[Huggy]

I thought I would document my experience with this build so far. As I have used some fairly typical recommended components, I will not go into the details of the build particularly (plenty of examples out there), but highlight the pitfalls and surprises that I encountered.

My objective was to build an attractive, quiet HTPC that, would fit in with my other AV kit (an aging but reliable Marantz SR4200 Receiver). Parts would be high quality, but not bleeding edge. Primary uses are Blu Ray/DVD movie viewing, recording TV, playing music, backup of data from my study PC and occasional internet access. The result should be child and wife friendly.

Components

Antec Fusion Remote HTPC Case
Asus P5N7A-VM Motherboard
E2160 CPU (1.8 Ghz) – reused
Scythe Shuriken Cooler
2 Gb OCZ PC6400 DDR2 RAM
Corsair VX 450W ATX Power Supply
Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB Hard Drive
LG Combination Blu Ray/HD Drive – reused
Hauppauge Nova TD 500
Belkin F5D7001UK 125Mbps Wireless Desktop PCI Network Adapter
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 32Bit. Media Center would be my core application.
KeySonic 540BT Bluetooth Wireless Keyboard
Belkin Bluetooth Dongle
Panasonic TH-50PZ80B - 50" Widescreen Viera 1080P Full HD Plasma TV

Positives

+ I have built a number of PCs in the past, and the HTPC build went without a hitch (that’s actually a first). All parts fitted well and worked well. The Antec Fusion case is well thought out, with plenty of places to thread cables through so as not to clutter the main motherboard compartment.

+ SD Picture quality is good. As expected, given the size of the screen, not quite as sharp as my previous 32” Panny CRT, but very livable.

+ HD quality is absolutely outstanding. The best way I can describe the difference is that it feels like a true cinematic experience. Using Power DVD 7.3 and patch for 5.1 surround sound on the LG Blu Ray player, I haven’t come across glitches or slow downs. The integrated Geforce 9300 GPU is up to the challenge.

+ Similarly, music playback is better than I had hoped through the integrated audio. I don’t feel a need to invest in a dedicated sound card yet. For the first time, I can now listen to my entire digital collection through my Marantz/Kef/MJA Acoustic Sub setup, without faffing around with memory sticks, and cutting CDs and the like. Bliss.

+ Media Center. What a revelation. Never used it before. Yes I know its MS, but it really is a slick front end. Still can’t get over pausing live TV .

+ Surfing the internet one side of the screen while watching a sizable TV image on the other. SWMBO thinks it is distracting… it must be a man thing.

Issues

- Don’t forget to install the mobo drivers. I did and had 2 hours of panic due to no audio from the mobo, no video in Media Center, and only 1280 resolution on the TV. Once drivers were installed – all issues went away.

- The HTPC regularly reboots by itself. I had noted that the GPU temps were ridiculously high, and have since discovered that this is a known problem with this mobo. Options are to plug in the side fans (which I had not bothered to set up to keep noise to a minimum), or replace the chipset heatsink. Thoughts?

- Remotes. The Antec case has a somewhat confusing IR power cabling set up which I have not quite figured out. Once sorted, I have yet to decide on the remote situation. With such expensive, pretty kit, I don’t want a host of remotes, so it is either live with my trusty but tacky “6 in 1” One For All 6 URC-7562 6 in 1 Universal Remote Control Low Price TV | AV | Audio | Universal Remote Control | Replacement Remotes | Sky Accessories or buy the over the top Harmony 1 which I have fallen in love with http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/re.../3898&cl=US,EN . Suggestions, alternatives?

- Start up from sleep seems slow to me. I thought it would be a few seconds, but it feels like more than 30 seconds. Is this normal? Tips and hints for quicker startups. This one is important.

