Comments on: I Built A New Home Theatre PC This Weekend

By: cypress property and casualty

cypress property and casualty — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 21:53:05 +0000

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By: Testing Pics : conectedinternet.com

Testing Pics : conectedinternet.com — Thu, 15 May 2008 20:32:30 +0000

[...] HTPC: Vista Premium, 4600+, 2×750GB SATA II, 7950 GPU, X-Fi Xtreme Music (replaced a modded Xbox) [...]

By: Building a Home Server Part I | Connected Internet

Building a Home Server Part I | Connected Internet — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 23:59:44 +0000

[...] HTPC: Vista Premium, 4600+, 2×750GB SATA II, 7950 GPU, X-Fi Xtreme Music (replaced a modded Xbox) [...]

By: ross

ross — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 23:42:24 +0000

interesting

i have xbox and xbmc and looking at a replacement, had a look round for various stand alones (kiss etc) and they are all useless.

so i figured as i dont have much HD contect i wont bother just yet as to be honest i think every solution is pretty useless right now

By: ross

ross — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 23:42:00 +0000

interesting

i have xbox and xbmc and looking at a replacement, had a look round for various stand alones (kiss etc) and they are all useless.

so i figured as i dont have much HD contect i wont bother just yet as to be honest i think every solution is pretty useless right now

By: Everton

Everton — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 18:03:51 +0000

I got the creative card working – sound quality is much better!

By: Everton

Everton — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 18:03:00 +0000

I got the creative card working – sound quality is much better!

By: Zath

Zath — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 17:47:48 +0000

Oh and I’ll tell you what my upgrade to Vista did to my HTPC – it killed my 9200pro passively cooled graphics card within days!

So have slotted in an old 9800pro card for now which gave it a nice boost in performance and so far so good!

By: Zath

Zath — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 17:47:00 +0000

Oh and I’ll tell you what my upgrade to Vista did to my HTPC – it killed my 9200pro passively cooled graphics card within days!

So have slotted in an old 9800pro card for now which gave it a nice boost in performance and so far so good!

By: Zath

Zath — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 17:38:34 +0000

Yeah I’m using the new Media Center in Vista – I used to mostly use VLC Player, but have now installed the K-Lite Mega Codec Pack, it’s now played everything I’ve thrown at it. Have you got a comprehensive codec pack like this installed?

I’ve not tried playing AAC files as I try to keep all my music in MP3 format, so if I move away from my iPod, I’m not creating problems down the line for myself.

By: Zath

Zath — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 17:38:00 +0000

I’ve not tried playing AAC files as I try to keep all my music in MP3 format, so if I move away from my iPod, I’m not creating problems down the line for myself.

By: Everton

Everton — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 17:20:54 +0000

I spent hours on the phone with Creative and no joy. I managed to get the cheaper X-Fi Audio card working though, but it doesn’t have as good digital support.

Creative agreed to exchange my XtremeMusic card, but the replacement didn’t work either! I’m literally this second doing a full rebuild of the machine which might help – for some reason my mCE library was all messed up.

Few q’s:

- what do you use to watch videos? MCE?
- Have you worked out how to play AAC files in MCE? I’ve managed to get it working on my main machine, but not on the HTPC for some strange reason (another reason for the rebuild)

By: Everton

Everton — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 17:20:00 +0000

I spent hours on the phone with Creative and no joy. I managed to get the cheaper X-Fi Audio card working though, but it doesn’t have as good digital support.

Few q’s:

By: Zath

Zath — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 17:11:42 +0000

Did you get your sound issues sorted in the end Everton?

How’s your HTPC working out now?

I’ve recently upgraded my existing HTPC set up to Vista, but am looking down the line to upgrade the system to a Core Duo chip and faster network (to help stream that hi def content!)

By: Zath

Zath — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 17:11:00 +0000

Did you get your sound issues sorted in the end Everton?

How’s your HTPC working out now?

