Turtle Beach - Riviera 5.1 Sound Card. This is a $30 card that has a digital S/PDIF output perfect for plugging into a home theater.
Ironically, the new Creative X-Fi won't work but the older Audigy2 ZS does because it has an SPDIF output in the rear. It lists for $100 and is probably a better choice for compatibility with games. I've used lots of cards and the problem is that Creative Labs really has the most volume so most folks support it the best.
Tom's Hardware Guide Peripherals & Consumer Electronics: Creative X-Fi: A New World of Sound - Introduction Now that I've got Zoom Player working, things are pretty good with my home theater PC. Just two problems remain. First is getting digital audio out. The onboard audio gives me five channels out, but they are five separate jacks and I really need a digital audio output. Also, I do get some noise from the el cheapo Realtek AC 97 onboard. So, there's the Creative Labs X-Fi that might work. Main issue is that the digital audio output requires a 5 1/4" bay and I don't have one on this HTPC case. Still, its a good card if you have one and want digital audio.
The other problem is the keyboard and mouse, the el cheapo Logitech mouse and keyboard use IR, so it is not a great connection from 15 feet away and also the IR commands don't work against my Pronto Pro which is really what I want, so the search goes on for both a good digital audio output solution and also for the right input that can ideally be programmed.
Home Theater PC News - Your Source for Everything HTPC Related. I've been struggling to get my home theater PC really working correctly. Both Windows Media Player and BSPlayer have trouble working correctly. When I go full screen, they always go to the PC Monitor rather than to the big HDTV display.
Also, ATI Catalyst is really buggy with my Radeon 9800 Pro and an HDTV display. I tried to use the HDTV as the only display and the driver hard crashed a couple of times. Other problem is that there is overscan on the HDTV monitor and it took a while to figure out how to use the ATI Catalyst tool to reduce it. There is a way (which I'll document soon) so it thinks a 1920×1080 display is really 1776×980 for me.
The big news is that the InMatrix's Zoom Player is the answer for doing this play on the big screen. Even the free one works well. The UI is buried, but you basically tell it which monitor to use for full screen and the user interface lets you use keys rather than mouse clicks to make it go slow and fast which is what you want in a dark room.
If you want to do DVD playback then you have to get Zoom Player Professional for $30 and have a set of DVD decoders. You can get that for $15 from Sonic. These are the decoders that are part of Cinepak.
Finally you need FFDShow to handle just about every other format including xVid which is widely used for movies on the Internet.
So get Zoomplayer and read the FAQ to find out how to install and then click on the Configuration Icon and select Advanced Mode. Look for the Values and Tools and you should see an entry that says, Monitor to select for full screen. You need to know the monitor number from the ATI Catalyst entry. Normally your main monitor is #1 and your HDTV screen would be #2, so you'd select 2.
HDTV FROM COMCAST - CABLE FAVORITES HD PROGRAMMING. There are a lot more HDTV stations on Comcast here in Seattle. I'm actually kind of surprised. Also for $10/month, you can get a PVR as well. This is an 80GB Motorola 6802 box, so not that fast and only a single tuner. That is, you can't watch and record something else at the same time. Still pretty neat.
Here is what's available.
KOMO 4 – Seattle Market’s local ABC station – Channel 104
KING 5 - Seattle Market's local NBC station - Channel 105
KONG 6/16 - Channel 106
KIRO 7 -Seattle Market's local CBS station - Channel 107
KCTS - Seattle's local PBS station - Channel 108
Q13 Fox - Seattle's Fox station - Channel 113
WB22 - Seattle's WB station - Channel 110
KCTS - Seattle's local PBS station - Channel 109
ESPN - Channel 173
NFL HD - Channel 181
Discovery HD Theater - Channel 663
INHD - Channel 664
INHD2 - Channel 665
as well as the following HDTV Premium Movie channels*:
Starz - Channel 532
HBO - Channel 549
Cinemax - Channel 563
Showtime - Channel 574
https://support.ati.com/ics/support/KBAnswer.asp?questionID=1271. I've been struggling to get my ATI 9800 Pro to connect to my Mitsubishi 73509 television. It is an older thing, but supports 1080i, 540p, 480p and of course 480i.