- I can’t figure out how to resume from sleep back into the freeview channel that I was viewing before sleep. It always resumes to the Media Center front end end. Help? At the end, I want to switch it on like it is a TV – ie directly into full screen freeview, and switch off (sleep) like a normal TV. Then only come revert to Media Center/Vista when I want to do something non TV oriented (10% of activites). Anyone achieved this state of Nirvana?

- No firewire on the mobo. Blast. Strange omission for such an HTPC dedicated mobo. I guess you can’t research absolutely everything. I was especially hoping to plug in my camcorder into the firewire port at the front and transfer. Does anyone know of a PCIE 1x firewire card (I’ve used up the PCI slots), with some sort of internal connection that I connect to from the front?

- Having problems getting the CPU fan to slow down from startup with Speedfan. Anyone know of a better solution or an idiot proof speedfan guide?

- I bought the Bluetooth version of the Keysonic remote keyboard as I had heard that the IR was version was pants. Well the Bluetooth version is pants also. I have to situate the Bluetooth dongle in a USB port at the front of the case (ugly) to get reasonable connectivity from just 3 meters away. Sticking it in a port at the back fails most of the time. I thought bluetooth was it was supposed to be multi-directional? The dongle is supposed to be good for 10 meters, is it the keyboard? Thoughts? Note, when it works, the keyboard is actually discretely small, and living room friendly.

I’ll get some pics up when home on Weds night.

[rwttm001]

I have the same keyboard, works fine from 5 metres. I bought a USB male/female lead so I can run the lead from a rear USB port under the case, which improved connection and is still invisible. Also, put some duracells in the keyboard, that also helped things.

[Huggy]

Originally Posted by rwttm001

I have the same keyboard, works fine from 5 metres. I bought a USB male/female lead so I can run the lead from a rear USB port under the case, which improved connection and is still invisible. Also, put some duracells in the keyboard, that also helped things.

Nice workaround. I think I have one hidden away in my cable box.

[stevielad]

Interesting read thanks.

Am toying with building an HTPC myself rather than going for a ready made PVR. Could you give a rough idea of cost for the HTPC side of things?

[Huggy]

Your wish is my command.

1. I already had the E2160, so add c£60. If you are starting from a vanilla build, an AMD spec may be greener, cheaper and quieter.
2. I dicided not to compromise on quality. Sure this could have cost £100 cheaper with slightly lower spec kit (eg lower watt PSU, smaller hard drive) and the experience would be the same.

3. Forgot to add that the LG GGC-H20L Blu-Ray Reader & HD-DVD ROM was reused from my PC - £77.

[rwttm001]

Originally Posted by Huggy

- Start up from sleep seems slow to me. I thought it would be a few seconds, but it feels like more than 30 seconds. Is this normal? Tips and hints for quicker startups. This one is important.

- I can’t figure out how to resume from sleep back into the freeview channel that I was viewing before sleep. It always resumes to the Media Center front end end. Help? At the end, I want to switch it on like it is a TV – ie directly into full screen freeview, and switch off (sleep) like a normal TV. Then only come revert to Media Center/Vista when I want to do something non TV oriented (10% of activites). Anyone achieved this state of Nirvana?

Have you specified S3 sleep in the BIOS? Try this for assisting with sleep, it does give you some options and also allows you to set automatic sleep on specified idle intervals, and works for me when the standard Vista power options didn't.

I'd be interested to hear if you can go straight back into TV but I think the time lag involved between waking and all devices being ready will prevent this. Frequently from waking from sleep I try to access a channel only to be told the video decoder is not available, and also the standard USB device detected tone plays some time after waking. I'm my limited experience as an HTPC user this is definitely an area that MS should look at for Win7.

[Huggy]

Originally Posted by rwttm001

Have you specified S3 sleep in the BIOS? Try this for assisting with sleep, it does give you some options and also allows you to set automatic sleep on specified idle intervals, and works for me when the standard Vista power options didn't.

Frustrating. Working away and a slack day at work too, hence the massive post. Looking at the BIOS documentation, the default is auto (whatever that means). The only other alternative is S1. Will investigate what setting S3 does on return.