I’ve recently upgraded my existing HTPC set up to Vista, but am looking down the line to upgrade the system to a Core Duo chip and faster network (to help stream that hi def content!)

By: Everton

Everton — Sun, 20 May 2007 11:25:38 +0000

I solved the IR problem by moving the reciever away from other wireless gear. I still haven’t solved my sound issue, so I haven’t had a chance to use the HTPC yet. I’m getting a I/O module from Creative in the post hopefully tomorrow, which will hopefully work with my amp

By: Everton

Everton — Sun, 20 May 2007 11:25:00 +0000

By: Zath

Zath — Sun, 20 May 2007 11:23:52 +0000

Doh, just found an email reminder with a link to reply to your comment, anyway, I’d definitely look at the infra-red keyboards if you’re still having wireless issues?

I’ve got a fairly old, but quiet ATI 9200 graphics card which seems to do the job for now, although I’ve noticed the 720p stuff is fine if you run through from the start, however if you move to different points, it takes ages to figure out where it is, if at all! However general windows looks great on my Samsung LCD TV.

By: Zath

Zath — Sun, 20 May 2007 11:23:00 +0000

Doh, just found an email reminder with a link to reply to your comment, anyway, I’d definitely look at the infra-red keyboards if you’re still having wireless issues?

By: Team Executor Confirm Leaked HACKED Xbox 360 Pics | Connected Internet

Team Executor Confirm Leaked HACKED Xbox 360 Pics | Connected Internet — Thu, 10 May 2007 23:01:11 +0000

[...] There are no details of what Team Executor did to actually hack the Xbox 360, what kind of chip was involved or, more importantly, whether mere mortals like myself will be able to modify their Xbox 360s without frying them.Â I’m beginning to worry now that I should have kept the faith for a bit longer and not splashed out and built a HTPC. [...]

By: How Many Feeds Do You Read? Here Are My Top 10 Feeds | Connected Internet

How Many Feeds Do You Read? Here Are My Top 10 Feeds | Connected Internet — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 01:54:39 +0000

[...] a chance to clear out my feeds in Google Reader, due to going out a lot, my router dying and also building a HTPC over the [...]

By: Everton

Everton — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 21:44:31 +0000

that’s one problem I forgot to mention – the keyboard. I bought a cheap Â£20 Logitech mouse and keyboard and I can’t work out if the range is awful, or if the Logitech Harmony remote, or my Wireless router is creating interference. It was so hard trying to change any settings as the stupid mouse and keyboard wouldn’t respond.

Do you have a dedicated graphics card to do the HD video? Does it handle 720p/1080i ok? What does Windows look like? My fonts were so blurry I could hardly read them.

I really hope the new card allows the HTPC to meet my expectations otherwise I’ve made a very expensive mistake.

By: Everton

Everton — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 21:44:00 +0000

Do you have a dedicated graphics card to do the HD video? Does it handle 720p/1080i ok? What does Windows look like? My fonts were so blurry I could hardly read them.

I really hope the new card allows the HTPC to meet my expectations otherwise I’ve made a very expensive mistake.

By: Zath

Zath — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 21:36:39 +0000

Sounds like you’ve had a bit of a struggle with it, but I’m sure it will be more than worth it, my HTPC is just an old P4 Shuttle I had no other use for, but it does a good job of playing video onto my HDTV for the time being.

I’ll probably leave it till next year to properly invest in a HTPC since I really want to upgrade my desktop machine in the next few months and move to Vista.

I did however buy one of those Microsoft MCE Infrared Keyboards – once you get used to the mouse pointer device, it’s quite useful having keyboard and mouse in one device.

By: Zath

Zath — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 21:36:00 +0000

I’ll probably leave it till next year to properly invest in a HTPC since I really want to upgrade my desktop machine in the next few months and move to Vista.

I did however buy one of those Microsoft MCE Infrared Keyboards – once you get used to the mouse pointer device, it’s quite useful having keyboard and mouse in one device.