HTPC Building - A HotHardware How-To Video Spotlight

That's a very nice guide to building an HTPC Dave. I have been thinking about doing this so I appreciate the walk through and considerations overlook.

That's some beautiful cabling there Dave.

gibbersome:

That's some beautiful cabling there Dave.

Hahah... it's actually pretty messy compared to what Marco can do!

I really like the flat case the shuttle-esque case was cool, but the other one was great. 

Nice. I have been debating on doing something for awhile now. Would be cool if you guys could of hit on the software end of things to kinda show some of the options available.

Nicely done! I may have missed it, but what OS did you use? Also, is there an IR provision available so the units can be remotely controlled? Cheers!

Thanks, Gator.

We used Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit and yes, there are a bunch of different Windows Media Center remotes on the market these days. Just plug in a USB wireless dongle from one of these kits and you can control Media Center and some basic Windows functions from the comfort of your couch. Sorry we didn't cover that! There is only so much you can squeeze into these videos and keep it reasonably concise. :)

Thanks again!

Very nice guide you put together, Davo.  Was that a snapshot of your home theater system at the beginning?

Well, this makes sense. If a component decides to fail you aren't stuck with buying a whole new system (like a brand new DVD player). You can just replace the drives. 

Nice post!

Not much space for wire management in those HTPC cases. I use an older Thermaltake Tenor with mine and it's not pretty on in the inside.

Hey Dave, why no All-in-Wonder card or tuner card?  That would be something I would want in any HTPC.

Nice guide there, I was going to do one of these but my entertainment center is kind of full with gaming consoles, so I opted for just a media server instead. I picked up one of those ACER boxes off newegg just cuz I was lazy, aside from not really being able to customize it they do what they advertise and make a great addition to your entertainment center. But at any rate I might try to do one of these if I get some spare cash just cuz that case is too sexy :) (Not the shuttle one the other one).

Dave I did have one question though, did you have to connect the aux audio cable (spdif, or whatever it uses??) to the video cards to enable sound through the HDMI?

dizowned:

Dave I did have one question though, did you have to connect the aux audio cable (spdif, or whatever it uses??) to the video cards to enable sound through the HDMI?

Hey Diz,  Thanks for checking out the guide.  And actually, no.  That's the beauty of HDMI.  The audio signals with full surround sound, are all piped over the HDMI connection.   In fact, we connected to a stereo amplifier for the demo and it processed the audio and passed on the video to the Plasma TV.   What's even better is that an HDMI driven desktop is perfectly crystal clear, with fonts sharp, over HDMI.  This is something you couldn't say and still can't in many situations with other PC-to-TV connections.

InfinityzeN:

Hey Dave, why no All-in-Wonder card or tuner card?  That would be something I would want in any HTPC.

So true InfinityzeN!  The fact of the matter is, we didn't have time in the video to cover it.  Youtube limits you to 10 minutes max and we always try to hit that so we can push the content to the large YT community out there.  You're right though.  That should have been something covered and I would have opted for a discrete tuner card in this build.

Hey thanks Dave for posting this how to guide, I was thinking one day down the road of building one, and now I know the procedure. I guess these are a self made DVR / DVD or Blueray / PC pop a TV tuner card in it and bam, you have a complete multimedia setup.

So we figure another $100 or so to cover that.  That was the only fault I found, the rest of the build is great.

Hah, I didn't even notice that a TV tuner card was missing

So what tuner card would compliment this setup the best?

I like Hauppauge cards personally.  Something like this:  http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/data_hvr2250.html

Note that it's PCI Express X1 to drop in one of the spare slots.

Dave, I read the question about the audio over the card as to an internal spdif cable that needs to be connected to the video card. I know some that it's required is it not to get the sound to travel over the HDMI? The 1 I remember with the card my buddy used required a tiny 3 pin cable that connected it.

nelsoncp21:

Dave, I read the question about the audio over the card as to an internal spdif cable that needs to be connected to the video card. I know some that it's required is it not to get the sound to travel over the HDMI? The 1 I remember with the card my buddy used required a tiny 3 pin cable that connected it.

Hey Nelson,

There are some cards that need a cable for the audio pass through, while others don't.  The new generation of ATI cards we used didn't need this.  Surround sound audio was present over HMDI exclusively.

Yep animatortom, it does wipe out the research and stress of thinking part . It is a build by HH which is just awsome! :) Why build one that matches :) just plug you own nasty rig in ;) lol

also animatortom whats with the yellow highlights??? your html shows

<span class="J-JK9eJ-PJVNOc" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% yellow;">Blu</span>

when normal text background from the menu shows

<span style="background-color: #ffff00;">Test</span>