VMC

i used to use myHTPC which turned into meedio then bought out by Yahoo and stopped development. so i use it reluctantly. i've tried MediaPortal and liked it a lot, just didn't like the look of it as much as VMC. i have some tweaks on VMC and it's still not perfect, but best option i've found so far that's somewhat reliable.

9/6/2008 10:20:46 PM

Luckily my RAID controller supports RAID6, so I may get another 7200.11 and switch to that to provide additional 2-drive failure support.

At least it's primary fault would be hardware failure - not software corruption which WHS is notorious for doing - losing all stored data. In the end, im not trying to create a underground bunker for data with quadruple backup arrays and off-site storage farms, its only media.

9/6/2008 10:31:25 PM

I have an external NAS that backups my array.

WHS has fixed all data corruption issues with power pack 1, that came out July 21st.

9/6/2008 10:34:46 PM

lol you have a backup array that backs up your backup array?

what about off-site backup array, in case of fire or flood?

9/6/2008 10:42:57 PM

WHS is backing up my PC's that's one thing, the media is not hosted anywhere else (well not all of it), so that is backed up on the enclosure. i have mozy for online backup of all my personal stuff (<2GB) and the rest isn't that important in case of fire, i don't have to worry about flooding where i live. i have GB's of storage on my web server, just never spent the time to upload all my stuff. like i said RAID is not a sufficient backup solution by itself.

[Edited on September 6, 2008 at 11:25 PM. Reason : .]

9/6/2008 11:22:28 PM

failover != backup

9/6/2008 11:36:46 PM

yea, ok, whatever, aside from burglary or fire, my data is safe and that's what i'm most concerned about, and my important stuff is backed up off-site i already told you that

what's the #1 reason for backup = failed hardware or software corruption, it's not fire or buglary

[Edited on September 7, 2008 at 3:05 AM. Reason : .]

9/7/2008 3:04:33 AM

Ok Ive gotten all the parts and will be building the htpc this week:

Antec Sonata III Case w/ Earthwatts 500W Power Supply
Foxconn A78AX-S AM2+/AM2 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard
AMD Athlon X2 BE-2400 Brisbane 2.3GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM2 Dual-Core Processor
OCZ SLI-Ready Edition 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800
SAPPHIRE ULTIMATE HD 3850 512MB GDDR3 PCI-E
LG GGC-H20L Blu-ray HD DVD 16x DVD±RW Burner SATA

The graphics card will send audio over HDMI so Im skipping the sound card.

Im interested to know what OS you guys use? Ive got a few keys for vista business and XP professional. I am also wondering about buying Home Premium because it has Vista Media Center.

Also what program to play back Blu-Ray and HD-DVD? PowerDVD seems to be the easiest option and I have a installation CD for powerDVD 7 from Dell.

[Edited on September 15, 2008 at 11:47 AM. Reason : a]

9/15/2008 11:45:42 AM

yeah i use cyberlink power dvd on on my laptop

9/15/2008 11:48:35 AM

Quote :

"The graphics card will send audio over HDMI so Im skipping the sound card."

lol, you know the video card doesn't actually have audio on it right? so you're still using onboard sound for audio. the video card just bridges it and sends it over HDMI. a true sound card would still benefit you if you can get it to bridge to the video card.

OS: Vista Ultimate, but only because i got it free.
Blu-ray/HDDVD playback: PowerDVD 7 Ultra, the latest PowerDVD 8 Ultra they removed HD-DVD support, but there are guides out there if you want to add it.

[Edited on September 15, 2008 at 12:06 PM. Reason : /]

9/15/2008 12:02:23 PM

Hopefully Im not mistaken, but the graphics card should send 5.1 through HDMI to my receiver, which can process it. If it doesnt work/sounds terrible I can buy a sound card, but Im crossing my fingers that the graphics card will be enough. Although it does say it has an integrated HD audio controller (whatever that means).

Is it still possible to buy powerDVD 7 ultra (or upgrade since I already have powerDVD 7) or will I have to torrent it?

[Edited on September 15, 2008 at 12:17 PM. Reason : a]

9/15/2008 12:13:05 PM

yea, i think you'll be fine, that's a good option

there may be an add-on for PowerDVD 7, but I'm not sure about it.

