From the moment I first heard about the Digital Broadcast Flag, I knew that I wanted to build my own PVR(think Tivo), before this abomination of a law was passed. Well the time has finally arrived. Just today I ordered the bits-n-pieces to start my build. I spent a great deal of time researching every piece of the system from the memory right down to the case. I wanted to get quality components, yet keep some kind of budget in mind. I plan to do quite a bit more than just MythTV so Im building a bit of a powerhouse, as far as Home Theatre PCs(HTPC) go. Im going to pack as much entertainment into this machine as I can and you've got a front row seat.
For the core of the system, we are starting out with an Asus P5B Deluxe Motherboard with an Intel E6300 Core2Duo CPU and 2Gb of OCZ DDR2 PC-6400 800Mhz Memory. I chose the P5B for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the passive cooling of the CPU. Hopefully, that will be enough to keep the system cool along with some of the other modifications that we will talk about later. The P5B has builtin IEEE1394(Firewire) which will allow me to pull data direct from the Scientific Atlanta cable box. I do not currently have a box with the firewire output, however, the law(check subsection 4) says the cable company has to provide me one. It also has a built-in HD Audio and no built-in video as I will be using a PCIe video card. It allows for up to 8Gb of memory and will handle the new Quad-Core Intel chips. I have always had good experiences with Asus motherboards, so this seemed to be a safe bet. Complimented by an Intel CPU and OCZ memory, we have a good solid base from which build-out the rest of our system.
Next, lets move into our video subsystem(s). First up we have our XFX 7600 GT Fatal1ty 256MB passively cooled video card. This card is factory overclocked and actually shown in some results to be even cooler than similar cards with fans. Again, we are going for cooling, but we also want as much kick to this system as we can get. We followup that up with a Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-500 MCE Dual Tuner Capture card. I chose this card because it offers both an onboard splitter, so it only needs a single input, and dual onboard hardware mpeg decoders. You really can't beat it for the price. Next we have the PCHDTV-5500 Linux HD/Digital capture card. This card I bought because it is specifically designed to work with Linux, and I try to support that kind of dedication to the Linux community.
Every good PVR needs storage, and lots of it. A standard capture for an hour of TV can range from 2Gbs for analog capture, up to 7 Gb for HD. So needless to say, you need a good bit of storage. To that end, I got two Seagate Barracuda PATA 320Gb drives. These drives are very fast and have an amazing price. I also got a Lite-on 20x Dual-Layer DVD Burner with LightScribe. LightScribe is pretty neat, it allows you to burn the label directly into the coating of the CD/DVD. I'll also pick up some cheapie DVD player to throw into the other slot, but that is of really no consequence as it will really only be used as a player.
No good HTPC system can be built without a good case! I think the Silverstone LC17 fits the bill rather nicely for my build. The case itself is tall and non-flashly. It looks like a workhorse. I hope the height helps with cooling as well as allows the somewhat oversize XFX video card additional room to breathe. The case also allows for up to 4 80mm fans for cooling. While the stock fans that come with the case received good reviews, I will be replacing those fans with some 80mm Nexus fans as they are both quieter overall and run at a greatly reduced RPM. I chose a Corsair HX520W power supply as it is SLI rated(though we won't be using SLI), had more than enough power for everything we have specd out, but also because reviews have shown it has a wonderfully steadly voltage, runs cool, and is very quiet for a power supply this powerful.
Last but not least, this is a computer, so we need a couple of more things. I found a nice wireless keyboard with a built-in trackball that had been discontinued, but I was able to find one. You know, I hope it wasn't discontinued for quality reasons;-) And to go along with any media center, you are going to need a remote control. I chose the Kameleon 8in1 AllinOne URC-9960 remote because it looked cool, got a good MTFB rating, and I found it really cheap!
So that sums it up, I put these parts on order today and I'll be documenting everything, from the arrival of the parts, to what shape they are in when they arrive. I'll photo document the whole thing as well, so stick around, and strap in, it could get bumpy....
20 comments:
Dude,
OK, going firewire is a good move. However, on Linux, I'm not sure what capture options you've got that would fall into the "wife friendly" catagory. On Winders, I'm running Tim Moore's FireSTB utility which handles channel changing over Firewire and captures non 5c encrypted channels from the STB. That comes at a price, though...storage! The FW recordings are in the neighborhood of 9-10GB/hr, while my standard OTA HD recordings are in the 6-7GB. Also, it's pretty delicate... Every now and then, the utility just decides to go on a lunch break for whatever reason. However, if you can pull in QAM from your HD card, you really don't need the firewire capabilities, as Raleigh TWC doesn't put any non 5c signals on the wire that are not available in clear QAM. The only turd in the punchbowl with QAM is the constant channel re-mapping. You've really got to keep an eye on things in order to make sure that you don't miss anything because TWC has remapped all their QAM signals (which happens quite often for some ungodly reason!)
Is this box going to be the livingroom mainstay? Can you get the solution to pass the wife acceptance factor?
Actually, yeah, its kind of cool. The box will be upstairs in the game room. For now, the woman is happy with the regular TWC setup so that is not a problem.
Once I get things running though, MythTV runs in a client/server setup. I can setup a basic box, boot it via tftp, mount the filesytem remotely on a RamDisk, and stream directly to that slave(as well as schedule recordings and other general administration). With that kind of setup, I need no hard drive, no cd, just a motherboard, a network card, ir control and tvout. I could build this into a microatx case and place them on each tv in the house for a minimal outlay(150-250 a peice). Now, if Im going HD all around, things change, but itll be a while before I have more than 1 HD TV;-)
I dont like the sounds of the channel remapping, but if that only affects the HD, that doesnt affect me too much for now as most of what we tape is network broadcast. Im guessing though, once I have all my toys setup, that is going to change!
