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My Experiences building a Home Theatre PC ("HTPC")1.0 IntroductionSome of you may have noticed that I review DVDs on MichaelDVD using a "Custom HTPC." Given that I already own three DVD players (a Panasonic DVD-RP82, a Pioneer DV-626D and a Sony DVP-S336), why did I choose to use a HTPC and what advantages does it have over "set top box" or dedicated DVD players? 1.1 What is "HTPC"?A Home Theatre Personal Computer ("HTPC") is a PC specifically designed and built to be part of a home theatre installation. Some of the functions a HTPC can perform in a home theatre can include acting as:
A HTPC at the end of the day is also a general purpose computer, so if you want to you can do all your other PC activities like word processing, spreadsheets, financial tracking, web browsing etc. However, I would discourage you from trying to do so. A well designed and built HTPC is intended for specialised activities relating to home entertainment. It may be awkward to use for general purpose computing, and trying to provide general computing facilities may compromise the design. I will even go as far as to discourage the use of HTPCs for activities like file serving and home automation. You should be able to turn off the HTPC like any other component in your home theatre set-up, or at least put it on stand-by. 1.2 Why did I decide to build a HTPC?I heard through various sources that HTPCs can act as very good DVD players. The main DVD player I was using at the time (and still use) is the Panasonic DVD-RP82. Even though this player is a highly regarded DVD player, it only does NTSC progressive and not PAL progressive. My display device, a Sony VPL-VW11HT projector, will upconvert PAL interlaced but it is not perfect and I was getting tired of the artefacts that it produces (mainly a tendency towards shimmering and slightly fuzzy object edges). I also wanted to be able to watch and record digital TV, and in particular HDTV. At that time, there were no digital TV set top boxes that will record digital broadcasts, and even now there are no set top boxes that can record HDTV (although apparently the ones with PVR functionality will happily record HDTV streams but won't play them back as HDTV). I was entertaining the idea of a music server that contained all my favourite CDs that I can play on demand or serve to the other PCs in our house. Finally, I love tinkering and I just wanted to prove to myself that I can build an HTPC. 1.3 Design GoalsBefore I started building the HTPC, I had a number of mandatory, highly desirable and optional goals that I wanted to meet. I called these "design goals" because they influenced and constrained many of the decisions I had to make in terms of choice of components or software, and well as capabilities. In the end, I did not achieve all these goals, but I had a lot of fun trying. Your goals may be different, and lead you to very different design decisions and choices.
2.0 The HardwareHere is a brief description of the components that make up my HTPC, my reasons for selecting them, plus other options I considered. Click on either the Heading or the Image to get more details (including specifications of the component). 2.1 Case - Antec SonataInitially, I went for a small form factor case to meet Goal 2: the Fortunetec KA-907. This is a Micro-ATX case, since I was considering buying a Micro-ATX board. I liked it because the dimensions were small(ish): (HxWxD):90x325x425 mm and it comes with a 200W power supply. Best of all, it can accomodate up to two regular PCI cards and regular peripherals (instead of the expensive "slim" form factor drives). However, it has no noise suppression, and sounds really noisy. Also, air circulation in the constrained interior is bad, which means the motherboard and CPU runs really HOT (55-60°C)! Also, it has a grey/beige exterior (bleah!)
