Going HD: Part 2 (HTPC)
In the first part of this Going HD series I discussed the arrival of a 50-inch Samsung plasma HDTV as the core of my new HD setup. I’ve spent almost two weeks with the HDTV and I have no complaints thus far; it’s a stellar display. The only problem has been getting 1080p HD content on the display to really use it. I have DirecTV satellite service from my building, along with the HD package and HBO, but surprisingly only a few channels are in HD. One of those reasons has to do with my building only having a 3 LNB satellite at the moment, although an upgrade to 5 LNB is coming, so it can’t access content on two of the newer satellites that offer most of the HD programming.
Even with HDTV channels, the quality could be better. If you want true HD you’ll have to get it from a direct no-compromise source like a Blu-ray player or a large movie file from your computer. What I had to do became apparent: beef up my media server so that it could tackle HD content without a problem.
HTPC Setup
My media server has been the “DIY $200 PC” I wrote about in earlier this year (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3). It had very low specs: 1GHz CPU and shoddy SiS962 graphics. Needless to say, it was far from capable of playing HD videos. However, with a 750GB storage drive and a 10k RPM 74GB OS drive, it was great at downloading and serving files on the network. After a bit of research, I ended up ordering these parts from Newegg to revamp the media server:
- Foxconn M7PMX-S Motherboard with Nvidia GeForce 7100 integrated graphics, nForce 630i chipset and HDMI out ($60 not incl rebate)
- Intel Core 2 Duo 2.53GHz processor, Wolfdale 45nm ($132)
- 2GB (2 x 1GB) Crucial Ballstix DDR2-800 ($55 not incl rebate)
- Antec EarthWatts 380W PSU ($35)
- LG Blu-ray/HD-DVD reader & DVD writer ($160)
- Coolermaster Elite 340 case (purchased from Fry’s for $35)
- Western Digital 74GB Raptor hard drive (already had it)
- 2 x Seagate 750GB hard drive (already had one, $109 for the other)
45nm Praise
For a computer that’s going to play high definition content most of the time and decompress large downloads the rest of the time, choosing a sufficiently beefy processor is important. While pretty much any Core 2 Duo over 2GHz can handle this task without issue, I made it a point to select a 45nm processor. The cheapest 45nm Wolfdale CPU was the 2.53GHz Core 2 Duo for $132.
So what are the benefits of a 45nm processor over the more common 65nm processors? They use less power in general and as a result create less heat; both are ideal for a computer that will be on 24/7. What I didn’t know was how much cooler these chips run in real life though. After giving the HTPC a few tasks to fully-utilize the CPU, the heatsink was still cool to the touch, the fan wasn’t expelling hot air or anything. The stock Intel HSF is fairly slim too so there’s no heatsink magic happening here.
If you plan on upgrading to a 45nm CPU, make sure your motherboard supports it. Just because it has an LGA 775 socket doesn’t mean it will work right out of the box. Most likely a small firmware update will be necessary if your motherboard is a bit old. I chose the Foxconn M7PMX-S motherboard because it was cheap, supported 45nm CPUs and had on-board Nvidia graphics with an HDMI output.
Blu-ray!
What’s a high definition HTPC without a Blu-ray player? I picked up one of the cheapest Blu-ray drives I could find: the LG GGC-H20L. It’s a SATA drive that can play Blu-ray discs as well as HD-DVDs in addition to being able to burn DVDs.
Blu-ray is tricky.
After I setup a test rig on my desk I immediately installed Ubuntu 8.04. I’m very comfortable working with Ubuntu and it has worked well on my media server. Installation went by smoothly and only took 15 minutes. I installed the Nvidia nForce/GeForce driver and that worked perfectly. I was able to run full resolution and even enable Compiz features. Sound worked as well too.
After the initial configuration was complete I began playing a 1080p video file to ensure the system had enough horsepower to avoid dropping frames. Indeed it was more than powerful enough. However, I did note that VLC player used a bit more CPU resources than M Player did, at least with the MKV file I was playing.
