Guide to Building a HTPC, Workstation and Server - Page 88

Thanks renethx for your invaluable guide.

The retailer I am going with does not carry the Radeon 3650 Silent, I've been looking at the Gainward 8600GT Bliss instead. How much of an improvement is the 9600GT, as it is 50-60% more expensive?

Any thoughts on the suitability on this? My budget is relatively small right now, but would I still like to be somewhat future proof. Or should I try to muster up patience and and wait for the 9500?

I run Meedio on my machine and mainly use it for TV/Movies and the occasional gaming but need to upgrade to allow for BD/HD.

Renethx, I am building my HTPC this weekend, or starting at least, since it is my first build I do not anticipate it actually working immediately but now I am looking into software.

I love what I have seen of mythTV but am not a computer person per se and linux is intimidating as are the requirements to use Myth. I am thinking I will probably have to use Vista media center.

I guess my primary question here is if using AnyDVD to remove restrictions from the movies I play will solve all this PAP audio stuff that I really cannot understand even though I have read your entire thread on it? To be honest this all seems well over the heads of the average user.

If I use AnyDVD do I still have to worry about all these protections messing up the audio on my movies?

Also any software advice would be great. This machine will primarily be used for web browsing and movies with occasional games.

Thanks for your quick responses, your input ahs been invaluable and I am sure I will continue to use it as I develop my home entertainment system over the next while.

Thanks again!

Didn't I read somewhere that a hardcore audio/HTPC enthusiast could use AnyDVD, convert to FLAC audio in an mkv container and get 7.1 multichannel LPCM out at better than 16bit/48kHz? Or did I misunderstand?

Yep, that works.

I currently use XP with GBPVR. GBPVR is free and has lots of options and plugins. It's less intimidating than a linux build and more open than Media Center. You can even install over MC, so if you don't like it, switch back to MC.

I'm not a hardcore audio guy, but to fill out the gray areas and as long as I'm on the subject: What does one need to get the FLAC audio 7.1 multichannel LPCM out at better than 16bit/48kHz once you've made the MKV container with it? I've got a Gigabyte P35-DS4 MB with integrated 7.1 multichannel analog outputs, will that work?

renethx says:

Is there an underlying assumption in his comment about limitations imposed by protection/players when decoding/playing BD, or does it mean that the HDMI sound card is the only way to get full-resolution multichannel LPCM?

Renethx, and all contributors, thanks for this great guide. After reading it for several months, I've taken the plunge and will be assembling an X2 AMD-based budget system this weekend. I'm going to be using the Abit A-N78HD mobo, relying on the integrated chipset for blu-ray playback. There are couple unresolved issues I am could use some advice on.

1) what discrete video card for occasional gaming? I'd love to take advantage of hybrid SLI with a Nvidia card, and hopefully the power savings, but maybe I should wait until there are more options, forget about hybrid SLI and go with a higher end Nvidia card, or should I just go with ATI? I just don't know what to expect with games these days, and it doesn't help that there are no official system requirements yet for the game I want to play (Fallout 3), which doesn't come out for a few more months.

2) what software for disc playback is preferred right now? PowerDVD or Arcsoft Total Media? There doesn't seem to be a lot of recent talk about these programs.
Thanks in advance!

Oh, and can you direct me to your instructions on fabricating an optical adaptor bracket for the mobo? I read it a while ago, and now can't seem to find the post.

Sometimes reading this thread is like swimming in molasses - sweet, but tough slogging forward and that permanent sinking feeling when you stop to catch a breath

Let's see if I can break this down into the parts that I understand ...

When you say "Analog audio always works" I take it you mean that 7.1 would appear at the audio outputs of my integrated audio motherboard or any other 7.1 audio card analog output. When you say "onboard analog will nullify the full-resolution FLAC audio" do I correctly understand you to mean that it would get downconverted to less than full resolution because Windows gets hold of it? Even the FLAC solution? or is it just a general comment about converting to analog before sending to your AVR?

When you say "For HDMI, you will need ...." let me break my ignorance down a bit further (it's really on display today). If I understand it correctly, when it comes to audio on HDMI from a HTPC, there are some solutions that have the audio on the same HDMI cable as the video, and others that have it on a separate parallel cable to the HDMI video cable. I'm not at all familiar with HDMI audio cards, but it would seem they all would require a separate parallel audio cable?

All of the solutions you mentioned would carry the FLAC solution as full resolution digital over HDMI - correct? Damn - sorry I started this post - I'm too unfamiliar with HDMI audio to even ask the right questions. Point me in the right direction and I'll do some reading to get the big picture. Thanks

Ok, got it.


So how do HDMI audio cards work? Do they accept video and mux it? If so, how do they get the video? I also could have sworn I saw something about using a DVI/HDMI video card (no muxed sound) and an integrated MB HDMI graphics with parallel HDMI cables.


