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PostPosted: Thu Mar 25, 2010 5:40 pm 
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dbone1026 wrote:
Just chillin I guess, too much time devoted to work/family and not enough to my hobbies :(

Still running with W7MC + Media Browser as my main front end, but continue to mess around with XBMC and Boxee. At some point I want to revisit Media Portal, but I will probably want until 2.0 is eventually released. Same goes with SageTV, I probably won't revisit until SMM is released and/or 7.0. How is everything going with you, have you setup working as you want or still tweaking?


I haven't tinkered much recently. I was pleased to get PDVD playing BDs. The next step will be for me to build an antenna to receive OTA HD signal better. Then I will fiddle around with the TV tuner card I installed in my HTPC and learn how to record programs.

We're building a home, so I'll wait till we move first. I should be able to receive a faster DSL connection then too. So that will help with streaming shows on the internet. I'll be getting rid of DirecTV when we move so that will force me to streamline how to watch shows via online :D

But I've got a young one on the way, and you know how that goes....


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PostPosted: Mon Mar 29, 2010 5:57 am 
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rhinogooner wrote:

I haven't tinkered much recently. I was pleased to get PDVD playing BDs. The next step will be for me to build an antenna to receive OTA HD signal better. Then I will fiddle around with the TV tuner card I installed in my HTPC and learn how to record programs.

We're building a home, so I'll wait till we move first. I should be able to receive a faster DSL connection then too. So that will help with streaming shows on the internet. I'll be getting rid of DirecTV when we move so that will force me to streamline how to watch shows via online :D

But I've got a young one on the way, and you know how that goes....


I looked into an antenna but I think I figured out I would need a NASA grade antenna to get the OTA stations, so decided to forget that idea!!! I will probably look into the new cable card tuners (Ceton) which are due out at the end of May, but right now I get all the shows I need from QAM.

Good luck with the new addition. My boys are 2 1/2 and 7 months, it makes life very interesting indeed...

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PostPosted: Thu Aug 19, 2010 4:57 pm 
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AARRGG, Blasted Comcast killed Qam in my area.
In protest I killed my TV with them, Now I'm going to have to figure out how to get DirecTV to play with my media center/sling box...

Did Silicon Dust ever release their Cable card version of the HDHomerun?
I thhink it might be a hit or miss deal though, as I have a Mitsubishi TV that used the cable card and they could never get it working correctly.

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PostPosted: Thu Aug 19, 2010 5:02 pm 
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Chasrobin wrote:
AARRGG, Blasted Comcast killed Qam in my area.
In protest I killed my TV with them, Now I'm going to have to figure out how to get DirecTV to play with my media center/sling box...

Did Silicon Dust ever release their Cable card version of the HDHomerun?
I thhink it might be a hit or miss deal though, as I have a Mitsubishi TV that used the cable card and they could never get it working correctly.


The Ceton TV Tuner was just released and I think there is beta testing going on for the HDHomerun version (I applied to be a beta tester but no luck :cry: ). Last I heard they just met with Cable Labs so hopefully they are finalizing whatever needs finalizing so they can get out to the public. My provider (Cablevision) uses SDV instead of the traditional cable cards, so I am not sure how that will impact everything.

Have you tried OTA? Where I live unfortunately I would need a NASA grade antenna to get the stations, but right now I only really record the basic channels which I get over QAM in HD.

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PostPosted: Thu Aug 19, 2010 5:09 pm 
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No such luck here in the central valley of Kalifornia if you don't have cable/SAT yer hosed.
Unless of course you speak spanish then theres a few channels you can get OTA.

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PostPosted: Thu Aug 19, 2010 5:21 pm 
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Chasrobin wrote:
Unless of course you speak spanish then theres a few channels you can get OTA.


Sounds like you have a project ahead of you now that the beast is tamed :D

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PostPosted: Thu Aug 19, 2010 5:29 pm 
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A couple at least.

1. HD streaming ala netflix to family
2. Ultra small quiet/silent HTPC (ssd,no dvd,HDMI,optical,I-series intel proc)
3. Who knows, it seems when I do one project another pops up.

I'm still currently working on
Clientless SSL VPN config
Web page intigration of my remote control tools with my EX490 that serves as my outside web presence.
so my remote power manger, my ip KVM, being able to wake-up and RDP to any system in the house.
I have all of this working to some degree I'm just polishing it up and turning into an appliance.

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PostPosted: Thu Aug 19, 2010 5:51 pm 
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Chasrobin wrote:
A couple at least.

1. HD streaming ala netflix to family
2. Ultra small quiet/silent HTPC (ssd,no dvd,HDMI,optical,I-series intel proc)
3. Who knows, it seems when I do one project another pops up.