But, I can't seem to get it going. This is one of those $30 products with DIP switches. You connect one to the DVI output of the adapter and then you get three component output (YPrPb). Nothing seems to come out.
It didn't come with a manual and the manual is very hard to find on the ATI site (see above). The net of it is that you have to install the latest ATI Catalyst drivers. These support HDTV modes.
Then on the little thing, you set to ON, all the modes that your TV supports (how does a none techie know this!). In my case, that is setting to ON, switches 1, 2, 5 and 6 for respectively 480i, 480p, 1080i and 16:9 aspect.
Kind of hilariously, the manual says, never set 540p since that mode is never supported by the little gadget (why do they have it then, you might wonder).
Other strange thing is that when you start, you have to have a regular PC monitor in place since Windows doesn't boot into the right video mode. This has to be plugged into the VGA output side of the 9800.
Then, when the PC boots, you set the HDTV stuff from the PC monitor. Now here is the really magical part:
On a Mitsubishi WS-73903, its an old monitor, announced in 1998 (when it was the cat's meow by the way) and is gorgeous with 9" CRTs, but very quirky in its electronics. Specifically, it has two HDTV inputs, the first is the DVD input, this only takes 480i and 480p and then there is a HDTV input that takes 480i, 480p and 1080i. Also, this is a 16:9 display so it locks at full screen when it goes to progressive, so you I actually need the ATI driver to go to 480p anamorphic to work properly. Good luck figuring that out!
Right now, I have my Motorola DCT-5000 settop box hooked up to the HDTV input, so it can display 1080i on HDTV and it is gorgeous, the problem is that with only one 1080i input, I need to figure out use by trusty Denon DS-TX939 reciever. Sigh, this means a bunch of rewiring and reprogramming of remotes, so that I can finally get to:
Last thing to figure out is how to get 5.1 digital output from my HTPC to the AVR. Right now, it only has 2 channel output, and I'd love 5.1 for all those computer games!
Now that Grace has a Sumicom S600, I can finally get my DFI 855GME to be a home theater PC. The main missing step is connecting my old HDTV monitor that only accepts component input. Fortunately, the HTI and NVIDIA Video Card Buyer's Guide summarize very well what I need. That is essentially my 6800GT (!!!) won't work, but the later but less powerful 6600GT will or I can use my older ATI 9800 Pro with a $24 connector.
If you are going to use an ATI component adapter you need a Radeon 8500 or a Radeon 9500 or higher (this includes the 9550, which is really a 9600 GPU clocked lower), this also includes the x300 and x600 series for PCI Express. For the 8500 or 9600 All-in-Wonder cards you need the VGA to Component adapter, for all others ATI requires the DVI to Component adapter. For quick guide on using the ATI adapter see this guide.
The All-in-Wonder 9700 series, 9800 series and the newest generation of ATI cards (x700 and x800) have a multipurpose DIN connector that can carry s-video or component via a breakout cable, so the aftermarket adapter is not needed. Be aware that not all manufacturers choose to enable the component output, the DIN may be s-video only.
NVIDIA is now shipping cards with native component output. The most common cards are GeForce 6600 or 6600GT based cards. They have a multipurpose DIN connector that can carry s-video or component video via a dongle. Be aware that not all manufacturers choose to enable the component output, the DIN may be s-video only. XFX 6600GT and all ASUS cards are known to NOT have the component output. Some models by AOpen, Chaintech, Gigabyte, and Jaton may also not include the output adapter. So please double check!
SUMICOM S350 Wow, they just shipped this, this is a Intel 865GV system that is the size of a standard CD-ROM. A whole PC in 6×10x1.65" if you can imagine that.
Only takes Celeron CPUs and requires a slim disk drive and 2.5" hard disk, but pretty amazing. It is $290 from Cappuccino PC.
They actually run the Celeron at 66MHz and you can actually put a very hot Pentium in there as well which runs at 100MHz.
Personally, if money were no object, I'd get the fanless Sumicom S625F fanless and uses the very low power consumption Pentium M. CappucinoPC carries it but not as a barebones thing.
