Would anybody be interested in putting together a working group to build a HTPC for the masses? Some group goals (just brainstorming here) would be

The development of a HTPC / WHS solution that
1) Plays media as the artists intended
2) Removes the headaches of tweeking that many users hate
3) is cheap
4) upgradable/expandable
5) a DIY turnkey solution

I am thinking of a group that would identify goals like above and piece together a system and software image that could be listed for everyone. As new upgrades became available the group would integrate and push out a new image or at least specific instructions.

Many people thrive/enjoy/live to tinker with their systems...I know, I am one of them. However, I am willing to bet there is a large group of people that would like to build a robust solution, but would accept hard right/left limits if it was a proven solution. Identical hardware, identical software, ready for fun...

Has anyone attempted something similar?

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DIY WHS
AMD Athlon II X2 240
2Gb RAM
13 TB, mixed drives
400+ DVDs and 80 BD ripped using MakeMKV

~My beautiful wife is always asking me if I love my computers more than her...I don't understand it!

I have talked about doing something similar with a few people I talk to, focusing on setting up a turnkey solution (WHS + HTPC), but between work and family I just could not find the time. The difference though was the person I was talking to actually wanted to implement the solution as well (i.e going to a customers house, building/installing the system, etc...), which would have been rather involved.

Maybe you can be a little more specific on your goals, are you just talking about identifying/documenting solutions (almost like a newsletter), actually building systems for customers, acting as customer support, etc...?

_________________
Cheers,
Damian

DIY WHS - 12.5TB and growing, too many gadgets to list

Did you read the MediaSmartServer blog today?
Blog - http://www.adigitalhomeblog.com
"Like a midget at a urinal, stay on your toes!" - Lieutenant Frank Drebin

Hmmmmm, interesting.
Unless you use open source software making an image maybe an issue.
I like the concept though.

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Current DIY server DL380 G6 2xquad core 2.8ghz 32GB rdimm ram 512mb 2xHP 410 raid with 2x sas expanders (2 X norco RPC-4220) 48 slots stacked with room to grow.
30TB (Movie/File/Music)Win 2012 essentials 64bit Storage spaces
Ex490 E6400 4gb ram

Open source would be a good option. I am still toying with the idea. Maybe using a slim design, low power CPU and running it with XBMC... but I was just thinking of providing a parts list and a stable image for people to 1) purchase and 2) install and plug into their TV with minimal fuss.

Something that will play everything, plug into a receiver or standard TV to suit the masses without receivers and get people rolling down the road. Give the professional tinkerers amongst us a side project to keep building on the image, and since everyone would be using the same image with the same hardware, everyone "should" be having the same issues... LOL (right........)

just my thoughts... still on the backburner, but still an active thought.

_________________
DIY WHS
AMD Athlon II X2 240
2Gb RAM
13 TB, mixed drives
400+ DVDs and 80 BD ripped using MakeMKV

~My beautiful wife is always asking me if I love my computers more than her...I don't understand it!

I would like to build an HTPC and am stuck on what parts to use. I would love suggestions on the perfect HTPC build.

The perfect home theater PC does not and will never exist. Sorry! as soon as you build it, the technology will march past and you will be playing catch-up from then on. THIS POST is why I wrote the article about upcoming technologies in the general discussion page of this forum (New Standards etc).

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/featur ... theater_pc
Maximum PC did an outstanding job covering the subject with a $1,800 build out to TRY to get the latest and greatest out there. One of the cards is still not available (the cable TV tuner card). The GPU card is also way underspeced for my tastes. Notice that the article assumes you WILL buy the ENTIRE setup, from new TV/projector to a $2K receiver.

My perfect HTPC is my old desktop with a honking big hard drive running Win7 Ultimate tucked away in the stack with the fans cranked down low and cordless Logitech mouse and keyboard. I threw in an ATI video card for the 5.1 sound over the HDMI cable and plugged the HDMI into my Yamaha receiver which feeds the HDMI/ 5.1 sound at 1080P to my TV and speakers.

That's another thing. Just having an HTPC does NOT include the 1. TV specs 2. Sound system 3. the networking connection and type 4. the Media streaming method 5. the remote keyboard/mouse and how you run it in your living room 6. the "best" way to interface the HTPC on screen and on and on and on.

This topic really should not be here. It is just WAY too overambitious and naive, esp for a site for home servers. There are entire websites devoted just to this one subject. I suggest you google (yes, google is an official verb now!) HTPC and good luck!

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John E Pombrio
Do not meddle in the affair of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger.

What specifically are you looking for (i.e. do you want something small, HD Audio, gaming, encoding, etc...)? You can see an article I wrote here on a mini-ITX HTPC I built earlier this year:

http://www.mediasmartserver.net/2010/03 ... tx-htpc-2/

_________________
Cheers,
Damian

DIY WHS - 12.5TB and growing, too many gadgets to list

Did you read the MediaSmartServer blog today?
Blog - http://www.adigitalhomeblog.com
"Like a midget at a urinal, stay on your toes!" - Lieutenant Frank Drebin

John, the first question which I think you look completely past is to understand how someone wants to use an HTPC. Some people simply want video playback, some people also want livetv/dvr functionality, some people want to use an HTPC additionally for ripping/encoding, etc... This will greatly impact the specs of an HTPC and what may make it perfect.

Here is an example, I have built 3 HTPCs. I simply want video playback (especially HD/1080p), full passthrough of HD audio, and a great/WAF UI. You can easily accomplish this for under $600 with a power efficient, small and quiet machine. I get this with full BluRay playback, full HD Audio playback, many great UIs to choose from so you never need to touch windows explorer or a file browser, all operated via my Harmony remotes (who says you need a keyboard/mouse )

You contend that the perfect HTPC will never exist because technology moves so fast. Well, that would apply to every technology not just HTPCs, so should we just not talk about any sort of current technology?

You are more then welcomed to your opinion and I think everyone welcomes this type of conversation, so I am not sure why you want to shut off the conversation instead of participating further. I would more then welcome further conversation here

FYI - the ceton carblecard (assuming that is what you are talking about when you state that the cable card is not available) is already available and I know several people who have installed and now have 4 TV Tunes coming into their HTPC. Also, there is a flaw in MaximumPC article you quote, they mention using the NVidia 240 because it supports 3D. I can guarantee you that many HT enthusiasts who care about HTPCs and BluRays care more about the HD Audio (which the 240 will not support in pass through)

_________________
Cheers,
Damian

DIY WHS - 12.5TB and growing, too many gadgets to list

Did you read the MediaSmartServer blog today?
Blog - http://www.adigitalhomeblog.com
"Like a midget at a urinal, stay on your toes!" - Lieutenant Frank Drebin

The Auzentech audio card supports video pass through. The Audio card has an HDMI input and output. The video goes in and the sound card puts in the bit streaming audio that goes out to your receiver/tv. (Clear as mud? check the link for details)

http://www.auzentech.com/site/products/ ... ter_hd.php

I have been debating about building the Maximum PC htpc. I like the idea of having all the components passively cooled.

Yeah, I find this a complete waste of $$$ though. The new NVidia cards coming out will support bitstreaming HD Audio and 3D, and I am sure the ATI cards will support 3D as well (they already support bitstreaming), so I don't see how recommending an expensive and very soon to be useless Sound Card achieves what they are trying to accomplish.

Also, they went with a Green Drive as the O/S drive which seems rather odd for such a high performance HTPC. They should have chosen either a 7200RPM drive or SSD drive for the O/S, and then fallen back on a Green drive for storage assuming that is what they are using the HTPC for

_________________
Cheers,
Damian

DIY WHS - 12.5TB and growing, too many gadgets to list

Did you read the MediaSmartServer blog today?
Blog - http://www.adigitalhomeblog.com
"Like a midget at a urinal, stay on your toes!" - Lieutenant Frank Drebin

I tend to agree on the money part. You end up spending more money on the sound card than you do the CPU or GPU. I think what they were going for was passively cooled everything. I'll wager to say that most of the new NVidia and ATI products won't be passively cooled. I don't know that I can force myself to spend $250+ on an audio card though either.

I thought the O/S drive was out of left field too. I was going to swap out for an SSD. I'm not sure how you can get any quieter than that. All of my video and music are on my EX495 anyway. I don't need a lot of storage on the htpc.

I know when I built one of my HTPCs I used a 2.5" 5400RPM drive as the O/S drive it my system was noticeably sluggish. I ended up replacing it with a 2.5" 7200RPM drive ( I got over an SSD because of price and NewEgg had a great deal) and performance was better, and no noticeable noise added.

I wouldn't be surprised if you see some passively cooled cards come out soon. The new 6xxx ATI cards are coming out I think in October (although I am not sure if these will have 3D), and there are passively cooled 5xxx cards.

I can definitely appreciate what they are trying to accomplish with that article, just surprised at some of the choices. I will probably wait for HDHomeruns cable card tuner to come out that way I don't have to worry about adding into any PC

_________________
Cheers,
Damian

DIY WHS - 12.5TB and growing, too many gadgets to list

Did you read the MediaSmartServer blog today?
Blog - http://www.adigitalhomeblog.com
"Like a midget at a urinal, stay on your toes!" - Lieutenant Frank Drebin

dbone1026,
I was looking at the htpc you built. I see that you say the mother board supports HD bitstreaming audio, however I don't see that in the details of the motherboard. How do you tell which mother boards have the full blue ray audio onboard?

Here is how you can bitstream HD Audio currently:

- Intel core i3/i5
- ATI 5xxx GPU
- NVidia 460
- Xonar Sound card

The core i3/i5 supports hd audio bitstreaming as long on you use the onboard graphics (i.e. let's say you have a system that uses the core i3 but has a ATI 4670 GPU odds are the audio will come from the 4670 which does not support bitstreaming). The NVidia 460 is brand new so there may be some kinks left to work out.

Really, I find the best bet is to try using the core i3/i5 (the only downside right now is that it does not support 23.976fps). If you are unhappy with this then you can simply add on a separate GPU such as a ATI 5xxx or the new NVidia. Hopefully we are getting to the point where HD Audio bitstreaming will be a common feature

_________________
Cheers,
Damian

DIY WHS - 12.5TB and growing, too many gadgets to list

Did you read the MediaSmartServer blog today?
Blog - http://www.adigitalhomeblog.com
"Like a midget at a urinal, stay on your toes!" - Lieutenant Frank Drebin