[dave_parki_uk]

About 8 months ago i decided it would be better to have a central point for all media and the best approach appeared to be a HTPC, I wasn't bothered up about PVR or Live TV as we have Sky.

So i started out by getting a cheap 2nd had shuttle PC which sort of did the job but it was ultimately to old and small to upgrade properly. This was sold on for a profit.

Then i decided to try the 360 approach so bought a 2nd hard 360 to stream content from my main pc however as most of you will know streaming HD content properly is a bit hit and miss and annoying when it doesnt work. Still have this as i love the games.

So i am back to the HTPC method but this time i want to keep a tight budget but also play/stream full HD content. So after some reading here is the spec list of the components which will make this budget HTPC.

Hardware:

Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H Motherboard
AMD Athlon X2 5050e 45W Energy Efficient Retail Processor
2gb OCZ PC26400 800mhz Ram
Samsung SpinPoint 80GB 3.5" SATA HDD
EV Shiny Piano Black/Silver Super Slim Micro ATX with 200w PSU

Software:

Operating System - Windows XP
Media Front End - XBMC with EventGhost for custom MCE remote mapping

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In the short term this box will be used to stream HD content, TV shows and Music from my main PC (Hence the small HDD). However eventually a blue ray disc drive and a larger hard drive will mean this is will be the central storage point for media. Maybe once Windows 7 Media Centre has become established and FTA HD channels are more available i might look at using it as a PVR.

Although I haven't got the components yet i have been testing the XBMC software on my main PC and so far so good, it looks fantastic in my opinion and seems to index and grab all relevant information/backdrops for Movies and TV. Music was previously setup using iTunes so all the iTunes artwork is embedded in my MP3's and ID3 tagged correctly.

The MCE remote needed to be programmed to utilise all of the functions and i spent some time doing this and so far it seems to work correctly. I have used a program called eventghost with some plugins to auto start the application, disable to HID service (stops buttons being used by VMC) and map functions to keypresses.

The overall aim is to use the computer without a keyboard and mouse, its not perfect as i cant navigate the On Screen Keyboard for searching but it works ok. For maintenance and updates i will RDP into the box.

Here are some screenshots of the testing (note they are a bit of an odd size as i have been testing this in windowed mode due to my main PC not having a widescreen monitor).

Movies home menu hover, HD Movie backdrops fade in and out:

Movies selected, get a DVD cover view to navigate and on hover get information and relevant backdrop:

TV Shows home menu hover, HD TV Show backdrops fade in and out:

TV Shows selected, navigate by Show, then series and then episode. Get covers and thumbnails along the way, on hover get information and relevant backdrop:

Music home menu hover, HD Music backdrops fade in and out:

Music selected, get list to choose artist, album, song etc... from there get roller view which scrollers album art:

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As you can see it looks great and has played all the media files i have thrown at it. I have also installed a few plugins installed which allow me access Last.fm radio, BBC iPlayer and i have been testing launching programs to access power DVD for blue ray (when i get it). I would also like to have some sort of sopcast stream so i can watch football but thats not a major problem at the moment.

I will update once i have got the bits and have built it with proper high res pictures

Hope you like


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UPDATED BUILD PICS ON PAGE 2

UPDATED FRONT END PICS ON PAGE 3

[Big_Si_Owen]

Looks good! I've heard good things about XBMC but not played with it myself. Looks really great!

[HeresKilled]

Dave,

Keep me posted on how this goes.

I'm looking to reuse an existing PC for media purposes.
I'm interested in how you get on with the case. Specifically how you rate the noise.

Cheers

[dave_parki_uk]

Originally Posted by HeresKilled

Dave,

Keep me posted on how this goes.

I'm looking to reuse an existing PC for media purposes.
I'm interested in how you get on with the case. Specifically how you rate the noise.

Cheers

Will do, reading reviews it is apparently no noisier than a standard desktop. Being mine will hidden away it might not be to bad. If it is i will look for a silent one or just mod the one i have. Although thats not best practise

[dbargna]

thats pretty much the same as I now plan to do (I came to £131 anad will get the bits on weds), but I have a query about the 780G mobo. From what I understand you only get the hardware acceleration using powerDVD or VMC, does xbmc use this? If not then is a more beefy cpu needed?

[wHoMe]

Originally Posted by dbargna

thats pretty much the same as I now plan to do (I came to £131 anad will get the bits on weds), but I have a query about the 780G mobo. From what I understand you only get the hardware acceleration using powerDVD or VMC, does xbmc use this? If not then is a more beefy cpu needed?

You can get hardware acceleration with MPC HC or MPCVideoDec codec but the 5050e should be fine with software decoding with the right codec CoreAVC for example

nVidia systems now have the edge over ATI as CoreAVC now supports CUDA

[dave_parki_uk]

Originally Posted by dbargna

thats pretty much the same as I now plan to do (I came to £131 anad will get the bits on weds), but I have a query about the 780G mobo. From what I understand you only get the hardware acceleration using powerDVD or VMC, does xbmc use this? If not then is a more beefy cpu needed?

Media Portal seems to cope for most people on here to i would imagine XBMC would be fine.

i hope

[dave_parki_uk]

Update...

All the components arrived yesterday. Initial thoughts on the case was it was smaller than i imagined. It seems to be built ok, its a little flimsy at the back however thats to be expected from a £30 case. The front panel is functional but not amazing which isn't a problem as it is going in a cupboard. The power lights up green which is nice compared to the standard blue that you get on most cases.

Installing the Mobo, CPU and RAM was straight forward, plenty of space to work with inside when you remove the DVD caddy. However one note to be aware of if you have a long DVD drive it will compromise the CPU cooler, the one i was using for installation was 8 inch long and when fitted into the DVD caddy covered half the cpu cooler without cables connected, not really ideal.

Once everything was in (DVD was just connected and resting externally for installation) windows was booted and installed, latest drivers installed and XBMC and Eventghost was installed and setup. Had a bit of a trouble getting XBMC to see the Vista Network shares as it couldn't find them and the documentation was a bit flaky on adding sources via the UNC path. Still work around was to map network drives to the shares then use them in XBMC.

Noise wise, at the moment it is sat on the TV bench as a quick test of the HDMI connection, you can tell its on as there is a noticeable hum from the fan however it isn't a problem and once in the cupboard i would imagine it would be fine. Its definitely not as loud as the 360 and when playing media you cant hear it.

I still have some updating to do, e.g. get the application launcher plugin working correctly so i can access football streams with the remote and also look at possibly booting straight into the eventghost app instead of the standard shell to make the transition more seamless. I am also going to change the boot picture and the logon screens to try and limit the amount of Windows XPness. I timed the boot process from cold to xbmc being ready and it is 1 minutes 16 seconds which isnt to bad. Might be quicker without the shell booting however.

HD pictures to follow

[meansizzler]

That is a budget build

For me I would of gone with one of them Hiper Cases which are £50

[dave_parki_uk]

Hiper cases are nice but slimline which is a problem as CPU coolers and pci cards dont fit without adapters or special ones.

I have been playing around with the updates i said i was going to do, so far installed a nicer logon screen and a minimal boot screen. Also installed the patched terminal services dll so i can RDP into the box and login as the admin user to install stuff without disturbing any viewing, however i am hoping i wont be needing to do this that much.

Here are some HD pics, tv is a samsung 32" R88 connected through HDMI.

Menu Movies

Movie Library

Movie Info

Movie Playing

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Menu TV Shows

TV Shows Library (wide artwork but no information support in this view yet and no backdrop because of it)

TV Shows Seasons

TV Shows Episodes

TV Shows Episode Information

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Menu Music

Music Library Selection (No backdrops for selected item as it isnt supported)

Music Albums View (No backdrops for selected item as it isnt supported)

Music Now Playing at Menu (No backdrops for selected item as it isnt supported)

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Menu Pictures

Pictures Library

Pictures View Full Screen

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Applications

Currently got Football which opens a URL to a football streaming site, I have mapped IE keyboard shortcuts to the MCE remote via eventghost so i can browse through the links and select the game i want to watch.

Also got link to task manager, however this isnt needed as i have mapped task manager to the "Record" button in case of emergencies.

Been playing some movies over the network shares through this and it seems ok, however as i previously said in an earlier post i havent installed any codecs yet which could explain why the CPU is running at nearly 100% when playing movies.

Would installing some codecs bring this down?

[wHoMe]

Originally Posted by dave_parki_uk

Been playing some movies over the network shares through this and it seems ok, however as i previously said in an earlier post i havent installed any codecs yet which could explain why the CPU is running at nearly 100% when playing movies.

Would installing some codecs bring this down?

