Ltooz

This page is dedicated for building High Definition Home Theater PC: Capable of playing Blu-ray & HD DVDs and files.

1. Building the HD-HTPC: Choose the best all in one motherboard with HDMI output. Our old AMD XP2500+ can't play 1920x1080 smoothly. AMD X2 4200+ is minimum and the best graphic chips right now for HD movies are ATI 690G, 780G, 790G. The ones we built are 690g, cheapest and functional.

2. Building a dedicated PC FILES SERVER with Wireless Networking for all other PCs to play movies.

3. Back-up/create HD/Blu-ray movies/dvd9/dvd5 from Pictures/AVCHD camcorder or Blu-ray/HD DVDs to play on our HD-HTPC. For this we need to build a fast computer using Intel i7 & X58 MSI X58 PLATINUM motherboard.

4. Mediaportal (1.0.0 NOT 1.01) is the software that organizes and plays all multimedia files: Movies, Music, Pictures... There are many nice and easy to use skins for Mediaportal like Black&white1080p, Bleazlewide, MediaStream, StreamMP. Although the new version 1.01 came out, but for what we use, 1.0.0 is functional... To us, if it works, don't fix it...

By the way, after watching HD/Blu-ray 1080p, we get spoiled and prefer HD over standard DVDs, especially with my kids animated movies.

With the prices of HDTV LCDs are going to be affordable, and many of us may have many computers in the house which we may want to convert one or two into Home Theater PCs to work with your TV or your new giant HDTV flat panel. Why do I want a home theater PC instead of simple stand alone DVD player? Home Theater PC can do many things which stand alone DVD player can't do. Here is the list of what my HTPC can do: IN YOUTUBE ACTION (Better watched in HD mode)
ANOTHER YOUTUBE IN HD
1. Plays DVD in HDTV format 1360x768 or 1770x1000 or 1920x1080p & 5.1 digital because my graphic/sound card can output these resolutions and format.
2. My kids can use the HTPC to learn from educational PC software (I'm playing pre-school, kindergarden games with my 3 1/2 daughter every day).
3. Plays MP3 music with Itune or Window Media Player with thousands of songs.
4. Plays recreational PC games with 5.1 channel.
5. Surf the internet/Watch streaming videos.
6. Plays and stores many favorite movies/pictures for family any time without looking for CD/DVD and changing CD/DVD every time.
7. Plays all recorded home movies and slide shows.
8. And everything on screen can be controlled by a remote (beside my receiver & HDTV of course since I don't want to spend money for a new remote).

I'm sure there are more things that we can do with PC, since I only use OTA for HDTV and my HDTV reception is very good, so I didn't have to install my HDTV wonder tuner in my PC. May be in time I would use it to record OTA shows. Before you start to build your HTPC, you should list what you want your computer to do. To me HTPC should have minimum:

1. USB 2.0 many ports and front ports are a must.
2. 1394 Firewire front ports are a must (for video capture from DV camcorder).
3. DVI output graphic card which connects to HDTV via HDMI for HD resolutions.
4. Good 1 or 2 DVDs RW drives (since they are inexpensive, get 2), if one can't read a RW, the other may, one can play and the other can back up.
5. 5.1 coax or optical output sound card. Most of current motherboards have the option. I didn't have to buy extra sound card.
6. PC remote, my ATI all in wonder 9000 (old one) came with a remote wonder which operates on RF which is the best remote you can have. The IR remote is directional and only operates in a very short and narrow distance. If you want to buy ATI remote wonder for $40-50$, get the whole graphic card which comes with the remote for about $60-80 with DVI outputs. Make sure you get the correct bus for your motherboard AGP or PCI express x16.
7. Find a nice case. I'm cheap and practical, I don't need to get a fancy one, I got the brand name cooler master for $55.00 full ATX. Make sure the case that you get will fit your motherboard. Full ATX & micro ATX (small).

8. Since the hard drives are getting less expensive, you should have at least total of 500Gb in the computer. Each movie can be re-authored down to <4GB without losing much quality, you can store close to 100 movies to play at any time. You can throw away all these racks of DVDs and CD music. Put them in boxes and store them in the garage. I just got 1 300Gb SATA for $59 & 500Gb for $109. The HTPC case is small, you don't have room to add many more hard drives later, therefore, just get 1 or 2 big ones which produce less heat to the system than 3 or 4 small ones.

FRONT AUDIO PANEL with REALTEK HD settings: Sometimes when we update the HD Audio Driver from Realtek, the front audio panel doesn't work (both headphone & microphone jacks), this caused by the "jack detection", by disabling this feature, the front headphone & microphone jack will work.

