Home Theatre PC Guide

Greg Ridder writes "For those of you who are interested in possibly putting together a Home Theatre or Media PC, I stumbled upon an excellent guide. It discusses basic hardware requirements, four software choices (BeyondTV, SageTV, MCE2005 and MythTV), controlling your cable or satellite set-top box and much more. Based on the research that I've done in the past, this is the most comprehensive guide that I've seen to date."

Comments

melrose place?

[Anonymous Coward]

You're late to go out for the evening and just as you're about to run out the door you remember that Melrose Place is going to be on that night and you just can't miss it.

Did anybody else read this waiting for the punchline???

Re:melrose place?

[trailerparkcassanova]

Give the guy a break. He is, after all, Canadian.

Full mirror

[winkydink]

Here.

Am I the only one?

[kebes]

On the subject of MythTV (or equivalent). I like putting together computers and tweaking linux as much as the next guy, but I was thinking the other day that I might be willing to buy a fully functional MythTV box.

I really want a MythTV, but I don't have the time right now to really play with it and search for the best hardware. I was thinking that I'd be willing to buy a computer, with linux and MythTV all installed and configured properly (to work with my local cable box even?). Having someone else take care of all the hardware and software installation details would be great.

In the end, I may just build it myself, but there are lots of people I know that don't have the time, patience, and/or knowledge to build one from scratch, but are smart enough to take advantage of such a system (and maintain it). Does anyone know of a company offering such a service? Does anyone think that this has merit as a business idea?

Re:Am I the only one?

[Bios_Hakr]

A friend and I priced it out once.

It is VERY difficult to make a PC for less than $500. We were, of course, using Shuttles or Shuttle clones (Aopen XC Cubes, actually). Anything bigger does not fit in an entertainment center.

Case/mobo = $200
CPU = $100
RAM = $50
CD/DVD = $50
120gb hard drive = $100

Add another $150 for a PVR card and you've broken most budgets. Consumers won't pay $800 for a VCR.

We did offer to turn old PCs into VCRs for some friends. Basicly, they were upgrading and we took the old shit and dropped in a PVR and Linux. These went OK, but still took a LOT of tweaking.

On top of all that, MythTV is a bear ro set up. We are on an unlisted cable network unwilling to provide listings in XML format. It was impossible to make MythTV just record evert Thursday at 9pm. That's basic functionality in my book. Sorely lacking.

I've been assured that Myth works flawless on listed networks.

In any event, you're looking at $800~$1000 per MythTV box. No way to make a good model around that.

Re:Am I the only one?

[karnal]

Holy heck.

I just priced one the other day. it was about 500$ for all components included.

50$ mobo
50$ case+PS (don't need a high capacity PS for this one)
50$ CPU (don't need a real fast one, see below)
50$ RAM (512MB, generic Mushkin or similar)
60$ DVD-Burner (can go cheaper here; figured may as well have the latest burner tho)
30$ Cheapo video card with reasonable SVID out
60$ Cheapo HDD (have storage space on the net.)
100$ PVR-150 (Comp-USA price, lower elsewhere)

This will get you a basic PVR for under 500$. The only thing I would do is beef up the HDD and you're up to 500 then (if you don't have a central server; I do already!).

I'm actually thinking about throwing a PVR-150 in the server to do the timed recordings there; then I can use a generic tuner that I already have in my MythTV box. Additionally, I already have a 30GB HDD and a Geforce4 to throw in the box, so that cuts my costs down even a little more.

You could even scrape older parts (P3 or Athlon ~1ghz) together if you're using a PVR-150, since it does all the encoding by itself. Decoding is fairly easy; encoding is kind of rough (even MPEG2 - My 2800+ sits at about 50-60% encoding one stream realtime of MPEG2 640x480 + Mpeg Layer3 audio)

Re:Am I the only one?

[Krypto420]

Actually I've seen pre-built mythtv boxes around for a while now...

Here are some examples...

The pre-built ones that I've seen are a little too expensive for my taste. You can get a Tivo and a lifetime subscription as well as have a bunch of money left over for the price of some of the pre-built mythtv boxes. I built my own mythtv for the following reasons:

a) I wanted a PVR

b) I wanted to learn more about the inner workings of the linux Os.

c) For the sheer pleasure of saying that I built it myself.

