Guide to Building a HTPC, Workstation and Server - Page 566

i tried the LAV CUVID and MADVR, it doesnt work on my 64bit windows with MPC. I see the MADVR selection but i it's won't let me select it and gray out. Maybe due to my 64bit windows.

Yeah what Rene said. This happened to me. I think I had all 32 bit programs but accidently had one 64 bit program. I originally was using a 64 bit setup but had to switch to 32bit because madvr dosnt come in 64 bit. It was least confusing for me to just uninstall all the 64 bit versions first and then download the 32 bit versions of the programs u needed. Once you have all 32bit programs madvr will show up in mpchc.

I have decided to do a graphics card update on my htpc - I currently have an ATI 3450 and am looking at an nvidia GT 430 - newegg has it for under $40 - my question is, while it will bitstream dolby tru hd - what about regular dolby digital or dts - will it still send it out the hdmi port or will I need to use the on board motherboard spdif to send that data?

Yes anything that can bitstream HD audio can also do the regular ones like DTS and DD.

Thnx Again Renethx.
Always a good source of info. I didn't realize there was such a performance gap between the 2 cpu's... for it's intended purpose, (HTPC w >10% gaming, primarily steaming HD video) with a discrete nvidia OC gtx460 VC... would I notice much difference between the 2?

How good a guide for this purpose is the "windows experance" numbers from W7? Or does it not really provide a measure of the same factors?

Its junk. Not a very good benchmark as results can vary widely.

Sorry for so many Q's in a row, but I need a 2 channel TV card that can record digital on both channels...perfer with 1 input cable like my cablebox DVR can. I prefer ones that can record HD from the cable box as well... staying at "the bigest bang for the buck" price point if possible.

There is only two options to record HD cable channels. A ceton 4 tuner cable card tuner. Which requires you to rent a cable card from your cable company. Which only costs like 3-5 bucks a month but the ceton is $400.

Or you can get a hauupage HD PVR which comes as a set top box or an internal card. This records over analog component cables. Its more of just a device to record what you view compared to a traditional tuner.

If you want to record OTA HD tv with an antenna the Avermedia Duet is what a lot of people use.

You can use an HD Homerun (HDHR3) or Hauppauge MCE 2250 (WinTV_HVR-2250 MCE) to record unencrypted channels HD (Clear QAM) directly from the cable. I have both and prefer the HD Homerun. The HD Homerun uses a network connection and can be used by any PC on the network. I have Time Warner cable in South TX, both devices only found 7 of the available 22 Clear QAM channels in Media Center. The missing channels were difficult to add to MCE, after much trial and error I finally worked out how to do it. PM if you need help with that. All your local major networks should have Clear QAM channels on your cable service.

Keep in mind this is normally just the free channels that are available via OTA. Just so nno one thinks they are getting espn or something like that.

thanks joeydrunk and Renethx

There is also the discontinued ATI wonder dct digital tv tuner. They have an internal card and an external version. Its just like the ceton except it had one tuner instead of 4. You can find them on eBay for $125-150

I finished putting my new htpc together last night.. went pretty smooth. To replace the 80mm case fan, I had to remove the power supply first, that was a hassle. I'm running OpenElec off a usb stick and it's working great. Had to get the nightly and change one setting to get audio working but other than that, it worked perfect out of the box with my MCE remote and intel gpu hardware accel. If I had to do one thing over again, I might have gotten the Antec isk 300-65 case that includes a dc/dc power adapter instead of a PSU because then the PSU wouldn't take up so much room in my case.

parts: asrock h67m-itx mobo
antec isk 310-150 case
g.skill 2x2gb ddr3 1600 F3-12800CL9D-4GBXL ram
4gb sandisk usb stick booting openelec
windows MCE remote and ir receiver
replaced tricool case fan with 80mm scythe 1000rpm fan
it idles at only 35c and I live in hawaii, very impressed by the case
killawatt shows it uses 37 watts when playing a 720p h264 mkv
openelec boots up in about 15 seconds after the bios logo

I'm normally not a fan of itx cases but that was is sweet in the wild.