FRONT AUDIO PANEL SET UP:

To enable front audio panel to have headphone & microphone jack to work, the analog setting may have to set like this. Disable the front panel jack detection. This should also work for all HD REALTEK audio chipset.

THIS IS THE UPDATE FOR MY HTPC DEC 9 2008. THE REASON BEING I JUST FOUND A GREAT DISCONTINUED MOTHERBOARD WHICH DOES EVERYTHING FOR $29 AT FRY'S ELECTRONIC: GA-MA69GM-S2H

THE REVIEW WAS GREAT. IT'S OC ABLE and IT HAS HDMI WITH HD SOUND AND SUPPORT BLUE RAY & HD

Since it's can overclock CPU, you can get a low price AMD and overclock to better performance like the higher price ones. Check out NEWEGG.COM, they do have good prices and great services just like Fry's electronics.

NOTE: To be able to OC this board, you need Bios F3A, but F3A doesn't report 1TB hard drive correctly, therefore, if you plan to have or had these drives, DON'T, it may kill all your data when it doesn't report it correctly. The 1TB problem is fixed in the bios F4 and F4 or F5 don't have voltage settings for heavy duty OC.

The wonderful board.

Look at the back panel, DVI, VGA, HDMI, OPTICAL DIGITAL, FIREWIRE, 5.1 AUDIO. The only thing missing is E-SATA, you can get this with the better version GA-MA78GM-S2H for better performance and more money.

Install the CPU with the correct orientation (golden arrow), I'm using the X2 4200+ running @ 2.2GHZ. The reviews said the CPU area is a little small for a big CPU cooler. Mine is pretty big and it fits fine.

2GB of RAM dual channels. I don't intent to use VISTA OS, therefore, 2 GB is fine for playing movies with WINDOWS XP.

The board is great, no switches to set, just install CPU and RAM and it's ready to be mounted inside the case. The back plate is supplied and it's well labeled. Notice, there is NO serial & parallel ports. Gigabyte assumes we already have USB printer and other IO devices. There are parallel & serial pins on board if you have those legacy cables, you can still use them.

The 4 SATA ports are mounted in the back of the board, this is a concern if you case doesn't have enough room for the cables to hook up. Look at those 4 yellow connectors in the corner of the board, real close to the hard drives.

In my case, I can go to the back and hook them up very nicely without any problem. Since it only has 4 SATA, I recommend to hook all 4 cables for future use if you need to have 4 hard drives and I'm sure you will need them when RIPPING HD movies (10GB-30GB).

Everything is in the case, ready for firing up. This board only has 2 PCI, therefore, I can only use 1 HDTV wonder (for recording OTA shows) and 1 wireless PCI N300 card for networking with other computers in the house.

Since I don't know if the default output is HDMI or VGA, I hooked up both to my HDTV.

The board boots up nicely without a hitch. Check out the bios, it was F4, configure some basic boot priority for the hard drive that already has the XP OS installed. This BIOS version doesn't have all the voltage settings for OC. Read the review on the link above and get the F3A bios version to have all these voltage settings if you want to overclock the CPU. Without the voltage settings, I can only OC it from 200MHZ(base) to 250MHZ fsb max (25%). The old XP OS booted up and have missing new board drivers, put the CD for XP that came with the board and start to install "EXPRESS" option. It would take a good 10-15 minutes for everything to load in this option. After everthing is loaded, we need to set up the audio for HDMI. This is great, no need cable coming out of the analog 5.1 or optical digital, the HDMI cable carries both VIDEO & HD AUDIO.

If you want to get the digital output out of the HDTV to external amplifier, just hook up the optical digital out/composite audio out from the HDTV to the external audio devices.

If you are going to use VGA input as default for your HDTV, the max resolution is 1360x768 and you need to connect the analog audio output to one of your composite audio jacks in the back of your HDTV to have sound and make sure you select REALTEK HD Audio OUT and NOT HDA HDMA OUT.

Next is to open the ATI control panel to set resolutions for HDTV. It has upconversion mode for your movies, so we don't have to buy the "UP CONVERSION DVD PLAYER".

I set mine to 1920x1080 @ 30HZ and the display was off since my HDTV is 720P.  I set it to 1776x1000 and it came out beautifully. I took some pictures of the screen, but it doesn't do justice to the quality. This is just a regular DVD up converted.

I have the Windvd 7 and it doesn't support hdmi audio but it does play. I use the TheaterTek which has the option for HDMI audio out. Since we're going to get blu-ray/hd drive, we need to obsolete these two and get WINDVD9 and POWERDVD7.3. Please read the blu-ray & avchd for HTPC page.