Then I spent at least 6 hours trying to play a Blu-ray movie in Ubuntu. I was not successful this time. I won’t go into details, particularly since playing Blu-ray movies in Linux consists of bypassing DRM and is considered illegal in the United States, but it consists of compiling the kernel to support UDF 2.5, grabbing the AACS key from a Blu-ray disc and getting an application to rip and decrypt the data. It is “possible” to play the Blu-ray without ripping but requires an advanced setup and enough system resources to be able to decrypt on-the-fly. Then there is the issue of when the disc was produced and if that encryption key hasn’t already been found and put into a database, it is necessary to use a tool to find the Volume ID manually and other such cumbersome tasks. I may revisit this later on but at the moment it’s just not worth messing with Blu-ray in Linux.
I was quite vexed that I couldn’t get Blu-ray working in Ubuntu, but I figured it would work without a problem in Vista.
FAIL. The Blu-ray player software included with the drive requires that everything supports HDCP. The only thing that doesn’t support HDCP in my setup is the built-in GeForce 7100 graphics. That means I’ll have to get a higher-end video card later on to get that working.. or give DRM-bypassing another go.
To be continued..
I still have to work out networking issues. I had a nice Samba share configured in Ubuntu and could easily SSH in to do whatever I needed, making it easy to work without a display. With Vista, I’ll probably have to keep it tethered to a display and snake an HDMI cable around the wall to the HDTV for playing media.
Thoughts? What kind of stuff is in your HTPC, what software do you use and how do you use it?
What! A problem with UBUNTU, that is just unheard of;)
I’m way ghetto on my HTPC, it’s a Athlon XP 2000+, ECS SiS 741GX Mobo, 512MB DDR333 (it’ll be 1GB after I get the upgrade I found on eBay), ATI Radeon 9200SE, NEC DVD±RW and a pair of Seagate 500GB HDs, basically its my mom’s old desktop from before she bought a new laptop. But its hooked up to a Philips 1080P LCD display which looks great. I never play anything higher than 480P DivX/XviD/DVD on this machine, 720P with h264 isn’t even possible.
My HTPC is half a MacBook. Right now it’s a 2.16 C2D, 1gb ram, 120gb internal drive for storage and an external 40GB firewire drive which does all the I/O work for torrents.
This is then connected to a 42″ plasma and a nice Hi-Fi.
I don’t use it much for HD since the plasma is pretty old with just a 1024×768 resolution.
It’s mainly for a quick episode of BSG or Lost, since I prefer watching them without ads.
Don’t have the most current view of it, but it pretty much looks the same.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/markusf/2599650488/
If you don’t want to invest in another graphics card, you might want to give AnyDVD HD a try: http://www.slysoft.com/en/anydvdhd.html
+1 for AnyHDDVD
Grab Haali Media Splitter for MKV support within Vista Media Center.
If, like me, you cannot get on with Vista Media center take a look at Mediaportal.
There are a couple of downsides with the PC based Bluray player approach:
a) constantly pissing about with new versions of the HD software.
b) the requirement to output audio via HDMI 1.3a if you want to playback Dolby TrueHD or DTS HD Master Audio. You havent mentioned your audio setup so unsure if you use a dedicated amp and 5.1/7.1 setup or the TV speakers.
My “HTPC” for the past year has been a 60GB PS3 connected via HDMI to the 50″ plasma and optical audio to the receiver. Holds about 20 of my ripped DVDs and game saves. Music and some HD trailers are streamed from my iMac through MediaLink.
Even though I barely have enough time for games, I still went out and purchased Metal Gear Solid 4. I’m still half way through, but damn does that game look nice! On top of playing MGS4 and Unreal 3, I’m able to watch my ever expanding array of Blu-ray titles (close to 30 now) and donate my idle PS3 for the Folding@home initiative.
“After a bit of research”
Yet you got to the hardware test and you gcard wasn’t compatible!?!?! Thats one of the major things you should have checked!
