how many of you guys have a HTPC? is it not the best thing ever?

[zanejohnson]

i finally put myself together a home theater PC... loving it...

ii would imagine this would be an OT post because its not about HTPC components or anything, just a question on your opinions on having one...


i put together a nice little setup in a microATX case to put in my home theater equipment rack, looks nice in there...the case i hae looks simalar to a HT receiver, only complaint is i got it in black instead of silver to match my receiver/DVD layer/BD disc player...it's just a Dothan 1.7GHz, 2GB PC3200, GeForce 5600GT machine, but it will playback any HD content i throw at it... im running digital coax out to my receiver, and component video out to my 37" display... movies look absolutely great on it... as of right now im storing any media on it, i just keep it all on my fileserver and stream it over my gigabit network.. i love how if i switch over to OTA hd stuff i can pull up the TV guide website and have a TV guide channel so to speak by just switching to the component input on my TV and leaving the TV guide websie full screened in IE....

anyway, anyone else loving your HTPC... i really need to get a nice TV tuner card so i can ue it as a DVR as well...that will be the next step.... i'm kicked back in my lazy boy posting this with a wireless keyboard/mouse too hehe... anyone have any suggestions for a good remote to control an HTPC?

 

[lizardboy]

Built one last year, love it. Running Win7 x64 as a DVR, plays Blu-Rays, and plays all my downloaded shows.

Specs:
e5200
Gigabyte motherboard w/ Nvidia 9400
HDHomeRun

 

[silverpig]

I've got my main rig near the living room so I have it as an HTPC on a secondary display.

OSX + Plex and using my ipod touch as a remote. Hooked up via digital coax to my receiver, and DVI to my 40" LCD. I love that I can get bluray->x264 seasons of shows and watch them all in a row. Plex is absolutely fantastic.

 

[TallBill]

Not really feasible in my living situation now. I could definitely see doing it in the future though.

 

[Locut0s]

I just started streaming video, pictures and music from my PC to my PS3. Almost as good! I just wish they would add Matrushka support to the PS3. Though I admit a true HTPC would be better.

 

[slayer202]

I bought a hauppage usb tuner for my girlfriend to use. not a full-on HTPC, but this thing is garbage. Was a HUGE pain in the ass to get working, and not the way I want it.

I am 1000% satisfied with my cable + DVR and PS3 to stream anything I download

 

[Modular]

Oh man, I love mine.

Windows 7 64 bit
AMD 3400+
Hauppauge PVR150
Hauppauge HVR1600
1GB Ram
1TB of storage
6600 Vanilla

I can't get over how amazing streaming Netflix is with Media Center. Before I had Win7 I was using XP and had downloaded a program called GB-PVR to do all my recording. It's a fantastic app, but had no Netflix support.

 

[bob4432]

after getting a ps3 all other videos suck compared to bluray, but eah, the htpc is g2g along w/ a cable dvr

just need to update the receiver to take advantage of the better audio, probably get the lowest end denon unit that will connect all so just 1 hdmi to display

 

[Locut0s]

Oh man, I love mine.

Windows 7 64 bit
AMD 3400+
Hauppauge PVR150
Hauppauge HVR1600
1GB Ram
1TB of storage
6600 Vanilla

I can't get over how amazing streaming Netflix is with Media Center. Before I had Win7 I was using XP and had downloaded a program called GB-PVR to do all my recording. It's a fantastic app, but had no Netflix support.

I would get a TV tuner card but our cable provider scrambles all their channels so even with a QAM tuner you would still need a cable box.

 

[Colt45]

I watch everything on my computer, if that counts.

 

[zanejohnson]

I would get a TV tuner card but our cable provider scrambles all their channels so even with a QAM tuner you would still need a cable box.

that sucks they scramble the qam channels... i have only one cable box in the house and it's in my home theater rack, i dont have any movie channels though, so no hd movie channels through cable...i just "acquire" hd movies elsewhere... i have a digital converter box for OTA hd stuff though so at least i get the locals in 1080.... and the cable channels are just in 480p, but it's good enough.... i need to get a good TV tuner card ASAP so i can at least record anything i need to... i mainly just use my HTPC for movies and HD content from places on the net...like justin.tv


but yeah HTPC's are awesome... my little bro rooms with me and he uses his 360 to stream stuff from the fileserver as well... man can you imagine 10 years ago we'd never thought we'd be able to do such cool stuff..

 

[zanejohnson]

I watch everything on my computer, if that counts.

you need to get a nice 5.1 setup and a big hd secondary display and you'd be set

 

[frostedflakes]

Computer and TV are close, so I just run a video cable to it and have the TV set up as a second monitor.

edit: As far as QAM channels go, there's no way they're scrambled, pretty sure that would be against the law. You should be able to pick up digital channels with a QAM tuner. Don't listen to whatever the CS rep on the phone tells you, it's not uncommon for them to lie to try and sell you a cable box and other services.