The case itself only generates 20.4 dBA which is pretty quiet. There are only two fans in the case, a single fan in the 380W power supply and a 120mm fan in the rear for air circulation/venting. More importantly, the case has specific features to reduce noise: such as silicon mounted power supplies and fans, and rubber grommets to absorb vibrations from hard drives. The motherboard tray is not removable, but the drive trays are. The front panel has a door that is used to hide the removable drives. You can also lock the door, but of course we normally leave the door unlocked. The door is also useful for masking the noise from the DVD-ROM drive whilst it is playing. Other cases that I looked at:
I ended up deciding I consider quietness to be more important than looks, which eliminated most of these cases from consideration, since they did not seem to have any overt noise-suppressing features. Here are some other cases that I didn't look at but worth considering (some of these weren't available when I looked, and I don't know which are available in Australia):
2.2 Motherboard - Asus A7N266-VM
I saw this motherboard on special at the North Rocks computer market. It's an ASUS (a really good quality motherboard maker), it's in the Micro-ATX form factor, has built in LAN, GeForce2 graphics and multi-channel sound and there was an adapter (A$15) that I can buy that will provide co-axial and optical digital audio outputs. It seemed to meet all my requirements. If I had to make a decision today, I would probably go for the Asus A7N8X-VM based on the nForce2 chipset (if I wanted to stay with the Micro-ATX form factor), or even the Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe full size ATX board. If price wasn't a consideration, I would consider the Chaintech Zenith ZNF-150 ATX motherboard featuring the nForce3 150 with integrated support for 96/24 7.1 audio using the VIA Envy24PT chipset and VT1616 AC'97 2.2 audio codec. This motherboard supports the new AMD Socket754 Athlon 64 CPUs. If Dolby Digital encoding is not an important feature, then I would recommend a motherboard based on an Intel chipset such as the i865PE, for example the Asus P4P800 Deluxe. If you are interested in an Intel chipset, it may be best to wait a few months, give the impending release of the Intel Grantsdale chipset. This has support for PCI Express as well as Intel's High Definition audio standard (192/32 and Dolby Pro Logic IIx support). 2.3 CPU - AMD Athlon XP 2400+
I chose the Model 8 (Thoroughbred) XP2400+ as it was a reasonable trade off between price and performance. The motherboard does not support the Barton core and FSB speeds faster than 266 MHz. If I had to do it again , I would probably consider a faster CPU, probably one in the 2.5-3.0GHz range. 2.4 CPU Cooler - Spire WhisperRock IV cooler
I chose the somewhat funkily named Spire WhisperRock IV, based on good reviews. I didn't want to spend hundreds of dollars on a CPU cooler, and this one attracted me as a reasonably cost effective, no nonsense, good performance, no frills, quiet heatsink. 2.5 Memory - PC2100 512 MBI went for a single stock standard memory stick. I can't even remember the manufacturer. Some people are particular about the brand of memory cards they buy. I'm not. 2.6 AGP Graphics Card - Asus V9520 Magic/T
For a long time, I didn't use any graphics card at all, and relied on the integrated nVIDIA graphics in the A7N266-VM motherboard. However, I couldn't make HDTV playback smoothly without stutter and pauses. Many people prefer the ATI Radeon series of graphics cards for HTPCs. Historically, the ATI Radeon series had better quality video output, plus better support for MPEG playback acceleration and custom video resolutions. However, nVIDIA has largely closed the gap with their current generation GeForce FX series chipsets. I chose the GeForce FX5200 chipset because it supported Direct 9 whereas the ATI Radeon equivalent (9200SE) only supported DirectX 8.1. Also, the nVIDIA display drivers allow setting of custom video resolutions (such as a 1366x768@56Hz required by my projector) without any additional software. Of course, it is possible to spend a lot more money on the higher end graphics chipsets from either nVIDIA or ATI, however, typically these chipsets are useful for playing games. For typical HTPC applications, they should offer little or no additional performance improvement over the base models. And remember, the higher-speced cards usually have noisy fans. 2.6 Hard drive - Seagate Barracuda ST3120026A-3 Barracuda 7200.7 120GB