[Theydon Bois]

Gratz on the build, but where are the pics?

Plus have you looked at Grooves MediaBrowser thread? Just add that extra level of shine to top things off.

[Huggy]

Originally Posted by Theydon Bois

Gratz on the build, but where are the pics?

Plus have you looked at Grooves MediaBrowser thread? Just add that extra level of shine to top things off.

Pics up tonight.

Just checked out the Mediabrowser thread. Not sure about Mediabrowser, as I won't be storing movies on the hard drive yet. But some of the other utilities look good. Thanks for the tip.

[Huggy]

As promised - some pics:

The gear just waiting to be unpacked next to old TV:

The installed PC. Hmm wires. Still it was an easy build. Really no problems other than not understanding where to attach the IR Power Switch wires. Very confusing and poor documentation from Antec on that one.

So for those about to build a Fusion Remote, it works like this:

1. You will note that there are 2 Power Switch wires coming out from the front of the case. One is Black and White (the case Power Switch), and the other is Black and Red (the Remote/IR Power Switch).
2. If you want to use the Veris remote properly with the case, you will need to install both.
3. Attach the IR cable (red/black) onto the normal mobo Power Switch pins.
4. Attach the Case cable (white/black) onto a couple of hard to spot pins right on the edge of the front of the case behind the VFD panel.

The lounge pre new build:

[Huggy]

The lounge post build. The TV doesn't look so big from the picture, but that's just the camera lens playing tricks. It's big. Still I think it works (not a great pic due to the flash). The ridiculously priced oak/glass cabinet (£350) fits in with the rest of the decor methinks:

HTPC all fired up:

The AV stack. Looks good with my Marantz IMHO:

[Theydon Bois]

Thanks for the build pics - this is always what sets a build thread off imho. We can all bang on about how good our frontend pics are and they all sort of blur into one, but adding pics of the build, the HTPC kit used, the setup, the surrounding kit all add to make it whole.

I like the stand as well - something that would fit in with my front room now that I have had it all refloored. [...goes off to take some new pics for his own build thread...]

[Huggy]

Update on my issues list.

- The HTPC regularly reboots by itself. I had noted that the GPU temps were ridiculously high. Now in a catch 22. I've got the fans going and it seems stable, but too much noise. Seriously considering replacing the Antec Tricools with something quiet like Sythe S-Flex Ultra Quiets.

- Remotes. The Antec case has a somewhat confusing IR power cabling set up which I have not quite figured out. Once sorted, I have yet to decide on the remote situation. Fixed the IR Cables, but the Veris remote is still poor and am researching a good learning remote like the harmony 1

- Start up from sleep seems slow to me. I thought it would be a few seconds, but it feels like more than 30 seconds. Have installed MST, and that seems to have reduced time to 20 secs. When I say 20 secs, I mean time to get sufficeintly booted and tuner ready to do anything. Still too slow. This is my major issue. What are other people's time from resume to viewing?

- I can’t figure out how to resume from sleep back into the freeview channel that I was viewing before sleep. Still unsolved, but no major issue.

- No firewire on the mobo. Does anyone know of a PCIE 1x firewire card (I’ve used up the PCI slots), with some sort of internal connection that I connect to from the front? Still looking

- Having problems getting the CPU fan to slow down from startup with Speedfan. Anyone know of a better solution or an idiot proof speedfan guide? Solved

- I bought the Bluetooth version of the Keysonic remote keyboard as I had heard that the IR was version was pants. Well the Bluetooth version is pants also. I have to situate the Bluetooth dongle in a USB port at the front of the case. Looking into suggesting of a USB extension cable from rear to front hidden under the PC

[Huggy]

Concentrating on the start up issue. It looks like a key limitation of HTPCs is that even from standby, it takes a long time to resume. I had hoped it would be like switching on a normal TV.