AOpen prepares Cube Mini Pentium M based SFF PC
On the heels of launching the EY855-II XC Cube, its first Intel Pentium M-based small-form-factor (SFF) PC, AOpen is now preparing for the March launch of its smallest XC Cube SFF PC to date, the MZ 855, according to sources at the company.
The Intel 855GME-based system, which the company has dubbed the Cube Mini, will only be 106mm tall and will support Socket 479 Pentium M processors, a 400MHz FSB and up to 2GB of DDR333 memory. Although running a notebook CPU, the MZ 855 will still support desktop hard drives, and features two front-panel USB ports.
Here's another fanless case that can use the Via Epia system. As I said before, if you can, wait for the upcoming new motherboard, the SP if you can. Should start arrving in early April.
Scythe's e-Otonashi fanless EPIA-M cooling case :: SilentPCReview.com. This is a a do it yourself kit that uses a heatpipe. Incredibly quiet particularly with a Fujitsu 2.5" drive. Apparently, these drives are really quiet. Just 21dBA at 1 meter away. Also reasonable price at $198 for the case. You can build a nice system for $600.
You can get it from Scythe or from the Mini-ITX Store or Directron
OK here's a technical solution to needing more horsepower to do MPEG4 decoding with VIA. First they have a super small form factor EPIA N coming in April. This will be a super small system, but with an updated memory interface.
They are also doing a mini-ITX version too using a board called the EPIA SP. This is tuned not just for MPEG2, but also MPEG4 and it supports faster memory running at DDR400 rather than DDR266 plus a 1.33GHz processor.
Both are something to wait for. Hexus has a review of the upcoming Tranquil T2 based on the new board as well as the the older MII based system running windows media center 2005 called the T2.e.
The Tranquil by the way like the Hush is fanless.
I'm just about to buy a mini ITX machine to do DVD playback and other small games and things for Grace. An interesting test to see how a small form factor machine does.
mini-itx.com - nehemiah m10000 review. The benchmark shows that with 256MB of PC2100 RAM and Windows XP, it does DVD playback just fine, but if you are doing Divx or Xvid with AC3 playback, then you'll prbably have to go to a 1GHz EPIA M10000, the fanless EPIA ME6000 is just not fast enough. That's too bad, but good data. The main thing is to get a later generation Nehemiah M10000 which has a full floating point unit. The tradeoff is that a fan generates about 25dBA of noise so a little above a whisper level of about 20dBA in an average room at 1 meter away.
Tech Report shows similar data and actually decent performance with Microsoft Office, comparable to a Pentium III 900MHz machine.
Envynews did a test showing that the 1GHz Nehemiah is bout 2-5x slower than an Athlon XP 1900+ in CPU intensive benchmarks like MP3 encoding (something you shouldn't do with it anyway).
Here is what I ended up getting is either the Logic Supply kit that is $543 or a roll your own component set.
After looking at a Mac Mini, these mini ITX systems, I wonder a little bit why folks don't just get a notebook instead. Essentially most of the technology limits get solved by low power notebook technology anyway and you get a free screen you can use on the road too.
Dell has the Inspiron 1150 Notebook in fact that I would say makes a great HTPC as well as something for the road. It is not as small, but it does have a 14" LCD screen. That in itself is not a bad TV:
| Apple | Dell |
| $500 | $700 |
| 1.2GHx G4 | 2.4GHz Celeron |
| 256MB | 256MB |
| 40GB | 40GB |
| DVD-ROM | DVD-ROM |
| None | 14" LCD |
| Ethernet | Ethernet |
| Modem | Modem |
| None | Keyboard |
| USB | USB |
| Firewire | None |
| None | PC Card |
| S-Video | None |
The main advantage of course is that the Apple is so small at 6"×6", but the Dell is portable and you can watch it elsewhere. Something to think about if performance isn't a big issue. Also, the outputs for the Dell are only mini-pin analog output and it doesn't have S-video, but not a big issue is you are output to HDTV.
VIA Epic Motherboards. A good explanation of the many VIA motherboards that folks use for PC-based versions. A little complicated but essentially,
They are so cheap to experiment with that everyone is hacking away at the Mac Mini:
These systems are the closest that you can get with a PC form factor to an iPod mini. Some resources include:
mini-itx.com - news. A great site showing both mini-ITX and the upcoming nano-ITX from VIA.