Thanks. I do appreciate your efforts, and I have read that thread, it's just tough slogging

The HD-PVR has an optical input, which flanges in nicely with the ViP211's optical out. So I should have at least Dolby 5.1, or whatever's sent over for the particular Dish show.

And thanks for your input Rene. If there is a better microATX option, please advise. (BTW, I am a real estate developer, not a bit-twiddler, so feel free to correct my terms, but it gets you nowhere unless you provide actual constructive advice)
Ehm, some of us are trying to advance the envelope, while others are just showing off. I don't have time for showboats. I am honestly saying what I think is best. fsck the BS.

Well, I think i am back to square 1. I did some research, I was planning on using the following items that have been sitting powered off for years:

Canterwood mobo - P4C800E
Processor - P4 3.2ghz (not dual core, regular P4).
2 gigs of ram

However, I looked at my invoice from newegg (10/2003) & I think that is just way to old.

I have another old piece of hardware - a Dell Dimension E510 with the following specs:

Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor 630
128MB PCI Express™ x16 (DVI/VGA/TV-out) ATI Radeon X300
& some Dell Mobo.

I think that is probably also too old.

I think I want to run Vista Ultimate & make this a decent PC. I just didnt realize how old my stuff is.

My primary goal was to run Windows Media Center, & use it for web browsing & DVD movies (Email too). I think these are all pretty old & maybe should be retired.

Since the TV will be here before my parts are figured out or ordered, I think I will use it for testing purposes only (see if I like it before spending 800 bucks).

Is the equipment above too old to use?

Thanks,
Rich

Well I run XP Home Edition on a Socket 754 MB with a Athlon 64 3200+ , HD2600XT AGP Graphics Card and I play DVD's, Flacs & MP3's off my unRAID server without problem. In fact with MPC-HC I can play 720p & 1080p Mpeg4 trailers with less than 20% CPU usage (because of the HD2600XT and HWA in MPC-HC).

Your hardware should also do fine though I would guess Windows MCE 2005 would be a better choice over Vista considering the age of your equipment.

I think I am going to get a new case, mobo & video card. I am having issues with the Dell (not booting & a flashing yellow power light) & I wouldnt mind using it but something is screwy.

In any event, I think that getting a Micro ATX mobo, that Antec case, & a 8600 card (will this work - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814145153). Might be the way to go for starters.

I can use the 630 processor & the ram. I can upgrade both if need be later.

On a side note, what are "Low Profile Brackets" for the video card? I saw some mention of it not being included in that 8600 card.

Is that much better than the 8500 card mentioned in the mid system 2?


EDIT: I am a little confused, this video card mentioned in the system 2, XFX GeForce 8600 GT PV-T84J-USD4 doesnt look like a low profile card. Does this fit in the Antec Fusion Black 430? Do we need low profile?


EDIT2: I see that the memory in the E510 is 1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz (2x512M) - I assume thats not going to work with the ASUS P5K-VM Intel G33 chipset microATX mobo? With the PC 6400 ram (2 gigs for a total of 3)?

I have a 4850 in my HTPC using with Vista Media Center. How do I enable the enhanced DVD upscaling? Is this in the drivers done automatically or part of some codec?

Can it upscale any thing else, i.e. divx videos?

Right now I have VMC using FFDSHOW as the default decoder, but when decoding DVD MPEG2 it uses the default Vista one (cause fast playback doesn't work with FFDSHOW).

I've been trying to figure this out too but i now understand from your photo link that the Asus card takes the Video from where ever, mixes it with it's PAP audio, and sends that whole lot out through the HDMI. This intrigues me as, in theory, i would not have to replace my MoBo or video card. I have a XFX 8600GT video card which has DVI output. Do you think it would work in this situation? I'm concerned that it's not a HDMI out but since DVI and HDMI are virtually the same I should think it would be fine. DVI has no audio on it which doesn't matter in this case.


Thanks

I know renethx will jump in, but I'm going to try to answer based on my current level of understanding, then he can correct anything I get wrong. I see no reason why it won't work. You should get the same video you get now with the audio muxed onto the HDMI with the video.

Going a bit further, if I understand what renethx has said, you still need to worry about finding a PAP player, or you end up with downsampled audio on the HDMI. It looks like all the current players are downsampling audio, even when there is no AACS protection present. I presume this is likely to change.

Just to confirm, with the Antec 430, you do need a Micro ATX mobo but a regular standard graphics card will work?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129029

I was planning on building a HD HTPC out of more top of the line components, but the post BCDouglas got me thinking. If I can build one more or less out of hide so much the better. Will the following components have enough of what it takes:

Asus A8N SLI Deluxe NForce 4 SLI MCP mobo, socket 939, FX60 x2 2.6 Ghz CPU, 4 G RAM, 1 PCIe x16, 3 PCIe x1, running XP sp2.

Thinking seriously about adding the Asus Xonar 1.3 HDAV when released.

And your recommendation for the best video card, fan noise is not an issue for me.

This will only play movies (.mkv files), hopefully at 1080p with lossless 7.1 uncompress audio.