Guide for HTPC

Clipsey said:
Saw this rather sleek and sexy looking wireless keyboard and mouse today by HP - thought it was perfect for my HTPC setup! Wanted something like the new Apple ultra thin keyboard and this exactly the same but black :)
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EDIT - anyone think this is the longest page (no.8) in history lol?
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lol yeh.

Why not buy a proper remote?

Keyboard and mouse is gay for htpc. FACT :)
 
That is a nice keyboard and mouse :) But I am thinking of this one...

(But then again I can't even choose between a Gigabyte GA-E7AUM-DS2H board with a NVidia 9400 GPU and an Intel CPU or GA-MA78GM-S2H board with an ATI 3200 GPU and an AMD CPU).
 
The MCE remotes, might be a silly question, but do they work ok with Vista etc..? I am having some difficulty on finding one, apart from what I can find on that auction site.



The above, along with the receiver, is what I can find.
 
Vimes said:
The MCE remotes, might be a silly question, but do they work ok with Vista etc..? I am having some difficulty on finding one, apart from what I can find on that auction site.

The above, along with the receiver, is what I can find.
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Ms dont make the remote anymore, manufacturing was taken over by phillips so look for a phillips mce remote, therew white. I'm also eye'in up an mcubed vista mce remote. The jargon on the mcubed site said ts fully compatible with MCE and MP!!!
 
photoshop said:
Could someone tell me if they have successfully got moving pictures set up on a 1080p screen because on mine it looked out of place and text was over lapping. From what i can gather its not 16:9
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That surprises me as I have a 4:4 skin and I can see that I am only getting about 30% of the background 'fan art' so I presumed that it was set up for a 16:9 skin...
Still looks nice though, cant believe I have been running MP all these years with knowing about this :eek:
 
Oxy said:
lol yeh.

Why not buy a proper remote?

Keyboard and mouse is gay for htpc. FACT :)
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Going to get a 'proper' remote as well (probably a Harmony) but will need a keyboard and mouse for non-essential use so that's why I want a really smart and sleek looking one :)
 
Clipsey said:
Anyone know how to set moving pictures view as 'thumbs' default. Every time I start mine it is in list view :(
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You decide during the install process i believe. Although i can change between layouts by pressing the "i" button and selecting toggle view or whatever it is.


I would however like to know if the background/art style stuff can be changed to "Fan Art" in the plugin config without reinstalling? I thought i prefered the standard layout for the films but it means there is not such a good coherence between the Films & TV Series if they are different (even if i don't use the same layout).
 
Oxy said:
For problem free blu-ray playback you want a 780G board or an AMD based GeForce 8200 - both are around £55-60. Personally I think I will go GeForce 8200 route as it does 8 channel LPCM audio without issue.

As for processor you want an AMD triple core 8450 or 8650 with 2-4GB 1066 memory.
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You don't need anywhere near the power of a triple core AMD when using the 780G board.
I have the super low power dual core and blu-ray is smooth as butter. You could probably use a single core and get perfect playback (if they make them for socket AM2).
 
Kamakazie! said:
You don't need anywhere near the power of a triple core AMD when using the 780G board.
I have the super low power dual core and blu-ray is smooth as butter. You could probably use a single core and get perfect playback (if they make them for socket AM2).
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It has surprised me just how little CPU power that you need for 1080p playback.

If you have your HTPC set up correctly and you make sure your hardware is DXVA compliant, and drivers, as well as configure MPC HC to use DVXA and block all other H.264 filters from being used you can then enjoy mkv's that play back using your supported hardware (graphics card / chip). This gives me less than 10% CPU usage of my E2180 CPU when playing 1080p files.

I have to keep the E2180 overclocked as I find that, of all things, playing BBC HD through my TV card can be a little demanding.

I just then configure MP to use MPC HC as an external player, having configured MP to switch the refresh rate according to what it is playing, 24hz / 50hz or 60hz.
 
I've been fiddling again :)
Got sick of the black and white look of monochrome and came across "black & blue" which is essentially monochrome modded from black and white to black/blue.
This is what it looks like: http://forum.team-mediaportal.com/m...-monochrome-mod-now-available-download-37441/

But black & blue was not to my taste either. So, i went about modding it. Inspired by Mac Aqua theme i went about my way.
This is what i come up with:





 
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That looks pretty snazzy photoshop! Done a good job :)
If you're interested there is a way to get moving pictures style backgrounds working within monochrome skin.
 
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