Hush Technologies. I bookmarked before, but these guys make nice looking mini-ITX.
Logic Supply. A do-it-yourself resource for making and buying small and silent computer.
a little ludwig goes a long way: mac mini as htpc. Ludwig loves his for HTPC use. I kind of agree it is the right form factor etc.
Only small point is that he does say, and for once the mac is the price leader -- compare with windows-based systems that people are "building:http://www.hanselman.com/blog/BuildingYourOwnWindowsMediaCenterEdition2005HomeTheaterPCSystem.aspx
That's true in the sense that it cost $150 (!!!) for Windows Media Edition, but I'm not sure I completely agree it is a price leader. You can get a comparable system including a monitor for $500 from Wal*Mart right now if you don't buy Microsoft software.
Let's compare machines at $1500 vs. $500. That being said, performance really isn't the issue, convenience is.
| Apple | Hanselman's | Comments |
| $499 | $1,500 | Enuf said |
| 1.25MHz G4 | 3.2GHz Prescott | Benchmarks hard but probably 5-10x slower |
| 256MB PC2700 | 1GB PC4200 DDR2 | Probably 4x the bandwidth |
| 9200 32MB | X600 256MB | 8x memory and <<30.4 vs. 82 |
| 40GB | 250GB 7200RPM | 6x storage and 2.5x faster |
| DVD-ROM | 16x DL RW | Not only R/W but 16x dual layer |
| None | 2xTuners, Remotes | Both HDTV and regular card |
And of course there are all the USB, Firewire and 1GB Ethernet that comes standard on the high end machine. This is not to say the Mac Mini isn't great, it is just that a $1,500 machine is a screamer.
A comparable machine BTW is probably more like the Epics that people are building for a little less. For instance the Hush Mini ITX is a 1GB VIA system that is probably performance comparable. I've been thinking about getting one. It is about $1,000 list price, so more expensive but is build to order which is nice. It is a niche European manufacturer, so you can of course build your own:
| Apple | Hush | Comparison |
| $499 | $1100 | Apple wins by 2x |
| 1.2GHz G4 | 1GHz VIA | About the same speed |
| DVD-ROM | DVD-ROM | Comparable |
| 9200 32MB | VGA | Both are slow. can tuners |
| 40GB | 80GB 7200 rpm | probably faster |
| 256MB | 256MB | Both PC2700 |
So Apple definitely has the leg up when it comes to a niche player just based on volume.
Finally, I was curious to see just how cheap a PC can be regardless of cuteness factor. I'm actually quite amazed, here's the cheapest Wal*Mart PC that you can buy and it ain't bad spec-wise. They have a really cheap $200 machine, but the comparable is:
| Apple | Wal*Mart | Comparison |
| 1.2GHz G4 | 2GHz Sempron | 3GHz equivalent so 5x faster |
| 256MB PC2700 | 128MB PC2700 | half the price |
| 40GB | 40GB 5400 | same probably |
| DVD-ROM | CD-ROM | Add another $30 to get DVD-ROM |
| 256MB | 256MB PC2700 | Same |
| DVD-ROM | DVD-ROM | Same |
| Ethernet/Modem | Ethernet/Modem | Same |
| None | Card reader | 9-in-1 is included |
| None | Mouse, Keyboard, Speakers | A complete system |
| None | 17" CRT | that too! |
So Wal*Mart is essentially selling a complete system that is essentially about 4-5x faster in terms of CPU plus it is a complete system. I thought this was an outlier until I realized the Dell Dimension 3000 is essentially the same machine at $439 for CD or $459 for DVD-ROM with a Pentium 4 2.8GHz processor so its a name brand system as well. It also includes a CRT with it and is a complete system.
So net, net they are beating Wal*Mart by about $50. Wow, amazing a complete and very nice system for $450 or so. That is PC economics all right. A probably a new recommendation for me at the low end.
Q. Can I record my satellite provider's HDTV feeds?
A. No you cannot. The satellite vendors employ encryption and use a different signal encoding scheme than OTA or even cable.