9/15/2008 12:18:00 PM

it will send dts/dolby digital s/pdif and will be just as good as any other sound card (except for games)

9/15/2008 4:16:38 PM

Anyone use an alternative to the keyboard/mouse combo? Ive got a wireless kit but Im wondering if there are other options.

9/22/2008 11:15:59 AM

yea, i use a Logitech Harmony 880

9/22/2008 11:26:59 AM

^ive got one of those too! what do I need to make it work?

9/22/2008 12:17:07 PM

I programmed it with my MCE remote

9/22/2008 12:19:53 PM

program it using the hardware codes:
A9O-00007 (remote)
ZV1-00004 (keyboard)

9/22/2008 1:05:16 PM

[Edited on September 22, 2008 at 1:36 PM. Reason : + Remote]

9/22/2008 1:35:54 PM

ok i played my first blu-ray the other day and it worked perfectly. The only problem is the graphics card will not pass 5.1...only 2 channel. Windows has the HDMI input as a 2 channel input (and I cant change it) so Im wondering if the problem is with windows or the graphics card.

10/1/2008 11:15:44 AM

^I think the next-gen audio formats get automatically downgraded to 2-channel if you dont have the hardware to support it. The only GPU that does support it is the Radeon 4xxx series cards, that I know of. My motherboard has DTS Connect thankfully, so it gets downgraded from HD audio, but still in 5.1.

Question in regards to RAID: Ive been trying to determine whether I should setup a Raid or just go with a couple of large HDDs. Considering what Im going to put on it, Im not sure its worth it....I mean, we are talking about mostly video Ive downloaded from online, rips of my own discs, and maybe some stuff I recorded myself. Nothing thats going to be devastating if I lose it. Is it really worth the money for an extra drive(s) and an expensive controller card?

10/2/2008 9:28:09 AM

does your motherboard not support it?

typically there's no cost. a lot of motherboards support 0/1/0+1 and some RAID 5/10, also in terms of drives, you can buy 2x 500GB for the same as 1x 1TB, so the cost isn't any different there either.

10/2/2008 12:45:49 PM

First off...let's me post my system


3-750gb hd. 3 for movies
2- 500gb hd 1 nothing but music, other is expansion
250 GB drive - OS drive
Q6700 intel
intel board (with 5.1 surround)
8gigs of ram
8600 GTS video card

I download all my blu ray and HD movies from sites and people.
I use the MCE I have in Vista Home Prem. I thought of upgrading to Ultimate...don't see the reason.

I would not do raid if you can afford to lose it. I have duplicate machines...so I'm not worried about it. I also share with my friends and build my own network of backups. It's understood I need to get a backup if one of mine goes down. So far...so good.

Software Raids...for the lose.

10/3/2008 6:17:25 PM

Quote :

"Software Raids...for the lose."

for backup purposes yes

10/3/2008 7:38:22 PM

Fuck that, I use software RAID0 for all my unimportant shit (movies, music, games installations).

Installing your games on a 4-disk RAID0 volume (even software RAID) makes shit load fast as fuck.

10/3/2008 7:41:55 PM

i made this thread in april and still haven't settled on something

10/6/2008 9:10:23 PM

Well if you have cable you're going to be watching that through the cable box for encrypted channels, so a tv tuner isn't needed in an HTPC.

Just use media portal, a cheap c2d, and a cheap 9600gt or something. An HTPC isn't exactly a complex setup considering it doesn't need to be that powerful. (unless you're encoding things, which i think you mentioned)

10/6/2008 9:17:56 PM

Quote :

"i made this thread in april and still haven't settled on something"

it took me almost 2 years of planning before i finally bought the components for mine

10/6/2008 10:27:35 PM

i built mine 4 years ago and have gone through about 5-6 generations....

but i agree, if you don't need a tv tuner, look at something small, like a popcorn hour or small pc

10/6/2008 10:41:24 PM

well, at this point, i'm leaning towards buying a HP mediasmart server or something.

10/6/2008 10:49:40 PM

when you have a kid, all in one solutions tend to be the order of the day.

