but the caption for it on page 1 doesn't mention that it comes with an IR receiver. That's why i didn't even look at it as a solution to my URC remote problem. Assassin, you might want to add the IR info to your caption, or just use the thumbnail from amazon, which has been updated/changed since you posted it to show the IR receiver dongle in the image as well.




Also, since none of my newer PC's have serial ports, I needed a USB to serial converter to connect the MX-850 to a PC and program the codes for Windows Media Center. This is what i ordered:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...00_i01_details

Both with free 2 day shipping with Amazon Prime. Thanks for the help again Assassin.

My wife and 3 kids are loving the HTPC setup so far! Once i get my MX-850 setup with the system, i'm pretty sure i can teach my 4 year old how to turn it on and watch Tangled! Thanks a bunch for the great guides, i just have a little tweaking left and i'll be done. After that...a lot of time to spend ripping our extensive kid movie library over. Got any shortcuts or easy ways to do that?

I hope your not getting too tired of my posts, but i am trying to be helpful

The Rosewill remote on post #1 links to a deactivated item at Newegg. This appears to be the replacement item at Newegg, which also includes an IR receiver dongle.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16880101002

I have my ripped movies in 3 Folders My Movies/BluRay, My Movies/DVD and My Movies/Recorded (de-commercialized recorded movies). Can Media Browser be configured to show all these movie all together in one tab, so they show up on one screen?

Yes, if you follow the guide it shows how to create a collection and in your case you would create one collection and on the right side add all 3 folders into one collection.

So how do I consolidate the libraries? or where in your guides should I look.



BTW, thanks for the forward and back buttons at the end of your paid guides.

My old MX-500 would NOT work reliably with Media Center unless I went into Windows registry and enabled "debounce". It's due to problems of some remotes in handling RC5/6 IR codes. Your 850 is newer and more expensive - it may work fine. If not do a search for debounce.

Does the GIGABYTE GA-Z68MA-D2H-B3 z68 motherboard support HDCP to the TV with the recommended Asus BluRay player?

I have that MB with the LG Lite-On Blu-ray drive. Works fine playing Blu-rays with TMT5 through HDMI.

What is the difference?

The BIOS look the same?

I never had an ASrock before.

I've always built with Gigabyte or Asus motherboards, but with this chipset P67, Z68 etc. AsRock seems to be the ones who got it right.

Assassin, Do you recommend a case/psu that fits the microATX boards your suggest but allows for the OTA Tv tuners in the future. For instance

I am considering this build..

Sandy Bridge i3-2105
Gigabyte GA-z68MA
G.Skill 4GB (2x2gb)
Antech 380W
Asus DB/DVD/CD
MicroATX with BlueRay slot
2gig WD
Rii Touch
-------
win7 64 bit
XBMC or Media Browser

But am considering adjusting to allow for
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16815116037


Also do you have any thoughts on the build above or these parts that arent in your guide?

Rii mini. http://www.amazon.com/Rii-Wireless-K..._p23_d2_i3_7_2
diNovo mini. http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-920-0.../dp/B0011FOOI2

I was going to ask the same ASUS vs ASrock question. The MSI motherboad in my HTPC I just built is acting odd. When I plug in the IR reciever included with the "Vista remote", I dont get any video over HDMI. However I do get video if I reboot from windows orunplug it all together. I was looking at ordering either:

ASRock H67M (B3) Listed in your guide.

or

ASUS P8H61-M (REV 3.0)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131716

+1. I have two ASRock boards I used in two builds...one in the unRAID server and the other in the i5 HTPC build. Works flawlessly.

I am working on my assassin htpc setup. I have an avi that when I try to play in WMC via Mediabrowser it says the audio format is not recognized. Other avi files work with no problem. And the same avi file that won't work in WMC does play correctly in windows media player, sound and video. Suggestions?