Building an HTPC for Front Projection

[monks]

Hi there,

I'm considering building a HTPC primarily for watching DVD and DivX/xvid encoded material. My display is a LCD FP (Hitachi PJ-TX100) which has a native resolution of 1280x720. Currently I'm playing DVD's with a Cambridge Audio Azur 540D.

I connected my existing PC to it last night through VGA and created a powerstrip custom res to this native resolution- it looked visibly better than my dvd player sending 576i or 576P over component. This was impression was helped by Media Player Classic making a much better job as an MPEG decoder (less artifacting, much less jaggies around moving objects)- hence- I'm now looking at an HTPC instead.

What I want is something in a cube form factor like the shuttle, as the build quality looks quite high, though I wouldn't oppose a hi-fi seperate look, if it was well made and quite standard sized.

The features I'm looking for mainly are:

DVI output (would stretch to something other than onboard gfx if necessary for this).

Quiteness. Doesn't need to be slilent but would like around 25db (like pj). Would like to know quiet hd and dvd-rom drive brands.

IR capability (I would like to be able to easily set up a remote to use with it, ideally something that wouldn't require a great deal of hacking, especially on the hardware side (what I mean is ideally not some plugin unit but something that would be inside the case). Again with an LCD readout (I'm sure I'm pushing it with this

8011g would be nice. Is this available on any mini-atx motherboards yet?

Regarding software, I would like boot times to be fairly swift, but realise this isn't really something that can be improved a lot. I would be looking at either windows or linux, ideally with some kind of front end, like MythTV. I would definitely like the remote to be the main source of control for daily use.

Thanks for taking the time to read,

Jon

[aud19]

Well that all sounds pretty nice, what exactly are you wanting to know though?

Do you want to know someone to build/set it up for you? If so, what part of the world are you in as my brother's business is doing just that. He's based in Vancouver.

Jason

[monks]

Well that all sounds pretty nice, what exactly are you wanting to know though?

Do you want to know someone to build/set it up for you? If so, what part of the world are you in as my brother's business is doing just that. He's based in Vancouver.

Jason

I just wanted some general description about what's currently good- like if there are any motherboards out or coming out that fit some of the specs I outlined, that's all, as well as some assurance that it will be worth it. I tried to be as detailed as I can- but perhaps I went a bit overboard

Has anyone had good experiences building a similar sounding system around a shuttle PC?

I'm in the UK BTW

[Daryl Furkalo]

Well, I have a SN41G2 shuttle sitting on my desk as my work computer. It is a 2700 Athlon with a Fire GL card in it, that is fairly noisy. I would recommend either a fanless video card or using on-board video, but I don't think any of the Shuttles have DVI onboard video. If you have the space, I would recommend a desktop case that is HTPC friendly aesthetically, like Antec. You have far more options with cool and quiet computing. The Shuttles do not have the room for add-on passive video card solutions unless you are modding your case and then you will also lose your only PCI slot.

[aud19]

I'd go with something like one of the Ahanix cases personally.



They have different variety's with ATX/MicroATX..

Jason

[ajpoe]

I use a Radeon 9500 becaues it supports dual display with the ability to use 2 of these 3 at the same time: a DVI, S-video and regular monitor output. I run my LCD monitor off the monitor output as primary and a high definition display on my HDTV by using the ATI dongle that converts the DVI out to component. I just use my HDTV as an extended desktop and drag my dvd/video program to it and run it full screen. I like 720p (1280x720) the best. I currenly have a 7.1 sound card with optical and coax spdif and multichannel output but a mobo with optical out will work descent too. I may look to upgrade that later or get a DAC1 for 2 channel playback. Your video and sound output are going to be your main concerns for the things you are wanting to do. You don't need a superfast processor since it doesn't eat up much cpu to play music or movies. You will probably want a large amount of storage but I assume you already have that if you're storing DIVX and XVID movies. I got a tv tuner card to record video input from my satellite receiver. I got the ATI because I like the RF remote and software that came with it to control all my music and movies within windows. The ahanix case that aud19 posted is very nice and so are many of their others. I have the simple black desktop case called Goth Desktop from www.colorcases.com, but hope to get an ahanix at some point because they look so much nicer.

ajpoe

[PiDD]

Some good advice here.

I stayed away from the micro pc's, although I love the size. The problem is future expanability. I now have 6 hard drives and a dvd rom in the case... try doing that in a micro case! I have about 940GB of hdd for DVD and MP3's.

I aslo like the recommended cases Jason mentioned. I went with the D.Vine 4. Its a sharp looking case that fits in well with stereo gear. IT has a VFD option that I just bought and started playing with .. very cool stuff!!

I stayed clear away from wireless due to speed. What applications do you want to go over wireless? For control I use a Gyro combo from here. It has a range of about 25ft.

I also have all the PCI slots full .. with video card, promise card, sound, video capture.. etc. A micro doesnt have the available PCI slots for all that.

For IR I used TIRA. It will send IR commands as well as receive them.

For a front end there is a free program called Xlobby. It's a very nice FREE program that handles it all .. Playing DVD's, MP3's, viewing pictures, weather .. etc!

Now to get all that to work takes lots of effort and reading. A program called Girder really runs the show. It sets the volume at the begining of the movie and dims the lights ... hit pause and it raises the lights a bit. Controls the VFD. Controls all the Stereo gear through IR and rs232. It is a very powerfull tool!

Well I brain dumped enough sorry to rant on. Im sure I missed a few things here and there.

Rob

[JonMarsh]

The nice thing about HTPC's is that they can be customized to whatever personal philiosophy and needs you have.

A lot of good suggestions here.


Just a few other points for thought...


First, I've found the nforce based MB for Athlon's to be VERY fast in booting overall compared with anything else I've owned or tried; 15-20 seconds total to the XP desktop from power on. So, if boot speed is a minor peeve or major personal desire, you might look into that.

I made my last two HTPCs in a format that's a compromise between full size systems and the small form factors like the shuttle; using a "desktop" style micro-ATX case, which still has a fair amount of expandability, but works well in a Hi-Fi equipment rack.



For power, to keep the noise down, I've used Antec TruePower 480's.





~Jon