 

[Modular]

edit: As far as QAM channels go, there's no way they're scrambled, pretty sure that would be against the law. You should be able to pick up digital channels with a QAM tuner. Don't listen to whatever the CS rep on the phone tells you, it's not uncommon for them to lie to try and sell you a cable box and other services.

Only the local channels are required to broadcast in open QAM. Other than that, Comcast locks out all the premium channels. Some people have better luck than me, but I get close to nothing other than the local broadcasts over QAM. It does provide HD, which is cool; but I don't have an HDTV, so I don't really care.

 

[Locut0s]

Computer and TV are close, so I just run a video cable to it and have the TV set up as a second monitor.

edit: As far as QAM channels go, there's no way they're scrambled, pretty sure that would be against the law. You should be able to pick up digital channels with a QAM tuner. Don't listen to whatever the CS rep on the phone tells you, it's not uncommon for them to lie to try and sell you a cable box and other services.

Sorry but I can confirm that everything after the "free" QAM channels are scrambled here.

 

[frostedflakes]

Yeah sorry I should have been more clear, I meant all the locals should be available unencrypted (my understanding is that this is required by law). Obviously non-locals will require a subscription, though, unless the cable guy forgot to filter them or something like that.

edit: Oh so you do get the locals?

 

[Locut0s]

Yeah sorry I should have been more clear, I meant all the locals should be available unencrypted (my understanding is that this is required by law). Obviously non-locals will require a subscription, though, unless the cable guy forgot to filter them or something like that.

edit: Oh so you do get the locals?

Been a long time since I had a TV tuner in my PC so I don't no but I believe that I do get all the locals, something like 12-13 channels. But then the only reason I would be interested in getting a QAM card would be to watch the other 50 channels lol. For that you still need the cable box.

 

[GTaudiophile]

Just curious, do you all rip your entire DVD collection to the HD on your HTPC?

Does it makes sense to build one to use as a DVR if you do NOT have cable? (Only rabbit ears.)

 

[silverpig]

Been a long time since I had a TV tuner in my PC so I don't no but I believe that I do get all the locals, something like 12-13 channels. But then the only reason I would be interested in getting a QAM card would be to watch the other 50 channels lol. For that you still need the cable box.

This is all different in Canada thought. There's no concept of clear QAM here. The cable company is not required to broadcast anything to you for free. You either pay for analog service and get unencrypted analog signals, or you pay for digital and get a box.

AFAIK in the US, if you sign up for basic cable, the company is required to give you all of the local channels in HD for free over QAM. Here that is not the case. If you get basic cable here, you get the local channels unencrypted in SD analog because that is what you pay for. You can then pay additionally for digital and get digital SD, and then you can pay for the HD box and get the local channels in HD.

 

[h8red]

I am going to build one pretty soon too.
Case: Lian Li PC-C37B
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-H55M-UD2H
CPU: i3/530
RAM: TBD - 4GB of DDR3 something or other
HDD1: OCZ 60GB SSD
HDD2: WD 2TB green drive
PSU: something modular like Seasonic 520W
Optical drive: Liteon iHOS104-08 Blu Ray
Wireless: TBD - I need for streaming because I don't have ethernet in my bedroom
Tuner: Ceton Cablecard tuner

 

[nageov3t]

I had one in my old apartment, but ultimately, I found it a lot more convenient to go with a set-top box + xbox 360. on the rare occasions when I want to watch a computer file on my tv, my laptop has an hdmi port.

the noise from a htpc was a major factor for me, not to mention upkeep (if you record a lot of tv shows, you've got to keep it running 24/7)

 

[dwell]

I have a HTPC but it's more of a gaming rig hooked up to the TV. I do use it for XBMC and Boxee but it's not really low profile or quiet.

 

[h8red]

Just curious, do you all rip your entire DVD collection to the HD on your HTPC?

I ripped my DVD collection and have it stored on my HP mediasmart windows home server. I would recommend that to keep sound/heat down in an HTPC

Does it makes sense to build one to use as a DVR if you do NOT have cable? (Only rabbit ears.)

If you want to timeshift your TV shows it does or if there is more than one TV show on at a time that you want to watch. For example if you wanted to watch Grey's Anatomy and CSI tonight you'd be able to do that. Alternatively with an HTPC you can watch videos from hulu and other online websites assuming you have an internet connection at home

 

[Lean L]

the answer is no, it is not the best thing ever.

 

[ShawnD1]

anyone have any suggestions for a good remote to control an HTPC?

Get a Logitech Rumblepad 2 and use joy2key to control it. That's what I have for my system and it's a lot like controlling a PS3.

Just curious, do you all rip your entire DVD collection to the HD on your HTPC?

Sure did. I have over 5TB of storage in that computer