Seagate Barracuda IV drives were well known for being whisper quiet (2.0 bels). The latest generation drives, the Barracuda 7200.7, are not as quiet (2.5 bels), but the increase in noise is pretty insignificant. They remain the hard disk brand of choice for silent PC builders, although recently Samsung have also been producing quiet drives. They also have reasonable performance, with a spindle speed of 7200 RPM and 8 Mb cache. 2.7 DVD-ROM drive - Lite On XJ-HD165H 16X Unfortunately, it is mandatory for drives sold after 1 January 2000 to be RPC2. However, depending on the drive model, you may be able to get "hacked firmware" that converts the drive from RPC2 to RPC1. Originally, I wanted a DVD burner, and actually bought a Sony DRU500A. However, this is an RPC2 drive. Unfortunately, I couldn't find an RPC1 DVD burner, so I settled for a reasonably cheap DVD-ROM drive that has a utility to convert from RPC2 to RPC1. 2.9 DVB tuner - Nebula DigiTV PCI The good news is that we get DVD quality standard definition TV broadcasts in MPEG2, additional channels, and even HDTV and Dolby Digital 5.1. And all this for free! The bad news is nobody else in the world uses the same broadcast standards as we do. Although we use the same DVB-T broadcast standard as Europe, we are the only country in the world to support HDTV broadcasts using DVB. So it's taken a while for DVB-T digital receiver cards to arrive in Australia, with software to support Australian TV channels. Fortunately, there are now several cards in the marketplace. Nebula is one of the better ones, with explicit support for HDTV (although I still can't get Dolby Digital via SP/DIF working using release 3.113 of the drivers). This is a reasonable card, although the drivers and software are proprietary. However, the software is reasonably easy to use, and I've even burnt a few DVDs from off-the-air recordings (the process is somewhat complicated, and requires the conversion from MPEG2 transport stream to program stream, followed by editing and authoring onto a blank DVD). 2.10 Wireless Keyboard and Mouse - Belkin
I initially bought an expensive Logitech model only to discover it had a very short range. This one allows me to comfortably use the keyboard and mouse from the sofa, with the HTPC tucked away discreetly in a corner. The keyboard works up to 6 feet away from the receiver. Unfortunately, the mouse is not an optical one, so I need to use it on top of a DVD case or book. Fortunately, I don't use the mouse often, as I have a wireless remote control. 2.11 Wireless Remote Control - Marmitek X10 MouseRemote
The manufacturer supplied drivers and software are pretty crappy, with only limited programmability of the remote control buttons. Fortunately, there is an open source program called maX10 that allows full programmability of most of the remote's keys. I managed to configure it to drive the DVD player and Digital TV software - so I don't need to use the keyboard and mouse for common activities. 2.11 Floppy Drive - Sony MPF920-Z(Black) 3.5" 1.44MB
2.12 Memory Card Reader - Apacer USB 2.0 Embedded Card Reader
2.13 How Much Did I Pay?These prices are historical, and reflect the fact that I built the HTPC incrementally over a period of more than a year (2002-2003). The prices also include shipping if I ordered the item online (the price in brackets is the item price).
The total cost came up to A$1,852.47, leaving just enough for software (hopefully!). 2.14 Putting It All TogetherIf you've never built a PC before, let alone a HTPC, it can be somewhat daunting. Fortunately, it's quite easy, and the instructions guides supplied with the components are quite helpful. The following guides are useful: 2.15 Other AlternativesWell, you don't have to build a HTPC, you can buy one. There are a few manufacturers who build HTPCs and will configure everything including hardware and software. Alternatively, you can try buying a silent PC and configure it yourself. I particularly like the ones from Hush Technologies, and their prices are reasonable. 3.0 The SoftwareSo far, all we've done is built a PC. It has some unusual and somewhat eclectic choices of components, to be sure, but this PC could conceivably be used for general purpose computing. The main difference between a HTPC and a general purpose PC is the software, of course. The good news about software is that if you look really really hard (and I don't mean surfing the warez sites!), most of the programs you need are free. And these are not cheap-skate functionality-deficient substitutions for commercial programs either - these are in fact the best and most appropriate programs for the various functions. So who says the best things in life aren't free? :-) As far as I'm concerned, here are the only essential software packages you must purchase (for watching DVDs and TV):
