NextPVR Forums

This post is to help those who wish to build their own home theater PC - a build your own HTPC tutorial if you will.

My goals were simple:
1) I wanted a nice looking case so it looked more like another component that would fit in with the other components rather than a huge clunky pc.
2) I wanted it fairly quiet.
3) Had to be able to play 720p and 1080p programming.
4) Should be able to power up fairly quickly.
5) Cheap..well, as possible.

I initially tried to get the system to work without a hard drive by using a compact flash as a hard drive. Trust me, don't do it...it's too slow and it introduce many other problems. I tried it for power savings and silence, but in all honesty a regular hard drive doesn't suck down hardly any power and the newer drives are pretty quiet.

That said, here is the build I chose:

Here is my build:
ASUS AMD M3A78-EMH HDMI motherboard
CPU AMD|A64 X2 3800+
Low profile Asus cooler (sounded small on description, what I got was huge, but still fits)
Ahanix MCE303 silver case w/MCE remote + iMon VFD + flash reader
2 X 1GB RAM (2GB total) DDR2 800
Sony SATA DVD burner
350W PSU ATX
200 GB hard drive
Windows XP Pro SP2 w/recent updates
GB-PVR version 1.2.9

This section will cover the case.

For a decent HTPC case, you'll be paying some decent bucks (90-200). You can go with some of the cubic ones. Those are actually pretty good for servers because you can put some regular height cards in them. However, they don't look all that HTPC-ish.

There are some that look close to stereo component form factors, and you will usually need to get micro-ATX form factor motherboards to go with it. However, keep in mind some of these are pretty cramped and you won't be able to get many extra peripheral cards in them. This isn't a concern for a client GB-PVR machine since it won't house any of the tuners. You could get into trouble with the video card, but most of these cases have riser cards or adapter so you can fit a regular card in there - usually at some weird angle.

There are some that are slightly larger and look like a real big surround sound receiver and include a VFD display. These can REALLY run up pricey. There are even some of these with a small LCD touch screen display - again, really costly.

You could also empty out an old vcr and make that your case (http://www.diy-street.com/forum/showthread.php?t=82650).

I finally went with the following case because it looked the best, came with VFD + IR receiver built in, and was slightly smaller than most:


Ahanix MCE303 Case:
----------------------
This is a very nice case. Sturdy, good looking, comes with lots of extras.

Things I like:
1) uATX form factor
2) Uses REGULAR ATX power supply. This is very nice, no need to scrounge around for a small one.
3) Comes with irtrans VFD 2X16 display. This is not the iMON display since I couldn't get the drivers going.
4) Comes with irtrans remote receiver
5) Comes with the MCE looking remote control with the color buttons. It says it uses the RC6 Philips protocol endorsed by Microsoft.
6) Comes with a card reader. I think it's a 5 slot reader with one usb front connector on a hydraulic opening front compartment.
7) Includes everything you'll need to put your mobo in there: screws, connectors, etc.
8) Spacious internally
9) Nice looking - looks like an actual component on the front view
10) Exhaust fan included. This one was kind of loud, so I bought a quieter one for $10.
11) Remote control power button emulates an actual front panel power button push (this is hardwired - can't be HIP'd or evetghost'd away). This means you can bring this thing in and out of either power down or sleep modes without getting up out of couch if you like. The ir receiver unit is wired into the mobo power wire harness.
12) Feels sturdy.
13) Decent ventilation if you're not going to transcode + play crysis 24/7. My setup runs cold. The hottest thing on the board is one of the bridges (can't remember, north or south.)

Things I DON't like:
1) EXPENSIVE. This is a relative thing. It really isn't anymore or less than any of the other HTPC cases with VFDs out there ($150-$190)
2) DVD interface button is flimsy and falls off if you don't snuggle up your drive to the front of the case.
3) The distributor charges more for black than silver.
4) The length and depth dimensions are longer than everything in my entertainment center other than the surround receiver. Height is good ~4 inches.
5) Heavy. 10 lbs+ without anything in it. This is what makes it feel sturdy, but also detracts from it - so it's a plus and a minus.
6) No room to add any cards whatsoever unless you use a riser card system or some kind of interface port extension. Again, many of these cases are like this. No problem with this setup since I am using this for a client and the mobo has integrated graphics.

Since my case doesn't have much space for anything, I tried to go with a uATX motherboard that has everything onboard. I chose one of the new AMD/ATI 780g boards that have a really good built in graphics adapter - an ATI HD3200. I went with the ASUS AMD M3A78-EMH HDMI. ASUS is usually a good motherboard company and they feature lots of overclocking options with a failsafe for bios or overclocking problems. This series of boards is probably the one with the best IGP out there right now.