I'm thinking of a workaround, and would appreciate your thoughts.

My Plasma comes with Freeview, so the solution could be buy an aerial splitter and have one go to the TV and the other to the HTPC. Then buy a Harmony One, and set it up so that one activity is to switch on all the kit, setting the video input to "TV".

If I switch on the TV as the first action, I should in theory have TV channels up immediately. The HTPC is firing up in backgound, and should SWMBO wish at some point to leave the stone age, she can switch to HTPC later on (presumably with another Harmony activity button).

Questions: Will this work? What is the signal degradation like with a splitter?

Also, I am about to take the plunge with the Harmony 1. I've seen a few people with issues getting it to work with the Antec Remote internal IR Receiver. Thoughts?

[Huggy]

Latest update in Blue

- The HTPC regularly reboots by itself. I had noted that the GPU temps were ridiculously high. Now in a catch 22. I've got the fans going and it seems stable, but too much noise. Seriously considering replacing the Antec Tricools with something quiet like Sythe S-Flex Ultra Quiets.
Solved. Moved one of my Tricools right next to the chipset, set to blow air across the chipset, and the CPU. GPU temps have now come down from the 90s to the 50s. No more rebooting. A bit Heath Robinson, but it works

- Remotes. The Antec case has a somewhat confusing IR power cabling set up which I have not quite figured out. Once sorted, I have yet to decide on the remote situation. Fixed the IR Cables, but the Veris remote is still poor and am researching a good learning remote like the harmony 1.
Solved. Got the Harmony One :D:

Lovely remote, but it's been a bit of a trial setting it up. I've really had to think about how the activities will work. Started off with 6 and now reduced to just 2. Watch TV and Media Center. Watch TV helps solve the problem below. Media Center does just that: fire up the TV, Receiver and HTPC and dumps me in Media Center. Efficient, but still 20 seconds. To get the Harmony to work as an MCE remote with the Antec case, there are not one but 2 steps:

1. Using the IMON software, change the remote to "MCE remote".
2. Using the Harmony web based software, when selecting the HTPC device, do NOT select "Antec", then type in "Remote Fusion", but go to "Microsoft", then type in "Vista Media Center".

2 new problems:

1. When navigating with the remote in Media Center, it occasionally does a double move. ie you move one step in a direction and it will move 2, missing out where you want to go. I've read about the Antec IR receiving 2 instructions from the Harmony - any pointers?
2. I want a quick way to reach the Vista desktop and not Media Center on start up (it takes quite a few clicks to get out of Media Center). Either of 2 solutions would work, but I can't figure either out:
a) program a button on the Harmony to exit Media Center (presumably Alt F4). How do I do that?
b) set up a 3rd activity - "Windows", which gets me there. However, it seems that when setting up the Harmony as an MCE remote, you are forced to start up into Media Center. Anyone figure out how to bypass that?

- Start up from sleep seems slow to me. I thought it would be a few seconds, but it feels like more than 30 seconds. Have installed MST, and that seems to have reduced time to 20 secs. When I say 20 secs, I mean time to get sufficeintly booted and tuner ready to do anything. Still too slow. This is my major issue. What are other people's time from resume to viewing?
OK, my solution to this is a compromise. I've bought a mains based, aerial splitter/amplifier, specifically an SLx2P, which, if you shop around, you can get for £12, and a couple more TV cables, and now have 1 cable attached to the HTPC and 1 to the TV direct, with no signal degradation. I then programed the Harmony with "Watch TV", which simply turns on the TV and assigns the "TV" input. Bingo. When SWMBO, wants to just watch TV, she gets what it says on the tin, with no 20 second wait.

Only problem is that, I can't figure out how to set up the Harmony to fire up the HTPC in background, so we can switch to it at a later point. When I've tried, the instructions for firing up the HTPC always seem to take precedence, and I'm back to square 1.

Here is a pic of the SLx2P - hmmm, more cables.

