Forum - View topicThe Otaku's Guide to Building a HTPC
|
Goto page Previous 1, 2, 3, 4 Next Note: this is the discussion thread for this article |
| Author | Message | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
halo SubscriberPosts: 269 |
|
|||||
It's a postprocessing option in newer ffdshow builds (ffdshow "tryout" branch) and should work fine in Zoomplayer, a perfectly decent player. If you're using another decoder it's possible to use ffdshow after it by selecting "all supported" under raw video in the codec selections. I don't know what you were doing in MPC but if you ever need it again try setting the video frame to "touch window from inside" and "keep aspect ratio" and you should have proper aspect ratios every time. Newer MPC builds (Home Cinema branch) have nice features like being able to use hardware acceleration with subtitles and pixelshaders to do some CPU free postprocessing. It also allows you to select a different resize method for scaling video which also helps maximize video quality, though you can use ffdshow for that too at the cost of a few more CPU cycles. |
||||||
|
||||||
cool3865 Posts: 770 Location: Austin, TX |
|
|||||
| nice article.....altho do you really need Vista?? i guess for something like that it would be good since all you are doing is watching movies.
my HTPC is a PC from 2002 (can't play .mkv's but thats okay since i don't have an HD TV) and my ipod touch as a wireless remote. along with the latest version of CCCP and MPC |
||||||
|
||||||
pparkerSubscriber Posts: 1054 Location: Florida |
|
|||||
Thanks much for the tips. I see the postprocessing option. I got banding on Shikabane Hime and Ga-Rei -Zero-, so I'll try it with those. I have thought about building an HTPC as well, and I really appreciate this article. So many hours of my life have been lost to Windows installations and maintenance, since 3.0. Frankly, I miss me a good ole DOS 2.0 install  of what, 100K or so was it at one time? Memory fades from 25, yes, count them, 25 years ago...
Anyway, I stopped building my own PC's. I found a couple of hardcore shops that would custom-assemble, configure and test to my specs for $75-100. Total pros in hardware and software installs, no worries about drivers and such. What worked last time was to do my research in gamer forums, and buy last-previous generation, top-end components, usually about 6 months behind the curve. I get a good 2.5 to 3 years out of it at about half the cost of latest gen parts, plus the stability is far better from matured components + drivers. I'm not an early adopter anyway, so I don't have to have the latest and allegedly greatest. For downloaded video, my 2008 model Thinkpad R61i 7650-8DU (WinXP) handles everything up to 720p, and CCCP handles all the formats. All the video is "streamed" from my tower pc over wireless LAN. I have a high-end home DVD player, and haven't had a reason yet to go HD since I don't watch regular TV and already have a huge SD DVD collection that I don't plan to replace anytime soon. I suppose when I have to replace my EDTV plasma with HD, I'll get spoiled and have to go all the way. Seems from this article that the dream is still just that in terms of a do-everything box. Even if I could achieve the complete media box, it sounds like it might be a Pyrrhic victory. |
||||||
|
||||||
Anime World Order Posts: 193 Location: Florida |
|
|||||
| Like Justin, I too used to use a softmodded Xbox with Xbox Media Center installed on it to watch things on my TV. Connected to the network, I could share out folders and drives on my PC and have the movies stream onto the TV no problem. Unfortunately, as mentioned it can't handle the new formats or high-definition content.
But I was too cheap to go and build a HTPC. Instead, I took my old PC and connected it up to my HDTV via a DVI to HDMI cable. Since I'm too lazy to get out of my chair, rather than connect up a separate mouse and keyboard I use a program called Synergy which effectively lets you control multiple networked PCs using a single mouse and keyboard via a client/server application. Rather than deal with any of those Windows Media Center whatevers, I just use Media Player Classic and the Combined Codec Community Pack (which includes MPC). So far it has worked out perfectly. The only possible snag is that I can't really play 1080p content via the TV PC (AMD Athlon64 3800 with a Geforce 7800GTX), but that stuff doesn't seem to reliably play even on my main PC, which has an Intel Q6600 processor and a Geforce 8800GT. And the best part is that I didn't actually have to spend any additional money since everything in the "HTPC" is parts that were just strewn about the floor in various places prior. Your mileage may vary, naturally.