Granted, it took me months before I had a stable box with all of the features that I wanted, but I learned A LOT. If you are only looking for reason a, then save yourself a bunch of time/headaches and buy a Tivo.

Re:Am I the only one?

[swv3752]

Well an Asus Pundit would work very well. it includes TV out. A microATX system can be used as well. There are many microATX boxes that are about the size of a Stereo Receiver.

Here is one specced out with a Pundit for $463. A Different one with MicroATX and an Athlon64 for $508. The Pundit is actually $10 more expensive but the other system has higher end features. Add $10 for a Serial IR receiver/Transmitter if you need that. Some TV capture cards have remotes that work in Linux and some don't. Cheaper than your estimates- about the same as a Tivo+DVDrecorder. If you build yourself.

If someone really wants me to build them a MythTV box, email me and we can work something out.

Other HTPC resources

[navarredr]

Build Your Own PVR and DVBn are also good resources if you are looking to build an HTPC

ATI All in Wonder

[0kComputer]

This seems awfully complicated to hook your PC into your computer. I have an ATI All in wonder video card that took about 5 mins to install, cost maybe 100 dollars more and has most of the functionality that this guy's setup has.

Re:ATI All in Wonder

[jreberry]

No. All in Wonder cards are horrible for HTPC setups. First, it does not do hardware encoding. Second, its image quality is trash compared to a PVR-250 (or similar) card. Third, they aren't as compatible with PVR software. Check out the forums at any of the big PVR software sites and you will find thread after thread of people with AIW cards complaining about problems. Ask any web savvy person what search engine they use. 9 out of 10 will say Google, and there is a good reason why. Ask any HTPC savvy person what capture card they use. 9 out of 10 will say a PVR-250 (some 150 or 350), and there is a good reason why. Try using an AIW with a HTPC and I bet you'll upgrade to a 250 within the first 6 months. --Jon

most frustrating project ever

[Fox_1]

Thanks for reading today. I know it was quite a commitment to make it through these 21 pages, but I hope it was of some value to you.

It's either actually doing this myself on a budget - and it was painful - I never seem to buy stable powersupplies, or supported hardware, and blood is surprisingly conductive.

or making it through the reading of the article

Too bad they forgot commercial skip on the server

[jmcwork]

I went to the site and up came an 'read this ad/you will be redirected' page appeared. I have no real problem with this so I waited for the next page to load, and: the ad again. Well, the article finally appeared and I read the first page, clicked 'next page' and: same ad (Vonage, I think). That was enough for me. (This never happened with archie, gopher, and ftp!)

Re:Howto build Media PC

[crypto55]

That's ridiculous. You need an analog capture device compatible with NTSC video sources, generally via Coaxial. The mini lacks this component. In addition, it also lacks sufficient hard drive capacity, which is extremely necessary for video recording. I built my own PVR with SageTV, a hauppauge PVR-USB2 box and a 200 GB HDD, and it barely suffices.

HDTV solution

[Tiger4]

The article is well written and conversational for the layman. Great. But he doesn't really go into the one great unknown area oput there - HDTV.

What are the best HDTV capture cards, for Over the Air or for backside-of-the-cable/satelite-box? The article only touches on this, but it will be of greater concern for the home enthusiast/hacker in the next two years.

And by the way, what packages support this? MythTV, Freevo, etc.

Re:HDTV solution

[badasscat]

What are the best HDTV capture cards, for Over the Air or for backside-of-the-cable/satelite-box? The article only touches on this, but it will be of greater concern for the home enthusiast/hacker in the next two years.

"Best" depends on what you're using to watch TV. For MCE, the FusionHD or ATI HDTV Wonder work equally well (if you want QAM tuning of non-encrypted cable signals, you want a FusionHD). For "backside of the cable box" you may as well just do firewire capture - providing a box that supports this is an FCC requirement now; your cable provider has to give you one if you ask.

Keep in mind you have to also have an analog tuner for MCE, even if you don't use it. (Most people will want one, though, unless they want to be stuck with only 12 or 13 channels, some of which don't even broadcast all the time.)

