HTPC - Home Theater Personal Computer

[Buy_The_Tie]

Does anybody here run a Home Theater Personal Computer?

I'm thinking of putting one together to act as an OTA dual-tuner DVR, as well as a blue-ray player, and a gadget for serving up internet video.

I've done a bunch of research, and when I finally settle on a system, I plan on posting all of the details here.

I would be interested in:
CPU:
Motherboard:
Optical Drives:
Hard Disks:
Operating System:
Software Used:

Any info would be greatly appreciated.

[kevbeck122]

I've had multiple PCs that I've used as HTPCs (mostly homebuilt), but I'll list my latest:

HP Pavilion Elite m9000t
CPU: Core 2 Duo E6750 (2.66GHz)
Mobo: ASUS motherboard (HP OEM)
Optical: DVD+-RW (Used PS3 for Blu Ray)
HD: Came with a Seagate 320GB, swapped it out for a Samsung 500GB
Video: Came with a NVIDIA 8400GS which was fine for HD, but the fan was too noisy.  I swapped it out for an ATI Radeon HD4550 passive cooled.
OS: Vista Home Premium, eventually Windows 7 Home Premium (Release Candidate)
Software: I just used Media Center built into Windows and Orb for remote streaming.  Media Center has built in support for Netflix and MSN streaming video.  I'm sure there are other add ons for sites like Hulu.

That HP has a PCIe tuner, but I used the HDHomerun (http://www.silicondust.com/) which is a dual networked tuner OTA/QAM.

For hard drives, I'd stay away from Seagate.  Their reliability has gone down in the past few years.  

In the past few weeks (and probably still now), companies have been clearing out the slower blu ray drives.  You can get one for around $50-$70.

[UncleMeat]

Mine:
-GIGABYTE GA-X48-DQ6 LGA 775 Intel X48 ATX Intel Motherboard
-Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400 Yorkfield 2.66GHz LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80580Q8400
-CORSAIR DOMINATOR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500)

Currently 2.5TB of storage via WD drives (1 USB2.0, 1 SATA).  

I use XP right now.  Don't record TV to it, instead use it to catalog media, watch movies, etc, etc.

[ScottyB]

Right now I just use an old desktop with a DVI->HDMI and the sound added with a separate cable.  It's BIG, it's LOUD, but it works great.  I use Boxee (a new version of which comes out in a few weeks) for the interface.  My wife was skeptical when I first dragged that huge tower from the computer room to the living room, but she immediately loved it and we've been cable-free for well over a year.  About half of what we watch is OTA or DVD, the other half the time we stream over the internet.  It is fantastic.

I want to build a new, quiet HTPC though.  I'm looking especially at the new Zotac Ion motherboards.  They have the mini-itx form factor, and the most recent release has an extra PCI slot (for a TV tuner) and its own built in power supply.

For optical, obviously whatever Blu-Ray drive that fits with the case you select.  Most mini-itx cases still take the 3.5" regular everyday optical drive, but there are a few that take those real slim slot-load drives (though they are pricey.)

Hard drive - depends on how much you want to store.  I am going to convert my current HTPC to a network storage center, so I don't need a big drive.  Otherwise, the bigger the better.

O/S - I stream Netflix a lot, so Windows is unfortunately a requirement.  As soon as Netflix figures out how to stream on Linux, Ubuntu will be standard on all my builds.

Software - like I said, I use boxee (//www.boxee.tv) about 90% of the time.  It's in alpha stage now, but the beta comes out next month.  XBMC (which boxee is a derivative of) for PVR capabilities.  For Ubuntu, look into MythTV.  Hopefully boxee will integrate PVR into it's interface eventually.

Ideally, I want to have a nice, small, silent box that I can run completely from a universal remote.  Right now we use a wireless keyboard/mouse, which works nice, but it's not ideal.

Also, if you want to avoid building anything, Dell just came out with the Inspiron Zino HD which looks real nice.  Just missing a TV tuner, though they say it will be available as an option soon.  Quite affordable, too.

For just a sample of what is available streaming online, check out //www.clicker.com

Hope that helps,
Scott

[Buy_The_Tie]

I got the hardware on Christmas Eve (Merry Christmas to me!)
Since then, I've been tinkering with it when I've had some time.
I've gotten all of the hardware assembled, but I don't have my copy of Windows 7 yet (It's on the way).
As a stop-gap measure, I've loaded Windows XP onto it, along with the trail version of Beyond TV.

The system as it stands is pretty snappy, and the picture quality on my 40" Sony XBR is pretty good.

The fan in the power supply is the noisest part of the system, I'm contemplating on exactly how I am going to quiet that down.



Computer Case
Notice the Remote IR sensor that I fitted into the 2nd blank drive bay?




Notice the IR sensor cable exiting the case through part of an old internal modem card?




Video Capture Card




1 TB Hard Disk (for Video Files)
500 GB Disk (for Op. Sys & Programs)




Processor




Motherboard




Memory (4GB)


I'll report back once I get this system set up with Windows 7.

[ScottyB]

Wow, sharp!  Yeah, fan noise is the thing I am dealing with right now.  I've replaced all of them with quieter ones over the years, but the PSU fan would be tough.  I was thinking of just getting a Dell Zino HD or Acer Revo, which they say are whisper quiet.  No TV tuners in them, but I could add a HDHomerun.

Looks nice though!  The new Boxee beta plays very nice with Win 7 if you were interested in trying that out.

Keep us updated!

Scott

[Buy_The_Tie]

I got Windows 7 up and running on this past Thursday night.

I had a bit of trouble getting the remote to work.  It turns out I had to install the software package that came with my tuner card (not just the drivers).  There is now a program running in the background that makes the remote work.

I've been doing a lot of tinkering with Windows Media Center, and it seems to work really well.  I've done quite a bit of OTA recording and some DVD watching, and the results so far have been good.

I think I may rip the whole thing apart, and replace the too-bright LED's on the front panel and retrofit a couple of less prominent blue ones.  I may also replace the power supply with one that has a speed-controlled 120mm fan in it.

Sor far, I am very pleased.

[Olias]

Here's my current home theater setup, based on a SageTV client/extender architecture. I started down this road a few years ago and now I'm a full-fledged Home Theater addict.

It's come a long way since the beginning when I just had a PC connected to a 38" RCA CRT HDTV. I tried Mediaportal, Beyond TV, SageTV, and Microsoft's Media Center (XP and Vista).
The WAF was pretty low though. She didn't like the idea of having to boot into Windows just to watch television. So I looked at my options and settled on SageTV running on our basement server and using their HD extenders on two of our TVs, and a Vista PC running the Sage client on our third TV all operated by Harmony remotes.

The server does all the recording, DRM free and streams it out to the clients.
It's a quad core Q6700 with two DirecTV tuners tied to two HD-PVRs and two ATSC internal tuners (one for Milwaukee stations, the second for Madison stations).

Total storage on the server is 6.5TB, some of it RAID 5 (holding my CD and DVD collections) the rest non-RAID for TV storage (we record a LOT of old movies).
One HD extender uses wireless 802.11n and the rest are hard wired GB ethernet. The tiny little box to the right of the central speaker is the HD extender on the first picture.
While the SageTV gui is rather plain compared to Media Center, it's so ridiculously flexable that I'm constantly tweaking it and trying out plugins.

The latest addition is a PlayOn plugin which allows us to see Watch It Instantly movies via Netflix. I'm getting ready to install a YAC plugin that will pop up caller ID on the screeen when we get a phone call.