Thanx folks! John P, you mention both only found 7 channels at first (I assume only 7 hd channels but all the SD digital?)) and the MCE was hard to add the other channels... I take it the HRD was easier?...I'd rather have an internal card (WAF), and I see the network advantages of the HRD... but other than that? esp. now you know the tricks with the MCE? $400 is out of budget for a tuner card, with 2- 2channel dvr's already

The 7 channels initially found were a mix of HD and SD (but were Clear QAM digital). My goal was to be to able record from the national networks ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and CW in HD. I wanted to use Win 7 Media Center as the recording and control software due to the guide, record scheduling and integration with MCE. With either the HDR or Hauppauge only 7 channels showed up after the MCE channel scan and CW was the only major network.

Adding the channels that did not show up in channel scan requires knowing physical channel number (used by tuner), whether QAM 64 or 256 (all were 256), station name and call letters and the virtual channel number (channel # in guide/DVR). You have to first add the physical channel number, verify it works, go back and edit the physical channel number changing it to the virtual channel number and select the correct matching call letters and station name.

I did get the channels I wanted working.

I guess that my preference for the HDHR comes from their support information and tools that finally helped me figure how to get both products working. I had the Hauppauge first but would still not have it working without the information from HDR. HDHR seems to actively updating their driver Hauppauge does not. However Hauppauge does come with and Infrared Receiver and MCE remote, if you need those items use the Hauppauge.

WAF is the same for both products. Once configured into MCE they both work the same.

$400?? The Hauppauge is less than 125 and the HDR is less than 120.

the ceton is $400... Are not all "free" channels "clear" I would want the tuner to get the same channels as the tv's without a cable box do... not expecting the prem.'s but on my older XP/MC... when I used it as a PVR before the dig. switchover... it got most channels (non prem) under #125

Would these tuners do the same?

Neither the Hauppauge or the HDHR supports CableCard, which is a huge difference. If you only want access to the Clear-QAM channels, the Ceton would be overkill, but if you want access to everything in your Cable TV package, the Ceton will get you that.

The older single tuner ATI CableCard tuners are still selling for around $100 on ebay and have some issues that the Ceton's don't (the ATI's won't work for many FIOS customers, for example). Also, with the Ceton, 1 CableCard will supply all 4 tuners, while you would need 4 of the ATI cards AND 4 CableCards to get the same functionality.

The Hauppauge will receive all the same channels on a cable system as a TV that does not have a cable box. The HDHR will only recieve Clear QAM channels.

my goal is to see if I can fire the cable TV company down the road, if we can get decent results from Webtv (netflix, hulu ect..) and maybe OTA..but in the meantime I would want to use it to record/dvr the non prem. channels as perhaps the first step to weaning off cable tv...so I don't want to spend to much on something I might can down the road.. but do want to channel recording for the non prem. channels... sounds like the Happ.... right?

Don't expect to be able to record much beyond the major networks (basically the OTA equivalents) on a cable system with a Clear QAM tuner. Most of the other channels will require a CableCard tuner. There probably are exceptions to this, but they definitely aren't very common.

Yup

I think I am going to pull the trigger on the ASUS ENGT430/DI/1GD3(LP) GeForce GT 430

Seems like a good card and will do the bitsreaming and future 3d when I upgrade the tv later in the year. One question, will it handle all of the computer audio via hdmi - meaning dd and dts as well as pcm so I wont need to use the onboard audio? I am also assuming that a core2 duo 8400 is still good enough to run with this.

thanks

a quick question, is zacate sata chipset support port multiplier?

Rene,

In your guide (at least as far as December) the 15 disk rack mount media storage server call for a Norco 450B case; I believe you want the more expensive Norco 450TH case to get the 10 hot swap bays. If you look here you will also see that a 3rd 5 drive cage will require moving the power/reset/LED module out of the way. And it isn't clear if the hard drive cage add on comes with a fan like the included cages have as shown here.

[Edit] The links bring you to the front & side rather front and inside, you can just navigate by selecting the thumbnail...

Ivy Bridge news: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/04/i...l-future-cpus/