I will be interested to see this working though, in about 14 months when I get a new place I am thinking of building a media/gaming centre and i want blu-ray in there.
Your best choice for a proper HD Graphics Card, is the new AMD HD 4850. It’s single slot so it won’t cost you in space, and it has all the horsepower you ‘ll ever need and then some…
Your best choice for a proper HD graphics card, is the new AMD HD 4850. It’s single slot, so it won’t cost you in space, and it has all the horsepower you’ll ever need and then some…
I wrote a post on my website showing how I’ve built my HTPC. There is no BlueRay, but till now it’s amazing. It’s running windows xp, and the things you can do you manage your files is using FTP (I have transfering files on windows network), where you have more control on what you’re doing. You can also install a VNC server, to have visual access to your computer from anywhere. About that SSH thing, there is Cygwin, I don’t like so much, it’s not the same, but you can try it! For video player, GOM Player for windows is te best I’ve ever used.
Now I just neet more storage. I think i’ll get a 2TB WD external drive soon ^^
Keep on writing, i’m exited about this post! :)
@David - I didn’t plan on going the HDCP route as I originally intended for the Ubuntu route, so I didn’t care for HDCP support at the time. I’m currently tinkering with AnyDVD as recommended by Stelian, hopefully that works.
I’m curious Paul: Instead of going the whole route of building a PC from scratch to serve as your HTPC, why didn’t you just buy a Mac Mini, upgrade the CPU and use MacTheRipper to rip your Blu-Ray titles and display on the plasma using a DVI-to-HDMI cable? Seems like it would have been cheaper, easier to deal with and allow you to do everything that you were already doing on the previous setup (setup of Samba share, SSH, etc.)……..
@Frank - Mac Mini wouldn’t have been cheaper and this setup has considerably more power and storage. That and a blu-ray drive for Mac Minis would be very expensive at $1000:
http://store.fastmac.com/product_info.php?products_id=338
However, you’ve now made me consider an external drive enclosure and use the Blu-ray drive on my Mac. Then again my Air doesn’t have the power to play the movie although it might be able to rip it after a few hours.. BTW, Mactheripper does blu-ray?
I’m on the same boat as MarkMS - my PS3 has been great as a pseudo-htpc. It has blu-ray, can network with my computer, can run linux. The only problem i’d say is that it can’t play mkv’s smoothly, plus the internet browser is very limited.
Nice setup but whats up with that case? i know you’re going for budget, but a normal atx case is kind of unsightly next to your beautiful samsung, isn’t it? There are a lot of htpc cases that would fit better under about $100. Small price for keeping your setup slicker i’d say. Or SFF cases i think would look good too.
Also what are you talking about when you say that with Vista you need another display? I don’t see why you would need it at all. With a video card that supports HD (like one of the newer ATi’s with Avivo/UVD), can’t you boot right onto the tv?
After reading some of your twitter updates on the endeavor, I’m definitely going to wait on BluRay for a couple of generations down the road (firstly, so I can afford it) until it’s at least working partially in Linux.
Your media server, do you have SlimServer running on it? It’s excellent for streaming a music collection. The latest versions (at least those available on Ubuntu Hardy) can handle a 300GB+ music collection MUCH better than early versions. For other media, one of my friends highly recommends http://orb.com/
@Michael - thanks for stopping by. As for the Vista issue, I meant that I would need another video card that supports HDCP to play DRM’d blu-ray titles.
@Paul, with an HDCP compliant Gcard is there any need for you to worry about AnyDVD?
Just about finished my htpc-from the ground up and if you plan right, the case is not too ugly-my entire media empire is built into a bookcase-but a real htpc case would blend right in…
Here are the top tips I’ve learned from bitter experience:
AnyDVDHD is a must-I’d actually forgotten what drm means!
