Belongamick's first HTPC Build

[belongamick]

Hi,

This will be my first PC build for a dedicated HTPC.

I have just ordered the following components from AWD-IT.co.uk:

Origen AE S16V £367.88 delivered
Gigabyte GA-E7AUM-DS2H Nvidia Geforce 9400 £103.50
Intel Core 2 DUO E5200 2.50GHz £48.95
Corsair 4GB (2x2GB) PC6400 £32.95
Corsair VX 450W Ultra Quiet PSU £53.95

I went with the mATX motherboard even though the case does support full ATX. Reason being this case does have some design/layout issues which are described in detail here Origen S16V - my experience and some questions at the end. - Kustom PC's Forums
Even with this in mind I still couldn't resist going with this case as it looks so damm good and by going with mATX board will provide more space to play with!


So, still to order:
Cooling, thinking mini-ninja (full size ninja won't fit in the case)
Blu-ray / DVD player
Choice of OS - does XP support Blu-ray playback?

Useful link for Origen cases showing detailed dimensions and cross sections:
What is the maximum size of vide

As always avforums has been invaluable in my decision making, thanks all!

Cheers,
Michael

 

[Lampshader]

Nice little build there although i really dont like that case it's too blingy for me, i got 2 silverstone lascala LC17's. You will need to use either vista or win7 as xp doesn't support hd. Im using a pioneer bluray/dvd drive in ly build and it's been perfect. You havent included a Tv tuner in your build. Good luck with the build

 

[belongamick]

Nice little build there although i really dont like that case it's too blingy for me, i got 2 silverstone lascala LC17's. You will need to use either vista or win7 as xp doesn't support hd. Im using a pioneer bluray/dvd drive in ly build and it's been perfect. You havent included a Tv tuner in your build. Good luck with the build

Cheers Lampshader, didn't think I was a bling type of guy .

Cooling now sorted, went for (also from AWD-IT.co.uk):

Scythe Mini Ninja Heatpipe CPU Cooler £26.50
2 x Noctua NF-B9 92mm Fans (1 for mini-ninja and 1 for case intake) £33.90
2 x NOCTUA - NF-R8-1800 Case fans 80MM £19.90 (case exhaust fans)

Will update with pics when I start putting this lot together...

 

[Lampshader]

i wanted a case that fits in zith the rest of my gear and didnt have any sort of screen

all the cooling i have in mine is the reference AMD cooler and 2 exhaust fans as these are just my 2 servers that only have 5 hard drives in each so dont need too much cooling

ps exchuse the mess

 

[belongamick]

Purchased:

Arctic Silver 5 (AS5) Paste + Articlean Cleaner - £7.95
LG GGCH20L Super Multi Blu-Ray ROM & HD DVD ROM & DVDRW DVD Writer - OEM - £67.95

Kit has started to arrive at my door, pics to follow...

 

[belongamick]

Well my Origen Case arrived today and guess what? They shipped an Origen S21T by mistake - this happens to be the top of the line model with a 12" touchscreen on the front, nice!!!

This does throw a spanner in the works though, as the case is somewhat taller it won't fit my TV cabinet - will have to buy a separate unit to go beside the TV cabinet I guess - can anyone recommend any good UK sites for this kind of thing?

Also, I remember reading something about the motherboard not supporting 2 x simultaneus video outputs - I will have to check this out as this could be a problem.

 

[jameson_uk]

Also, I remember reading something about the motherboard not supporting 2 x simultaneus video outputs - I will have to check this out as this could be a problem.

Will do VGA plus one other but not DVI and HDMI at the same time

 

[belongamick]

Will do VGA plus one other but not DVI and HDMI at the same time

Cool, just read as much in the manual so no problem there.

Cheers

 

[belongamick]

Pics from build so far.

No hard disk installed yet, put can view BIOS on TFTP screen, so far so good.

One observation: CPU FAN RPM seems to be constantly at 1800RPM regardless of the low CPU temp.

 

[belongamick]

Does XP support Blu-Ray playback. For example can I just install MediaPortal with something like PowerDVD and play Blu-Ray discs? I Have read mixed statements on the internet about this. Does HDCP support in XP come into it?

Cheers

 

[jameson_uk]

Does XP support Blu-Ray playback. For example can I just install MediaPortal with something like PowerDVD and play Blu-Ray discs? I Have read mixed statements on the internet about this. Does HDCP support in XP come into it?

Works fine. I have MP and TMT installed and Blu-Ray playback is fantastic. You can integrate MP with PowerDVD or TMT but I found this a little flaky

 

[Theydon Bois]

Pics from build so far.

No hard disk installed yet, put can view BIOS on TFTP screen, so far so good.

One observation: CPU FAN RPM seems to be constantly at 1800RPM regardless of the low CPU temp.

Now thats a nice case......

 

[belongamick]

Now thats a nice case......

Cheers, I would never have paid whats its worth . Thought I'd over done it when I ordered the S16V but receiving the S21T by mistake more than made of for it...

 

[belongamick]

Build Update.

Hardware build is completed and stable - just need to install some sound insulation to quiet down the hard disk. The hard disk is quieter with the case top off so I think the large size of the case with all the empty space inside is magnifying the sound. I have ordered Acousti AcoustiPack ULTIMATE Multi-Layer @ Quietpc.com for £28.69.

Fans can't be heard at all, and the CPU and SYSTEM temps are very low under load.

