This will be the page where I'm going to chronicle my progress on building my HTPC.  I will list my equipment possiblilties, pricing if I can, pictures of the system during the different stages of development etc.

First off, what I want the system to do.  Basically the system has to be an all-in-one entertainment center.  This means that it must be able to timeshift/record TV, play games, display photos and pictures, play DVD, play music and karaoke, show weather information, rip DVD's and music CD's, output to HDTV capable rear projection TV either by component or DVI/HDMI cable...and only controlled mainly with a simple remote that is used to control the TV and rest the system.  It also has to be capable of future expansion such as HD capable via Blu-ray and internet downloads.

The basic system overview looks like this:

Here is a final list of equipment that is in the system:

CURRENT HARDWARE:

Case: Industrial Case

-Originally it was going to be either a Cooler Master Cavilier 4 or an Antec NSK2400.  I have since been able to pick up an industrial computer case that was collecting dust at work.  It is sturdy, heavy, and can hold a full ATX motherboard.  It has a flip down front door that reveals 2x  5.25" drive bays, 1x 3.5" drive bay, power and reset buttons, HDD and Power LED lights can be seen throuh a small window on the door.  This allowed me to save around $70 in the end, as all I have to do is find a good power supply.  Those I can find at a decent price off ebay.  So the Antec or Cooler Master are now officially off the table, but I will leave their respected descriptions here for keepsake.  Pictures of the industrial case are to come.  This will also mean that the Asus M2NPV-VM will not be used.  I might as well pick up a full ATX motherboard to take advantage of the case size.

Case Fan: Nexus D12SL-12 Silent Fan

-I had the opportunity to power up the case that had a 120mm fan mounted inside when I temporarily had my MediaPVR system installed in the case.  It was pretty noisey, so I decided to replace it.  The Nexus has recieved exellent reviews, so I purchased this fan off ebay.  It came in on 20/12/07 and I had a chance to try it out in the case.  All I can say is...WOW!!  What a huge difference it makes.  What a reduction in noise.  Now all I hear is a generic power supply which will be replaced anyways, and the MediaPVR CPU fan.  Needless to say, I am very happy about this fan and would recommend it to anyone.

Soundblaster Live 5.1

- for Dolby Digital/DTS decoding as I don't have a reciever that can do it natively.  I purchased this card off ebay, but I may look for a better Audigy, or something else.  In the meantime, I will use this to get me by. 

Twinhan VP-1020A DVB-S

- I bought this off ebay to experiment with FTA.  It has worked so well for me, that I'm going to use this card for the dedicated satellite pickup in the home theater.  The existing box will be removed and installed elsewhere.  Most likely to the livingroom TV, and then the one sitting in the livingroom will be moved to the master bedroom (just because the one is nicer than the other).  Currently I'm testing this card using DVB Dream and Emunation. 

Pioneer DVR-108

- This is a dual layer DVD burner that I got as a Christmas gift.  I unfortunately haven't even had a chance to plug this in and try it (mainly because I never had a computer powerful enough to fully utilize its features).  It is still sitting in its original packaging.  It has a silver bezel, but since the industrial case has a front door that covers all the external drive bays, it doesn't matter what the color of the bezel is.  Currently this will be the drive of choice as Blu_Ray (which is the winner of the HD format wars recently) is still too expensive for me.  I would find it rather difficult to justify to the higher  powers that to see the extra wrinkles in some actors face is so much more worth the $250 to $300 dollars on a BD drive. 

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800 Dual Core (Socket AM2) Windsor 2.5GH

-This CPU is a mid level CPU.  Powerful enough for my needs, but being a Christmas gift, how could I refuse it?  I'd be crazy.  Maybe one day, if I really want to , and providing the motherboard I finally get suports it, I will upgrade to something like a 6000 (2.6GHz).  This CPU should allow for the playback of HD content just fine using a WinXP OS.

CPU Cooler: Zalman CNPS8000 Ultra Quite CPU Cooler

-This CPU cooler should do the trick for keeping the CPU cool...and should be ultra-quiet.  Pretty good pickup for a Chirstmas gift. 