This is definitely the way to go. I always recommend the system guides posted on The Tech Report for anyone considering upgrading their hardware, since they're done on a regular basis. You never want to buy the top of the line since hardware manufacturers know they can mark up things outrageously to sell to people obsessed with having the absolute top of the line components (for a few months). There's always a point at which the increase in price becomes substantially higher than the corresponding increase in performance, and you want to buy right before that mark. The Tech Report guides refer to this indirectly as "the sweet spot," though their target price range for that point is still $1500 while not including a monitor or anything. The Econobox builds tend to hover around a more reasonable $500. |
||||||
|
||||||
chronium Posts: 27 Location: Canada |
|
|||||
| You could have gone an easier solution, and better for the non hands on hardware people, is buy a PS3 and installed linux on it. Sure you are limited to a max of 10gb but is easily fixable by a external hard drive, or if you want to have fun figure out how to fit a second hard drive in the PS3. | ||||||
|
||||||
| jsevakis ANN Director of New Media  Posts: 876 Location: Los Angeles, CA |
|
|||||
I did look into this, but doesn't the PS3 cripple the hardware support on linux, thereby making HD video playback kinda hard/impossible? Just to correct someone on Mac support, a freeware quicktime plug-in called Perian serves more or less the same purpose as ffdshow + Haali on the Windows side. So Macs can still play every kind of video file out there in QuickTime and Front Row, and XBMC is available for it as well (not to mention a more Mac-centric spinoff project called Plex). It's the Blu-Ray side of things that's lacking there. Unfortunately that was the deal-breaker for me. (That, and the only HTPC-ready Mac, the Mac Mini, is still too expensive for what it is.) |
||||||
|
||||||
Mohawk52 Posts: 3858 Location: Celebrating Lindsey Hawker murder suspect arrest, in Basingstoke, UK. |
|
|||||
| Nice system, but it will probably be obsolete by this time next year, then you'll have to start all over again. |
||||||
|
||||||
| omoikane Posts: 82 |
|
|||||
I agree with this. As an aside, I thought ATI is on top both on hardware and software now, with their latest chip? But maybe that's just for gamers and not so relevant for HTPCs. |
||||||
|
||||||
| point;blank Posts: 14 |
|
|||||
Because there is no fun in that. Plus you get no sense of achievement by getting it to work yourself, considering how much trouble it seems to be. |
||||||
|
||||||
| bigl523 Posts: 2 |
|
|||||
| I hate to say it but you could have definitely done a better job picking out your components. The biggest thing about a HTPC is that it is cool and quiet. Trust me, the last thing you want to hear is some stupid fan whirring around while your watching something on a tv. What is generally recommended at the moment by most HTPC enthusiasts for a cheap HD playing machine is the following:
CPU: AMD X2 4850e - This cpu is the same as your 4800+ but it runs a lot cooler (45W) and will thus keep your box cool and quiet. MOBO: GIGABYTE GA-MA78GM-S2H - This is a mATX motherboard with an onboard ATI video card that is more than capable of playing back blu-ray and hd videos. By buying this you are eliminating having to buy a separate video card as well as having to hear the noise that goes along with it. If you don't plan on playing games this thing is perfect. Did I mention it also has HDMI? RAM: Just get 2 gigs of anything that will run on the motherboard. As for software, I love and use Vista Media Center. I've been using XP Media Center for the past 3 years on my old HTPC which wasn't capable of handling H.264 and it only made sense to stick with the platform as it worked well enough. I install CCCP and apply the .mkv hack and I get all my videos to display on my HDTV. You can go into Haali media splitter and select it to default to eng subtitles and jpn audio or whatever else your heart desires therefore eliminating the need to switch audio/subs. You could also remux them to remove unwanted audio/subs using mkvtoolnix. As you get some more time behind the wheel you'll most definitely see that you can do much more with a dedicated HTPC. |
||||||
|
||||||
| K.o.R Posts: 86 |
|
|||||
| Ah, HTPCs, aren't they fun?