Q. Can I record my cable provider's HDTV feeds?
A. Yes and No.
Yes, you can usually record the local feeds that your cable provider carries (ie: Fox, CBS, ABC, UPN,etc.) after all, these are free to the air anyway. To record these channels you will need an HDTV capture card that is compatible with the encoding scheme cable companies use (QAM256). Currently the only cards to work are the Dvico FusionHDTV III QAM, the newer FusionHDTV III Gold-T, and the Sasem USB HDTV
Digital Connection has them for $150
Home Theater PC News - Your Source for Everything HTPC Related
Then you will want to look at building an HTPC around Windows XP Media Center Edition (MCE) 2005. MCE 2005 is a copy of Windows XP SP2 and a PVR/media center rolled into one. MCE requires a fairly new system with MCE certified drivers for video and TV. MCE only works with certain compatible DVD decoders. It also only works with certain hardware encoding capture cards. This is to ensure a more controlled and hopefully trouble free HTPC experience.
Are you looking for lots of customization and tons of options to expand what your HTPC can do? Then look towards a front-end program like Meedio Essentials. It has an international community of end users and an active group of users developing plugins. Meedio Essentials is also the only front-end that I know of that has a native music player that supports ASIO output for bit perfect playback.
Mostly concerned with a TiVo-like experience but with the benefits of being on a PC? Try out SnapStream’s BeyondTV 3.5 or Frey Technology’s SageTV 2.1. These two fierce competitors are quickly growing beyond PVR centric applications into full media centers.
Don’t want Bill Gates near your PC at all? Linux has a couple of options worth looking into. By far the most popular is MythTV. With some basic Linux skills and a little bit of time spent reading up on Linux hardware support you can have a very capable HTPC fairly easily, and best of all it’s free! SageTV is also coming to Linux, this way if you are familiar with SageTV for Windows it is possible try Linux without straying too far from your comfort zone.
Well, CES is over and the honorees are in, so a good time to reflect on the future of the home. Its interesting to see what has and hasn't happened. Right now, the home entertainment business reminds me a lot of minicomputers in the 1980s (Ok, I'm dating myself!). That is, lots of standalone boxes that can do everything. Microsoft is the IBM giant with their System 36 and AS/400, big and most share and highly intergrated. Digital Equipment Corporation feels much like Apple, they are stinging like a bee and moving around, but essentially with designs to be the next IBM in terms of being totall integrated.
So what could be the left hand turn here? Well, I'll go out on a limb and say that this feels much like the music business in the mid 1990s. Back then, all the talk was about protectable content, etc., and I remember thinking as I ripped my first CDs that this just isn't sustainable. It is just way to easy to copy things and it is so convenient. Now it did take a decade for things to mature to the iPod today, but I wonder if the same thing isn't going to happen with video.
Right now, the hearty are using Tivo (reminds me so much of the Apple II to strike another analogy), but the excitment for me is in Bit Torrent and in Isohunt. They are horribly hard to use, etc., but it is way more convenient.
So here's one way to think radically about the home and video. Suppose there are the following pieces:
* The PC. Also known as its OK to use a keyboard. The home is really different from mobile. A keyboard is one room away. So why can't I select an entire stream of video and then just watch it anywhere. It's the playlist analogy. Now everyone at this point will say what about digital rights etc. I agree these are big issues, but fundamentally because
* The TV. To me, this is more about what you can do with a 9-key remote (ideally, 9 keys plus 5 buttons, but more on that in another post about user interfaces). The idea is that you should make it easy to take the "playlist" you have from the PC and then watch it. Personally, I'm less of a believer in this EPG like world, where you have to adapt to what is on and more of a believer in the, you should watch what you want to watch when you want to watch it. If you don't like it, then you should be able to iPod-like skip fast. Most folks are very good at browsing lots of stuff and skipping quickly, that's why skip is promoted to a top level button in most interfaces from Blackberry to iPod. I'm also a believer in the idea of shuffle. That's not a bad way to think about, it if you just to lie on the couch and watch, then pick the things you like and shuffle away. Now live content is a little different in that you don't pick but same idea applies, make it easy to channel surf. The best demo I saw was the Dish network, see 9 live feeds at once. I think people are super good at scrolling quickly through content. Witness the simplicity of the iPod Photo. I have 3,000 photos on mine and I'm amazind how easy it is to just scroll through huge lists if the machine is really keystroke fast.
