HTPC noob....what do i need?

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Soldato
Joined
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South Wales
I want to be able to RIP my Blu-rays and DVDs to a HTPC (preferably a NAS) and watch them in HD on my TV with HD audio. I would output to my amp first though.

What setup would i need other than NAS, Blu-ray reader, and lots of storage? I would assume a HD sound card too? but can i just output the audio stream to my amp and let that do the decoding?

lots of questions I know, but It's time i got technical about my movie collection rather than just buy more DVD racks!
 
Well, the NAS is only for storage. If you want to rip a BR disc, they are about 40GB per film. So if you get a NAS drive, something more than 2TB will be sufficient for now.

Next question. How will the NAS be networked? Wireless or Wired? If Wireless make sure you use Wifi-N as G wont be enough to cut it with HD sound.

Once you get a HTPC built, you will need to spend money on BR ripping software, these cost about $30 I believe.

As for the HTPC, if you get a Ati 58XX series, these have the capacity to output HD Sound and will cope with your video processing. Don't skimp on CPU power as well. Some say you can get a low end and just Overclock it.

Finally does your AV Amp take HD-Sound?
 
My setup includes:

Ati 5450
AnyDvdHD for ripping
Arcsoft TMT 3 for blu Ray playback within windows 7 media centre
Front end is media browser
Storage is couple of thecus NAS boxes

Linked to an Onkyo 876 amp, audio is decoded in the amp
 
Thanks for the responses.

So a reasonably powerfull machine with lots of storage to start.

I'll connect it up using wired.....don't like wireless.

How do you output the HD audio? Do i need a SC with HDMI output on?

I'll be connecting it to my Onkyo 875 which i want to do the decoding.
 
it really depends what ur aim is, and what u want from a HTPC.

if u dont care how it looks or sounds, and just something to do what u want, then a normal pc would suffice.

if you want a proper HTPC, something that will feel at home with ur amp setup and look the part, then u'll need to spend abit more on a proper HTPC case.

i would suggest u have 2 pcs, the back end server that has all the storage and is used for ripping, etc.
This way u dont need lots of drives or a powerful system for the actual HTPC as all it will be doing is streaming content and displaying it to ur tv.

then u could find a nice looking case u like, and use something like an Atom/Ion. Does hardware decoding of video so u can play HD movies on it no problem, and they have HDMI to plug into your TV as well as various audio connections if you want a seperate connection to your amp, like SPDIF.
The advantage is that u can make a totally passive system and fit it into any case you wish.

using a NAS is another option, this would mean you put all your ripped movies on the NAS so the HTPC can access them, but it wont be able to do any rips, and if you have al ow powered HTPC, then it wont be able to either, so u'll need another pc to rip on, or a more powerful HTPC. Althou, u can just use ur main pc to do the rips as well, then just copy them to the NAS.

Your amp has HDMI so u can just use the HDMI capable, it will get the audio from that, or have a seperate audio connection if you prefer
 
Cool. I like the idea of the front and back end setup. Is there anything like the old media centre software now? Something like a cut down version of windows for htpc use?
 
depends what you want really.

i would suggest using linux instead, there are several really good media center software you can use, and u can cut linux down to run on lower powered machines easier than windows.

the main 2 being MythTV and XBMC.

i've not really used XBMC so cant really comment on that, althou afaik, its really good.

as for mythtv, its very easy to setup a backend and frontend. using a distro like mythbuntu, everything is pretty much done for you, so you dont even need to know anything about linux to get it up and running.

for complete silence and speed, i would suggest putting a small ssd in the front end, or if you want to save some money, u can get the small flash drives that are about 2/4gb which is plenty for mythbuntu.

http://www.mythbuntu.org/
 
MediaPortal is another option. XBMC doesn't support TV tuners, which is a killer omission IMO, but fine if you just want video playback. To me, the HTPC should replace all other media devices. If it's just going to be used for video, you might as well use a WDTV Live tbh.
 
Heres mine for a couple of ideas of what you could do:-

My HTPC/Media Server is

e8200
P5G41-M Motherboard
2600XT
4GB Corsair DDR2 800 Mhz Ram
Videomate DVB-S tuner - connected to a cable from my sky dish
Bluray/HDDVD Drive
All in a Lian-Li V351B Case.

Plays everything with ease - all media stored on USB drives.

Connects to Toshiba 37" 1080p via DVI-HDMI for Video and Sony Dav-DZ260 via Spdif for Audio.

Im about to build a second machine for my mum comprising of

Antec Micro Fusion Veris 350 Case
A Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H 780G Motherboard
Athlon II X2 245 CPU - still to be bought
2 GB Corsair DDR2 667Mhz Ram
DVD Drive - Will probably upgrade this to a bluray in the future - but this is a £160 budget build using HDD and ODD I already have so its not in the budget now.

Will be having Vista Ultimate on it for WMC - Mum knows it.

All media it plays will be streamed over the network from the first machine above.
 
how do you guys activate and shut down the centres? And how do you control them? do remotes work or do i need to look at a small wireless keyboard and mouse setup?
 
mine are all running mythtv, and i can use the remote to do anything i need to on them.

otherwise, i just connect remotely via VNC.

i can also send commands and control them from the backends web page if i need to.

any decent MCE remote would do the trick, althou im using a logitech harmony for mine
 
Out of interest, why do you need to rip blurays? Im a n00b too but dont understand why people need a rip a DVD/BD they already have? Genuine question :)
 
Cycrow said:
mine are all running mythtv, and i can use the remote to do anything i need to on them.

otherwise, i just connect remotely via VNC.

i can also send commands and control them from the backends web page if i need to.

any decent MCE remote would do the trick, althou im using a logitech harmony for mine
Click to expand...

Thanks, il try with my logitech too
 
panthro said:
Out of interest, why do you need to rip blurays? Im a n00b too but dont understand why people need a rip a DVD/BD they already have? Genuine question :)
Click to expand...
Being lazy really. If its there and already to go its easier for me. Plus. I want to use it for music and pics too. I can then box up my collections and put the out the way
 
panthro said:
Out of interest, why do you need to rip blurays? Im a n00b too but dont understand why people need a rip a DVD/BD they already have? Genuine question :)
Click to expand...

I've got 100s of DVDs and blurays and don't like them cluttering up the room. They get ripped and put in the loft. I have HTPC setups accessible in all the rooms that we watch TV and can select any of the films using my remote. I prefer the convenience of it all. Also I have small children and had a couple of DVDs damaged by small hands.
 
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