Comments on: Building The Perfect HTPC (Media PC), Capable Of Playing 1080P H264

By: Floretta Pinkham

Floretta Pinkham — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 17:57:43 +0000

This is a great configuration but technology has change soo much with TV's. There are so many options now. Do you think this would still be valid? The logitech Revue is a very condensed version but it connect with all the services seamlessly

By: Sam Wharfe

Sam Wharfe — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 10:43:50 +0000

Wow! This looks like a pretty sweet build..

I am thinking of building a media station myself.. I probably won't bother with a graphics card though.

By: enjoi74

enjoi74 — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 02:40:57 +0000

What do you think about the nsk4482 mini tower. I found one almost half off the $185 sticker price. Using it ofcoure for the same purpose you are using it for.

By: honestly

honestly — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 01:42:11 +0000

Actually, all you need to play 1080p HD Blu-ray x264 movies are an Intel Pentium 4 CPU, or AMD equivalent, and an AMD ATI HD graphics card. Also, you probably only really need 512MB of RAM. MPC is the best software to use when playing HD movies.

I only have single core P4 1.5Ghz CPU and HD movies play perfectly on my 1080p screen because when you use MPC it allows the HD decoding to happen on the AMD ATI HD video card. Therefore, it only utilizes a maximum of 20% of the CPU.

If you think about it, I doubt stand alone Blu-ray players ship with a 2.4Ghz (dual core) or 3.5Ghz (single core) processors just to play a Blu-ray movie.

By: jerryk

jerryk — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 18:05:50 +0000

I'm setting up something similar, but much cheaper and smaller. It's a "Giada Cube N3" barebones that I got at Polywell computers in South City for a mere $160. I threw in a laptop SATA drive and 4 gigs of SODIMM DDR2 that I had laying around, et voila!

The Giada has built-in Nvidia ION graphics. Excellent Linux driver support and built-in acceleration for common video formats. I loaded Ubuntu 10.10 on it, and have been messing around trying to set up a media experience.

The sticking point at the moment is remote control. I really DONT want a cord across the room going to a keyboard on the coffee table. So I've been trying to get LIRC working for infrared remote. I've used this before, but with serial port. Like many modern PCs,
the Giada does not have a serial port, just losts of USB.

There does exist a LIRC driver for USB-serial converters, but getting it working has been like pulling teeth. Let's just say I had to get out the oscilloscope and function generator…. It's almost there, but I got distracted, and the project is now on the backburner. Meanwhile, the Giada is working great as a desktop Linux system. Might have to get another one .

By: Jeroen

Jeroen — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 13:51:45 +0000

Hello Tsikwa,

Are you watching the 1080p content with MPC or with Windows Media Center? I have trouble playing them with the latest. The audio has no problems, but the video starts to stutter after a few minutes. Please advice.

By: Jim Star

Jim Star — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 00:15:12 +0000

Is this the sort of setup I should be using to play Starcraft 2 ? or will that not work with it, is it going to be good for recording some videos for SC2 either? Thanks for the reply.

By: Arron

Arron — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 07:56:02 +0000

Ive used MediaPortal with the Movie plugin(gets data from imdb.com) and TVSeries plugin which collects data from thetvdb.com. This has been an awesome set up, it hasn't been too buggy, I mean free is still free after all. Combined this with a cheap generic remote control, and VNC from the main PC in the same room and im all set.

There is a web based remote control program ive set up for it(so i can pause etc from a web browser when i cant be assed finding the remote) that i wrote in the mix. email me on s_drac2@yahoo.com for source

By: lilmike

lilmike — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 07:23:25 +0000

What yall should do is just buy a few external hard drives and a external media player like the western digital media player, and this media player will read any video format even blurays. $100 or $120 for network capable one. no need for a computer its got usb ports hdmi ports and network ports again witch u could also hook up to any cpu or network too. nd its portable u can bring it anywhere, bring to a friends a bar dont matter!

By: bag321

bag321 — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 01:24:58 +0000

I'm surprised you missed MythTV and Mythbutu. I heard that before, I hear any myths about any software you list.

By: Durken

Durken — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 13:09:55 +0000

Read some reviews on the Z5500. I bought mine 6 months ago. Best buy ever.