I'm still currently working on
Clientless SSL VPN config
Web page intigration of my remote control tools with my EX490 that serves as my outside web presence.
so my remote power manger, my ip KVM, being able to wake-up and RDP to any system in the house.
I have all of this working to some degree I'm just polishing it up and turning into an appliance.


You want to know something funny. I have been a big fan of HTPCs (obviously you can see this from this thread and by my many other writings). I currently have 3 HTPCs in my house, but of late I have been growing frustrated with them. In the long run I am not sure if having multiple HTPCs is the ideal solution.

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PostPosted: Thu Aug 19, 2010 6:30 pm 
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dbone1026 wrote:
You want to know something funny. I have been a big fan of HTPCs (obviously you can see this from this thread and by my many other writings). I currently have 3 HTPCs in my house, but of late I have been growing frustrated with them. In the long run I am not sure if having multiple HTPCs is the ideal solution.


Hah! I'm only contemplating building an HTPC and I'm frustrated with them. :? The hardware is the easy part. It's the software and configuration that's frustrating.


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PostPosted: Thu Aug 19, 2010 8:47 pm 
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The software is the part I have fairly stable now.
My hardware is a bit noisy, too big, and too hot..

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PostPosted: Fri Aug 20, 2010 2:54 am 
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cavediver wrote:
dbone1026 wrote:
You want to know something funny. I have been a big fan of HTPCs (obviously you can see this from this thread and by my many other writings). I currently have 3 HTPCs in my house, but of late I have been growing frustrated with them. In the long run I am not sure if having multiple HTPCs is the ideal solution.


Hah! I'm only contemplating building an HTPC and I'm frustrated with them. :? The hardware is the easy part. It's the software and configuration that's frustrating.


Yeah, the hardware has been the easy part for me as well. Even the software hasn't been too bad, moreso getting things to act consistently 100% of the time has been the challenge. There are times when the HTPC won't wake, where it will wake but to errors, randomly start at an odd resolution. Definitely keep windows update shut off as I think that has caused a handful or problems.

I figure on the software side, assuming you go with Windows 7, I always recommend first trying to make WMC work since that is native to W7. I use the Media Browser plugin with WMC. Since i want to bitstream HD Audio and also not mess around with codecs/filters I have MPC HC launch from MediaBrowser when playing a BR rip, and for the most part this works well. Another solution if you want bitstreaming is to go with XMBC but use the DSPlayer build (or you could have MPC HC launch from XBMC). Of course I should mention as well if you are doing any sort of live tv recording that may affect what software you use (I use WMC to record my tv shows right now, and mess around with SageTV as well)

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PostPosted: Mon Aug 23, 2010 3:19 pm 
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Yep, turn off all Auto update on everything.
One of the biggest issues I have had hardware wise.
Is if you power on the HTPC before you have your TV on the proper input the blasted Autodetection crud will turn off the audio, or futs up (singular for befuddle :) ) the resolution.

However I stumbled across a sort of fix, if you have an HDMI splitter it tricks the PC into thinking theres an HDMI connection at 1080P all the time.
Same goes for HDMI > Component converters if you get a good one it even passes HDCP muster.
But of course if you use AnyDVDHD to do you movie collection you really don't need to worry about that either.
Even Totalmedia theater happily plays along.

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PostPosted: Sun Nov 07, 2010 12:16 pm 
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Back again dbone. Been a little while.

Since then, I've moved and had a daughter. I built my HTPC in anticipation of this. I am now in my new home and up a running.....uh, mostly. And that's why I'm here :-)

I've rid myself of DirecTV. Too much money and rising. I watch everything exclusively online (Hulu, Sidereel, ESPN3, network sites) now and I watch instantly on Netflix as well. I built a cheap DB4 antenna and fastened to a truss in my attic. So I'm getting local stations OTA except for ABC. Seems like they need to boost their signal in my area.

I haven't figured out my TV tuner card in my HTPC yet. It is only picking up 2 channels with my antenna, versus the 9 channels my TV picks up on the very same antenna. So I haven't learned how to record with this device yet. I have the WinTV card.

But that's not why I popped in today. I just connected (finally!) my surround sound receiver to my HDTV and HTPC set up. But I cannot remember how I had it wired at my old house. I had it working great there. I haven't tinkered with it yet in my new house though. Just connected it all last night. It's arduous setting up the audio to sync with the TV picture and getting the distances to each speaker set, etc.

I feel like a total noob, which I'm not, I'm a little ahead of a total noob :lol: So please tell me - I have my HTPC connected to my HDTV with an HDMI cable. And I thought I had my HTPC connected to my SS receiver with an optical cable. But I can't remember what I connected my SS receiver to the HDTV with. So what would give me the best set up?

My SS receiver has an optical cable output and typical composite cables too. My HDTV has an HDMI and optical cable input. And my HTPC has an HDMI and optical cable output. What cables connected between what devices would provide me with the best set up?