Everything else, you can acquire from the Internet. However, I would also consider the following to be worth considering (although I don't use them myself):
3.1 Operating System - Windows XP Professional or Home Edition
The MCE variant of Windows XP may seem at first sight to be an optimal base for constructing a HTPC, but it requires specialized hardware (remote controls, as well as for video capture/TV tuner). Plus, you can't get it in Australia unless you are an MSDN subscriber. I am, and used it briefly, but there is no electronic program guide for Australia (yet) and I didn't find the MCE applications all that interesting. myHTPC captures most of the look and feel, and it is more flexible. I used the Professional Edition (A$675), but I can't think of any reason why the Home edition (A$463) wouldn't be just as suitable. I applied Service Pack 1, as well as all the updates from Windows Update. The latest version of DirectX is also a must. If you are building a HTPC from scratch, buy your copy of Windows XP from your dealer - an OEM edition bundled with hardware for Windows XP Home Edition is just $149.60 at EYO, for example. 3.2 Firmware and DriversThese are the bane as well as the salvation of all PC users. It is important to keep track of the latest versions, but I've also had problems with particular software versions. Some of the utilities (such as RivaTuner) only supports specific driver versions, so it's worthwhile syncing the upgrades to specific version combinations. These days, I wait until someone has reported a positive experience with a particular firmware version or driver before installing it. The Internet is your friend, search often, and read forums. Here are some sites that I found useful for scanning and finding information about the specific components in my HTPC:
3.3 Software DVD Player - WinDVD 5 PlatinumThe major ones to consider are: There are many debates on the Internet as to which is the best in terms of playback quality, but the truth is all the major vendors play a leap-frog game so choose the one that has the features you want or work best with your other software.
The price for WinDVD 5 Platinum is a bit steep at US$69.95, but if you already have another DVD player (like the PowerDVD that came with the DVD-ROM drive) you can cross-grade for US$49.95. NVDVD is the other player that supports progressive deinterlacing, but the current version (2.15) exhibits the chroma upsampling error on my set-up. nVIDIA has announced a new version (renamed ForceWare Multimedia 3.0) that looks good. 3.4 UtilitiesI use the following utilities (all freeware):
4.0 What's NextHere are some of the things I'm currently thinking about:
Copyright © 2004 Christine Tham |
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This
is the cheapest current generation video card from Asus, based on the nVIDIA
GeForce FX5200 chipset. It is a 128MB DirectX 9 card with AGP 8X support (although
the motherboard only supports AGP 4X). It also has composite and S-Video TV
outputs, which I don't use.
It is important to get an RPC1 DVD-ROM drive. RPC1 drives expect the operating system or DVD playback software to manage DVD regions. RPC2 drives on the other hand stores the target region code on the drive itself, and will only play back DVDs that correspond to the region code stored on the drive. Usually, you are only allowed to change the stored region code on an RPC2 drive up to 5 times.
Digital TV broadcasts are still relatively new in Australia, having commenced in 1 January 2001.
This is
a cheap and cheerful wireless keyboard and mouse from Belkin (Part # F8E815-BNDL).
This is the usual all-in-one
flash memory reader supporting Compact Flash Type I & II (including Microdrives),
SmartMedia, MMC, Secure Digital, Memory Stick , and Memory Stick/PRO formats.
It has a USB 2.0 interface, although the motherboard only supports USB 1.0.
I've replaced the beige faceplace with a black faceplate.
Microsoft has quite a few variants of Windows XP: Home, Professional, Tablet,
and even a Media Center Edition (MCE). You can run older Windows versions,
but why?
The one I am currently using is Intervideo WinDVD 5 Platinum. It does progressive
deinterlacing properly (although the detection is not perfect), and supports
DVD-Audio navigation (although it downsamples high resolution audio tracks
to 48/16 unless you have a Creative Soundblaster Audigy 2). It also has an
interesting feature called PAL TrueSpeed that slows PAL DVDs down by 4% to
match the original 24 fps film source. Unfortunately, this feature only works
if you do in-built audio decoding and send analog out to the amplifier (which
I didn't want to do).