10/7/2008 2:15:05 AM

Im having one issue at the moment:

I copied "The Simpsons" blu-ray that I purchased to my HTPC HDD to be able to stream it to my laptop over the network. My laptop is connected using Wireless-N (130Mbps) and the HTPC is connected too a gigabit port. The video streams fine but the audio is constantly stuttering. Not sure what the problem is there. Its the only movie I copied so far so maybe its some form of protection. The laptop is a C2D T9300 with a Nvidia 570M graphics card.

10/7/2008 11:45:03 AM

Sounds like a decoding issue. A bluray is around 36mbit at most so you should have plenty of bandwidth.

10/7/2008 12:39:03 PM

So for consolidation purposes and to appease prospero I will ask here:

So I've looked around online at different tv websites. I haven't really tried any beyond hulu thus far. I've also been looking into HTPC and programs like mythTV. Couple of question I have:

Do you have much success streaming to the PS3 yet? If so, what websites?
If you have HTPC, what kind of software do you run with yours?
Is there a list of websites that might stream well through a HTPC that PS3 can't support yet? ( I already know even hulu has a few issues as of yet)

I'm just looking into a lot of information at once and would like some opinions from people who have already looked into this. This isn't so much a question of hardware as it is of software/streaming/interfaces/etc.

11/18/2008 3:15:32 PM

why would you stream internet TV to a PS3 then send it to the TV? why not just stream the internet TV on your HTPC and output to your TV?

tversity or orb should take care of your streaming media from HTPC to PS3 if you want a media center like interface

http://tversity.com/download/features/

Quote :

"Play Internet audio, image and video streams and RSS/RDF/ATOM/OPML feeds and podcasts on your TV, Stereo and other connected devices"

http://www.orb.com/gamers/

Quote :

"With Orb and your game console, anything on your PC is now on your TV: * Watch Internet TV, videos or home movies"

[Edited on November 18, 2008 at 3:21 PM. Reason : .]

11/18/2008 3:18:40 PM

I haven't actually put an HTPC together, I have used my PS3 recently since there are some flash compatibilities now to watch stuff from hulu through the web browser (its pretty simple, and if you full screen the browser its pretty much normal TV). Basically what I'm looking at is something like this. If I find good streaming sites I would no longer need cable (90% of what I watch is on hulu now).
I feel like an HTPC would give me a little more flexibility to do that than PS3 since the PC would be easier to modify/upgrade. I am mainly trying to see the viability of finding reliable online streams to get different shows. though I did look at your links and orb does look promising for an interface when/if I build one, I was also looking at MythTV simply because I do love playing with homebrew.
I suppose the most pressing question for me is whether there reliable websites to pull shows from or if hulu and the fragile contract CBS recently worked with youtube is about all there really is.

11/18/2008 3:29:13 PM

something to look at if you own an Xbox360
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/18/netflix-now-streams-movies-to-the-xbox-360/

maybe netflix will come to PS3, then you can watch instantly movies along with TV series DVD's

here's a couple more free online tv providers:
http://www.fancast.com/
http://www.veoh.com/

not sure if they are comp. with PS3 or not.

[Edited on November 18, 2008 at 3:42 PM. Reason : ,]

11/18/2008 3:40:44 PM

actually yeah i had heard about that. I don't know if they are doing it through third party but I know there is someone else putting together a similar app for the PS3. Not to start fights but the 360 isnt for me. I havent signed up for netflix yet, though if I pull together the htpc then i'll probably look into that as well. right now the streaming has been working wonderfully for me. i figure I will have dropped TWC all together by late January if I can(thats really what im working towards, i just cant stand them). Even for high speed internet I'd rather just go to someone else for it then deal with them anymore.

thanks, i firmly plan on trying all the streaming sites on the PS3, even if I do end up building a separate htpc(which is probable).

[Edited on November 18, 2008 at 3:49 PM. Reason : .]

11/18/2008 3:48:02 PM

Neither the ps3 or 360 support open wrappers like .mkv. Which is about 99% of the media files i have. We tried orb on a 360 and it transcodes in realtime and the quality isn't great. I'd check out mediaportal for windows.

11/18/2008 5:14:49 PM

FYI, your post has nothing relevant to this conversation.

we're talking about free streaming online tv content, not recorded episodes that you download.

11/18/2008 6:01:26 PM

I still have no fucking idea what the best solution is, and am currently trying to build one. There are so many products now that come so close, but miss the mark by a small margin.

