Need help and feedback on the HTPC I just built

[suprfli]

I built a HTPC machine. The specs are:

Windows XP Pro
AMD Athlon XP 2GHz CPU
1GB of RAM
Geforce2 MX card for TV Out
Hauppauge PVR 250
250GB Hard drive
61" rear projection Mitsubishi TV

I'm running the PC in 600x800. I increased the font to 120 Dpi but that's still too small to see the file names and icon names. It's blurry and you can't see it from the couch. Can I increase the font and what's the recommended size?
This is my biggest and most important issue. When I first connected from my PC to the TV the entire TV screen was filled w/the PC screen as if it was a giant monitor. Something happened and now it's more narrow and has black on both sides of the TV. I've tried playing w/the resolution and Geforce2 advanced settings but can't seem to set it back correctly. When I play recorded TV shows and movies I want the entire TV screen to be filled. I have a feeling I messed something up or I'm missing a setting. I still see overthing that's on the PC but it's not fully using the TV screen but is now more narrow and I'm not sure why.
The biggest problem is that the Athlon AMD fan is REALLY loud. The power supply is also loud. It's all too loud to have int he living room. It's ridiculous. If I can get my first 2 issues resolved then I'm going to buy an Intel based mobo w/a better(more quiet) fan and get an Antec Sonata Case from Amazon for $100. Does anyone have recommendations on a quiet case.


I'm really looking for advice on building the optimal HTPC. I want to use it solely at a component to my TV and stereo system. First and foremost I want to figure out why and what I did to cause the video to go from full screen to now more narrow, then work out the font issue and I'll take care of the case and fan issue lastly since it's an easy issue to figure out and resolve.

[suprfli]

I fixed issue #1. I just went and looked at my Display properties again and saw that I can increase the font size as much as 500%. That works and now it's much more readable! =)

Now if someone can help me out w/the second issue and give me some advice on the third issue I would really appreciate the assistance.

[suprfli]

i fixed my second problem. i had to reduce the resolution from 800x600 to 640x480. i've also increased the font and it looks absolutely incredible. this is fun!

[ScAtMaN]

You can try replacing your fans and power supplys with quiet ones.

Have a look at:
Quiet PC (http://www.quietpc.com/)

[cwg]

I'm trying to do the same thing, only your specs are more like a general purpose pc than an htpc. I think you might want to look at multiple tuner cards. look at my post its (funny) right above yours.

I gave up on hooking to the tv and went with thin clients in my design.
Modded xboxes or media mvps. In my approach the http is in another room acting as a media server and the thin clients wirelessly connect. You could handle changing channels via the client in some cases or maybe a laptop or pda via a web interface.

Hey no one said this was cheap, I figure using junk around the house and my local gibrater trade center to do it for around 1000$. :)

[Rich A]

I've built a few HTPCs. The first couple were with the Shuttle X-box series (Athlon with Nvidia chipset) Nice, small relatively quiet but not very good if you need more than one PCI slot. Still it made for a nice all in one (used it's on board video out to the TV) case for an HTPC.

Then got an Antec "Overture" full size case. Supposed to be very quiet. Found that not exactly true. Still quieter than a full size normal PC tower. Lots of room for expansion. BUT, very poor heat management. I got one of the first units out. I hear since then Antec has come up with a revision on current models that improves the heat problem.

My latest is an Antec "Aria". Might be the best of both worlds. Very similar to a Shuttle X-box in design (a little bigger) but takes normal Micro-ATX boards. I'm installing an Asus micro-atx board with 3 pci and an AGP. This case is also touted to be very quiet. Haven't put it together yet, so can't tell for sure.

Up to now, noise was never an issue for me. All my computers (including the HTPC) are in a dedicated downstairs media / computer room. A/V is piped through out the house via the cable TV system.

However, I'm currently building an actual Home Theater. Since that room will have an A/V receiver / Amp and stand alone DVD player .. I may just move the HTPC there. If so, THEN the noise factor will be something for me to address.

If you really want to see a quiet PC (supposedly) check this "fanless" PC @ http://www.mini-itx.com/reviews/hush/

It seems like the whole audio / video scene at my house is changing by the minute. Driving my wife nuts ... :p

[Gunn]

This is my biggest and most important issue. When I first connected from my PC to the TV the entire TV screen was filled w/the PC screen as if it was a giant monitor. Something happened and now it's more narrow and has black on both sides of the TV. I've tried playing w/the resolution and Geforce2 advanced settings but can't seem to set it back correctly. When I play recorded TV shows and movies I want the entire TV screen to be filled. I have a feeling I messed something up or I'm missing a setting. I still see overthing that's on the PC but it's not fully using the TV screen but is now more narrow and I'm not sure why.


Somewhere, way down deep in the display settings for the GeForce there is a dialog where you can increase the size of the displayed area of the TV...You can move the entire area up or down, left or right and increase or decrease its size. I had to do this to get my TV out display to cover the entire TV area. I have a GeForce FX5200...but I'm assuming the drivers are similiar in this regard. Check for it and see. If I remember later when I'm home, I'll look it up and point you to it exactly.

[suprfli]

Somewhere, way down deep in the display settings for the GeForce there is a dialog where you can increase the size of the displayed area of the TV...You can move the entire area up or down, left or right and increase or decrease its size. I had to do this to get my TV out display to cover the entire TV area. I have a GeForce FX5200...but I'm assuming the drivers are similiar in this regard. Check for it and see. If I remember later when I'm home, I'll look it up and point you to it exactly.

Hey Gunn - Thanx for the help. I think I found the option in the Geforce settings but it only allows you to move the display left/right/up/down and not expand it like when using a standard monitor. Luckily, when I changed the display setting to 640x480 that fixed it. It looks PERFECT on my TV now so I'm psyched.

I think I may go back to the drawing board on the case, fan and power supply. The machine I built now was essentially for testing purposes and a "dry run." The machine is a lab machine I use for testing software for business purposes. I formatted it, put everything on the machine, stuck it ont he TV and did the initial visual, streaming and other testing. Now that I see it can work and work very well I'll tweak the sound.

BTW, I noticed someone made the XBox comment and I've been struggling back and forth considering the same thing. I already use my XBox for the majority of time for watching recorded shows and movies and for the price of the XBox and mod chip it's without a doubt the best investment I've ever made for a home console system. It's a tiny home media center and I absolutely love it. I'm torn between putting the dedicated HTPC in my office and then using the XBox next to my TV and streaming to it. After playing around w/the PC on my TV I sorta like that though. It was nice to have all of the functions of a PC right there on my big screen TV. I could web browse, run applications and do pretty much everything. On the other hand, for $200 I have my XBox which plays video, mp3, slideshows and just about everything I need. Tough decision. ;)

[suprfli]

Oh! I forgot. I installed Stardock's Aquarium (http://www.stardock.com/products/aquarium/) and it's awesome to leave on the TV when it's not in use and watch the fish swimming back and forth. It's great. That's onw thing I can't do on the XBox. Having a calendar and weather and scheduling and all kinds of other stuff on the desktop as well is really nice. I know XBMC and check weather and uses IMDB but it's not quite as nice as the functionality on a PC.

[Rich A]

If you are referring to my mention of the "x-box" I may have mislead you. I call 'em X-boxes which may not be exactly right. It's the "Shuttle" micro small form factor box. Total about the size of 4 CD drives stacked on top of each other.

It uses a "heat pipe" technology for cooling and is very quiet. However as mentioned, expandabilty is limited. But for a small, quiet, one-tuner PVR appliance it's pretty nice. Mine has been running 24/7 for around 9 - 10 months now.

