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My HTPC 3.0: Server/Client setup + Better energy efficiency
History:
I've been using HTPC for my house's TV duty for almost 5 yrs now since 2004.
v1.0: in 2004, I built my first HTPC for my home. it had a P4 520, 6600GT, 2x 300GB Matrox HDD, a PVR500 MCE, etc. it served me fine, and I was playing CS:S almost every single night on my 52" 720p HDTV in the living room, and love the convenience of recording the show onto a PC, watch it whenever I want. and I've never look back..... (and that was when htpcnews.com was pretty much the one and only htpc site. I remember I did post the pics in their gallery)
v2.0: in 2006, when HD channels started to take off and becoming the next big thing. I've moved onto HD too. bought a Fusion5 Lite OTA HD tuner. however, the P4 520 was too underpowered to play back the recorded HD shows from BeyondTV. so I've built a new HTPC, and this time around, I from the previous experience, I chose to go watercooled for both reduce noise and for the fun.
v2.5: in 2007, I want to be able to watch TV in the bedroom too. so I built a thin HTPC client using a Shuttle XPC barebone. and in the meantime, I started to store all my ripped/downloaded/collected movies, tv series/shows, music, etc. onto my personal PC too since I'm (again) running out of HDD room on the main living room HTPC.
v3.0: now, fast forward to fall/winter of 2008, I know it's not a good way to have my personal PC also served as a media server. and the living room HTPC is starting to get a bit dated (for HD-PVR's H.264 recording), and running out of room soon. so, I decided to rebuilt the "whole house" media distribution setup again for longer term usage. plus my power bill is getting out of hand w/ so many PCs in the house (at one point, I had way more than a dozen PCs and most of them were running 100% loaded 24/7 w/ 3x Tri/Quad GPU machines.); therefore, I also want to make my HTPCs more energy efficient too!
first, I want to have a real server for serving all the media files duty and while at it, also want to back up all the PCs in the house. so, I choose WHS (Windows Home Server) for it's ease of use, set it and forget it backups, and good future proof upgrade path (just keep adding more HDD when needed versus rebuild a RAID array). I did look into a few other server options (e.g. unRAID was another good choice that Jon is using in his house).
my WHS server was mainly built for low budget in mind. so I bought a cheap, on sales Antec 300 case (6 3.5 HDD space plus I could use 5.25->3.5 converter for more HDD space when needed, and very good airflow), I reuse some of the parts that I had laying around to keep the cost down.
spec:
Antec 300 case (has potential for at least 10 HDD)
Gigabyte P35-DS3 (laying around)
E2180 (laying around)
2GB ram (laying around)
1x WD 750GB AAKS (previously used to store media file in my main PC)
2x WD 1TB Green drives
1x WD 2TB Green drives
1x Seagate 750GB 7200.10 (from my previous main living room HTPC)
a DVD burner (laying around too)
it sits in my basement storage and sipping just under 80w according to my kill-a-watt.
[img width=650 height=487]http://landshark-racing.com/pics/homeserver/1.jpg[/img]
[img width=650 height=487]http://landshark-racing.com/pics/homeserver/2.jpg[/img]
[img width=650 height=487]http://landshark-racing.com/pics/homeserver/3.jpg[/img]
[img width=600 height=800]http://landshark-racing.com/pics/homeserver/4.jpg[/img]
in the living room, I rebuilt it a new one from scratch and mainly want to use a single HDMI connection from the HTPC to the AVR and want to make sure it'll have no problem for any HD materials included Bluray movies. and since I've got a real server to serve the media files, this HTPC will be left for just PVR serving duty (thought 'bout even move this duty onto the home server; however, rewiring the cable from the living room down to the basement is a bit too costly and troublesome.....).
and in the meantime, I've also upgraded the whole audio system in the living room, thus I want to be able to use a single HDMI connection.
spec:
Antec Fusion Black (my personal fav HTPC case, quiet and good airflow)
P5Q-EM
E8400
LG Bluray/DVD burner combo
1x HVR-950 OTA HD tuner (might add back the old Fusion5 HDTV Lite in it later on)
2x HD-PVR tuners for 2x DirecTV STB
1x Seagate 1.5TB HDD (only for recording TV shows)
Harmony 880 (my old and trusty)
idle @ just over 50w!
audio upgardes:
Onkyo 606 (bought it in early Dec. when amazon having it for $310 shipped!! really can't resist!! plus it has no EDIE/handshake problem from HTPC when using HDMI input.)
