Bedroom Entertainment System - "BES" Concept - REFERENCE ONLY

This page is dedicated to the development of a new system. It is currently on hold, and in a new conceptual stage, but I have already proven that it will work with the system that is now used for the MediaPVR (older P4 2.8GHz). The system was put on hold as there is a lack of funds, and interest from the "Higher Powers to Be" for purchasing the LCD screens at this time.

In concept, the system would consist of a media machine for the master bedroom/bathroom, which I'm calling it the Bedroom Entertainment System or "BES" for short. The system on whole will consist of the BES computer, and two LCD TV/monitors. The monitor in the bedroom will be around 32". The other TV will be installed in the bathroom and will be around 19" to 22". The computer system will run dual monitors in Extended Windows configuration. It will play seperate DVD feeds to two Zoom Players, one running on each monitor. The system frontend will be of course Xlobby, most likely the same AppleTV modified skin that I use on the MediaPVR, with a couple of extra features. A thin client will run on the secondary monitor to select movie playback. The system, like the MediaPVR will be setup to control the music-server. Satellite and OTA TV distribution to each TV hasn't been decided. I don't know if I'm going to get a capture device hooked to the computer and feed TV to the secondary monitor that way, or just run direct cabling from the STB to the TV's, and use the BES computer solely for DVD/HD playback. The basic concept is shown below:

Hardware:

Gyration Mouse pack

If the system is indeed going to be in the bedroom, I picked up this wireless Gyration mouse kit off ebay. It works up to 100'. This way I can use one in the bathroom, should a TV ever get placed in there, and have control of the system, as well as use the second in the bedroom for the same purpose. Though unfortunately after receiving the kit, it would appear that only one actually is able to sync to the receiver module. The other seems to work but I have not been able to get it to sync yet.

Parts I'm Looking At (when setting up the original BES system

Software:

WinXp with SP2

Xlobby (running an new AppleTV modified skin for widescreen)

running the following plugins: xAnt, xHideTaskbar, xWeather, xRemote, xlToolkitPlugin

also running the little app called "run client in second monitor"

Girder 3.3.2

running the following plugins: Igor Serial IR for XP plugin, SendKeys

Zoom Player (2 copies for mutliple instances run)

DScaler MPEG2 Decoder

ffdshow

AC3Filter

Gyration software

Poweroff

Nero Drivespeed - CD/DVD drive speed control

Ant Movie Catalog

ATI Catelyst Drivers

*24/1/09*

I powered up the motherboard/CPU/Memory combo to verify that it works okay. This also gave me the chance to setup the BIOS. Left it running for a couple of hours and it all seemed fine.

*3/2/09*

The Gyration Gyroremote and receiver came in actually the other day. Once worked fine and synced to the receiver no problems. The other one powered up and acted okay, though I couldn't get synced to the receiver no matter what I tried. For the price, one out of two isn't too bad, though a little dissappointing.

*8/2/09*

Last night, after swapping out the PSU in the HTPC for the OCZ I just bought, I started to build up the BES box. Below are some install pics.

Front bezel removed for mounting the optical drive.

Enermax supply installed.

Installed a temporary CD rom drive. This one was a Plextor CR-RW drive. Problem is that it is too long. I ended up replacing it with a slightly shorter TEAC drive that I had installed in the Dell MediaPC (not the MediaPVR). The MediaPC is a simple 500Mhz PIII that is a throw-away for the kids to play on. Note to self...final drive has to be short...I will have to get the dimensions of that TEAC drive before purchasing some DVD drive in the future.

The motherboard installed. Excuse the rat's nest of wire harnessing. Once I'm done the build, I will clean this mess all up.

So after I had it all together, I fired up the system. Right now it is a little noisy with the stock CPU cooler and the GPU fan for the Radeon 9500 card. I'm also not quite sure how much noise the 80mm stock fan mounted to the back of the case is...but either I will have to slow it down, replace it, or remove it all-together. Other than the noise, the system started fine. I like the blue hue within the indent section. Also I like how the power button flashes red to indicate HDD or CD activity. I popped in my FreeVo liveCD and it booted up without issue. I finally figured out how to get the network up and running on my first Linux OS (even though it is off the CD rom, and all settings are gone after shutting the system down). I was able to get the system to playback some DVD movies that are stored on the UnRAID server, as well as bring up some pictures that are stored on the server. I must have run the system for a couple of hours before re-tiring to bed, and will do so again tonight. I also want to get some more pictures of the box...especially the optical drive opening/closing...it is so cool.

*10/2/09*

So I've been spending the last couple of nights playing around with different Linux based LiveCD's. As mentioned above I played around with FreeVo. I also started playing around with the XBMC LiveCD. It is a little more difficult in getting it to work. I notice that when playing back video, the color/saturation is way off. This may be due to the fact that the only way I could get it to boot, was to use the Intel graphics setup. Using ATI would crash the system when booting up. I had hoped XBMC would work better as you can setup the system to run off of a flash drive, but I may have to wait for an updated version.

*12/2/09*

After playing around with a bunch of Linux OS's on LiveCD, I ended up installing the old hard drive that I temporarily used in the HTPC, and put WinXP on it. I will continue tonight and install all the required drivers. I want to get dual display support going and mess with two Zoom Players running seperate DVD streams.