Yes the graphics chipset on your board supports DXVA, if you use a codec that makes use off this then the graphics will do all the work instead of the CPU in which case your CPU will then drop drastically

You can either use MPC HC which has all the codecs embedded or you can use the codec MPC HC uses (MPCVideoDec)

This function is only available on movies that have been encoded properly to make use of it

For a software based codec you should use CoreAVC which should lower your CPU

MPC HC

http://mpc-hc.sourceforge.net/

If you just want to use just the codec its under "stand alone filters" named MPCVideoDec but you have to register the file on your system

[dave_parki_uk]

Originally Posted by wHoMe

Yes the graphics chipset on your board supports DXVA, if you use a codec that makes use off this then the graphics will do all the work instead of the CPU in which case your CPU will then drop drastically

You can either use MPC HC which has all the codecs embedded or you can use the codec MPC HC uses (MPCVideoDec)

This function is only available on movies that have been encoded properly to make use of it

For a software based codec you should use CoreAVC which should lower your CPU

MPC HC

http://mpc-hc.sourceforge.net/

If you just want to use just the codec its under "stand alone filters" named MPCVideoDec but you have to register the file on your system

Thanks for that info, i have checked around and read grooves thread about the leanest codec install and have installed the following:

coreavc 1.9 with Halli Media Splitter
xvid 1.2.1
ac3filter 1.5.1a

This has brought the cpu down to around 60-70% when playing 1080p MKV files.

Would i need this MPC HC as well or instead of?

[wHoMe]

Originally Posted by dave_parki_uk

Thanks for that info, i have checked around and read grooves thread about the leanest codec install and have installed the following:

coreavc 1.9 with Halli Media Splitter
xvid 1.2.1
ac3filter 1.5.1a

This has brought the cpu down to around 60-70% when playing 1080p MKV files.

Would i need this MPC HC as well or instead of?

Yes for DXVA which is hardware decoding using your graphics, CPU should then be around 10% from reading others comments with your CPU

You can setup MPC HC so if your mkv doesn't allow DXVA to be used it drops back to using CoreAVC

MPC HC is said to be better quality when using hardware decoding but I guess thats in the eye of the beholder

[dave_parki_uk]

Downloaded MPCVideoDec.ax and popped it in the System32 folder and registered it however how do i configure it. Do i still need the MPC app?

Also reading that the latest ATI graphics dont support DXVA? any ideas on this?

[wHoMe]

Originally Posted by dave_parki_uk

Also reading that the latest ATI graphics dont support DXVA? any ideas on this?

Yes they do 780 chipset has UVD 2 the same as the latest cards

You have chosen the harder method by using the standalone, how you configure the codec to be the default for h2.64 mkv will depend on the software player being used

If I was you I would unregister that codec and delete it then download MPC HC which has it embedded and should be set up to use it by default

[dave_parki_uk]

Originally Posted by wHoMe

Yes they do 780 chipset has UVD 2 the same as the latest cards

You have chosen the harder method by using the standalone, how you configure the codec to be the default for h2.64 mkv will depend on the software player being used

If I was you I would unregister that codec and delete it then download MPC HC which has it embedded and should be set up to use it by default

Hmm, seems XBMC doesnt support GPU decoding anyway, however i will play the files through the MPC Classic to confirm it works. I might have to rethink my media centre ideas

[wHoMe]

MPC HC not MPC

It doesn't work on all mkv depends on how they are encoded

When you have MPC HC running Right click screen select Filters then select MPC Video Decoder if its using hardware decoding it will show

H.264 bitstream decoder

if not being used it will show

DXVA mode Not using DXVA

[dave_parki_uk]

I mean MPC HC not Media Player Classic. Although they look the same.

Gonna test the MKV's i have, i suspect non of them have been encoded correctly.

[dave_parki_uk]

Anyone got any links to properly encoded sample films?

Also hwo do you get audio out from the optical with this board?

I have it set up with hdmi to tv and optical to amp however in windows through the realtek audio manager I get sound through the opitcal however in films using any player I get hdmi audio through the tv and nothing through optical.

I am going to unistallall drivers and update but it seems a bit odd!

[dave_parki_uk]

Update. I removed all the drivers and installed the latest from the manufactuers sites. Now seems i havent got HDMI audio installed and i have following installed:

CoreAVC 1.9 with Hali Splitter
DivX 1.2
AC3 Spdifer 0.2a

I can play MKV, DivX through Windows Media Player and XBMC with sound from the optical however this isnt hardward decoded.

I play the same mkv in MPC-HC and the status says playing however the status bar doesnt move, i get no video or sound. But if i look at the filter is says "H.264 bitstream decoder" so the hardward decoding is working but not displaying anything.

Any ideas of this. Also if i decide to use Windows Media Centre with in Vista or Win7 or Media Portal can i have this hardware decoding in any of these apps? I really dont want to use the MPC-HC interface for my HTPC

Thanks for everyones help so far on this

[Vorm]

Have you had any more joy with this set up and codecs?

It's exactly the parts I was looking at getting and I have been test running XBMC on the laptop to get used to it's setup.

Cheers
V.

[tredman]

Dave, couple of quick questions on what looks a great build.

did you need to fit any additional fans in the case, or just go with the stock psu fan and heatsink on the cpu?