* The Internet. I love netflix. To me, that's a way better model than this Tivo, find a program and then record it all. The content is in nice chunks, you treat people like adults who know how to use Keyboards. Another analogy is that 90% of our movie watching is what United Airlines shows. Turns out that these shows are just perfect for our house (not too violent, lots of romantic comedies etc.). That's the iMix of our house and you can see the analogy in the wonderful future world. With RSS and Blogs, I should literally be able to subscribe to what Ludwig is watching.
* The Home Network. The world seems to be filled with loosely coupled standalone devices. Seems to me that the right world is one where you insert a new device into the network and like enterprise computing's push to the grid, you get the same thing at home. When I put a Mac Mini or a PC in, then I get its hard disk as part of the virtual hard disk. I shouldn't have to manage all the video and music everywhere. Similarly, any device I plug in shouldn't require some expensive set top box, but it should just have Ethernet and you plug it in. Same for displays, you should be able to plug a display in anywhere and every input and disk is available.
What are the implications of this:
So who is working on things in this area. Some interesting companies are ideas came out of CES. I just picked CES winners:
There are lots of places posting about this including:
GamePC - Dothan Delight : DFI's 855GME-MGF Pentium-M Motherboard and Tom's Hardware. To really build a quiet and cool home theater PC is a challenge. Using the Dothan chipset from Intel is one way to do it. This board from DFI would fit into even a small case or the Silverstone shown previously. The most interestin thing is that a standard 2GHz Pentium M can overclock to 2.8GHz and then blow away just about anything including a Pentium 4 3.6GHz and an Athlon FX-55. So that's the chip to get if you can afford it.
The motherboard is hard to get. From Canada for aboud CAD$350 so about $300 American. The chip itself is $430 , so this is an expensive if small option.
You can get it a little cheaper though with the 1.7GHz Pentium M 735 at about $280 and it will overclock less since it has more like a 17x multiplier compared with 20x for the 2GHz version.
AnandTech: December 2004 HTPC Case Roundup. Big thing holding me back from building a home theater PC (htpc) has been a case. Now the Silverstone CS-SST-LC10B-M seems perfect at $248 from Newegg.
It is just $140 if you don't have the IR remote for the Media Edition software. So this is good for a full sized computer that needs to look like stereo equipment. You'll also want to change the fans out as it is a very noisy 56dB.
The nMediaPC HTPC-100 at $140 at Newegg. is another option if you can find a good microATX board (see the next post for a Dothan microATX). You have to change the fan out as it is only 60mm or use the Dothan Pentium M so it creates less heat.
Time once again to think about watching HD. Right now we have Comcast HD and their digital cable package plus Netflix.
I have to VOOM : See It
Home Theater PC News - Your Source for Everything HTPC Related. OK I'm biting the bullet and building a true home theater PC. Should be ultraquiet, have an HDTV decoder, product 1040i for my big screen TV and also have a PVR. The search begins now...
David Koh was asking me about Home Theater equipment and what he should buy. Great questions. Things as usual are in transition particularly on the video side, but here's a good equipment set to things about:
In terms of actual equipment to buy, I would allocate about 50% of the budget for the actual video display, about 30% for the speakers and then 20% for the electronics. The video first, but the sound is amazingly important. For a great price-value, here are some recommendations:
More later, but that's the quick review for now.
a little ludwig goes a long way: Super DVRs. Wow, Ludwig finds an article about DVRs that will let you preview three streams and record a bunch of others in the background.
The Furrygoat Experience: HDTV Goodness. Hat tip to John Ludwig
Here's the latest listing of HDTV channels in Seattle. I watched the NBA All-star pre-game on ESPN. Wow, was that clear. Also, InHD is not bad as demo stuff. Main issue is that KOMO-4 in particular seems to have an audio sync problem. Funny lags.
See Titan TV for program times.
Outlaw 7100. Good review of the 7100. Inexpensive and they liked it.