*13/2/09*

So I was able to install two Zoom Players and attached the BES box to the RPTV and a monitor. I set each Zoom to a screen. It worked out rather well. I then did some very basic ffdshow processing on the video to the RPTV, and the CPU processing power went up to around 60%. Trying to run ffdshow on both screen proved to be not so good. One screen would end up stuttering, or both videos froze. That's not to bad as the final video out to the eventual bathroom TV will only be displayed on a 19" panel, so the benfits of using ffdshow will not be shown off on that small a display.

The one complaint I have right now is that the audio out from the motherboard is not working. I tried many configurations. I checked and re-checked the connections, yet I can't get audio to work. I may end up then upgrading the sound output of the HTPC with something like an Audigy, then use the SB Live5.1 that is residing in the HTPC in the BES box along with the KX drivers. This will allow me to use one card and distribute stereo audio to support the two video feeds.

Hopefully tonight, I will get a chance to try out the system using a version of Xlobby running in the background, and maybe setup the second monitor with a greater resolution...something that will match up to the eventual TV I will want to connect to it. I'm also hoping to get some screen shots as well.

*15/2/09*

The other night, I ran the two Zoom streams along with Xlobby, and it still ran fine. The image below is showing the extended desktop running both instances of Zoom Player. The image on the left is the movie "I am Legend", and was running on the RPTV. The windows desktop is natively 1920x1080, but as you can see This instance of Zoom was running at the standard DVD resolultion. The thing I have done to this is to use ffdshow's Blur & NR functions to sharpen the image. I tried to resize, but for some reason, it pushed the actual video to the right...so it didn't work out right. Though it still looked pretty impressive on the big screen (47" Panny), so it will look just as good on an eventual 32" LCD. The image on the right was from Cars. That image is going to a simple older CRT computer monitor. The actual monitor I'm looking at will be using a 1360x768 widescreen resolution, so I set that monitor up to as close a resolution as I could, which was 1360x1024. I also had Xlobby running in the background, and displayed behind the Zoom Player playing "I am Legend". The actual average CPU usage was hitting around 65% to 70%. If I tried to run a thin client behind the Zoom Player playing "Cars", then the CPU would jump to around 75% on average, but would peak to 100% often, causing minute, though frequent stutters.

So what I will most likely do is have the thin client running, but when a movie is selected, it will close the thin client until that Zoom Player is done. When the movie is over, I have to figure out a way to automatically close Zoom (which I think is just a setting in the player), and have the client automatically start up again.

*16/2/09*

After some more experimenting, I was able to use a client to start a movie in the second window. In doing so the client would close down. At the end of the movie, Zoom Player would close and start the client. The only problem was that the client would start in the primary window. Luckily someone on the Xlobby forums also had this same issue and asked for help...to which a fellow xlobbyier wrote up a little executable called "start client in second monitor". Well, this little app does exactly what as its title, and runs great. I now have the basic skin working, I just have to clean it up before distributing it. The skin is based on the AppleTV modified skin that I'm using on the MediaPVR. I figured I'd keep the same looking screens as the family are now starting to get accustomed to them. I also figure I might as well yank the DVD-Rom drive out of the music-server and use it in this system. That drive is a Pioneer DVD-115. Not the most quietest drive, but should work pretty good.

*20/2/09*

I had the music-server open, and ready to take out the DVD drive, when I decided to take a quick measurement. Just over 8" in length, not taking into account the harnessing out the bottom. Well, that drive is too long, as I can't be much over 6" for the drive to fit properly in the R2 Toast case. So my quest will continue.

*22/2/09*

Connected up and integrated the Gyration mouse into the system. Worked great. Also fixed up the DVD popup overlay, and other aspects of the skin. I'm also going to may a WinLIRC circuit and install Girder on the system so a user can use a remote for the bedroom TV, and the gyration mouse will be used for the bathroom TV. Finally I added the HideTaskbar plugin as I found when the thin client started, the taskbar would popup on the main screen.

*24/2/09*

So I setup Girder, and built a quick WinLIRC circuit and I now have some basic navigation using a remote control. I also installed the Gyroremote, which is used to primarily control the thin client screens. The remote/WinLIRC circuit are used to control the main screen.

*7/3/09*

I just received off ebay a Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 card. I'm using the KX drivers to direct one stereo pair to the main (bedroom) Zoom Player, and a second audio stream to the secondary (bathroom) Zoom Player. This had to be done because I couldn't seem to get the on-board audio to work in Windows XP (though I had it working fine when I was playing around with the Live Linux installs).

*20/3/09*

I just got the Lite-on SOHD-16P9S drive off ebay and installed it last night (pictures above of the optical drive install are not of this drive). This drive being shorter than the Plextor CD-ROM, the drive being replaced, was really nice. Everything fit togehter smoothly. The system fired up and the drive played a DVD no problems. It is really quiet, even on spin-up, so that is a very welcome feature. So now, all I need are hard drives and of course the TV monitors to complete the BES setup.

*18/5/09* BES on Hold, parts will be used for upgraded MediaPVR

I've come to realize that it is going to be a little while until we upgrade our bedroom TV and add one to the bathroom. So instead of having this computer just sit around and collect dust until that day, I decided to swap this one with the MediaPVR system. That system will become my workhorse computer then, and the current workhorse will either be used by the kids, or I may install it in the garage, or retire it all together. So the parts have been swapped over from this page to the MediaPVR page. I have proven that the concepts work, but further development has been put on hold. I'm starting to looking into Micro-ITX systems, so maybe some small form factor PC may be used in a future BES setup.