Total agreement about Mediaportal - so much potential (especially with the inbuilt audio and subtitle switcher) but it has just too many issues for me to bother with it over XP Media Center. CCCP may be using a slightly older version of ffdshow but remember that the pack's contents have been extensively tweaked by the team to make them run with each other better (in theory - they certainly seem good enough  ) than the standalone latest releases (plus the free tech support on IRC is nice).
I lament the lack of support for subtitle switching etc but this is only really an issue if you have dual-audio stuff and no-one downloads DVD-rips now do they - If I absolutely must have one combination of audio and subs then I'll just batch the series through mkv merge.
If you have a TV card installed then your HTPC will wake up automatically around 4am to get the latest TV guide - it's getting it to go back to sleep that is the trouble. The only major problem XPMCE has given me is it does not like Bandai DVDs - neither my Lucky Star nor Geass discs will get past the menu screen - but then I'll just stick MPC on to play it. tl;dr XP Media Center is better than you'd think. I certainly would use it over Vista. |
||||||
|
||||||
| vtnwesley Posts: 160 Location: Natrona Heights, PA |
|
|||||
Sometimes the hardware is just a little "like that" but the most common problem is Vista lets computers wake up on mouse movement. This needs to be disabled, because typical optical mice pick up random shakes from people walking or sometimes just register because they can. If you shut this off in power management options in Vista, it should help. This can be attributed to 90% of the random wake-up issues out there. As for the video drivers and Geforce vs Radeon, well the drivers have been broken for yrs on both sides. Most of the lastest brakes relate to "features" that no one wants and everyone is furious about. Like no longer being able to force VSYNC in Direct X software that doesn't support it from within the game itself or no longer processing some resolutions through hardware at all and disguising the defect as a "power saving feature"... Ah, yes, I save a little power... by not being able to play Big Bang Beat and 70% of my collection. -_- love those features. What you REALLY wanna look for are quality third party coolers being preinstalled, solid state capacitors, solid warrenties, and of course benchmarks showing your target games will run and HD video will work at full frame rate. |
||||||
|
||||||
| fighterholic Posts: 9194 |
|
|||||
I see. I'm not much of an expert on the whole thing with codecs, since my friends have told me what's what, what's good and everything. But I do have CCCP, and basically that's the only one I've been using since I've had to use codecs. |
||||||
|
||||||
| Tofusensei Posts: 353 |
|
|||||
| Awesome write-up, Justin!
As someone who marathoned an all-night MythBox build back in 2003, I feel your pain completely. It's never easy, but it gets better with time (in theory) and is all worth it in the end. Happy viewing 
-Tofu |
||||||
|
||||||
teh*darkness Posts: 588 |
|
|||||
It's funny you brought up MPC HC as a friend recently turned me onto it when my pc was struggling with 60FPS ED themes in anime raws I've been watching lately, particularly Bleach circa ep 179 or so. The playback would get all laggy, dropping about 45% of the frames to try and keep the video and audio synced. Turns out MPC HC has built-in h.264 decoding, as opposed to using an external decoder, so by view of my Task Manager, CPU usage went from 53% down to 32% when switching from the latest build of MPC over to MPC HC. And they even have an x64 release to boot. As for my setup, I went with the "mess of cables" option. I have a pre-built PC hooked up by DVI->HDMI to a 26" LCD HDTV. I have a Wii and Xbox360 hooked up to a 5.1 surround system and to the tv via a powerless system switcher (yay for pressing buttons), the PC audio is fed through there, with an extra cord to run my PSP to the tv as well. And lastly, a PS3 for Blu-Ray connected to the tv with HDMI and an optic cable to my stereo system. Not exactly the cheapest setup, or easiest to navigate (3 remotes, 2 controllers, 1 switch box), but it works. |
||||||
|
||||||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum |
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group
Anime Castle
Robert's Anime Corner Store
AAA Anime Distribution
Big Bad Toy Store
