Anyone else here use an HTPC?

Optical Serenity

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Jun 4, 2006
330
0
Marietta,GA
I've added a computer to my home theatre setup running Windows XP Media Center Edition. Its great, it feeds my xbox 360 which of course is connected to my Denon receiver.

This is a great way to download 720p and up high def content and stream it across my network to my 360.

I'm just learning about HTPC uses, so any other uses other than music, video and picture streaming?
 
I've got a HTPC I had a pic around here somewhere. Basically it's a Dell GX 260 small form factor, 1 GB ram, 2.35 Ghz P4, 80 GB drive, half height firewire card (400), a half height NVidia (128MB??) 5200 dual output card running Windows XP Corp. It's running a DVI to HDMI cable to my Sony 52 inch RPTV. I Y'd the audio output to my old Kenwood stereo reciever and to the TV. When I have parties I load up WMP11 and load in a few playlists, turn the TV off walk away. As soon as I upgrade my home reciever I'll get a UDB Dolby Digital passthru device, Turle Beach makes a few. I have a nifty ATI remote for it too, I can fast forward, stop, exit, etc all from my couch, it has a bunch of programable buttons too. As for the video, 1080i is jerky, I'm not sure if it's the drive speed/cache, the speed of the ram, the CPU, video card or what, 720p works fine though. There are HD newsgroups that have HD content, mostly ripped from moded DISH/Cable boxes, that's where I get all mine. I've tried different DVD playes (Zoom Player seems to the best), NVidia Pure Video apps, the latest NVidia drivers, NVidia DVD deocder, different splitters, different MPEG2 decoders, etc, still no acceptable 1080i. I did get a 1080p h.264 video to play with some stuttering, so far I haven't been able to get my hands on a 1080i h.264 test file, that may or may not work on my system. The Incrdibles in 720p h.264 looked awesome, the kids loved it. My 1080i movies look fine at 720p, I don't notice much of a difference.

Another use of the HTPC is to use it as an upconvert DVD player. Several filters exist for Zoom Player and alot of other third party DVD players to increase sharpness, color balance, etc, supposedly this makes a HUGE difference in DVD playback. I'm still goofing around with it as my real DVD player is an older RCA MP3 non progressive model that I'm looking to replace.

(mods: if some of the stuff I said is 'illegal' here feel free to edit/remove the post) :D
 
I have an htpc.

2 gig media center with a 1.2terrabyte raid-5 controller.

It actually connects at 720p to my Mits wd-62525 using the vga connector on the pc and tv!

I have a 5 foot desktop using an ati 9800pro video card and powerstrip software.
 
:eek:ff topic:

Where in the Boston area are you from?? Me and my wife grew up in Revere . . actually I grew up in Everett but lived in Revere for a few years where I met her.
 
I have an HTPC. But it's a stand alone HT. Not hooked up to main system.
If I want to see a good action movie, and my wife doesn't, I'll go in the computer room, and watch it in 5.1 surround, on my computer. I like it a lot. It's a custom built computer, with XP Home Ed. on it.
 
I run X-Box Media Center (XBMC) on two modded X-Boxes. While it doesn't have the ability to record content, it has a great UI, works with just about every video and audio format known to man, and is rock solid. All content is streamed from my main PC.
 
Optical Serenity said:
I've added a computer to my home theatre setup running Windows XP Media Center Edition. Its great, it feeds my xbox 360 which of course is connected to my Denon receiver.

This is a great way to download 720p and up high def content and stream it across my network to my 360.

I'm just learning about HTPC uses, so any other uses other than music, video and picture streaming?

I think I have one of those ....... Maybe ;)


http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=63848
 
VIPERS-PIT said:
Did you really build that on your kitchen table with a swiss army knife screwdriver?!?!?!?!

Anyway it looks good!!!!!

Yep... the swiss army knife is great! It's a tech toolkit one with multiple screwdriver bits including flathead, phillips, torx, etc. No other tools were used and built it right on the kitchen table. The PC gets used everyday, couldn't live without it!
 
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