Building a HTPC....

disneyjoe7

Bob good luck with yours I like the case nice and small.

Today I picked up this local, about $10 more.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150467&cm_re=radeon_hd_5670-_-14-150-467-_-Product

Also replaced hd master with a sata considered a ssd but too much local, I may do a small one for virtual memory swapping if needed down the road. So since I replaced the windows 7 drive, it was very nice to see the new video card has a hdmi video output on the power up. Nice card.

ryanjoachim

That's a very decent card, and should treat you well for a while to come. Just make sure to use a proper video player, or set it up properly. Some players don't offload the video encoding to the video card, leaving the processor to handle the encoding.

Usually that's not a problem, until you get into action movies or the like.

disneyjoe7

If I was to add another tuner card would this need to be the same as the other one?


The tuner card I have now is the Hauppauge Win-TV HVR-2250.

EndersShadow

disneyjoe7 wrote: »

If I was to add another tuner card would this need to be the same as the other one?


The tuner card I have now is the Hauppauge Win-TV HVR-2250.

Might want to check but I dont think Windows Vista or Windows 7 likes more than two tuners....

And you dont have to add another of the same one if it will let you do more than two.

disneyjoe7

I thinking 2 tuners due a house window7 media center extender. I could see that the HTPC may need more then 2 channels out to the network.

disneyjoe7

Another question guys Sorry... I can't seem to find it google'n my questions.

Can I build another HTPC and use that as a media extender?

EndersShadow

disneyjoe7 wrote: »

Another question guys Sorry... I can't seem to find it google'n my questions.

Can I build another HTPC and use that as a media extender?

Yes...or you could just buy an Xbox 360 (depending on what your looking to watch format wise...)

disneyjoe7

Ok Thanks would the two of them find each other on the network and give me some options?


Steve

EndersShadow

disneyjoe7 wrote: »

Ok Thanks would the two of them find each other on the network and give me some options?


Steve

Yes, my Xbox 360 accesses my main computer and allows me to play music, TV shows I recorded using Windows Media Center and other formats on my big TV.

I also can stream live TV from the computer through the network to the 360.

Might want to read up to make sure everything will play good before you purchase though....

Check AVSFORUM and HARDOCP. Both have extensive sections on this type of stuff...

disneyjoe7

I like the Xbox 360 and I been using it in the bedroom to see the HTPC in the family room, but don't like the remote and it seems to be RF remote only?

disneyjoe7

Background of what was working.

HTPC built using a boot drive C:\ as 160g, and a 1.5T drive for Recorded_TV which quickly filled up. At this time learn and liked I could rip a DVD into the WMC, I felt I would use another 1.5T drive. So now use E:\ drive for Recorded_TV and a drive F:\ for Movies. Now have issues with "There is no available hard disk space" message when there's more then 2T in space easy.

Confused.

vivid2012

disneyjoe7 wrote: »

I like the Xbox 360 and I been using it in the bedroom to see the HTPC in the family room, but don't like the remote and it seems to be RF remote only?

what kind of remote do u have? more details??

disneyjoe7

vivid2012 wrote: »

what kind of remote do u have? more details??

The Harmony 880 using the Xbox remote simulator.

disneyjoe7

Can a Windows 7 HTPC handle 2 large drives without messing up?

AsSiMiLaTeD

Yep. Your only limitation will be the number of drives your case or motherboard will hold. I've got 6 3TB drives in my PC running Windows 7 and works great. That's 6 drives, with 12 partitions.

disneyjoe7

I installed 2 1.5t drives one E:/ and on F:/ and Window 7 states not an enough room to record. Lost as both have over a 1t in space on them.

AsSiMiLaTeD

It's probably wanting to record to the main OS drive, like a default my videos folder or something along those lines. I assume you're using DVR software, should be an option somewhere to change where that records to.

I haven't read this thread, so hopefully I'm not steering you wrong here, but assume you're asking about DVR Recordings.

disneyjoe7

I'm back....


Not really happy about the sound output? It doesn't sound live, if I compare it to my DVD Pioneer AVI 79 player. Would a sound card make this HTPC sound better? Would this work with my HDMI video card?