Boxee (based on XBMC) streams Hulu, Youtube, and nearly any other streaming content. It also manages your local media collection. Interface looks, really really good. (Just going into Beta)
http://www.boxee.tv/

Popcorn hour is a $200 stand alone unit that looks really promising. Mainly for streaming local content though, and doesn't do youtube/Hulu yet.
http://www.popcornhour.com/onlinestore/

PlayOn Streams Hulu/Youtube to a Media Center extender.
http://www.themediamall.com/signupforplayonbeta/

[Edited on November 18, 2008 at 7:18 PM. Reason : a]

11/18/2008 7:13:40 PM

I'm giving TVersity a try now. It seems to be playing better with my PS3 than WMP11 ever did.

11/20/2008 9:56:38 PM

There's also a new competitor ...

Neuros Releases the Link, an Open Source, Web-Savvy Set-Top Box
$299 (or $249 without the keyboard)
...a set-top streaming box that will pull video from a wide range of online TV sources — Hulu, NBC, ABC, etc. — as well as stream local audio and video content from any USB hard drive.

http://gizmodo.com/5094034/neuros-releases-the-link-an-open-source-web+savvy-set+top-box

* 1080p H.264 video playback
* HDMI (max resolution 1920x1200, 1080p) output
* High-definition 6-channel Audio output
* Optical S/PDIF audio output
* Gigabit Ethernet
* 802.11 g/b WiFi, up to 54Mbps
* Lots of USB 2.0 High-speed Ports (6 external ones today)
* Housing: 300mm x 90mm x 326mm (11.8" x 3.5" x 12.8")
* Noise: under 27dB
* Controller: 2.4 GHz wireless keyboard trackball controller
* Software:
o Seamless integration with Neuros.TV, a free service that lets you organize and watch Internet TV on your TV
o Neuros distribution of Ubuntu 8.10
o Open-source video players (MPlayer, VLC, Xine). A comprehensive list of formats, containers and media can be found on the above websites.

11/20/2008 10:40:01 PM

Quote :

"it'll be tough to take on the $229 Apple TV, which in addition to having an included local hard drive and access to iTunes, supports most of Neuros.TV's features though Boxee."

11/20/2008 11:01:53 PM

i'm glad all you guys have been happy with your htpcs i'm ab to throw mine out the fuckin window. i seriously can't believe that no one has been able to write a decent piece of software to play bluray movies without doing a million fuckin updates everytime a new movie gets released.

11/21/2008 12:45:48 AM

Ok my setup is finished:

2.63 Ghz processor/2 GB RAM running in a mini cube sitting in my TV stand. I have all my local media in a linux server with over a TB of space. The Media PC is running PlayOn for Hulu and Netflix instant viewing and the media is managed by XBOX Media Center. Does anyones use XBMC?

11/21/2008 8:21:19 AM

I have XBMC running on an XBOX for normal use, and I've been toying around with various hacks on an AppleTV recently.

11/21/2008 11:44:50 AM

i tried it on PC but it was still pretty buggy.

the best methods as of now seem to be:

XBMC on Xbox
XBMC/Boxee on AppleTV
Orb/Tversity on PS3
Orb/Tversity/Homebrew on Wii
Popcorn Hour
HTPC front-end with media server back-end
(Orb/Tversity/Boxee/XBMC/MediaPortal/VMC varients on PC)
HTPC AIO for DVR/Blu-ray

[Edited on November 21, 2008 at 11:52 AM. Reason : .]

11/21/2008 11:52:05 AM

Sounds good, after looking into it for awhile I think I'm going to start with something simple and integrate as I see software that would benefit me. I plan on having a Core i7 system built in the next month or so that will be my everything PC and include software of streaming and organizing media(hulu, playon, youtube, pics, mail/internet). If I want blue ray I have the benefit of a Ps3 that I dont need to have linked to the htpc for any forseeable reason for now. I think that alone should keep me happy for a long time since I wont be trying to push cable/dish through it. I'll just go pure online only. If I really miss local channels I'll get rabbit ears

11/21/2008 1:41:44 PM

Mine isn't buggy as all, works like a champ even has movie times with the Apple Trailers plug in. I just love the UI. Our annual budget for my group at work is in the 10s of millions and our UI's are not near that nice

11/21/2008 1:50:21 PM