Memory: Kingston KVR800D2N5K2/2G 2Gig (2x1G modules) DDR2 800MHz memory

-Run of the mill memory.  Nothing fancy but Kingston is known for producing good memory.  Nice Christmas gift, and get's me well on my way for building the HPTC.

Power Supply: OCZ StealthXStream OCZ500SXS - 500W

 

I just picked up an OCZ StealthXStream 500W supply (OCZ500SXS).  It was on sale at the local computer store for $49.99 after a $20.00 MIR.  So I swapped the existing supply in the system for this one.  Basically, this one is newer and has better regulations, has Active PFC, and exceeds the 80% effeciency rating. The original supply was an Enermax Coolergiant EG485P-VHB SFMA 480W supply, but I upgraded to the OCZ with an additional 20W of power.  The Enermax is a good supply, but I'm finding the OCZ even more silent...this is a really good supply. 

Video Card: Asus EAH4350 Silent/HTDI/512M

-PCI-E video card with onboard HD decoding capabilities.  Can output to 1920x1080i resolutions.  It's also HDCP complient, so when I eventually get a Blu-Ray player, this card should be able to handle everything I throw at it.  It has a VGA port, DVI port and even a HDMI port that is capable of passing through 7.1 HD audio.  Since it can do decoding onboard, it will help take pressure off the CPU.  This card replaced the original EAH2600 Pro.  I was very happy with that card and will store it for the next media PC build (BES 2), but figure with this silent HS design, better on-board decoding abilities, and the dirt cheap price (with mail-in-rebate), I couldn't see a reason not to get one of these cards as it would suit my HTPC perfectly.

Motherboard: Asus M2N-X

- This motherboard was acquired to replace the MSI board that I had bought.  The MSI had a short circuit fault and could not be used.  Unfortunately with this board, I had to drop the future expansion of GigLAN service on the board itself.  It got some pretty decent buyer reviews that I have seen.  All pretty much indicate that this board is not good for gaming but would do well in a HTPC enviroment.  So far, it has proved that point pretty good.

Hard drive: Western Digital Caviar WD6400AAKS 640Gig "Blue"

Silent PC has given excellent ratings on this drive.  It is selling for $79 at the local computer store.

-Mainly this drive will be used for the OS and storage of recorded TV shows.  The drive will also be a temporary holding spot of ripped movies until I get the UnRAID server up and running, so space is not a major requirement...silence is though.  Music resides on the music-server.

Control: WinLIRC Serial Adapter

This simple circuit is used in conjuction with Girder to allow for system control by using an IR remote control.  For my HTPC, I'm using the Panny remote that is used to control the TV.  Also, I'm not using a TSOP IR receiver, but a Panasonic 4602M, which is a slightly different pinout.  The WinLIRC now resides in the computer case where the IR reciever is positioned over an opening that originally was used as an AT keyboard connection (full DIN connector).  The connector was removed and now this reciever as well as the one which will be used with the MayIR project will be positioned there.

OTA Tuner: HVR-1250

CURRENT SOFTWARE:

Below is a list of software that will be running on the HTPC:

Main Software:

Win XP w/SP2

Xlobby using the Mirage skin

     Plugins: xWeather, xTransistion, xEvent, xReceive/xSend, xMenu, xlToolkit, xDVDecryptor, CDEX, USB-UIRT, xURL, xGetPhoto, xUTube, xAnt, xLiveShout, xScriptNG, xWOL, xSchedule, xInTheaters, xHideMouse, xPowerEvent

Winamp 2.95

     Plugins: CDG Plugin, Milkdrop 1.4

ZoomPlayer Pro 4.03 - for DVD/media playback

MPC (Media Player Classic) Home Cinema - Used for all HD type playback.

