HTPC Guide

Well I know from first hand experience how daunting it can be to enter the whole HTPC world. So what I want to do is create a guide offering several different tiers (and budget) of HTPC setups.

Any input from you guys will be great, I will try to edit this post with relevant information given by you.

This is a second draft, please give input for changes!


Tier 1; $0-$200:
This tier is comprised of basic media streamers. These on average play most video and audio files. They sometimes have basic IMS (Internet Media Services) which usually includes Weather and Youtube. Some also have the option of integrating an internal hard drive.

Recommended:

Argosy 335T - $90 with wireless adapter, $185 with 2TB internal HDD

WDTV Live - $100

ASUS O!Play HD2 - $130

Xtreamer SideWinder -$140

Popcorn Hour A-200 -$180

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Tier 2; $200-$400
Last Edit: July 2nd, 2011
This tier offers increased compatibility with complicated formats. It also offers basic web and/or computer services, as well as XBMC.

Recommended:

Case: Thermaltake Element Q VL52021N2U Black SGCC / Plastic Mini-ITX Desktop Computer Case 200W PSU = $65

Motherboard/CPU/VGA: ASUS E35M1-I DELUXE Fusion AMD E-350 APU (1.6GHz, Dual-Core) AMD Hudson M1 Mini ITX = $175

Memory [RAM]: Crucial Ballistix Tracer 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 = $30

Hard Drive [HDD]: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD204UI 2TB 5400 RPM = $80

Grand Total: $350



OPTIONAL:

Remote:

Rosewill WMC Remote control/Rcvr RRC-127 - $25​

IOGEAR GKM561R Black 2.4GHz Wireless HTPC Multimedia Keyboard with Laser Trackball and Scroll Wheel - $47​

Hard Drive:
Crucial M4 64GB SSD= $110

Optical Drive: SAMSUNG Black SATA Internal Blu-ray Drive Model SH-B123L/RSBP LightScribe Support = $57


Alternative:
X-Box 360 - Basic media streaming capabilities. Plays DVDs. In addition offers full gaming console capabilities.

Playstation 3 - Basic media streaming capabilities. Includes Blu-Ray drive to watch Blu-Ray movies and DVDs. Newer models support Blu-Ray 3D. In addition offers full gaming console capabilities.



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Tier 3; $400 - $800
Last Edited: August 24th, 2011
This tier offers full PC functionality in addition to media center qualities.

Recommended:

Case: Micro-ATX HTPC - $30-$60

Power Supply: 400W-600W PSU 80 Plus - $30-$60

CPU: Intel Pentium G620 - $78

Motherboard: ASRock Z68M/USB3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 Micro-ATX -$100

Memory [RAM]: G.SKILL Value Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 - $45

Hard Drive: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD204UI 2TB 5400 RPM - $80

SSD (for Intel SRT): OCZ Agility 3 60GB 2.5" SATA III - $70 after rebate

Optical Drive: SAMSUNG Black Blu-ray Drive SATA Model SH-B123L LightScribe - $57

Wireless Networking: Zonet ZEW1690 Wireless Adapter Dual 7dbi Hi-Gain Antenna 802.11b/g/n PCI Up to 300Mbps - $40


Grand Total: ~$557


OPTIONAL:

- Video card:

-Nvidia GT430 - $60​

-AMD 6570 - $70​

- TV Tuner:

Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-2250 Dual TV Tuner / Encoder 1229 - $106 ($129 with remote)​

WinTV-NOVA-TD-500 Dual DVB-T tuner - $104​

- Remote:

Rosewill WMC Remote control/Rcvr RRC-127 - $20​

IOGEAR GKM561R Black 2.4GHz Wireless HTPC Multimedia Keyboard with Laser Trackball and Scroll Wheel - $45​

- Audio card:

ASUS Xonar DX 7.1 Channels PCI Express x1 - $51 after rebate​

(Video cards like the GT 430 GPU will enable HD audio bitstreaming , 3D vision (for 3D Blu-Ray), HDMI 1.4a and greatly increased video performance when combined with a program that uses CUDA/Purevision (Nvidia) or AVIVO/STREAM (AMD), such as PowerDVD 10 and CoreAVC. Check individual cards for applicable features.)


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SOFTWARE:

XBMC - Currently the best HTPC software for all your needs. Lots of customization available. Has DVXA capabilities (uses the graphics card (GPU) to accelerate HD video)

BOXEE - An offshoot of XBMC. Much easier User Interface (UI) and several unique features. Has DVXA capabilities (uses the graphics card (GPU) to accelerate HD video). "Boxee is the best way to watch movies, TV shows and clips from the Internet on your TV"

MediaPortal

MythTV

K-Lite Codec Pack - Avails you the ability to watch video files in every concievable codec used today. Includes DXVA and the excellent Media Player Classic - Home Cinema (MPC - HC) video player.

 

I built mine around an older second hand Shuttle SD32.

So thats a

Shuttle SD32 775 G945 - £70
Core 2 Duo 6600 2.4Ghz - £40
3GB DDR2 - £40-50
Ati HD 4350 - £30
Hauppage Nova T 500 Tuner (waiting for DVB-T2 here) - £35
500GB WD Greenpower HDD (Runs slower, but cooler) - £35
Sony Blu-Ray ROM - £50
Microsoft Remote Control - £15
Windows 7 Home Premium - £70

Prices are best guesstimates, but thats a ballpark figure of £395 with the software


So not that expensive, does everything I need at the moment

I do have a server as well which does loads of things (HyperV,AD, Exchange 2010, BES as a Test/Dev platform), one of which is to hold the actual media.