Mirage Omnisat OS3 5.0 speakers (2x FS, 1x CC, 2x SAT)
Velodyne SPL-800 sub for .1 LFE duty
[img width=650 height=487]http://landshark-racing.com/pics/livingroom/1.jpg[/img]
[img width=650 height=487]http://landshark-racing.com/pics/livingroom/2.jpg[/img]
[img width=650 height=487]http://landshark-racing.com/pics/livingroom/3.jpg[/img]
[img width=650 height=487]http://landshark-racing.com/pics/livingroom/4.jpg[/img]
[img width=650 height=487]http://landshark-racing.com/pics/livingroom/5.jpg[/img]
[img width=650 height=487]http://landshark-racing.com/pics/livingroom/6.jpg[/img]
as for the bedroom, I'm still using the same Shuttle XPC SFF thin HTPC client. however, I did reuse some parts from the previous living room HTPC in it for better performance tho.
spec:
Shuttle XPC SFF
E6600
HIS 2600Pro w/ Ice cooler
idle @ just under 80w, I think it's mainly due to the 2600Pro.... however, most of the time, it's in sleep mode consuming <4w anyway.
[img width=650 height=487]http://landshark-racing.com/pics/bedroom/new/1.jpg[/img]
[img width=650 height=487]http://landshark-racing.com/pics/bedroom/new/2.jpg[/img]
[img width=650 height=487]http://landshark-racing.com/pics/bedroom/new/3.jpg[/img]
also, this time around, I've ditched my beloved Meedio and moved to MediaPortal to further "modernized" the system's software-side. and I really love it not just for the more modern look, but also it's ease of setup (especially when compare to Meedio).
and it's great support (and again easily to setup) for fanart/banner for movies/tv series from thetvdb.com and moviedb.org, or even easy for me to make them myself and use it. I've been busy working on thetvdb.com, trying to add/update on it's database (mainly the asian series).
and another plus is it's support of unicode since I have quite a big collection of asian movies/tv series.
here's some screen shots:
[img width=650 height=487]http://landshark-racing.com/pics/bedroom/new/4.jpg[/img]
[img width=650 height=487]http://landshark-racing.com/pics/bedroom/new/5.jpg[/img]
[img width=650 height=487]http://landshark-racing.com/pics/bedroom/new/6.jpg[/img]
[img width=650 height=487]http://landshark-racing.com/pics/bedroom/new/7.jpg[/img]
[img width=650 height=487]http://landshark-racing.com/pics/bedroom/new/8.jpg[/img]
[img width=650 height=487]http://landshark-racing.com/pics/bedroom/new/9.jpg[/img]
[img width=650 height=487]http://landshark-racing.com/pics/bedroom/new/10.jpg[/img]
and lastly, my dedicated home theater that I built in early 08'. ;) (I have a build thread over @ avsforum for the HT room)
Epson home cinema 1080UB projector
100" Elite CineWhite screen
Yamaha RX-V1800
Full Definitive Technology speakers: BP7006 x 2, CLR2300, BP1.2x x 2, and a SuperCubeI sub.
Panamax 5300 power conditioner
Harmony 1000 remote
Wii
PS3
etc.
the Harmonys also remote control the lighting system in the HT room and the Living Room too.
[img width=650 height=487]http://landshark-racing.com/pics/ht/68.jpg[/img]
I am terribly jealous...
You have a very very impressive setup there, and I can only hope that one day I can afford such luxuries.
Cheers!
I could sleep all day in that room. Nice job. Can you post a link to the AVS thread?
tks! here's the link --> http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=982083
wow dude, very very very very very jealous. That setup looks awesome, appreciate the post indeed!
I've always wanted a projector. The deal with my wife is that I buy her a house to put it in, I can have one. :) Right now our house just isn't set up for it. I like your setup. You've got some nice builds. And it's all very uncluttered.
tks for the kind word guys!
I don't know if I missed it or if it is in the thread but what software is that running on the HTPC?
MediaPortal + BeyondTV.