DVB Dream v1.4i - for satellite TV viewing

     Plugins: Emunation, EPGData

Windows Media Player 11 Upgrade - mainly for the wmv-hd and other HD codecs

WinTV 7.0 - for scanning and watching OTA TV signals

WatchHDTV - for performing quick tuning of individual OTA TV stations

Drivers and Codecs:

KX Drivers - for controlling the SB Live5.1 card

ATI Catalyst Drivers v9.4 - for controlling the Radeon video card

FFDshow - for DVD scaling and resizing

Dscaler MPEG2 Codec - Codec used for DVD playback

AC3Filter Codec - Audio Codec used for DVD playback

Real Alternative Codec

Haali Plugin - Matroska splitter for H.264 playback

CoreAVC - codec used for HD movies that cannot be played via DXVA

ASUS monitoring software

Utility/Management Software:

ANT Movie Catalog - for all video media cataloging

MAME/SNES9X/Fusion emulation (along with ROMs) - for classic console gaming play

Girder 3.3.4 (using it with WinLIRC for IR control) - interface software for using with TV remote

     Plugins: Igor Serial Plugin for XP

mc2xml - Media Center EPG scrapping software

dabdig - TV recording scheduler program, passes recording events from xlobby to DVB Dream.

RealVNC - server for remote access control

DVD Decryptor - using with the DVD Import plugin within Xlobby

IFOEdit - modifying IFO files from only movie rips with DVD Decryptor

DVD HDDecryptor - ripping DVD titles

DVD2One - merging 2 disk movies to 1 Video_TS.IFO

Signal Monitor - Hauppauge's signal monitoring software for checking the signal strength of incoming OTA stations.

HTPC LOG

*12/2/08*

As stated I started collecting parts for a HTPC build.  Actually I started collecting parts over a year ago.  Below are some pics of the parts acquired so far:

Cooler Closeup

PSU, Memory and wireless mouse

AMD CPU and DVD dual layer burner

5.1 soundcard

Wireless keyboard

Inside of case: fits a full ATX motherboard.

Picture of mounted drive cage (more on this below).

The Nexus quiet 120mm fan already on its mounting bracket.  It works great.

Drive cage removed.  Notice that it sits on top of rubber shock absorbers.  This is to help take away any drive vibration, which equates to noise.

The bottom of the drive cage also has foam rubber for absorbing vibration.

DVD drive mounted in the drive cage.

What it looks like when the case door is opened.  Drive cage re-installed in the case with the DVD drive.

Power supply before mounting in case.

Power supply installed.

The back of the case which shows the power supply.  If you look hard, you will see the Nexus fan, and the back of the DVD drive.

*25/2/08*

Ordered some nice looking feet to mount on the bottom of the box.  This will help in both giving the system some additional isolation, as well as give it a more authestics view of a normal consumer electronics device.  The feet ordered are the RA45 made by Mitron Interlink and sold via Performace-PC.com.  They were pretty in-expensive ($11.50 including shipping).

I also picked up the MSI K9N Neo-F board.  Haven't installed it yet, but I'm looking very forward to it.  I want to get the feet and mount them before installing the board, as I'm going to have to drill through the floor of the box and it would not make for a good scene should I accidently drill through the motherboard.  Pictures to come.

*6/3/08*

The feet finally came in and I had the opportunity today to continue with installing more equipment.  I first started by assembling the feet.  Here are some pics:

I then installed the motherboard with no problems:

The next step was to mount the AMD CPU in its location:

The CPU cooler was the next step...this was also my first dilemma.  If I tried to mount it one way I found out the cooling pipes interfered with a couple of capacitors and also with the ATX power connector.  Mounting it the other way I lost out on two DIMM slots.  Since I'm only using 2 RAM modules anyways, I ended up sacrificing the two memory slots:

The second problem I ran into was that the motherboard power connector off the power supply is only a 20 pin Molex, and the requirement for the motherboard is a 24 pin Molex.  So I have to pick up a 20 to 24 pin ATX adaptor:

Some additional install pics:

Memory

Soundcard

Other than the main issue, which is the CPU cooler taking out the RAM slots, so far the install has been relative easy.  I've also started some cable management which once done, I'll take some additional photos.