- I can’t figure out how to resume from sleep back into the freeview channel that I was viewing before sleep. Still unsolved, but no major issue.

- No firewire on the mobo. Does anyone know of a PCIE 1x firewire card (I’ve used up the PCI slots), with some sort of internal connection that I connect to from the front? Still looking

- Having problems getting the CPU fan to slow down from startup with Speedfan. Anyone know of a better solution or an idiot proof speedfan guide? Solved

- I bought the Bluetooth version of the Keysonic remote keyboard as I had heard that the IR was version was pants. Well the Bluetooth version is pants also. I have to situate the Bluetooth dongle in a USB port at the front of the case. Looking into suggestion of a USB extension cable from rear to front hidden under the PC
Solved. Bought an extension.

Finally, a new problem, and a very good solution, which I don't see touted about much on the forums.

Problem: You can't easily switch audio devices in Vista, When I am watching the news, I don't really want to hear it in glorious 5.1 surround sound. However, there is no easy way to switch the audio from the receiver to the tuner. The steps are:

1. Exit of Media Center
2. Pick up the keyboard
3. Right click the sound icon in the bottom right hand corner
4. Click on Playback devices
5. Click on the new playback device
6. Click "Set default", and OK
7. Restart Media Center

What a pain!!!! Hopefully it will be fixed with Win 7.

Here is the solution: Vista Audio Changer: Vista Audio Changer :: Home. Get the 2.11 beta. It's pretty stable, and v1.04 is not integrated with Media Center. Once installed, you get a new menu in Media Center, which allows you to switch audio with one click. It's not totally seamless: you see the switch as it is not done in background. Also, you still have to exit the application and fire it up again in order to hear the new audio feed. Still a great interim solution.

Summary. I'm almost there with this project. I knew it would be a bit of a journey, and I suspect getting the final 10% right will take a lot more research.

Apart from achieving the objectives of an HTPC, the surprise pros are:

1. It's just great hearing my music collection with my quality home cinema kit, rather than the PC speakers, and in the comfort of my lounge. Getting into the habit of doing this while surfing.
2. With a 50" TV, you can sensibly surf AND watch TV at the same time.
3. Elimination of all the remotes for the Harmony .
4. Pause Live TV. I just love seeing the confusion on SWMBOs face
5. Media Center is a quality piece of software. It's been hiding away in windows all this time, and didn't know...

Surprise cons:

1. That 20 second start up time.
2. The Harmony web software. It looks good, does the basics, but is quite restrictive in what it allows you to do.
3. At the moment, it's just a bit too flaky as a system. Too many workarounds, too many odd things happening. Why does the system sometimes think the TV is a Samsung and reset the resolution? Why does it mute occasionally, when I haven't pressed a button? Why does the keysonic keyboard eat AAA batteries like they are going out of fashion? I'll get there.
4. Sprogs have started using the lounge much more. Will hopefully pass once the excitement has abated

[Theydon Bois]

I would personally reformat that last post - it looks like you have added a lot of detail and settings, but I can hardly read any of it - the yellow almost illedgable, and the green is hard going.

[Huggy]

Originally Posted by Theydon Bois

I would personally reformat that last post - it looks like you have added a lot of detail and settings, but I can hardly read any of it - the yellow almost illedgable, and the green is hard going.

Done.

[Huggy]

I thought I would give a quick update on status.

Being doing a lot of tweaking, and slowly getting there in terms of user functionality.

Issues such as the occasional muting, changing of the TV into a Sharp, keysonic battery life (I now use rechargeable batteries) have gone away. It's all feeling far more robust.

Regards the Harmony remote. I have definitely learned that less is more. Keeping the activities fundamental and less complicated helps the debugging process, and also makes it easier to understand for the rest of the household. So "Watch TV", which just switches on the TV, and "Media Center" which switches on everything remain the only activities.