For those who wants to overclock CPU, this motherboard is great if you have the F3A bios. I downloaded the F3A bios, using the @bios utility from the CD and backedup F4 and flashed the F3A. I also downloaded the F5 bios for future use. It went without a hitch. The Control+F1 showed the voltage settings for the CPU. I upped the CPU from 1.3V to 1.35V and I can do this without a problem. Make sure you check the CPU support list, I noticed a newer CPU needs to have BIOS F5 to run, and I know F5 doesn't have voltage settings for OC. These are the results for overclocking this motherboard.

1. F4-F5 bios = No CPU voltage settings, using Ctrl+F1 advanced bios, 2GB DDR2 800, set them at 667, I can raise the X2 4200+ CPU FSB from 200 to 240 without any problem. Resulting freq = 2640MHZ = X2 5200+. I could DVDdecrypter 5.6GB movie in 9 minutes.

2. F3A bios = I've heard people can OC it to 2800-3300MHZ by setting the CPU voltage higher.

MY TAKE ON OC

I think the best is using the latest bios = F5, OC it 20% more and make sure it's stable. The Blu-ray or HD player only needs recommended X2 4200+. F3A bios to me has to many unknown bugs which may cause loss or corrupted data if we overclock the CPU too much. It's not worth the trouble.

F5 already has the improved HT for overclocking. With F5 bios I can oc to 250MHZ = 2750MHZ. We don't really need F3A. DDR800 down clocked to DDR667.

DVD DECRYPTER: 4MINUTES. It's fast!!!!! WHO NEEDS CORE 2 DUO or QUAD CORE.

Using DVDshrink to back up a movie from hardrive and this is how long it took.

I'm extremely happy with the motherboard. Since I have all the old parts, to upgrade this HTPC, this is what it cost me

$29.99 motherboard

$39.99 CPU X2 4200+

$24.99 2GB DDR2 RAM.

If you don't have anything yet, then you can buy an HTPC from ACER or GATEWAY or HP with HDMI output for $399. but you can't OC, or add wireless PCI card because they're small HTPC cases.

This is the old htpc computer will be updated with another GA-MA69GM-S2H since I bought 2 x 29.99.

Old computer Full ATX, AMD XP2500+, GA-7N400P2 DDR-PC2700 768Mb


The New HTPC case



Clean up all the dust and transferred to the new case.

It's been over a year and a half. It's time to upgrade to a real HD HTPC. The new motherboard is again GA-MA69GM-S2H.

The CPU is AMD X2 5000+ 65W from Neweggs.com for $57.00

The 4GB 6400 Dual Channel RAMs are from Fry's Electronics for $49.99 - $30.00(rebate) = 19.99 (which I hate but it's Corsair)

Remove the full size board.

PREP the new board w/CPU & DDR2. The AMD CPU cooler is a little small, but I won't be OC this CPU so much and it's only 65W, therefore it should runs very cool.

GA-MA69GM-S2H fits nicely in the HTPC case even with the side SATA ports access.

HDMI hookup, clean and simple.

After testing out all the software and hardware, the only connection that's left is the HDMI cable, NONEED analog outputs and digital optical cables. The HDMI carries the audio signal to the HDTV, I connect the optical digital output from HDTV to the external amplifier optical input. When I play movies, games, or watch tv, if I want to have better sound, just turn on the receiver and there it is, the optical digital with surround sound.

This HTPC is 2600MHZ default and I overclock to 3120MHZ with FSB raised from 200 to 240 with F4 bios and DDR2 set to 667 instead of 800.

The new one fits nicely and cables clutter will be behind and hideaway when we're done with hanging the HDTV up. We need laser and drill and help from my Audie to mount the HDTV bracket.

Can you see the laser line?


It came out perfect


I got sidetracked, I will get back with computer configuration and the software. I think it's the most important part of the HTPC.

Connections:

DVI output vs VGA output: Most flat panel would have vga input which supports 1360x768 as native. This setting will give the best display for the LCD, the only drawback with this connection is that when we play movies, the zoom function is not supported. By connecting with DVI-HDMI port, we can have the zoom function and higher resolutions display.

game

Sound: you can hook up the 2 channel output from computer to the PC stereo input next to the VGA (for PC) to use the TV speakers and connect the COAX output of the sound card to the COAX input of the receiver so you can play both TV speakers and 5.1 channels of the receiver. If you use the optical, the setting must be digital and the analog to the TV speaker is disabled, I connect all 2channel & COAX & OPTICAL in case I want to you pure digital 5.1.

Memory Reader: My motherboard only has 1 front USB connector, if yours has 2 connectors, use the floppy bay to install memory reader like this.