Nice. I was also going to ask about the software. Very nice looking interface. I love the theater room with fireplace on the side for those cold winter movie nights.
well done.
yeah, I was a Meedio user for the past 4+ yrs, and both me and my fiance love how the MediaPortal's modern UI!! may be I'll try to capture and post a video of it.....
well done.
tks! yeah, that's what we do in winter, fire up the fireplace and enjoy a movie night in there. however, I must say the fireplace do get a tiny bit annoyed due to the light & reflection when you are trying to concentrate on the movie. a lot of time, we turn it off when the room gets warm.....
update:
been busy ripping all my Blurays onto the WHS box so I can watch any movie anytime on any HTPC in the house. and this is my ultimate goal for the HTPC 3.0 setup, aka poor man's Bluray changer for my home theater!!
I use the guide from avsforum (HD to mkv) to just rip the main movie (1080p/24), mux it in a mkv container so it can be played on any free player. and decode the main HD sound track into the lossless flac format. I've been waiting for a reliable bitstream solution for HTPC for months, and it still isn't mature yet. that's why I decided not gonna wait any longer, and go ahead rip all my current Blurays and put the HD audio in the lossless flac format.
this way, I don't need to suffer bit stripping from the current commercial player! ALL current Bluray player WILL bit stripe the sound, means they will convert the HD audio's 24bits sound to 16bits, before outputting it regardless what connection you use! :mad: yes, people will argue is there's any difference (and the same case as DD vs TrueHD
). however, I consider I'm a rare individual that could tell the different (with PS3, you can change sound track on the fly), and when spent mucho $$ on the audio equipments, I would only settle nothing but the best sound!
another good thing 'bout it is I could save nearly 10GB of space per movie! the end resulting file (main movie and lossless HD sound track) is roughly about 14GB (BlackHawkDown) ~ 35GB (Transformers)/movie! with an average of 20~25GB each. and there's no ISO mounting involved. just pure and simple mkv file that's pretty much any player/HTPC software could play.
and with the avsforum's method, eac3to + mkvmerge, (guide #4 btw if you are interested), I could rip the sound track as the original encoded TrueHD or DTS-MA format too should there's a reliable way to bitstream the HD audio from PC to AVR. (btw, don't let the long thread scared you, it's very simple and easy to rip!)
I'm currently went through 'bout 1/2 of my Bluray collection so far the past few days. I'm crossing my finger hoping my WHS box could hold off as long as possible until the new WD 2TB drive goes under $200....
here's a part of them, but still have a few more in the HT room.....
[img width=650 height=487]http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/1412/dsc01625z.jpg[/img]
next up, I'm going to finally build a HTPC client for the HT room so I can start to enjoy my "Poor Man's Bluray Changer".
Nice job. I'm in the middle of re-doing my HTPC as well. I'll have to get some pics up of my build and home theater when I'm done.
here's some pics of the HT HTPC client:
[img width=650 height=487]http://landshark-racing.com/pics/HT/htpc1.jpg[/img]
[img width=650 height=487]http://landshark-racing.com/pics/HT/htpc2.jpg[/img]
E8400
4GB of ram (that I have laying around)
Gigabyte 9400 board, E7AUM-DS2H
Antec Fusion black
Ninja Mini
DVD drive (laying around)
Seasonic 600w PSU (from the previous living room HTPC)
when I bought the LG Bluray drive (2 of them) for the living room and my main PC, they came with a bundled copy of PowerDVD (v.7), I installed it on this client (and the living room HTPC). set up MediaPortal to use PowerDVD decoder for H.264 material. and got HA on the Bluray movies backup right away. no messing, manually registering, codec and stuffs.
I've plugged the HT client into the kill-a-watt, it shows high 60w @ idle, 72w when watching Bluray movies (or Bluray backup), around 80w when watching HD-PVR recorded H.264 shows, F1 Grand Prix from SpeedHD, (which is not HA'ed, and the CPU usage from 40% up to 80$ depends on the scene.)
here's the Bluray usage screenshot:
[img width=150 height=100]http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/3544/brscreen.th.jpg[/img]
and I finally bring the new HTPC client into the HT last night!! ;D
everything hooks up and works fine! I just need to reprogram the Harmony1000 (add a new HTPC device, create new activity, customized some buttons, etc.). the onboard 9400 works fine for outputting audio+video via HDMI and to the Yammy AVR! Blurays backup ( looks and sounds the same as from the actual disc from PS3! I finally have my "poor man's Bluray changer" in the HT!!
there's only 2 minor issue: I'll have to program the Harmony to turn on the AVR before waking up the HTPC; otherwise, the HTPC/9400 doesn't sense the monitor/videodevice, and will fall back to 800x600 res. after wake up (more like window video fail safe feature). an other thing is the "silent bug" (which I'm also having this problem from the LivingRoom HTPC client, Asus P5Q-EM board output via single HDMI to Onkyo AVR)! not a biggie to me, as I've got so used to from the LivingRoom, and it doesn't really affect much, if anything anyway.