A bit of thinking outside the box has finally come up with the best workaround for the audio device changing issue. While Vista Audio Changer works. You still have to exit Media Center and return for the change to kick in. It means picking up the keyboard and doing stuff. Not friendly. My solution is to set up two soft buttons on the Harmony. One sets the amp to 5.1 channels, and the other to 2 channels. How obvious. With the sound just coming from the front speakers it feels just like telly sound anyway. Switch to movies or music and I'm back to 5.1 in one easy click.

So now I'm moving onto other aspects of the HTPC world which are next on my agenda:

1. Video. Getting home movies from my camcorder and playing them back in VMC is proving a challenge. Can't figure how to get VMC to play MPEGs. Firewire card is on order.

2. Upscaling. Figuring out how to make my DVDs look better on the 1080p TV.

I'll do some more research before I post in detail. Watch this space.

[Theydon Bois]

Excellent - this is the kind of thing you want to read in a build - "...all going ok, and so I am tweaking it to do x next."

The thread grows as other people read your solutions to a problem they may never have thought about or may not have even bothered them until "...but I am sure [AVForum user] did it with a remote control command.." so then they start tweaking their build, posting more in their thread...

We have created a perpetual HTPC thread building machine!

Ok, ok, Corona still in the system from last night

[Huggy]

Gosh,

It's been a month since the last post, so I thought I would do an update after this bedding in period.

Very happy with the solution overall. Still some ongoing niggles...

1. I come down in the morning to find the PC on. I think it is not switching itself off after downloading EPG updates during the night. This throws the Harmony programming off for the less adept members of the household. I thought I had resolved this using MST, but clearly not. Ideas?

2. I am learning to loathe the Boing sound in VMC. I've switched it off when navigating, but it still boings when changing channels or volume. Can you change the sound for something more subtle, or get rid of it altogether?

3. DVD upscaling and BR VMC integration. My solution to DVD upscaling and coincidentally Blu Ray playback in VMC was to upgrade to PowerDVD 9 Ultra (trial). The upscaling (which I think they call Truetheater) is pretty good, but the VMC integration is flawed. When I click on the Play DVD icon, it loads up the DVD , but shifts slightly to the right and to the bottom (I'm in 1080P), so the picture is annoyingly slightly off centre. Seen nothing similar in the cyberlink forums, may do a reinstall later. Also, in VMC Truetheater is switched off, which is pants. I am wondering if these are limitations of the trial edition.

4. Encoding home movies. I got the internal firewire card and connector from the front port to the card, and it works well. However, the whole business of uploading from my camcorder was a nightmare. Neither windows movie maker, nor the bundled Ulead software would upload the video from my Sharp DV camcorder. By googling, I established that this was a common problem, and was pointed in the direction of WinDV which managed it (sort of - you have to keep clicking capture until it decides to work ). Everytime I have a small break in the video, it creates a new file, so after 30 mins of video it may have 15 or 20 files. So, I then fire up windows movie maker, load all the files in and then merge them into a WMV file. Does the job, but what a pain. I go for the highest quality, and the file sizes make Blu Ray seem small, but family memories are priceless I guess.

5. I've started shaking my mobile phone to get the screen to light up and it does not work. Little joke for Harmony One users. Once you go through the pain of programming it, it is a truly great piece of kit!

[Huggy]

7 months later!

All issues but one have gone away. The kit is all working beautifully still. The only changes made have been a fairly painless upgrade to Win 7. Only issue being that Blu Ray didn't play, thus requiring the usual driver updates for the onboard graphics and PowerDVD 9.

My big issue still is the 20 second start up from resume, which is now made more obvious as Windows fires up quicker than in Vista (it seems), so I now see the error messages in Media Center such as "can't find available tuner" (or something to that effect).

One more plea - is there anyone with a solution to this? Are there tuners out there which fire up very quickly? Is there a workaround in Windows where I can get it to recognise the tuner USBs quicker?

Cheers