If you're not using MCE, then the MyHD line of cards is probably best - they do hardware MPEG2 decoding (note I said decoding - unlike analog capture cards, all an HDTV card needs to do when capturing is stream the digital TV signal to the hard drive). They can be finnicky to set up, though, and you don't want to buy one if you have MCE because hardware decoding is not supported in MCE.

Don't forget the Linux HTPC Howto

[Anonymous Coward]

There is a guide much like this already, and that has been around for some time and is still updated regularly that is Linux oriented (The Linux HTPC Howto). The information regarding how DD/DTS work and what soundcard to pick and how to get HDTV working quickly was very useful to me.

ahref=http://www.linuxis.us/linux/media/howto/linu x-htpc/http://www.linuxis.us/linux/media/howto/lin ux-htpc/>

Re:Howto build Media PC

[Fortunato_NC]

I'm a Mac fanboy, and I'll say there is a step three.

3. Wait for a stable release.

While CenterStage looks promising, it's a new project that hasn't even reached its second alpha yet. Let's give the developers some time before we start giving people unrealistic expectations.

(I've got a lot of hope for this project - the fact that ATI has already contacted the developers to add support for their Remote Wonder products is awesome!)

Missing the Point

[jamacdon]

I think some people don't see the bigger picture behind a PC based home theater. It is not like just plugging a tuner card into your PC and using the software that comes with the card to watch it.

With PC Theatre software, the program manages your recordings, schedule of records and ties into other medias such as videos, mp3 and CD collections and even digital cameras.

Also, when you have a PC based home theatre you usually have the output running through a highend sound system and large screen TV or project, not your 17" monitor and $12 speakers.

Beleive me, once you start using a properly configured PC based TV system, your methods of watching TV completely change.

Re:Buy of the shelf

[Anita Coney]

There is nothing hard about building your own PC. Like a brilliant person once wrote, it only takes two tools to build a computer. The ability to RTFM and a phillips screwdriver.

I've got four home built PVRs in my house. I like the freedom of not being tied to a corporation. E.g., not being screwed by Tivo's recent pop-up ads.

I like the ability to have the PVR do what I want, and not what some corporation wants. E.g., Microsoft's Media Center's inability to record shows to DVD.

But most of all I like the price. A PVR built by Sony would cost a couple thousand more than what you could build one yourself for. The ones I have at my house are merely built from left-over parts from my own system. But even if you built one completely from scratch, you could probably do it for less than $800.

closed captioning for the google-impaired

[mapmaker]

flame

For those of you who are interested in possibly putting together a Home Theatre or Media PC but don't know how to use a search engine, I stumbled upon an excellent guide.

/flame

MythTV vs BeyondTV

[Yo Grark]

Here is my personal final thoughts on MythTV vs BeyondTV.

MythTV != Novice.
I could never get a season pass to work, never did record "quite right", never got the thing to run smooth, never got the parsing of the xml guides fully automated, Hardware problems with ATI AIW cards. Fix was available, but messy.

BeyondTV = Simply Works.
It worked out of the box, I could access it anywhere in the world via web and record at home, had "season pass", no messing with xml converters, scripts etc. It just works on my hardware (ATI9700 AIW)smooth and simple. I can stream out the shows all over my network and have never regretted purchasing it.

So? In the end I paid the $50.00 to get a TIVO like service on my PC via Snapstream's BeyondTV. It's not as flexible or customizable as MythTV, but for it's specific purpose it wins hands down.

Don't get me wrong, while the 4 weeks spent aggrivated with MythTV was worth it just for the fun, I'm just not enough of a Nerd to keep at it and I paid to have something that was reasonable priced, and worked.

Yo Grark

Re:Howto build Media PC

[MacGoldstein]

I'm working on CenterStage, and I think the parent is not as "Interesting" as the mods would have us believe. His media center itself would be "interesting", because we haven't implemented anything but the most basic of functions in CenterStage yet, and it's currently still in alpha 0.1. So unless you'd like to just be able to watch movies full-screen, which it can do, you might want to wait a while.

I just set one of these up...