[suprfli]

Rich - can you tell me a little more about your setup? Where did you get the Shuttle? Is it something I can purchase online and what's the cost? What mobo and fan do you have in it? I'd like to have a small form factor box like you're describing. It sounds like exactly what I need. I don't plan on explanding it and only want to use it as an HTPC component box sitting next to my tuner and TV.

[chumone]

I have both a Shuttle SK41G and a Antec Sonata. Out of the box, I think they're both about the same in terms of noise, which is probably about half that of a regular PC.

On the Shuttle, I've replaced the power supply fan and hooked up the case fan to a 7V power lead, and the thing is now as quiet as a whisper. I leave it on 24/7 in my bedroom and can barely hear it at night. The occasional harddrive seek noise is louder than the rest of the system. The Shuttle does get quite hot, but everything still works great after about a year of constant usage. Only bad thing about the SK41G is that the onboard video is a crappy S3 and you really need to spend $50 or whatever for a decent video card. BTW, you can buy a refurbed SK41G at newegg.com for $135 (case + mobo). A refurb SN41G2 can be had for $190 and comes with decent video onboard.

If you go the AMD route, you might want to consider getting a Athlon XP-Mobile CPU as they run quite a bit cooler and cost only about $30 more than a regular desktop CPU.

In my Sonata, it turns out the loudest component was the GF4 ti4200. Took care of that by disconnecting the onboard fan this past weekend. No problems yet. Thinking about replacing the power supply fan as that's the only source of noise left.

[ScAtMaN]

Rich - can you tell me a little more about your setup? Where did you get the Shuttle? Is it something I can purchase online and what's the cost? What mobo and fan do you have in it? I'd like to have a small form factor box like you're describing. It sounds like exactly what I need. I don't plan on explanding it and only want to use it as an HTPC component box sitting next to my tuner and TV.

Check out Shuttle.com (http://www.shuttle.com/index.html)
They build the barebone chasis and you add the rest, harddrive, cpu, memory dvd etc.

A lot of companys sell there own branded complete systems but your best bet is to build it up yourself so you can choose your own spec.

I have one myself (AMD based SN41G2) with wireless lan module and it works like a charm. Expansion is limited with one AGP and one PCI but everything else is onboard. If I want to add a second tuner in the future I can always use the PVR 250 USB version.

[Rich A]

Thanks to the Master of Mayhem for the reply. Yes check out the shuttle web site. I got one of the AMD models like his. All you need to add is a hard drive, memory and CPU. I also added a DVD-ROM drive. It comes with just about everything else in a small package. Front ports are USB, Firewire, audio in/out and optical. Also has on board VGA and TV-out. NIC (10/100) etc. I have three of them myself .. one is the current running HTPC, another I'm giving to my son so he can build it into a "game station". And the third is my regular day to day computer.

I didn't bother putting a floppy drive in it. I have an external USB drive I can easily plug into the front USB port any time I need it. I also put a 120 GB 5400 rpm drive in. This was more than enough, even for full DVD quality recording. And at 5400 rpm it's quieter than others and also generates less heat (although they are hard to find, sometimes because of the low speed you can get them cheap) .. I've got HTPC sitting next to one of those ReplayTV boxes. (like a TIVO) Could have saved myself a lot of money if the SnapStream and Hauppauge hardware encoders were around a few years ago. After almost a year, I really have to say the htpc can easily replace my ReplayTV and I wouldn't miss it. Much of what SnapStream does is IMHO better than the stand alone TIVO like boxes. Of course there are a few things the ReplayTV does better .. but VERY few. Not to mention there is a subscription fee for the EPG with both ReplayTV and TIVO.

While I'm at it .. in regard to the commercial skip of the ReplayTV vs BTV. The RPTV does it real time while recording. It sets the start and stop points as the show is being recorded. And it does this all the time .. when you tell it to do commercial advance or not do it, it doesn't stop it from generating the index. It only tells it to use the always generated commercial advance index or not to use it during playback. The RPTV box (when CA is turned on) actually automatically skips the commercials for you. My box is a 4000 series that had that feature. I understand newer ones allow you to manually skip but won't do it automatically.