Here are some of the features:

1) DVI and HDMI and VGA DSub video card interfaces onboard
2) The graphics adapter can handle 1080p blu-ray files with hardware acceleration.
3) SPDIF coax
4) HD audio
5) 10/100/1000 Base T Ethernet
6) AM2+/AM2 processors capable
7) Several USB connections
8) SATA ports, IDE PATA port
Much more.

I ran into some driver issues, but more on that later.

I went with the AMD|A64 X2 3800+ because it was very inexpensive and was counting on a good deal of hardware acceleration. This board allows for a quick and dirty 15% overclock via the BIOS, but it won't be needed. More overclocking is probably possible if you are very familiar with such things as increasing bus speeds, voltages, etc.

Everything went together nicely and no problems..I got POST first time going!

The VFD/IR detector hookup internally to USB headers as well as the card reader. The VFD hooks into the 24 pin wiring harness for the ability to toggle the power button via the green button the remote (handy for shutdown, hibernate, or standby.) This is a handy distinction when it comes to this particular case.

I used to 2 GB of RAM in case I want to upgrade to Vista later. Another reason for the 2GB RAM is that the IGP uses up system memory for its memory - 256MB in the case of this particular board (there are others that use 512MB).

Here are some pictures as I was building it up:

I used Nlite to pare down Windows XP a bit which help out with the install time as well. I installed Klite Codec Pak Mega to get the codecs going. The drivers for the motherboard and the rest of the stuff came with the ASUS install DVD - however, it would be best to right after install the latest ATI video drivers from the website (ATI). ASUS did not have the most up to date video and southbridge drivers. Also, download the latest AVIVO ATI mpeg decoder. This one seems to work the best with this board.

Drivers and Performance
I experienced some trouble with the drivers not enabling hardware acceleration. The drivers after this version (http://www.station-drivers.com/page/ati%20catalyst.htm) and above seem to enable the acceleration. However, it is not completely stable as of this writing with GB-PVR. Outside using WMP, it does seem to work. I had partial success in GBPVR by changing the deinterlacer setting on catalyst control center to BOB. However, I do get hardware acceleration but at the expense of some tearing and some overall shaky picture in GB-PVR. I decided to switch back to using software acceleration until ATI can get its act together.

Here are some numbers using my particular processor:

1080i content 28% average of both cores with AVIVO and VMR9 custom (had tearing, and had to use BOB deinterlace setting)
1080i content 43% average of both cores with AVIVO and EVR (no hardware acceleration)
1080i content 53% average of both cores with Cyberlink and EVR (no hardware acceleration)
Overlay was awesome at 12% or so of both processor, but at the expense of the OSD looking horrible. I couldn't keep it at this setting though because I didn't like the way the OSD looked at all.
1080p content varied from 60-85% depending on the file (I tried HDMOV, .m2t, h264, and others) this was also all with no HA.

Even with all the driver issues, this processor and IGP combo could keep up with any content I threw at it without using HA. I would actually recommend at least a x2 4000+ or higher just in case to future proof a little.

Loading GB-PVR 1.2.9 and configuring some plugins went great. I used filesharing mode so I could watch the high def programs (mpeg2 dvr-ms files.)

VFD and Infrared Remote
I used LCD smartie with the irtrans driver to get the VFD display to work properly. I have it set to display date and time on the bottom display while I use the top one to display current temp and low temp and alternate with the content being played for the first line. GBPVR plugin for iMON was used to generate the files and LCD smartie read the text file it puts out. Below are some examples.
[ATTACHMENT NOT FOUND]
[ATTACHMENT NOT FOUND]

For the remote, I used EventGhost to make things go smoothly. I mapped almost all the MCE keypresses for GBPVR to it. Also, I used the mouse movement commands in EventGhost to control the mouse with my remote when I switch to the desktop by mistake or to external apps. I use the number keys to move the mouse while using VeohTV and the ABC Website to view programming. Below is my config file for EG in case someone needs it.

[ATTACHMENT NOT FOUND]

The S3 standby works great on this and I use the Harmony remote to control my whole stack of stuff. I seriously recommend buying one of these if you have more than 2 components. You can of course use the remote that came with the Ahanix case. It comes in and out of standby faster than my brand new Vizio 37" LCD can coldstart.

Here are the remainder of my photos: