Feuerwizard
April 19th, 2004, 03:48 pm
This is a very nice project that our friend Donjo did few weeks ago. Check it out, because itīs very interesting and very informative...
__________________________________________________ _______________
For those of you who don't know, HTPC stands for Home Theater PC. These are generally PC's that are hooked up to a TV for gaming/movies/music or whatever you want. I am going to be typing up everything I do here over the next few weeks for a few reasons.
1. To inform other people how to do it
2. To motivate myself to finish this project
Anyway, lets get started....
__________________________________________________ _______________
Part I: Goals
First thing I had to do was pick out parts for my computer. I needed this computer to be very quiet (who wants to hear fans while watching a DVD). I also wanted to have gameable hardware incase I ever wanted to try gaming in HD.
In the end I want to be able to...
Control everything with a remote
Burn CD's/DVD's
Play DVD's and also play music and dvd rips
Record/pause/rewind TV (yea, like tivo)
Play games
Check news/weather/browse internet
Run in HiDef (480P and 1080i, the supported resolutions on my TV)
Later additions
5.1 or 7.1 speakers (PC speakers, probably the creative megaworks set)
Possible upgraded video card and other enhancements for PC gaming depending on how much I like it on the TV.
__________________________________________________ _______________
Part 2: The parts
Next thing I had to do was pick out the parts for this beast. The most important part to me was the case. I wanted to make my own case originally by re-designing an old VCR, however that idea fell through when I realized I would have to order smaller parts. In that case I headed over to Antec to buy the Antec Overture. I looked at cases from coolermaster and lian li that were this same style but they were out of my price range, this was under 100 dollars (I think I paid $89). When the case arrived I checked it out. I was very pleased. The case truley does have a "piano black" finish and even includes a rag to polish it. The inside of the hard drive cage has rubber washers to reduce vibration. And overall the case is laid out well and stylish. The case came with a powersupply and I trust antecs power supplys so there was no need to replace it.
Then I went with the core hardware. Some of these parts I already had...
-ATI Raedon 9500
-512mb Corsair PC-3200
-Asus A7V8X
-ATI TV Wonder
-Western Digital 60GB harddrive (the music and videos are going to be stored on the network)
A few others I had to order
-Sony Dru-510A DVD-RW (got it back in december, otherwise I would have gotten the 8x's that are out now and acctually cheaper)
-Athlon 2000+
-Zalman 7000 Alcu
I assembled the parts and despite some problems with the motherboard at first, everything is now working.
__________________________________________________ _______________
Part 3: Operating System and programs
Well at first I was going to go with windows XP... then I changed my mind after seeing some nice open source software for linux that was designed for this purpose. These two pieces of software are called Freevo and MythTV. I was going to run these on my new favorite, non-windows OS, FreeBSD. Then due to some problems with my LAN card I changed my mind and decided to just go with RedHat 9. This would also make it easier for me to follow directions because the directions were written for linux anyway.
After looking at the two programs I think I am going to use MythTV. It seems to be pretty popular over at AVS Forums so I am sure I could go there for help if I am having any trouble.
I had some more LAN card follies with the linux OS so I think I am just going to break down and get a LAN card elsewhere instead of using the onboard LAN.
And that is where I stopped tonight...
__________________________________________________ _______________
I have been kicking around this idea for atleast a year now. Once I get the LAN card working I should be able to fly through the set up of the SQL server and all that other stuff. The hardest part will be gettting it all configed to save TV to the network storage (keeping the cached TV for the storing of about an hour or so of TV at all time so I can pause and rewind on the computer itself)
Then after this getting a remote to work and getting it to run in the needed resolutions will be the next main part of the project.
__________________________________________________ _______________
I am sick of messing around with these LAN card drivers and I am just gonna break down and buy a seperate LAN card from netgear at staples. I like the netgear cards because they run great on linux and they are very small so they dont restrict airflow that my video card may want.
__________________________________________________ _______________
I got a LAN card from a friend the other day. It is a 3com. I love 3com LAN cards because they work with any OS I throw at them it seems. So I plugged that in, it was configured quickly and then I was off to start installing.
The first thing I got was this program called apt. The way I understand is that it is a program that lets you download packages and install packages of stuff at once. This sure beats downloading all the source code in tar.gz form then compiling each one. When you are a newb like me, you don't really need the source code because I am not going to be changing anything. These RPM's work just fine for me. Right now I am updating apt to get all these files that I need then I will proceed to install the mythTV suite. This should get me all the databases and other stuff I need for mythTV, then I guess it is all configuring from there. I still have to install drivers for stuff and do a few other minor installations but I think this is the last of the installing.
__________________________________________________ _______________
Here are some things that have changed (plus it works now!)