 *11/3/08*

Well I found out that if I wanted to use my memory in a Dual Channel setup, I would have to use memory slots 1 and 3 or 2 and 4.  Memory slot 1 was totally covered by the Zalman heatpipes, but slot 2, even though the heatpipes went over the plastic socket portion, they did not cover the actual socket.  So I was able to move a RAM stick into that location.  I used some Kapton tape to cover the actual IC on the board as a couple of the copper pipes actually rested against them.  I also tie-wrapped the Zalman cooler control module to the back of the case.  See the latest pics below:

The "Awesome" tie-wrap work (so far).

The control knob of the Zalman cooler protrudes out of an accessory hole in the case.  I guess I should have used black tie-wraps.

A shot showing the CPU cooler heatpipes resting against the RAM module.

Another view.

A final shot showing the CD/DVD analog audio cable going to the soundcard. 

 *19/3/08*

The power adapter came in today.  Quickly added that and took a photo:

Also added a little extra:

*21/3/08* 

What a sad...sad day.  I just got the video card, and was very excited to install it.  I don't currently have a large SATA drive, so I connect a small IDE drive to get myself going and try out the hardware.  I powered on and nothing...no fans, no LED...nothing.  I quickly turned off the power, and rechecked all connections...everything seemed fine.  Thinking the supply did not have enough juice, I disconnected the video card, Nexus fan, and hardrive and DVD drive....still nothing.  Thinking still it was the power supply I swapped it with a generic version.  CPU fan powered on.  Tried a Theraltake supply from the MediaPVR, and it did nothing.  I then disconnected the 4-pin molex Aux connector from the board and the system worked.  So the problem was with the 4 pin connector that supplies additional 12V to the board...which I found out powers the graphics card "cooling system" .  Taking out my trusted DMM, I found that there was only ~9 ohms between 12V rail to ground through that connector.

So, now thinking it was a motherboard problem, I disconnected everything to package it up to take back to the store.  I decided to take one last measurement, and found that there was now an open circuit between the 12V rail to ground.  I then found out that the short occurs when the CPU is inserted in the motherboard socket and the locking lever is just starting to lock down the CPU.

So now I'm still taking the motherboard back to the store, and hoping to replace it with a similar board...been looking at an Asus M2N-X.  It is mainly the same as the MSI...and is $10 cheaper.

The CPU will also have to be replaced as it has most likely been stressed.

I just hope that nothing else has been damaged due to this issue...I don't think so.

I've put together many computers in the past...two are chronicled right here on my googlepages...except for the music-server, this one I was really anticipating to get going...so I was pretty disheartened to put it bluntly.

ASUS video card

Box unpacked

2600pro installed prior to motherboard problem :(

Another shot of video card installed in MSI motherboard

 
*22/3/08* 

I went and checked out the CPU at the store where it was bought.  Because it was a Christmas gift and I did not have a receit, they were pretty reluctant at taking it back...understandable.  But in the very least, they checked it out with one of their test motherboards, and the CPU started up and went through its POST.  That is further than what I got.  So the problem was with the motherboard and not the CPU.

So I ended up taking the motherboard back and exchanged it for the Asus M2N-X.  It was $10 cheaper.  It doesn't have GigLAN, and it only has 2 memory slots, but all I have is 2 memory sticks anyways.  Though it would be nice to have GigLAN for future HD transfer across my network, well either I will replace the board with something better, or just add a LAN card in the future.  Other than that, I shouldn't have a problem this time around with the CPU cooler over-hanging the memory slots, so that is a good thing.  I read some customer reviews of the board, and overall, pretty much everyone has said the same thing: "not a gamer board " (who cares), "not good for over-clocking" (again doesn't matter to me), "good board for HTPC use" (good to hear).  Also poeple have commented that it is stable and runs without hassles.  So hopefully by tomorrow, I will be posting something more positive.

New ASUS M2N-X mother board installed

Another photo of the ASUS board prior to RAM and additional boards installed

One more shot

*25/3/08* 

I have now powered the system up.  I had to do some re-configuring of the equipment as the IDE cable was too short to go from the board to the other side of the case to attach to both the DVD drive and the temp IDE drive.  So now the IDE drive is sitting sideways about 1/2 way between the motherboard connection and the DVD drive.