But you could get away with a NAS or a larger disk in the HTPC if you don't need/want a dedicated server


You need almost no extra software IMHO, Win 7, Shark007 codecs on the HTPC (+ Some BluRay playback software if you want to do that)

I also have Twonkymedia on the server which allows me to stream the music to a Netgear MP101 (old, but good )

 

Can you convert those prices to U.S. dollars please?

EDIT: Never mind. Thanks for the suggestion of the remote, adding it now.

 

Heh, well look at this:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3954/asrocks-highend-vision-3d-htpc-reviewed/1

I managed to configure a much more powerful HTPC while costing almost $200 less. Except for all the connectors on the back perhaps.

 

How are you managing auto-framerate switching with your HTPC's? I've read XBMC has some of this functionality. Does it work well?

I have a Popcorn Hour C-200 (with a Bluray player and a 2TB internal HDD, as well as several external HDD's) and this does everything I want, including a media jukebox system, and I might add that these things can be much more advanced than you seem to think they are. Anyway, the thing is that I had to RMA it a few weeks ago and I'm temporarily using a laptop with HDMI out to play media on my TV while waiting, and the incorrect output frequencies and the implications this is introducing through judder and stutter is driving me nuts. My C-200 differentiates between 23,976/24/25/29,98/30 FPS and so the output frequency is always matched and correct. Can this be done correctly with a PC?

 

@ John -

What is your GPU on the laptop, and are you using the latest drivers on it. Also which software are you using for playback, since as far as I know MPC-HC with frame-time correction and wait for GPU flushes should work.

 

Really a HTPC is just a PC attached to your HDTV and/or sound system. I use the system to the left as one of my HTPCs & gaming machines. Attached to a 22" monitor & a 40" Samsung LCD.

@John as mentioned above, just use MPC-HC.

 

8600m GT. But to be fair I have tried on my desktop as well and I haven't really gotten it to work there either. I use MPC-HC for everything. On the other hand I really haven't looked into it much since it's just a temporary measure anyway, but I'd like to get it working.

What I want is a program that can change the output frequency of the display to the correct frequency depending on the material being played. Can MPC do this? It would need control over the GPU drivers, I assume. I shall look into it.

 

@John yes MPC-HC can do it. Here's a quick screen of those options in the latest version of MPC-HC.

 

Right, I don't have those options, time for an upgrade it seems. I'll try later.

 

Similar, but not the same.

An HTPC has to be low powered (which in turn produces less heat), silent and small.

But yes, it is a PC at the core.

 

I would love a smaller HTPC but with having multiple hard drives (8 and an SSD) it's almost impossible to find a small chassis that can hold them all

I'm having to use a Fractal Design R2 chassis, which although nice looking and extremely quiet, is larger than i would have liked

I would be happy to move from my Q8200 to a lower power Core i3 but finding a mini / microatx board that has an x16 PCI-E slot for my Radeon 5570 and also a PCI-E x 1 slot for my Asus Xonar HDAV1.3 is proving difficult, as i would like to use my 5570 rather than the onboard video

 

in the $200-$400 range, you can also add the Sony PS3 and Xbox 360 (at least for basic media streaming capabilities).

The 360 will also integrate with windows media center, though I haven't tried it yet.

 

Ask and you shall receive.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...781,757:7619&bop=And&Order=RATING&PageSize=20


In addition, when you add 8 hard drives you are kind of losing the point of a HTPC and going over into the server territory, I mean just considering power usage.

 

Good point, will add.

 

I just picked up an Argosy 335T and loaded firmware 2.09 unto it, it's working flawlessly.

 

Updated HTPC to reflect GT 430.

 

Just a quick heads up guys.

The Jetway Mini-TOP is on sale at Newegg for $200, that is $70 off. Combine that with a ~32GB SSD for $70 and 2GB DDR2-800 for $30, and now the price is down to $300 for a full, fast and cheap HTPC.

 

I've been using MPC-HC for a very long time now but if I add a custom resolution for 23.976 Hz in Nvidia Control Panel, it gets saved under both '23' and '24' (except if I use 2 year old drivers, but I need the latest for their better hardware accelerated video playback support...). This means I lose 24.000 Hz support until I remove each and every one of my custom resolutions again. Also after I add the custom resolution, I lose 32 bit color support on for example 50 and 60 Hz but I can work around that problem by adding these back as additional custom resolutions.

So if anyone has already figured out how to avoid having to add / remove custom resolutions through Nvidia Control Panel manually every time when switching back and forth between 23.976 Hz and 24.000 Hz then please let me know how lol.

By the way, it looks like CoreAVC won't be supporting OpenCL anytime soon but, since ver. 2.0, CoreAVC works flawlessly with CUDA on my laptop so I've chosen not to bother with DXVA anymore. I liked DXVA in MPC-HC but DXVA cannot do postprocessing and it can only decode video without struggling if the video is DXVA compliant. I would need a stronger CPU to work around these limitations if I had no CUDA.

 

Hi Brute Force,

I'm using Radeon 5970 for gaming and also to stream audio and video to my samsung 40 inch LED.

5970 can bit-stream DTS-HD Master Audio and also HD video on a single HDMI cable. (DVI-HDMI convertor used). But it cant do 3D because it only supports HDMI 1.3 version.

I went through your post and saw that GT 430 can be used for 3d and wanted to confirm from you.

Will I be able to transfer 3D full HD video along with DTS-HD MA Audio on the HDMI 1.4a port on GT 430 ? Will both audio and video go on a single HDMI cable on this card?

Also anyone used this card on windows 7 along with powerdvd 10? Is powerdvd 10 compatible with this card ? Will I be able to use Powerdvd's 2d to 3d conversion and see 2d in 3d using this card ?

Sorry for asking too many questions in one post, please help me in this regard.

Thanks in Advance....