Software: I'm using Windows XP professional as operating system and I don't have the MCE version. I'm working with all old existing components.

Windvd7: plays DVD files and iso & nrg images.

Itune7: plays MP3

WMP10: plays AVI, WMA, WMV, MP3

Daemon tool 3.44 (older version) http://www.daemon-tools.cc/dtcc/download.php?mode=ViewCategory&catid=5 to mount dvd or cd images.

DVDshrink: to reauthor backup DVDs (since I like to store movies in the hard drives without all the extras, size is important).

DVDfab decrypter: http://www.free-codecs.com/download/DVDFab_Decrypter.htm to backup DVDs to hard drives.

DVD decrypter: http://www.mrbass.org/dvdrip/ to backup DVDs to hard drives.

Ripit4me: http://www.videohelp.com/tools/RipIt4Me to backup DVDs to hard drives.

Nero burning software: to burn DVDs to images .nrg or .iso to store movies in hard drives.

Pinnacle Studio 9 plus: to make dv tapes into MP2 and make home movies DVDs. http://www.pinnaclesys.com/PublicSite/us/Products/Consumer+Products/Home+Video/Studio+Family/Studio+Plus+11+Documents/Comparision+Chart/

TMPGEnc authoring to make home DVDs. http://www.tmpgenc.net/en/index.html

DVD LAB: to make home DVDs. http://www.mediachance.com/dvdlab/

REMOTE WONDER PLUGINS for WINDVD7

http://www.polarcloud.com/remote this one works wonderful on REMOTE WONDER.

http://remotew.free.fr/plugins.htm#itunes

Some basic knowledge about HTML to make a front page for your computer with all hyperlinks to files and executables in the HTPC. I use frontpage to create HTML.

SETTING UP THE SOFTWARE: The goal is to use a remote control to play as many applications as we can. This setup is for remote wonder I &II & remote wonder plus. Down load the ATI 3.04 driver, installed it before plugging in the USB receiver. I'm using Windvd7 as default player for all DVD drives, physical & virtual (Daemon).

http://ati.amd.com/support/drivers/xp/remotewonder-xp.html

Extract all the pluggins .dll to plugin folder of remote wonder and click import and choose the correct plugin .dll to remote wonder software and they will appear in the plugin window below.

Highlight the WinDVD plugin 2.10 and click configure: You can customize any button you want by changing the action. If you don't install ATI MMCxx, the button "DVD" will bring up the default DVD application. This plugin will let the remote wonder to do many things with WinDVD7: fullscreen, subtitle on/off, fast/rewind, chapter forward/back, title menu, main menu, brightness, capture, volume, pause, step forward, close and many more. GREAT PLUG-IN.

Set default autoplay for DVDs using WINDVD7, set A button for Itunes & B for WMPLAYER. You can configure any unused buttons for other applications.

To output digital coax or optical to your receiver, you need to configure audio to digital output and set video to startup in full screen & pan&scan to play max screen on your HDTV.

Now you can turn on/off WinDVD7 (configure record button = close), Window media player10 & Itunes with cursor.

SOFTWARE AUTOMATION:

I don't want to use the mouse or keyboard to play stored movies in the hard drives, therefore, I made many folders, folder for my daughter's educational games, my daughter's movies and my PG13 movies (who am I kidding?).

I use Daemon's tool to have virtual dvd rom.

I use backup software to re-author movies and Nero to burn into images to access easily. I want my daughter to be able to click any game Icon and it wil automatically load the cd image for her to play, I need a batch file and Icon link to that batch file. I use DOS .BAT file to access the images. Next one is to make the link at the Icon.

What the batch file does is to unmount and mount the correct image everytime for the autorun to take effect incase the image is already mounted when you want to play. This will be configured the same for DVD movies.

VOILA, now you can select any CD or DVD stored in your hard drive and play them. Since the remote control emulate the cursor as a mouse, you can right click or left click to execute the mouse button, therefore you don't have to use the mouse to play game or select functions. The drawback is the remote cursor will not be as quick as your mouse. Anyhow, if you want to play fast game, you must have joystick or keyboard or mouse.

Well, the system is functioning as it should be except the Itunes pluggin is taking over the WMP10, therefore, I unchecked the Itunes and I could control both WMP10 & Itunes.

For some reasons, the optical digital output doesn't sound as good as the coax digital output, therefore, I use the coax instead and the receiver automatically detects the audio output 2/5.1 channels from the coax.

I made the Icons for the movies and create some shortcuts last night, edit a picture size @ 1776x1000 pixels to fit the whole screen for both 1920x1080 & 1360x768, hide the tool bar and I got.

Final: