HTPC Project Chapter 1 – The Great Slog

**Freddie** · May 16, 2007, 01:43 PM

This really isn’t much of or one my ‘Freddie’s guide to…...........’ such as the extremely useful ‘overclock your mouse’ thread but more of record of my experiences in building a HTPC which I have never done before, I hope people can learn from my experiences

I might as start by saying I’m excited over the fact that I’m buying my first home this week and with all the anticipation that comes with buying your first property I’m planning out how I want to decorate my new apartment. So I'm going to build a HTPC and run all my entertainment needs though it.

Well its gong to be a while until I actually buy the parts for my HTPC but there’s plenty of ground work to done in order to get what I really want. This involves decrypting all of my DVD’s and encoding them into XVID, which for any who has done this in the past knows how long this takes. This may seem to some of you a excerise in frustration (it takes an age to convert films), but I want to be able to be able to scroll through all my movies via Windows MCE and not worry about finding the disk.

(a list of DVD’s that I have successfully encoded)

To do the conversion I’m using DVD Decrypter and AUTO Guardian Knot to do the conversion. I’ve set the conversion at 79% quality which means I lost a 21% drop in quality but movies are only a 25% the size of a DVD (roughly speaking). After that they all copied over to my external 160 gig hard drive (n: Crossfire in the picture) which is rapidly filling up. At some point I will need to get a new external hard drive (yet more money i'll have to spend) to cope with all my DVD’s (500 to 750 gig should do the trick) as I still have another 30 movies to encode on top of the 17 I’ve already done. I would hate to say how long this is going to take, maybe another month.

If you still reading this self indulgent trip you might like to know that on an overclocked Core 2 Duo E6400 @ 3ghz you can encode a 90 min DVD in about 40 minutes.

Edit:

That took longer then I expected.

**Incinerate_IV** · May 16, 2007, 02:49 PM

Good luck, my family is looking into getting a HTPC ourselves, tell us how it goes. I think the hardest component to choose is probably the TV tuner, we want a good HD tuner that supports QAM so we can receive the local HD channels via cable. So far after months of research I haven't came up with a solid choice yet.

By the way, Toms Hardware just posted this article, I think it might be pretty helpful:
http://www.geardigest.com/2007/05/16...lder_marathon/

**Freddie** · May 16, 2007, 02:55 PM

Originally Posted by Incinerate_IV

Good luck, my family is looking into getting a HTPC ourselves, tell us how it goes. I think the hardest component to choose is probably the TV tuner, we want a good HD tuner that supports QAM so we can receive the local HD channels via cable. So far after months of research I haven't came up with a solid choice yet.

By the way, Toms Hardware just posted this article, I think it might be pretty helpful:
http://www.geardigest.com/2007/05/16...lder_marathon/

I agree, I've looked at parts for the HTPC and the TV tuner is by far the hardest part to select. I want one that ideally has two HD digital ready that can receive satellite channels so far I can't find what I need, I might end up with a SKY+ box.

I'm not going to worry yet however, I'm still a long way off building it. In the mean time encoding DVD's to XVID is my biggest headache. If I had a quad core CPU (and provided AUTOGK supports multithreading) I could bang out 3 movies an hour, but sadly quad core is just out of my reach. Tonight I hope to complete al 4 American Pie movies, and as I type I've just finished the first one.

**Erik** · May 16, 2007, 04:01 PM

Originally Posted by Incinerate_IV

I think the hardest component to choose is probably the TV tuner, we want a good HD tuner that supports QAM so we can receive the local HD channels via cable. So far after months of research I haven't came up with a solid choice yet.

When it comes to TV cards the most important part is the software, not so much the hardware.

I'm using a TV card for more than 10 years, I don't even have a stand alone TV.
But there hasn't been a single commercial package I liked, and I've gone trough several because I moved from windows 3.1 to '95 to XP, on three different PC's.

The best software to watch TV on your PC, by a huge margin, is an open source program called DScaler
Which works with any TV card that has a Conexant bt848 bt878 or bt879 chip, which included the vast majority of cheap PCI TV cards. (I have a Miro PCTV Pro)
What makes DScaler so great?
-nice clean interface.
-very good image quality due to software de-interlacing and noise reduction.
-lets you use your own codec software to capture video (I'm using DivX)
The only downside is the timeshift feature, which isn't fully developed yet.

**Cyrus the Virus** · May 16, 2007, 04:56 PM

I just use a simple S-Video cable..No program at all

**King Edward I** · May 17, 2007, 03:41 AM

what parts were ye planning on getting?

**Freddie** · May 17, 2007, 08:33 AM

Originally Posted by King Edward I

what parts were ye planning on getting?

To early to say, but if I was building it today, something along the lines of a Athlon 3800XP EE, 2 gb of Ram, 1x 320 gig HD's & 2 x 500 HD's in Raid 1, a 7600 GT. Not sure about the tv tuner.

**King Edward I** · May 17, 2007, 08:51 AM

1|> dont ya mean a 3800X2

id change the 7600 for an 8x00GS/GT personally or a hd2400

**Freddie** · May 17, 2007, 09:40 AM

Originally Posted by King Edward I

1|> dont ya mean a 3800X2

id change the 7600 for an 8x00GS/GT personally or a hd2400

That's right the x2, it's been while since I've looked at AMD's. As for the video it will more then likely be a DX10 card by the time I get around to ordering it.

**Freddie** · August 22, 2007, 02:37 PM

3 months on and 87 DVD's latter the great slog is over.

Well it took a lot longer then I expected. Time of for exams, work, moving house, new dog, its amazing what life throws at you in such a short space of time and frankly it took a lot of willpower to get back into the grove and start encoding again.

Over the past 3 three weeks I have finally finished encoding all of DVD's into XVID AVI's. I've managed to keep them at 80% quality and on average each one took 45 mins to complete. Knowing my luck I've screwed up the encoding process somehow and none of them will work when I get around to building a HTPC.

I can now use my PC for playing games now. Anyone know a decent TV tuner and software?

**OTZ** · August 23, 2007, 06:42 AM

I've got the ATI 650 pro. It's decent, and I've got no complaints. Came with a free RF remote, which is great in my books. Picture quality is not as good as a regular TV though (it could be my monitor...)

As for software, I use Vista's Media Center.

**Shaun** · August 23, 2007, 11:34 AM

What is an "HTPC", Freddie?

**spartan_phalanx** · August 23, 2007, 12:53 PM

Home Theater PC

**Freddie** · August 23, 2007, 01:01 PM

Originally Posted by Shaun

What is an "HTPC", Freddie?

'Home Theatre PC'. I'm hoping I'll be able to relax in my leather recliner, and with only a remote be able to select which movie I want to watch via a remote control. From what I've seen of XP Media Centre and the media centre functions on Vista Premium, I should be just able to scroll through all my movies and select which one I want to watch at the touch of a button. Kind of like a video rental on demand.

I plan also to get some decent speakers for it as well and it can double up as a Hi-fi and the TV tuner means I can use it for a TV recorder as well.

The alternative to this is create an excel spreadsheet listing each movie with a hyper link to each one. Each movie would be broken down into categories (for example, Sc-fi), main actors/actresses, length etc.

**Shaun** · August 23, 2007, 02:15 PM

Ah, I see.

Where did you get your movie's from?

And doubling it up as a Hi-Fi is definitely a good idea - I do it too!

**Freddie** · August 23, 2007, 02:44 PM

Originally Posted by Shaun

Ah, I see.

Where did you get your movie's from?

And doubling it up as a Hi-Fi is definitely a good idea - I do it too!

There my DVD's. I use DVD Decrypter to decode them, then I use a programme called AutoGK to convert them in XVID format. My Core 2 Duo is running at 3Ghz, AutoGK can convert the files on a 100 min film in about 45 mins.

**spartan_phalanx** · August 23, 2007, 02:58 PM

There is a nice HTPC guide I came across the other day if your just starting out and interested in a good read.

**Freddie** · August 23, 2007, 04:04 PM

Originally Posted by spartan_phalanx

There is a nice HTPC guide I came across the other day if your just starting out and interested in a good read.

Thanks for that, I'm always on the look out for good HTPC guides, this whole project is a learning curve for me.

**spartan_phalanx** · August 23, 2007, 04:34 PM

It is for me as well. I have the bulk of the hardware right now and and am now just filling my hd's with movies. Sadly I have two more months till my new house is built and I will be able to fully enjoy it.

Additionally that guide refers to some nice software as well.