I'm thinking about doing an xbmc build (as i love my xbox), but using xbmc for linux on a stripped down ubuntu build (there's a good guide on the wiki to this) - there's a version of xbmc for linux which does GPU loading for video (with VDPAU i think its called) - is there a PCI-express slot on that board AND enough room in the case?

thanks

[Timmymna]

Can I just ask which skin you are using? I'm trying to get that look on the main menu but having no luck

Edit: Never mind found it now Thought was different settings for mediastream skin but its the Aeon skin

[Theydon Bois]

Got any pics of the build itself? Plenty of the case in particular. I have added you as a reference build in the budget section and I am sure lots of people would like to see what can be done with a limited budget.

Oh and your frontend pics are supurb!

[dave_parki_uk]

Originally Posted by Vorm

Have you had any more joy with this set up and codecs?

It's exactly the parts I was looking at getting and I have been test running XBMC on the laptop to get used to it's setup.

Cheers
V.

I havent done anything with it for a while, the above codecs are fine for now and i am happy to not have GPU decoding when the software looks so good. I will be doing some updates soon to the machine so will post any updates.

Originally Posted by tdw197

Dave, couple of quick questions on what looks a great build.

did you need to fit any additional fans in the case, or just go with the stock psu fan and heatsink on the cpu?

I'm thinking about doing an xbmc build (as i love my xbox), but using xbmc for linux on a stripped down ubuntu build (there's a good guide on the wiki to this) - there's a version of xbmc for linux which does GPU loading for video (with VDPAU i think its called) - is there a PCI-express slot on that board AND enough room in the case?

thanks

The case came with another fan however it was a bit noisy so took it out. The case gets hot when the door is closed on the bench i have however it isnt really noisy when playing a film so the door can be left open for cooling. I have read a little about the linux versions however i am not overly good with linux so trying to get something like this setup would take way too long. Have a check on the xbmc forums for more info.

I am pretty sure the board has a PCI-Express slot however i would check the gigabyte site to make sure. There is plenty of space in the case for it. I will try and take a picture of the inside tomorrow.

Originally Posted by Timmymna

Can I just ask which skin you are using? I'm trying to get that look on the main menu but having no luck

Edit: Never mind found it now Thought was different settings for mediastream skin but its the Aeon skin

Yeah it is the alpha version of AEON, however the newer updated version called Stark is available. I have been running this on my test machine so will be updating the htpc tomorrow with this.

Originally Posted by Theydon Bois

Got any pics of the build itself? Plenty of the case in particular. I have added you as a reference build in the budget section and I am sure lots of people would like to see what can be done with a limited budget.

Oh and your frontend pics are supurb!

Thanks for that, i didnt take any of the build itself however i will open the case up and get some pics to show size's etc...

[dave_parki_uk]

UPDATE:

Thought it was time to update the xbmc skin to the latest version and whilst i had it out of the cabinent thought i would take some photos inside the case as requested above (sorry some are blurry but i just dont have steady hands).

To get the skin to work correctly i needed to update from the stable release to the latest revision. Also download the very latest skin from the developer.

Problem with this is that the latest version didnt include some dll files to make the images work correctly. So although on my vista test machine everything worked when i installed it on the htpc it didnt. Also the latest version causes some issues with xbmc iphone remote but hopefully the developer is fixing these in the next version.

Anyway it is now working correctly now and here are some build pics:

Case before install:

Case complete:

Space between dvd caddy and cpu fan is very tight. will have to be wise on choice of bluray disc drive.

In its place and hooked up:

[dave_parki_uk]

Above pics havent resized. Normally they do :S

Im at work at moment, will update them tonight

[Vorm]

How is your performance in coverflow - smooth?

I'm running the same board and the coverflow is stuttering for me on Stark

[Theydon Bois]

Originally Posted by dave_parki_uk

Above pics havent resized. Normally they do :S

Im at work at moment, will update them tonight

We are waiting for that to be re-implemented - I have removed the img tags for the moment - they are links for now. If you can resize them to around 800 x 600 (or some size around that) it would be much appreciated.

And thanks for the pics - as I mentioned before, everyone has such supurb frontends now but pics of the build and surroundings are what set the threads off.

[tredman]

Looks brilliant, just finished a similar build myself (partly inspired by this thread), but decided to go with Media Portal (running StreamedMP) instead of XBMC because of its lack of GPU encoding.

Its a real shame as XBMC is brilliant, I did look into using it with an external player for vids, but it still needs work.

Hows the system running now, without a system fan? I have the same board as you and it runs very cooly, but the sys fan is a pain in the ass, so thinking of taking it out too.