Vista will cause you problems you don’t need-There are great XP Pro OS that come with 64-bit drivers that seem to use 1/3 the resources which I find helps with 1080p file playback
The best GPU you can afford-directx10 for vista but ok for any OS and consider cooling options even if you’re not a gamer
A simple tv card finishes it off-Leadtek are cheap and good and the pvr utility is easy-if you have the slot, buy 2 for pip,watch and record etc.
htpc gives you all media in 1 device-I love reading email with a coffee in the a.m. then 1 click to the weather channel-the wireless kb tucks away and the table has a mouse and 1 remote!
Thanks for this post! I saw a lot of worrying results when searching for Foxconn and Ubuntu/Linux compatibility, and I happen to be looking at exactly the same mainboard as you.
i was planning on using the same motherboard for my htpc! glad I stopped here and took a gander. looks like I need more HP then I originally thought. I too will go with the 45nm cpu. as far as hdcp you could also rip your bluerays with dvd hd fab no? Im assuming that last statement.
you guys recommend any sexy cases to house this puppy?
I was going to go with the Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio Sound Card - PCI Express x1 - 24 bit with toslink optical in/out.
http://www.lagoom.com/Creative_Labs_Sound_Blaster_X-Fi/30SB082000000/partinfo-id-575404.html
I don’t get HDCP, it appears it only punishes users who legally purchase movies! The movie industry don’t encourage us to move from torrents to paid content when all the paid content basically screw us. Similar issue with older HD tv we had, didn’t support HDCP so Apple TV or Bluray would not play HD.
Anyway, DRM problems could fill many blogs.
Paul, I’m curious as to why you didn’t buy an AMD 780G or GeForce 8200-based system, or even an off-the-shelf Acer x1200 or x3200 ?
I just built a new budget HTPC as well (old one died). I too bough the Foxconn M7PMX-S, primarily for the reasons you mentioned (cheap, hdmi). I’ve got an e2200 installed in it along with 2 Gigs of Ram. The case, drives, PSU, were all things I had lying around. I was excited about the hdmi, since my last video connection was through S-Video. From what I read, it was destined to be better. Problem is, it isn’t. Damn. I tried for hours trying to find the right resolution, DPI combination, but the screen is just fuzzy. It’s connected to a 62in rear projection HDTV. The S-Video on my old HTPC (which was just a laptop) was much better. Bummer. Did you have any luck with it?
@Mike - wow that’s quite unfortunately. I’ve been pleased with a fairly crisp image coming from the HDMI. The only difference between us that I think would matter is the HDTV but you say you get it working better via SVideo.. odd. Not sure what to say. :-/
Paul,
What resolution do you have your computer set to? I’ve tried multiple ones, and many of them had serious overscan problems (apparently a common problem with nvidia). I used the nvidia Desktop Manager to “resize the HDTV Desktop” (which changes the resolution), and ultimately the one that is working the best is 1128 x 648. I’ve also increased the windows font sizes and set the changed the DPI to 120%. It’s not bad, but not great either (about the same as my old s-video connection).
I think I’m going to put down some money on a better video card with hdmi output.
I’m currently debating whether or not to go with a passive cooled one or a beefier fan cooled one. Here’s the two I’m considering:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125250
or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131124
Thoughts?
The both have the native hdmi port. I know you can get a DVI to HDMI adapter, but I can’t seem to find a clear answer on whether or not sound can travel across a DVI to HDMI adapter. Happen to know?
Great article by the way!
I built my new HTPC last spring and just this friday got the same blu-ray drive as you at Best Buys black friday sale for $99.
Upon testing out blu-ray on my dual-core 2GB setup, I realized that my onboard video just can’t handle blu-ray when played from the drive. If I rip it to my HDD via AnyDVD HD, it seems to play alright, but not perfect…lots of dropped frames.
I’m assuming that a new video card w/ HDMI will solve the problem. Probably another 2GB of RAM won’t hurt things. I’ve been looking at the 4300 and 4500 series of ATIs new HD cards.
Oddly enough, I can play downloaded HD videos just fine via WMP11, but when I try and play MKV files in Vista media center, the picture lags. It’s a shame. I’m hoping a new video card will fix all my issues.