So during playback if I had that CA turned on .. the commercials are just skipped without intervention by me. However, it's not as accurate as the BTV indexing.

The BTV CA indexing is done AFTER the show is recorded. It takes several minutes for it to scan the mpeg and set the start / stop points of the commercials. I find the BTV is usually better at it. Although it's not automatic during playback .. (when a commercial starts, you hit the up arrow and it jumps to the end of the commercial), it's very good. The RPTV usually has some commercial content (several frames) at the beginning and almost always cuts back to the movie about a 1/2 second too early. Plus the RPTV has more "false" discoveries. (cuts out at the wrong place or misses the beginning of the commercial entirely)

I've often recorded the exact same show on both at the same time just to compare. The SS BTV is usually more accurate. That could be the difference between the RPTV doing it real time DURING the recording, and the BTV doing it post capture. By the way, an option in BTV allows you to set the CA index generation at a quiet time. (it waits until a low use time)

So get going on that HTPC. You'll love it. (oh putting the Shuttle box together IS a bit of trouble) It's very cramped .. getting the one PCI slot filled and putting the rest of it together is fun. If you follow the procedure in the instructions it will be okay. If you don't do 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 and instead do 1 - 3 - 2 - 4 .. you'll be having fun for sure. (they have it all figured out step by step on how to install what and when) Good luck ..

[suprfli]

First, thanx for all of the feedback. This has been a great discussion w/some excellent info. It's helped me out and others who read the forum will probably get a lot of value out of this. ;)

A quick question though - I've found an odd issue maybe someone can help with who has experienced this before. I went into the display properties and changed the font size to a custom font. I set the font to be 400% which seems to be perfect for reading on the TV. The problem I've found though is 2 things - every time I reboot it defaults back to the normal sized font. However, when I go into display properties it's still listed as 400%. If I change it to 399% or 401%(make any change) and then hit apply XP then "realizes" that the font should be large and it applies the right sized font. I don't understand why XP keeps defaulting back to the normal sized font despite it saying it's at 400%. BTW, I do have the latest drivers.

The other thing I noticed is that every time I boot up the machine it gives me the stupid XP bubble saying I can increase the resolution. XP is so ridiculous that it does that EVERY TIME the machien boots up and there's no way to dismiss it permanently. I'm going to install TweakUI and disable the bubbles but I'm assuming I'll still see the icon in the taskbar eveyr time I boot. It's not a big deal and only an annoyance plus I plan on leaving the machine on almost 24x7/365 so it doesn't matter so much... :eek:

[suprfli]

Rich - I was reading a thorough review of the Shuttle's at ExtremeTech and they really liked them but like you said their only negative comment is that they are REAL tight.

I've given it some thought and I think I'm going to go w/the Sonata case. I like that it has more room and if in a year from now I want build a newer HTPC and use the one I built for something else I'm not limited. I have so many PC's I find myself building new ones and then taking the older ones and using them for storage or some dedicated puspose. Plus, the Sonata is probably quiet enough and the black case is slick looking so I think it will look good sitting next to my speakers and stereo tuner and other equipment.

[aurigus0]

I don't know if it helps at this point but I would recommend the Zalman CNPS7000A-Cu CPU Cooler. It is only compatible with certain motherboards, but you can run it at a very low fan speed setting, and even turn it off in certain situations (I wouldnt recommend that on an AMD system though).

http://www.bjorn3d.com/_preview.php?articleID=394 for a review.

Also, I see you are cranking down the resolution for your TV display. I would suggest taking an alternative route - leaving it a high res and using a 10ft display program, such as SnapStream's FireFly software or MyHTPC. I suppose this would only work if you only use the programs they are compatible with though!