Before I go, I would just like to echo cavediver's sentiment - the hardware set up of the HTPC wasn't 10% as complex as the software set up for me. Now I am constantly having to try to remember to update drivers and so on. Are there any free programs out there that will do this for you. I know about Driver Robot but it's not free. Maybe it's worthwhile. I'm open to suggestions.

Oh, and one more thing, yeah how do you get the audio to turn back on when you pause something your watching on the HTPC for awhile and the computer goes to sleep or screensaver. This only started happening to me after I moved. Not sure what setting I might have touched. But I end up having to log off and back on to get the audio to work again.

Rhinogooner :oops:


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PostPosted: Tue Nov 09, 2010 2:12 pm 
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rhinogooner wrote:
Back again dbone. Been a little while.

Since then, I've moved and had a daughter. I built my HTPC in anticipation of this. I am now in my new home and up a running.....uh, mostly. And that's why I'm here :-)

I've rid myself of DirecTV. Too much money and rising. I watch everything exclusively online (Hulu, Sidereel, ESPN3, network sites) now and I watch instantly on Netflix as well. I built a cheap DB4 antenna and fastened to a truss in my attic. So I'm getting local stations OTA except for ABC. Seems like they need to boost their signal in my area.

I haven't figured out my TV tuner card in my HTPC yet. It is only picking up 2 channels with my antenna, versus the 9 channels my TV picks up on the very same antenna. So I haven't learned how to record with this device yet. I have the WinTV card.

But that's not why I popped in today. I just connected (finally!) my surround sound receiver to my HDTV and HTPC set up. But I cannot remember how I had it wired at my old house. I had it working great there. I haven't tinkered with it yet in my new house though. Just connected it all last night. It's arduous setting up the audio to sync with the TV picture and getting the distances to each speaker set, etc.

I feel like a total noob, which I'm not, I'm a little ahead of a total noob :lol: So please tell me - I have my HTPC connected to my HDTV with an HDMI cable. And I thought I had my HTPC connected to my SS receiver with an optical cable. But I can't remember what I connected my SS receiver to the HDTV with. So what would give me the best set up?

My SS receiver has an optical cable output and typical composite cables too. My HDTV has an HDMI and optical cable input. And my HTPC has an HDMI and optical cable output. What cables connected between what devices would provide me with the best set up?

Before I go, I would just like to echo cavediver's sentiment - the hardware set up of the HTPC wasn't 10% as complex as the software set up for me. Now I am constantly having to try to remember to update drivers and so on. Are there any free programs out there that will do this for you. I know about Driver Robot but it's not free. Maybe it's worthwhile. I'm open to suggestions.

Oh, and one more thing, yeah how do you get the audio to turn back on when you pause something your watching on the HTPC for awhile and the computer goes to sleep or screensaver. This only started happening to me after I moved. Not sure what setting I might have touched. But I end up having to log off and back on to get the audio to work again.

Rhinogooner :oops:


Rhino,

Whats shakin. Congrats on the new daughter :banana:

Sorry for the delay in responding, I was under the weather all weekend so I am just getting caught up with everything.

So let's see, as far as audio connection, my setups are as follows:

HTPC (HDMI Out) to Receiver (HDMI In) / Receiver (HDMI Out) to TV (HDMI In)

So does your receiver not have an HDMI connection? If not then I would connect your HTPC to your TV via HDMI and then I would guess Optical from your TV to your Receiver

As far as driver's I generally avoid any programs to update. The reason being once I get to the point where everything is working as I want it I go with the approach "If it aint broke don't fix it". For any HTPC it is not necessary to be running the latest drivers, and constantly updating only increases the chance that something breaks. I will usually just check up every once in a while on the devices that may require driver updates to see if anything has been released, and if released if it has anything additional that I may need.

With your audio issue, not sure what the solution is to be honest. Maybe try messing around with your screensaver settings. I would say it may be a handshake issue but you aren't connecting your HTPC to your receiver.

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PostPosted: Sat Nov 13, 2010 6:08 am 
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Thanks Damian. My daughter is the apple of my eye. I just adore her.

I'm building a deck on my house right now, so I haven't had time to tinker. But I'm going to follow your advise to leave my software drivers alone if they're working :D

And I will try that audio connection you suggested. I guess I thought that an optical cable provided better quality sound than HDMI. Unfortunately, my 5.1 SS receiver is somewhat old. I don't think DVI or HDMI connections were even around yet when it was made :?

I did search online for the issue of losing my audio. It seems that there might be some registry settings that need adjusted. But I will have to explore that further before I am convinced that is the problem.

Off to do some hammering :wink:

EDIT - Additional question regarding something I'm curious about - does anyone here know anything about bit torrents and sopcasts? Care to enlighten me or give me a link that provides a good overview of them?


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