This shot shows how I had to sit the IDE hard drive.

Another view of the harddrive mess.  Thank God it is only temporary.

The system powered up, I installed XP Pro on it without any problems, it recongnized my RPTV and the ATI Catalyst driver set the 2600Pro card's output to 1920x1080.  My Xlobby Mirage was loaded on, and some futher configuring was required (expected) before I was happy with the skin.  Had to redo some of the events that use the xSend command, as they were setup with the wrong IP address.

Last night I followed a tutorial on setting up ffdshow to upscale DVD video, and now that even looks amazing.

*26/3/08*

A couple of screenshots taken during the movie "300".  Both were taken around the same time frame for comparision purposes.  The first is untouched by any filtering/processing of ffdshow.  The second image goes through ffdshow and is upscaled to 1920x1080.  Where to look is at the extra detail in the helmet.  The top image the features of the helmet seem to blend and are "softened".  The helmet's pits are really detailed and are more defined in the upscaled image. 

*Warning: Large Image*

Resolution: 704x480

*Warning: Large Image*

Resolution: 1920x1080

Some additional captures:

Additional screen capture of Mirage's main menu 

*27/3/08*

I installed Xlobby's Xremote and Girder last night, along with a WinLIRC module I built a while back, I've been able to incorporate remote control using my Panny TV remote.  Working out the flow of how it should all work still, but I'm able to navigate around Mirage with it.  This should get me by until the day I decide to splurge and purchase a USB-UIRT.

*31/3/08*

Well, I had more bumps over the weekend.  The minor one was I could not get Girder to work properly.  I tried two versions and each crashed when receiving IR signals.  They were versions 3.31 and 3.34.  Maybe I will have more success with version 4, or I may just wait to purchase a USB-UIRT and be done with it.

The major hurdle was that I attempted to install the Twinhan card.  I could not get many channels to scan after my initial install.  The next day I could not even power on the computer while the card was installed.  I ended up taking the card out and re-trying it in my test rig, where everything worked fine.  I think the problem is that I am running the power supply at its max.  When the additional sat card was installed....where it also has to power the LNB, it is too much for the supply and it shuts down.  Gees and I figure 480W would do.  So now the card is back in the test rig, until I pick up a larger supply.  I'm going to have to go through all the components and re-calculate the amount of power I'm going to need. 

The final bump, was that one of the soundcard jacks don't work too well anymore.  Most likely I will go to Digi-key and pickup an equivalent part to use and just solder it in.

*6/4/08*

I've now almost completed the TV/Sat integration.  I'm now able to change channels, start/stop recording, mute, select specific channels.  To finish off, I've setup a full screen view as well.  I'm using DVB Dream to playback the satellite.  Though I can download and view an EPG using zap2xml, I've yet to be able to utilize this in channel selection.  Though I will be looking into this more.  The only thing that I don't think I will be able to do is to setup a schedule recording.

I also made a modification to my WinLIRC circuit to match the Igor Plugin that is currently available to XP.  After updating the .dll and performing the circuit mods, Girder is running alot better.  It is not crashing nearly as much as it was before.  

Downloaded some HD clips off the internet, so I'll be looking forward to trying the system out with those.

*7/4/08*

I had an opportunity to view the HD clips through both PowerDVD Ultra and Media Player Classic.  I want to be able to use MPC as there is a plugin that already exists to use it within xlobby.  The clips downloaded were HD-WMV files from Microsoft's website.  I only used PDVD to figure out why MPC was skipping and stuttering.  I found out that I had to stop ffdshow from processing the video.  I was using ffdshow for processing/upscaling DVD video, but it is not required for HD.  As soon as I blocked ffdshow's merit, everything ran smooth in MPC.  The picture looks really good.  Not sure if I'm convinced on spending the money on a HD Sat receiver, or an internal B-Ray drive right now, but later on, when BR prices finally fall...we'll see. 

*8/4/08*

Received some 3.5mm to RCA splitter adapters.  Installed and working fine.  Decided to take a break for building and tweaking and just relax and enjoy so far what I have done. 

*7/6/08*

Since my last update, the one big change that occured was the addition of a new plugin.  An individual on the xlobby website who goes by the name "tswhite" created a script a while back that allowed to download movie house information and showtimes.  He recently created a plugin in its place.  So I transfered this into Mirage.  The software section on xlobby plugins above has been updated to reflect the changes has been updated.

*8/9/08*

For my weather plugin, I've been a long standing user of xaopweather.  I went with xoap because the origional xweather plugin wasn't working right, and when it was working, I just never bothered about using it as I've been generally pleased with xoap.  The problem with xoap, in my case was that when I bring the computer out of sleep mode, I never get updates anymore until I restarted Xlobby.  This has been a growing frustration, so last night, I donwloaded the most recent xweather plug-in, installed/set it up, and I'm now running with xweather.  I will be updating my music server to use xweather in the coming days as well, since that has the same issues. 

 

*26/9/08*

added the MayIR to the system.  After some initial setup issues, the IR switch works great.  Install pics are coming, as I want to show both the MayIR and the WinLIRC install together.

*27/9/08*
Below are some pics of the MayIR and WinLIRC installs, as well as some more screen captures.  Excuse the wiring, once I get a final harddrive, I will clean up the harnessing.

IR receivers.  Top is the WinLIRC, bottom is the MayIR.  This hole was originally for an AT keyboard connector.

WinLirc receiver and IR receiver for the MayIR

Closeup view of the WinLirc and MayIR receiver

Overhead shot of the MayIR circuit mounted

Closer view of the circuit

Additional screen captures:

Main menu

Music screen

DVD Movie screen

Movie Info screen

Weather Forcast screen

Satellite TV screen

*27/9/08*
Test Successful!  Tested the MayIR circuit to verify that it will turn on the HTPC from an off state, and it worked...cool.

*7/10/08*
Finally purchased the last piece of the puzzle, the hard drive.  Picked up a WD6400AAKS and already notice a difference from the old 6.4Gig I was temporarily using.  This new drive is so quite.  Before resting with XP, I'm trying out LinuxMCE just to see what it is like.................well.....installing XP now.  It will most likely be a couple of days before I get everything setup to what it was before....and then some.

*8/10/08*
Actually things went more smoothly than I could have ever thought.  Within a couple of hours I had a majority of the system setup and was copying ripped movies/recorded TV shows and arcade games that I had stored on the music-server.  So now the final tweaking of Mirage can take place, and this project is pretty much completed.

*10/10/08*
Spent the day transferring/ripping movies onto the HTPC.  I have a majority of the non-child movies done.  Only now I'm working on the movies that I split into two discs.  After this is done, then I will concentrate on the children cartoons and movies.

*11/10/08*
Still ripping movies.  Today got more involved with ripping movies that I had split across multiple disks.  I ended up having to re-rip the movies then use DVD2One to seamlessly merge them back together.  Also found out that using movie only ripping from DVD Decryptor didn't make a valid title, which Zoomplayer can't play.  So I ended up not ripping within Xlobby and using Fab DVD HD Decryptor to do it properly.  I also been messing around with the EPG module in DVB Dream.  Got the basics working within xlobby, and using a remote, so that was pretty cool.

*12/10/08*
Well, I completed in ripping the main movies over to the hard drive.  To think that I contemplated in getting the 320Gig drive...I'm glad I didn't.  I took the WD6400 and partitioned it into an 80 gig OS drive and the rest into media storage.  After ripping the movies, I only have about 100Gigs left.  Might sound like alot, but I still have to transfer my arcade games across different platforms, kareoke songs and still have enough space for recording TV.  Overall, I am very please with the WD6400AAKS.  It is a very silent drive, and proving to be extremely fast...considering I had an anceint 6.4Gig drive that this replaced...anything would be an improvement.  I have a few more things to complete...screens to update etc., but the major work on this project is pretty much completed.

*28/10/08*
I completed an additional GigLAN cable to the familyroom that the HTPC will connect to.  The system is now connected to that terminal and I'm able to access the network so it was a successful install.

 

*26/1/09*
I took some time and decided to go into the service menu of the PT-47X54 RPTV, and tweak some of the settings with convergence and positioning.  The 1080i input (HDMI) I noticed a small difference.  Where I noticed a huge difference was the 480i input, which is used for the Wii gaming console.  I found the Wii games to be far more sharper and detailed then before.  Once I feel a little more comfortable with going around the service menu, I may make further modes to the convergence "Course" settings, but right now, I'm quite please with the PQ. 

 

*8/2/09*
Last night I made a hardware change with the PSU.  I removed the Enermax PS from the system and replaced it with the OCZ supply I just bought.  After installing it, I powered up the system, and first impressions....I'm very impressed.  The system is even more quite now.  The only fan sounds I hear now is the GPU fan on the ATI 2600 Pro card.  I also still have to check the supplies regulation stability, but as its an OCZ product, I'm suspecting that its rails are going to be very stable.  Especially with the amount I'm drawing on it.  My Hardware section has been updated to reflect.  The Enermax ended up being installed in BES.

 

*18/2/09*
I finally got around to adding game emulation to the system.  I use MAME, SNES, Sega, and N64 emulators, and have a few ROMS.  So far, all the games open in their respected emulator, I just have to define the parameters to actually properly play them, and then exit them from the remote (currently it requires a key press on the keyboard).  Haven't used the program Rom2Xlobby in a while, but it was nice to see that it still actually works.  Now I just have to configure the Kareoke player, and this system will be almost completely integrated.  Then it will be time for a re-distribute.

 

*19/2/09*
Started to port over kareoke mp3+g files.  I also go the CD+G winamp plugin up and running.  Tonight, I will build up the database, and it should be good to go...too bad the USB microphones I have for the Wii will only work if recording sounds, and don't work at playback...or maybe I'm just setting them up wrong?

*9/8/09* 
It has been a long while since I've updated this page.  Been busy with alot of different things concerning this project.  I've been working on a new skin for starts.  Not that I didn't like the Mirage skin, I just wanted something that reflected the AppleTV type skins I was using on the MediaPVR and the now halted "BES" box.  So I'm now using a skin called "Glass".  It isn't complete, but it behaves very similar to Mirage in that the main menu is a rotating menu based on xMenu.  I've got fanart up and running for DVD's and HD content.  I also have some ambient background images when rotating in the main menu...to help in some special effects.  Hopefully I will have it completed enough to actually distribute to the Xlobby audience.

The other thing I have feverishly worked on has been to get HD content to play properly.  A while back I downloaded a bunch of HD video clips, and in using Media Player Classic - Home Cinema, I've been able to get them to play back, though it was very tedious.  In the end I had to make sure that ffdshow was blocked from running in the background, or else the video and audio would run choppy and stutter.

I also worked at getting MPC-HC to playback flash video files (.FLV), but in doing so, I had to unblock ffdshow, so this screwed up the HD playback.

I then downloaded different Big Buck Bunny files to try.  It is a pretty funny short film.  I downloaded an .AVI, and an .MPG version of that film that played back fine.  I then also downloaded a h.264 encoded .MOV version of the film, and that wouldn't playback at all.  To follow up, I downloaded a HD movie Reign of Fire, that was a h.264 encoded .MKV file with 3 different audio streams.  It to wouldn't playback right away.  I mucked with all sorts of different setting in MPC-HC, but the best I could do was the video and audio would stutter, and the video would lag the audio.  Doing lot's of reading, I figured that the .MKV file should be DXVA (Direct X Video Accelerated)...but was it?  I doubled checked my video card, and it is supposed to support DXVA, but the video was not capable of doing it.  So after more reading, the alternative for movies that are not capable of DXVA is to use the codec CoreAVC.  I got that installed, and followed all the tutorials on setting up MPC-HC, and finally got it to playback smoothly.  I played the movie from the local drive.  I then tried to play it back across the network from the UnRAID server, and though for the most part it worked.  One scene gave it problems and the video/audio stuttered during playback.

So most likely in the future, I will use the local drive of the HTPC for HD content storage for video that has problems playing over the network, and only use the server to backup the content...until I get a GigLAN service totally up and running (LAN card in RAID server, and GigLAN switch).

Pretty happy with getting the HD stuff to actually work now...also on a side note,  with using CoreAVC, my .FLV files still work as well, and I think they run even more smooth.

The final thing I have done is to combine all movies to one ANT file, and setup the xANT plugin for Xlobby to create all the separate databases from that one file.  This way it is easier to maintain and enter new movies as I get them.  The file is kept on the server so any machine can access it, and it just makes life more simple.

So lot's have happened, and still more to come, as I finalize the skin, and continue down the HD route...just now waiting for Blu-ray prices to come down to sub $100 levels, so I can purchase one of them.

*10/9/09* 
I've continued to test HD movie content.  Currently have played The Watchmen, Doomsday, Eagle Eye and Earth successfully.  Though Earth gave the system a good test.  Even playing on the local drive, one scene made the system come to a stutter as it showed thousand of birds flying, panning across the screen.  This is all using the CoreAVC codec.  I am going to try and get DXVA to work, in the very least for this .mkv file.  So the tweaking of MPC-HC continues.

Also started to look at OTA, and have started construction (and appropriate page link off this page) to building a DIY Gray-Hoverman.  Will be looking at a Hauppauge HVR-1250 ATSC tuner card to pick up the OTA signals.  Hopefully it all works out.

*2/10/09* 
Just tonight, I picked up a Hauppauge HVR-1250 ATSC tuener card.  I connected it into the computer and attached the Grey-Hoverman to it.  With the antenna leaned up against a wall in the living room, I was able to get CHCH-DT without issue, and WNLO-DT...but that had signal quality issues.  I was using both WinTV 7 and WatchHDTV software.  WinTV did the initial scan, then I was able to enter the channels into WatchHDTV...which I actually prefer more.  More experimentation is required...then I have to run coax from the attic to the basement for the final install of the GH in the attic.  More to come.

*6/10/09* 
Starting to cleanup the Glass skin for final distribution.  The most outstanding thing now is integrating either WatchHDTV or WinTV 7 into the skin and setup Girder control.  I also need to cleanup the different setting screens for modifying Winamp, Zoomplayer, MPC-HC, or the HDTV viewer of choice.  Finally I have to sit down and finish of the documentation.

*7/10/09* 
Added a new screen to the Glass skin that will show a database of recorded TV shows that were transferred over from the MediaPVR to the UnRAID server.  These files are played back by MPC-HC, and can be deleted from the server if required.

*29/10/09* 
Swapped out the Asus EAH2600 Pro card for a new EAH4350.  It is silent (no fan), and is 512Mb of on-board memory.  It is a very basic video card totally geared towards the HTPC, and media playback.  Card installed without any issues, and I will store the 2600 Pro for a future build.

Other things going on with this system:

- Still working on a TV solution.  Currently using WatchHDTV for an OTA solution, though I'm having issues with getting it working properly from remote control.

- Added voice recognition when flowing through the main menu system.  A voice will announce "Rotate", "Main Menu" and "Selected".  These replace the "Beeps", "Boops" and "Dings" that were originally used with XMenu.

- Still working towards releasing the skin - one day. 

*13/11/09* 
I've been busy deciding on what OTA software I wanted to use.  It was a toss between WinTV7, WatchHDTV, and Blaze.  I settled on WinTV7, as I was able to integrate control of the software with Girder, so now I can control the main functions of the program from my remote.  The issue with Blaze was that it would default load when I placed a DVD in the player to watch...which I could't figure out how to turn off.  I hadn't worked on control for that software, but the nice feature of that software was the ability to read the PSIP data stream in the OTA signal.  WatchHDTV was really considered, as it was light and quick in channel changing, but I could not gain control of it via Girder.  I still use it for quickly tuning on individual channels.