Glowrdr

Without going back through all the pages, what ae you using now? Just using the built in stuff off the MB? Then I'd say yes. Soundcards are pretty cheap nowdays, unless you get a fancy one for a couple hundred. As for using it in conjunction with your video card, it shouldn't be an issue.

disneyjoe7

Glowrdr wrote: »

Without going back through all the pages, what ae you using now? Just using the built in stuff off the MB? Then I'd say yes. Soundcards are pretty cheap nowdays, unless you get a fancy one for a couple hundred. As for using it in conjunction with your video card, it shouldn't be an issue.

Here's a link of the MOBO http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131623

And yes just using the on board audio.

Glowrdr

I've never had an issue with onboard sound, but I don't ask much of it either. I also am running an Asus board this time around. I'd spend a few bucks and get yourself a soundblaster live card. Nothing super fancy, but at least get a seperate card that has some software behind it. It's a relatively cheap part of the system, otherwise I generally wouldn't just blindly recommend buying something like that.

disneyjoe7

It's not the fact that I have a problem with the on MOBO sound it just doesn't sound great vs. the Pioneer AVI 79 dvd player. I had a DVD with had an Avengers


I can't get to embed, so here's the link.




http://youtu.be/eOrNdBpGMv8



<object width="560" height="315"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/eOrNdBpGMv8?version=3&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/eOrNdBpGMv8?version=3&hl=en_US&quot; type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560" height="315" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>



When played by the Pioneer AVI 79 it Rules, when played with the HTPC it's dead no life to it / Flat.

Glowrdr

I'm guessing there's a setting that needs to be tweaked somewhere. Without having an HTPC myself, I really have no idea where to tell you to look. Hopefully someone else can chime in. I'm just running some Altec Lansing 2.1 speakers on my PC and they sound great. I actually use my PC for music upstairs (the whole upstairs) instead of cranking my system in the living room and it sounds great.

Are you currently using HDMI for sound (I believe PC's mainly use HDMI for video if I'm not mistaken?) or are you using the 7.1 outputs? I've never used the multi-channel outputs on a PC before, so I'm not sure if there would be a signal issue. Kind of like if you go headphone out of an ipod, when it's at full volume. Need to turn the volume down to 1/2-3/4 before it starts sounding decent. I wonder if the same effect is happening in your setup somewhere? Again - not sure, just thinking out loud.

disneyjoe7

I'm using this video card to send video 1080i and sound DD5.1 via HDMI.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150467&cm_re=radeon_hd_5670-_-14-150-467-_-Product



I'm thinking about this sound card to bypass the MOBO sound circuit.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829271001

Drenis

Great video card. I just sold mine which was run in my HTPC (Replaced). I disabled on-board sound entirely and ran Video/Audio over the GPU's HDMI out into my AVR.

Syndil

If you want to continue to use HDMI to carry audio, adding a soundcard will do nothing for you. Your ATI video card actually has its own sound processor built in to it, which is what it uses to send audio via HDMI. If you were to look in your Device Manager under Sound, video and game controllers, you will see an AMD High Definition Audio Device--which is the sound processor on your video card used for sending audio via HDMI.

To troubleshoot your issue, take a look at your receiver while you are playing a movie via your HTPC and see what surround mode it is using. Is it Dolby Digital Pro Logic II, or is it Dolby Digital 5.1/7.1, or is it multi-channel PCM?

disneyjoe7

Thanks I will look at the receiver to see what is working on the HTPC vs. the DVD player.


I thinking something is special about the Pioneer AVI 79 player, I tried to replaced it twice now and it wins all the time. I used a Blu-Ray player and played with it for a month thinking something was wrong with my sound the base sounds flat. I ended to box it up, and got the 79 player back in the system. Later a friend said too I need a Blu-Ray player, I gave it too him.

Serendipity

disneyjoe7,

Check your settings. If you are using HDMI, upgrading your sound card won't do anything. I would make sure that you are outputting multichannel over HDMI as many video cards default to 2 channel PCM.

This was my experience and changing the setting made it work properly.

disneyjoe7

Ok hate too admit it but I'm confused.... Yes it's in PCM mode, and not sure what I need to change software wise?

Drenis

Under properties, what is the sample rate being output?