First I scrapped the linux install and went with windows XP. I really didn't feel like buying a new TV tuner and a few other things that I would need because linux didn't support them well enough. I went about installing windows XP and I was getting errors all over the place. It was determined that my motherboard (that Asus A7V8x) was causing all the errors. I replaced that with an nforce 2 board (which also meant I would not need a soundcard because I could go with the onboard sound). I got a Shuttle A35N Ultra. It is stable as a rock. I re-installed and all was good. Now I went to start setting things up.
After the usual OS install procedure with disabling things I dont like and updating drivers, putting mozilla firefox, and other general setup, I went and installed powerstrip, the backbone of the whole HTPC.
You may think "How can a video card tweaking program be so important". Well HTPC's require very customized resolutions. If I cannot get the right resolution, there is no way that I can get this picture up on my screen. And afterall, the video is half of the HTPC experience (or all of it until I get my good speakers). I got it running in a customized version of 1280x960 but stretched out in to 16x9 aspect ratio so the TV thinks it is running 1080i HDTV.
I also installed a program called myHTPC. This program provides some front end for your HTPC, once I get everyting configured, I will have this boot up with windows. Think of it as a fancy "start menu" if you will.
Other programs I installed are powerDVD to provide me with DVD decoding. Zoomplayer to allow me to tweak out my video some more and eventually replace powerDVD.
Future plans:
Within the next week or so I will get new speakers. I plan on getting some Logitech Z-5300's. They are pretty much the same as the z-680's with the exception of power. These are 280watts total, the z680's are 500 watts total. They are also 100 bucks cheaper and they are both THX certified. My bedroom isn't very big so these will suit me well I think.
I also bought another 200gb hard drive with the intentions of ripping all my DVD's and then putting them on my freeBSD server. I will install samba on that which allows the freeBSD box to be seen on a windows network. Then I will share the folder the DVD's are in and mount it as a network drive.
__________________________________________________ _______________
Opinions...
DVD's look freaking awesome!
Microsoft HDTV samples look great!!!
It is good to finally see something happen with this project. It has been in my head since november of 2001 when I saw the maximum PC feature on home theater PC's. There have been many problems on the way but last night I acctually got to use it. Although it may seem like I am done, this is only the beginning. In addition to the stuff I already talked about, there is still plenty of video tweaking to do. I also want to get some games set up on there.
__________________________________________________ _______________
You can view some pics of the project here. (http://forums.gamers.org/showthread.php?t=42)
Enjoy them!
Thanks to our friend Donjo to provide us this great info!
__________________________________________________ _______________
For those of you who don't know, HTPC stands for Home Theater PC. These are generally PC's that are hooked up to a TV for gaming/movies/music or whatever you want. I am going to be typing up everything I do here over the next few weeks for a few reasons.
1. To inform other people how to do it
2. To motivate myself to finish this project
Anyway, lets get started....
__________________________________________________ _______________
Part I: Goals
First thing I had to do was pick out parts for my computer. I needed this computer to be very quiet (who wants to hear fans while watching a DVD). I also wanted to have gameable hardware incase I ever wanted to try gaming in HD.
In the end I want to be able to...
Control everything with a remote
Burn CD's/DVD's
Play DVD's and also play music and dvd rips
Record/pause/rewind TV (yea, like tivo)
Play games
Check news/weather/browse internet
Run in HiDef (480P and 1080i, the supported resolutions on my TV)
Later additions
5.1 or 7.1 speakers (PC speakers, probably the creative megaworks set)
Possible upgraded video card and other enhancements for PC gaming depending on how much I like it on the TV.
__________________________________________________ _______________
Part 2: The parts
Next thing I had to do was pick out the parts for this beast. The most important part to me was the case. I wanted to make my own case originally by re-designing an old VCR, however that idea fell through when I realized I would have to order smaller parts. In that case I headed over to Antec to buy the Antec Overture. I looked at cases from coolermaster and lian li that were this same style but they were out of my price range, this was under 100 dollars (I think I paid $89). When the case arrived I checked it out. I was very pleased. The case truley does have a "piano black" finish and even includes a rag to polish it. The inside of the hard drive cage has rubber washers to reduce vibration. And overall the case is laid out well and stylish. The case came with a powersupply and I trust antecs power supplys so there was no need to replace it.
Then I went with the core hardware. Some of these parts I already had...
-ATI Raedon 9500
-512mb Corsair PC-3200
-Asus A7V8X
-ATI TV Wonder
-Western Digital 60GB harddrive (the music and videos are going to be stored on the network)
A few others I had to order
-Sony Dru-510A DVD-RW (got it back in december, otherwise I would have gotten the 8x's that are out now and acctually cheaper)
-Athlon 2000+
-Zalman 7000 Alcu
I assembled the parts and despite some problems with the motherboard at first, everything is now working.