Note: the instructions that came with the Origen S21T were poor and didn't include how to setup IRTrans or to use the ATX motherboard power adapter which allows the MCE remote to turn ON the PC.

Software Build Completed As Follows

Windows Vists Business 32-bit SP2.
MediaPortal 1.0.2 with StreamedMP skin.
IRTrans USB server for Philips (Origen AE branded) MCE RC6 remote control.
MCE Standby Tool - allows MediaPortal to reliably recover from Standby.
Screen Mode Switch 2 - create shortcuts to quickly change resolution.
CoreAVC for decoding MKV's.
PowerDVD for Blu-ray playback - not integrated into MP yet.
AC3Filter - for on-the-fly conversion of DTS to DD5.1 - my surround sound system doesn't decode DTS over the optical SPDIF.
DaemonTools Lite - to automatically mount ISO's etc.
VobSub - was getting an annoying error when opening some media files - this fixed it.

More detail on the above to follow regarding various troubleshooting and general ball ache I went through nearly there though.

 

[belongamick]

After weeks of messing around with my HTPC I am now have the following software installed:

Windows XP SP3
Mediaportal 1.0.2
FFDShow
CoreAVC
TMT
AC3filter
Reclock

I have spent way too much time trying to resolve the following issue. I can't seem to get perfectly smooth playback of 24p movies with audio in sync. I can either get one or the other i.e. perfect video or in sync audio. Every other speed works fine e.g. pal 50, htsc 60.

If I set my TV to 1080p 24hz and use Reclock I get pefectly smooth video playback but the audio (only seems to effect AC3 not DTS) is out of SYNC. I can get in sync audio by increaseing the output to TV to 25hz but this results in jerkly playback.

So, I have found myself adjusting the delay in AC3filter to compensate. This works OK but is not perfect as any change I make to the delay adversly affects either AC3 or DTS audio depending in which way I go i.e. I can't set it so both are perfect.

I have scoured the net for days on this, and did find a post about Reclock not working correctly when using onboard video and audio cards - so maybe thats the problem.

If anyone out there knows something I can try I would be very grateful - I think I have tried pretty much every setting combination in AC3filter & FFDSHOW and Reclock and I close to loosing my mind

Cheers,
Belongamick

 

[belongamick]

I have now installed Windows 7 Pro 64-bit with Shark007 Codec pack with 64-bit addon and still have the same issue.

anyone anyone bueller

 

[belongamick]

Have so far setteled on using MediaPortal at 25fps (TV at 50z) and use Reclock to resync and re-encode AC3 audio out the SPDIF to AV receiver.

So far works OK but have still noticied the odd glitch every now and then - but that could be down to individual media file encoding.

Also, found a nasty problem with Windows 7 and having my TV and Origen Screen plugged in on boot up. Kept getting random winload.exe problems and failing to boot - rebuilt and got the same issue. Have found that if I unplug the Origen Screen the problem goes away - annoying but I don't really use the Origen builtin screen - yet.

 

[Bailzebub]

How would i configure Reclock Mick? I read your input in my thread which i'm thankful for.

I would be configuring it for SPDIF passthrough etc with Realtek on-board sound to my Pioneer receiver

Again i'm new to the HTPC stuff i've troubleshooted graphics problems and all sorts of silly things on previous pc's and am PC literate-"ish" but i need a few pointers here and there.

---

A weird thing that cropped up for me was when i reset ac3filter and deleted all the pass-through etc and then re-enabled. MKV's which were previously out of sync all synced up.

However Xvids of various tv shows i had that played fine previously were now all out of sync. Previously i was trying to sync the mkv files and it was the tv Xvids that played fine.

It's as if on this reset of ac3filter everything synced to the first mkv i played with ac3 sound but set all the others wrong.

---

 

[belongamick]

How would i configure Reclock Mick? I read your input in my thread which i'm thankful for.

I would be configuring it for SPDIF passthrough etc with Realtek on-board sound to my Pioneer receiver

Again i'm new to the HTPC stuff i've troubleshooted graphics problems and all sorts of silly things on previous pc's and am PC literate-"ish" but i need a few pointers here and there.

---

Hi, I have configured my mediaportal to use ac3filter as the decoder and reclock as the audio renderer.

Even though I also use spdif to an AV receiver I have configured ac3filter to output to 5.1 analogue. Reclock should pick up this audio stream and then reencode to AC3 using its built-in encoder (Reclock will need the AC3 encode option checked and SPDIF selected for the output). Hope this makes sense...

 

[Bailzebub]

I'll have a crack at this tomorrow because i've had enough of tinkering with the thing for now . Thankyou for the info

 

[belongamick]

Build has changed completely, again!! Think I need to start a fresh thread?!

Now using Windows 7 64-bit and 7wmc and the MediaBrowser plugin - with MPC-HC as an external player. I use MetaBrowser for movie content which MediaBrowser picks ups. MPC-HC is using D3D full screen output and the AC3filter external filter with Reclock reencoding ac3 out to my surround system via SPDIF - works really well!

This is so far the best solution I have found and believe me when I say I've wasted far too much of my life on this

Just need to find a use for the TFT screen on the front of my case - but before I can use it I have to stop Win7 from blue-screening everytime its plugged in at the same time as the TV via HDMI - joy, always another problem to solve...

 

[belongamick]

Does anyone know if Gigabyte motherboard GA-E7AUM-DS2H is HDMI 1.3? Doesn't say in manual and can't find any reference to it on the net.

Having lip-sync issues and I think I read the lip-sync feature is supported from HDMI 1.3?