New to HTPC
Hello everyone,
I have spent the past 3 hours looking over this site, and while informative I also find it overwhelming. I am looking for either sage advice or just a quick and dirty for building a simple HTPC. I have been building my own PC’s for years, but building an HTPC is adding a wrinkle I just can’t get over. Let me start this way……
Components I have picked out:
Silverstone ML02MXR Case, Intel Core2 Duo E4600 2.4Ghz, Asus P5E-VM Moboard, 1TB Seagate HD, 2GB ram(manufacturer yet to be named, I believe G.Skill) Lite-On DH-4015-11 (blu-ray) and Fusion HDTV RTGold Tuner. I was also looking at Creative Labs Gigaworks speakers.
What I can’t wrap my head around is connecting my Wii and PS2 to everything. I will be getting a PS3 later this year, and replacing my Samsung 720p projection TV with a Visio (I can’t remember the model, but it has 3 HDMI inputs). I also have a Logitech Harmony One on the way.
A buddy of mine is convinced this is all I need. I feel I am missing something, and looking at the diagram it appears I am missing quite a bit, but I don’t know if I need an HDMI switcher, or do I really need a reciever? I would like to get into this for less then 2k. Is that possible?
Thanks in advance and I appreciate your time.
HTN Posts (RSS)
The diagram is on the extreme side. It wouldn’t be the ultimate connection diagram if it wasn’t extreme. Your buddy might me right, you might not need to buy anything. Your new TV will probably have a component inputs for the Wii and PS2. You could use one of the HDMI inputs for the PS3. The HTPC could take the other HDMI (via a DVI to HDMI cable) or you could use a component input if available.
So it could work without buying anything. I still would recommend a receiver since it will give you surround sound, provide more audio/video inputs, and make switching inputs easier.
Great. Thanks for the response. That makes me feel better
Now what about digital cable? I am assuming that my cable converter will just pass the signal through the Fusion via Coax? I’m not a big tv watcher, so I won’t be recording any TV, but I would still like to watch it now and then. More concerned with DVD playback and some gaming (if the wife let’s me get away with it..lol)
You probably won’t be able to pass digital cable through the Fusion card. Cable companies encrypt their signals because they assume we all are going to steal it and post it on the internet. So you won’t be able to view ESPN-HD or Discovery-HD through the Fusion card, but you could get an antenna and pick up free over-the-air HD signals from the broadcast networks. Analog cable video should pass through and be able to record it too.
I get good use from my HD capture card by recording shows I want to keep like college football games, but I’m limited to the OTA broadcast networks. I also get get good use of it by connecting the composite video output of my cable box to the composite video input of the capture card. Then I use a program called VideoLan to stream it to my computer in the office. But for plain watching TV and recording shows, I would use a DVR. The HTPC capture card is more like a backup.
What if I left my cable box hooked up, let it do the decoding, then ran it to my card/HTPC? Does that work? And could the same be said if I went to HD cable/satellite?
Doesn’t the HTPC function as a DVR?
Sorry about all the questions, and thanks again.
Yeah, the HTPC can function as a DVR. It’s just limited due to the encryption from the cable companies. You could connect the composite video output of the cable box to the composite video input of the capture card, but that won’t do HD recording. There is a Hauppauge HD PVR capture card with component inputs coming out and there is a Direct TV capture card coming out that can do HD (HDPC-20).
I will check those out, thanks!
The Lite-On DH-4015-11 is, I believe, actually model DH-401S. This is a full form factor 5″ drive, and will not fit your silverstone case (what a beautiful case it is though). The lowest price I found was about $145 online, so it’s a good way to get Blu ray into your home.
If you are insistent on having a BR drive, you should consider a slimline drive, one that will fit in a notebook, or else change your case to one that will accomodate a full-size optical drive. Since a slim BD drive is several hundred, it would be cheaper to change the case. If you’re set on that particular case, and you don’t have the funds, just get a DVD drive and wait a few months for the price of BR drives to fall.
Here are some slim Blu-ray optical drives.
Panasonic UJ-225-B
FastMac APP 6536 (http://store.fastmac.com/product_info.php?products_id=338)
Sony NEC BC-5500A-01
Also, you should really check the dimensions of whatever PCI card you plan to put into the silverstar. I saw a review of the case where the back of a full-format digital tuner card hit the back of the optical drive and would not fit. I guess the fine folks at silverstar weren’t accommodating larger PCI cards.
http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/data_hdpvr.html