I'll take some new pics and probably a short video clip later on for you guys!
ok, took a couple quick shots for the HT HTPC.
I found a couple wallpapers that I think it's very well suit for HTPC usage.
[img width=650 height=487]http://landshark-racing.com/pics/HT/HTPC3.jpg[/img]
I finally can watch any of my DVD/Bluray movies in the HT!! ;D
[img width=650 height=487]http://landshark-racing.com/pics/HT/HTPC4.jpg[/img]
and here's the HTPC client sitting on the lower shelf.
[img width=650 height=487]http://landshark-racing.com/pics/HT/HTPC5.jpg[/img]
will take a couple more pics and probably a some video clips later on......
Nice setup!
tks a lot!
I've been busy trying to make a custom intro the past couple of days...... here's a quick single frame rendering (and resized).....
at the end, it will be a short video clip that looks and sounds like the 20th Century Fox's intro, and will be played before any movie in the library!
stay tune.....
p.s. if any one knows any (free) software that would allow me to mux a raw avi video file and a .ac3 sound track toghter, please let me know!! tks!!
ok, got my custom intro done!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPGlK_jCdMI
VERY nice!!! Good job. I've seen software that allows this, but always just stills. That's just one of those "woah... too cool" things.
tks!
that was just a DVD quality version that I've uploaded. I'm rendering a HD quality version to use for the HTPCs right now. still 6hrs to go......
That my friend is too cool! Great setup! And I am terribly jealous of your intro!
Cheers!
Do you have a link to instructions on creating that? I've seen it before but I can't remember where.
And oh yeah, that looks great.
here --> http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=715166
Thank you
ok, the old bulky DLP died on me early last month! just got the new TV a couple weeks ago, and re-arranged the living room to better fit the new TV. here's some new pics for the living room:
[img width=650 height=487]http://landshark-racing.com/pics/livingroom/7.jpg[/img]
[img width=650 height=487]http://landshark-racing.com/pics/livingroom/8.jpg[/img]
also, added Hulu desktop into MediaPortal's front end too! gotta love Hulu!!
Nice!
Ok, while the old TV looked cool, I have to admit that this is a big upgrade. It looks much better. I'm a fan of your stand. How do you like the Mirage Speakers?
yeah, it IS a major upgrade/update. the old DLP was pretty cool at it's time, but it simply can't compete w/ these new super slim wall mounted Samsung!! and the picture quality is lightyears ahead too, especially the black level!!
the stand is from Omnimount, and I bought it from homedepot online, free shipping + coupon!
the Mirage is nice and very decent for the living room use. it's omni-direction design really opens up the space and I like the bigger sound stage. it still can't compare to some other higher end speakers, but for it's price, they are very very decent for causal TV/movie usage. and they looks nice in the living room too! but if it's the only system or my main home theater setup, I would go for the Definitive Tech STS for sure! (yes, I'm a DefTech fan!
)
I've got the Def Tech mythos twos for my bedroom system. The TV and speakers sit on my dresser. The low end is filled in with a Monitor Audio R720 sub. I love the look of the Mythos twos, and their sound is good, but they don't really extend low enough to get a good blend between the sub and the mains. The STS's don't have that problem but I can't fit them, or afford them.
ok, finally had time yesterday to do a short video clip for the HTPC setup. as you can see, with the HTPC, it's darn near impossible for me to run out of things to watch!! DVD collection, Bluray collection, TV series collection, Hulu, Netflix Instant watch, etc.
and one of the best thing I like 'bout this setup/software is it's ability to automatic change the refresh rate to 24fps when playing Bluray movie to perfectly match the projector and the new TV!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pL2rS72_cpA be sure to watch it in HD mode!
Which skin are you using for media portal ?
StreamMP.
http://www.electronichouse.com/slideshow/category/9012/1254