[raam]

I also did a comparison, and since I am too goddam busy reviewing copy machines at the moment, I will just weigh in:

Best computer for the job: an intel with a cool-running CPU and fan. Dell 400SC's, if you can find them, are whisper quiet and perfect for the job.

Best card for the job: ATI or Nvidia, yada, yada. The TV card is what you care about. Hauppauge is the rage, and they just came out with a dual-tuner card (ostensibly only for MCE, but if you believe that I've got a Mac to sell you)

Best remote for the job: Snapstream's Firefly. Yeah, $50 is pricy, but, let's admit it: we're trying to make somethings as good as Tivo and this remote is the only one that does it. Remember that awesome Tivo IR blaster? Firefly is RF, baby, and you can edit XML to set up functions.

Best software for the job: BeyondTV. I tried Sage, Myth, even GB-PVR (don't get me started...it's good and free, but man is that shit finicky - release the SOURCE!!!). Anyway, BeyondTV is incredible, bullet-proof, supports two tuners out of the box, integrates with Firefly, and I got it for $50. Almost Tivo.

Best keyboard for the job: Definitely, definitely, the BTC 9019URF. It has a built-in joystick, handles, etc., and killer range.

There you have it!

Bah!

[Golias]

I recently built a new computer-based home theater system, and in researching my options I found that a hacked X-Box or a Mac mini both present superior solutions to anything officially in the "HTPC" market. (IMHO, YMMV, yeah yeah yeah.)

I chose to go with the Mac mini solution, and will be submitting a review of the pros and cons of going the route I went (warts and all) in the near future over at modmini.com

Re:Bah!

[jedinite]

The lack of digital audio on the mac mini is pretty easily solved. My suggested solution is the M-Audio Transit, but there are numerous other USB soundcards which work just fine on the mac.

The big problem for me is the lack of a gigabit ethernet adaptor in the mini. Not a problem if you're not intending to move large video files around your network, but my intention with my hometheater PC is to be able to serve MP3s and MPEG4 to any PC on my gigabit backbone.

The lack of gigabit on the mini is almost unexcusable. I've got a mini, ordered on launch day, and I love it to death... but i'd pay +$100 for gigabit on it at this point...

Re:Bah!

[MojoStan]

I chose to go with the Mac mini solution, and will be submitting a review of the pros and cons of going the route I went (warts and all) in the near future over at modmini.com

For those that haven't seen it, Anand Lal Shimpi tried the Mac Mini as an HTPC and wrote an article about it: The Mac mini as a Media Computer. (16 Feb 2005)

My summary of the article: The Mini is very nice for importing HD video via FireWire and HD video editing with iMovie HD. However, HD playback is unacceptable with current OS X software and DVD image quality (using Apple's DVD decoder) is not up to par. The Mini has potential as an SD DVR, but DVR software with "media-centric interface" is currently lacking for OS X.

free as in speech, cheap as in beer

[fred fleenblat]

Not to be a downer, but replay and tivo services are actually not that expensive. I have the grandfathered-in $9.95/mo service from replay and that is my lowest monthly expense. Honestly, I spend more on cola.

What I want is a $300 PC that will replace my mortgage, property taxes, and/or car insurance.

Re:Hard drive setup

[Jeff DeMaagd]

Since speed isn't an issue for recording 20Mbps video (ATSC max), you don't even need the speed afforded by a 4200 RPM drive to record it.

My HTPC has a surprisingly quiet 15k RPM drive for booting. I don't use it for PVR yet though, but I do have a separate, slower drive for storing audio and video.

I think an argument can be made for keeping the hard drive storage system in a closet somewhere and a super quiet system with only one drive in the living room, as a RAID system uses a lot of drives that do generate noise.

Re:Buy of the shelf

[Anita Coney]

When I first started building my own back in '95 I always used a grounding strap. It's been 9 years since I've used one, I've build about three systems are year, and I've not had one problem.

I equate the grounding strap to be more of a lucky charm than utilitarian.

Re:Buy of the shelf

[RichardX]

For what it's worth, I've at times deliberately attempted to destroy or damage components with my body's static electricity (y'know.. dancing around on nylon carpet while holding a stick of RAM in each hand, that kind of thing), and I've never yet managed it.

I live in hope though.