By: dajomu

dajomu — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 11:19:22 +0000

I was wondering hows the sound while playing music? I am thinking about buying the Z-5500, but I am afraid the sub is too big together with the satellites and that the midrange sound is not sufficient.
I want to replace my home-cinema Samsung ht-bd1255 with these speakers coupled with my Asrock ion 330 media-center.

By: David A

David A — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 19:59:24 +0000

I just decide to buy an alienware aurora!$2500.00 Dollars
-i7 930 overclocked
-6gb 1333mhz ddr3
-GTX 480 Nvidia
-Win7 OS
-2tb raid
-dual drive with bluray reader
-with all the other little features
-plus warranty in home 1year
waiting for starcraft2 & diablo3 plus Total War games

By: Joe

Joe — Tue, 25 May 2010 23:50:58 +0000

Two questions

What's the best way to output audio to a home theatre in a box from an htpc?

Is there a way to get audio over hdmi from any video card ?

By: Michael

Michael — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 14:18:51 +0000

Hi i built a htpc a while ago now and its time to upgrade, been searching websites and forums all over looking for a great set up for a reasonable price.

i already have a coolermaster htpc case but all my original innards need replacing as its an old 1.4 ghz athlon processor running graphics from a motherboard with agp slots ( old i know ) but it did the job of media files and internet surfing and plus i used it for my i pod.

i still want it for those things but i want to be able to play games and run blu ray at speed , i want something kick ass in a htpc case.so im buying the system bit by bit and hopefully doing the build in july.

so far ive bought the motherboard which is a :
gigabyte matx 785gmt-usb3 £71.00

i also bought dvd writer lite-on sata £21

Processor i will be purchasing next is the amd3 965 phenom II black edition. £132

DDR3 memory ripjaw 1330 £85

HDD samsung spinpoint 1TB F3 £51

The only query ive got is the manual to the mother board states a psu of 500w or greater but my case has a 450w already installed, any ideas suggestions should i replace or keep with the 450.

If so ive looked at a corsair 650w tw at £71.00 but im worried at how it will fit into my case or is it overkill.

also will be running xp and windows 7.

Any suggestions on how i would improve on this set up or different ideas as i do want to run games as well, esp on my sony bravia 40".

Thanks

By: Artem Russakovskii

Artem Russakovskii — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 15:14:01 +0000

Yeah, 2 gigs is just fine if you are only planning to run media applications.

By: Isaac

Isaac — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 10:21:55 +0000

Hi
Is 2GB of Ram enough??

By: Artem Russakovskii

Artem Russakovskii — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 04:47:17 +0000

Heh, if you saw the picture, I would dare you to spot a difference.

By: Matt

Matt — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 02:40:19 +0000

Hey. Yes you may be playing the 720p/1080p movies but you have it connected to the analog VGA port, so the quality is degraded.

By: David A

David A — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 21:43:59 +0000

Hello im about to build my HTPC in 10 days when my credit comes in. Need Your Opinion!
For- Browsing,Streaming,Downloading, Listening & Watching Music & Movies on my Vizio 40"LCDHDTV1080P 240 Hz – with the option to add a graphic card for gaming later (Intergrated graphics should be okay for everthing else?i suppose?)

1-Antec NSK1480 Black / Silver Steel MicroATX Desktop Computer Case 350W 80 PLUS Certified Power Supply $110.00

2-ASUS P7H55D-M EVO LGA 1156 Intel H55 HDMI USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel motherboard $125.00

3-Intel Core i5-661 Clarkdale 3.33GHz 4MB L3 Cache LGA 1156 87W Dual-Core Desktop Processor $200.00

4-G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBNQ $107.00

5-Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive $75.00

6-LITE-ON Black 4X BD-ROM 8X DVD-ROM 32X CD-ROM SATA Internal 4X Blu-ray Disc Reader Model iHOS104-08 $65.00

Total Cost $777.00
Linux Ubu free or Windows7for $30
I get free cable tv so ill add tuner later
System should last about 5 to a lucky 10 years

What i do know is i like the case
the i5-661 proc. this is a special one
and h55 or h57 chipset some say h57 has prolbems because newer as oppose to h55 hence that is y i selected this should i get h57?

Thanks 4 your reply