__________________________________________________ _______________
Part 3: Operating System and programs
Well at first I was going to go with windows XP... then I changed my mind after seeing some nice open source software for linux that was designed for this purpose. These two pieces of software are called Freevo and MythTV. I was going to run these on my new favorite, non-windows OS, FreeBSD. Then due to some problems with my LAN card I changed my mind and decided to just go with RedHat 9. This would also make it easier for me to follow directions because the directions were written for linux anyway.
After looking at the two programs I think I am going to use MythTV. It seems to be pretty popular over at AVS Forums so I am sure I could go there for help if I am having any trouble.
I had some more LAN card follies with the linux OS so I think I am just going to break down and get a LAN card elsewhere instead of using the onboard LAN.
And that is where I stopped tonight...
__________________________________________________ _______________
I have been kicking around this idea for atleast a year now. Once I get the LAN card working I should be able to fly through the set up of the SQL server and all that other stuff. The hardest part will be gettting it all configed to save TV to the network storage (keeping the cached TV for the storing of about an hour or so of TV at all time so I can pause and rewind on the computer itself)
Then after this getting a remote to work and getting it to run in the needed resolutions will be the next main part of the project.
__________________________________________________ _______________
I am sick of messing around with these LAN card drivers and I am just gonna break down and buy a seperate LAN card from netgear at staples. I like the netgear cards because they run great on linux and they are very small so they dont restrict airflow that my video card may want.
__________________________________________________ _______________
I got a LAN card from a friend the other day. It is a 3com. I love 3com LAN cards because they work with any OS I throw at them it seems. So I plugged that in, it was configured quickly and then I was off to start installing.
The first thing I got was this program called apt. The way I understand is that it is a program that lets you download packages and install packages of stuff at once. This sure beats downloading all the source code in tar.gz form then compiling each one. When you are a newb like me, you don't really need the source code because I am not going to be changing anything. These RPM's work just fine for me. Right now I am updating apt to get all these files that I need then I will proceed to install the mythTV suite. This should get me all the databases and other stuff I need for mythTV, then I guess it is all configuring from there. I still have to install drivers for stuff and do a few other minor installations but I think this is the last of the installing.
__________________________________________________ _______________
Here are some things that have changed (plus it works now!)
First I scrapped the linux install and went with windows XP. I really didn't feel like buying a new TV tuner and a few other things that I would need because linux didn't support them well enough. I went about installing windows XP and I was getting errors all over the place. It was determined that my motherboard (that Asus A7V8x) was causing all the errors. I replaced that with an nforce 2 board (which also meant I would not need a soundcard because I could go with the onboard sound). I got a Shuttle A35N Ultra. It is stable as a rock. I re-installed and all was good. Now I went to start setting things up.
After the usual OS install procedure with disabling things I dont like and updating drivers, putting mozilla firefox, and other general setup, I went and installed powerstrip, the backbone of the whole HTPC.
You may think "How can a video card tweaking program be so important". Well HTPC's require very customized resolutions. If I cannot get the right resolution, there is no way that I can get this picture up on my screen. And afterall, the video is half of the HTPC experience (or all of it until I get my good speakers). I got it running in a customized version of 1280x960 but stretched out in to 16x9 aspect ratio so the TV thinks it is running 1080i HDTV.
I also installed a program called myHTPC. This program provides some front end for your HTPC, once I get everyting configured, I will have this boot up with windows. Think of it as a fancy "start menu" if you will.
Other programs I installed are powerDVD to provide me with DVD decoding. Zoomplayer to allow me to tweak out my video some more and eventually replace powerDVD.
Future plans:
Within the next week or so I will get new speakers. I plan on getting some Logitech Z-5300's. They are pretty much the same as the z-680's with the exception of power. These are 280watts total, the z680's are 500 watts total. They are also 100 bucks cheaper and they are both THX certified. My bedroom isn't very big so these will suit me well I think.
I also bought another 200gb hard drive with the intentions of ripping all my DVD's and then putting them on my freeBSD server. I will install samba on that which allows the freeBSD box to be seen on a windows network. Then I will share the folder the DVD's are in and mount it as a network drive.
__________________________________________________ _______________
Opinions...
DVD's look freaking awesome!
Microsoft HDTV samples look great!!!
It is good to finally see something happen with this project. It has been in my head since november of 2001 when I saw the maximum PC feature on home theater PC's. There have been many problems on the way but last night I acctually got to use it. Although it may seem like I am done, this is only the beginning. In addition to the stuff I already talked about, there is still plenty of video tweaking to do. I also want to get some games set up on there.
__________________________________________________ _______________
You can view some pics of the project here. (http://forums.gamers.org/showthread.php?t=42)
Enjoy them!
Thanks to our friend Donjo to provide us this great info!