The channel remapping affects QAM signals only...which could be either HD or SD. However, seeing as you're going with the Happauge 500, I'm assuming you'll be hitting up TWC for 2 STBs and connecting them to that puppy for all of your SD needs.
Have you confirmed your OTA HD signal strength way up there in the woods? I know I have a bitch of a time pulling in the locals, and have tried an inhuman number of antenna combinations!
I'm pumping my content to remote TVs via my Xbox's. It's a very cool solution, however, it can get a little pricey as Vista only supports 360s as extenders! However, I've set up my old PC now, sharing my recorded TV directory across my network, and have access to all recorded TV, ripped DVDs, music, videos, etc....everything except live TV streaming, on my laptop. And that guy connects just fine to every TV in the house, so it works well. When I build that main box with the serious hardware in it, I'm debating XP Media Center or Vista Premium. I'm kinda leaning toweards Vista because of the potential QAM support, however, my 2 Xbox V1 consoles would then be pretty useless upstairs. If I can get QAM on XP MCE, I'll go that direction.
I've got to admit that I am a bit worried about the local HD. You can barely get cell coverage at my house so Im not convinced I will be able to get any decent signal in any case, so I may be limited to the analog for locals. Ahh the price you pay for peace and quiet;-) Got any of those antennae laying around? Might want to try a few of those out!
The Hauppauge actually splits itself on the card, so I should only need a single STB for that. At least that was the plan, we will see.
Ahhgh! I wrote up a response, but it's gone!!! SHIT!
Dude,
Re: "The Hauppauge actually splits itself on the card, so I should only need a single STB for that. At least that was the plan, we will see."
No no no!
The 500 will only split the signal *if* it is acting as the tuner. In other words, if you had it connected directly to the wall, and were only tuning channels 2-77, then OK. However, if you're coming out of an STB, the 500 is *not* doing the tuning, the STB is. Therefore, the Happauge's splitter is useless as the card is just acting as a conduit for the STB's signal. Get it? You're going to *need* 2 STBs to tune one thing and record another. Connect each STB to the 500's audio and SVideo inputs and run an IR emitter from your remote sensor's emitter output to the faceplate of each STB. All of this creates an incredible rat's nets of wires, too! When I had my full MCE box up and humming, there were anywhere between 40-45 total wires running between the STBs and the PC and the A/V receiver and the TV, etc. Don't tell Beth about that though!!! :) Jen hated it!
Ok, then do I really need the STB, or can I just use it as a "disconnected recorder". In other words, the HDTV card tunes itself, and TWC doesnt send out anything it cant capture, then Im good there, with no STB. That allows me to have the digital/HD recording. I also direct feed the 500 and that allows me to split on the card and use the tuner there. Most of the taping we do is <77 so I think this is not too big a problem, I also have an additional PCI slot that I could drop another HD card into if necessary. So then I have three feeds, all the cards acting as thier own tuner and everyone is happy with no STB.
If I then keep the STB(say just to display the time;-) and record on it. I could pull the data via firewire on a cron and make it available on the media center....no? What am I overlooking? The only thing I see is pay-per-view/on-demand and if I get a TV with dual inputs I should be able to feed it from either the cable box or the media center correct...
OK...one at a time...
- Ok, then do I really need the STB, or can I just use it as a "disconnected recorder". In other words, the HDTV card tunes itself, and TWC doesnt send out anything it cant capture, then Im good there, with no STB.
* Unless you have QAM support, TWC is not in play for HDTV. If you have QAM support, then you have your cable connected to your HD tuner card and you'll be able to record.watch the locals in HD over cable. If you don't have QAM support, then you use your HD tuner for over the air HD tuning.
- That allows me to have the digital/HD recording.
* See above.
- I also direct feed the 500 and that allows me to split on the card and use the tuner there. Most of the taping we do is <77 so I think this is not too big a problem,
* Yup, if you don't need anything above 77, you'll be OK with a direct line in. However, I would most definitely clear this one with 'she-who-must-be-obeyed' before making a command decision like that.
- I also have an additional PCI slot that I could drop another HD card into if necessary. So then I have three feeds, all the cards acting as thier own tuner and everyone is happy with no STB.
* Again, as long as you're content with channels < 77 and the networks in HD.
- If I then keep the STB(say just to display the time;-) and record on it. I could pull the data via firewire on a cron and make it available on the media center....no?
* How? Using what? I have no idea what Linux tools are available for firewire capture from an STB. Also, the only channels that are non-5c encrypted on TWC's local wire are the networks, so you won't be getting anything you can't get OTA or via QAM with firewire.
- What am I overlooking? The only thing I see is pay-per-view/on-demand and if I get a TV with dual inputs I should be able to feed it from either the cable box or the media center correct...
* Yup! That's what I had. And I set up my Harmony remote with a single button called "Watch HD TV" which Jen used when she wanted to watch HD TV off the cable box (InHD, HD Net, Discovery HD Theater, HD Net Movies, etc) thus letting the overall configureation receive passing grades in the WAF (Wife Acceptence Factor) arena. But it's more than just on demand that's missing in the PC setup. Basically, it's digital cable support. The upper channels, cable HD channels, etc. The answer, of course, is OCUR devices(CableCARD Tuners for PCs) however, those won't work unless they are installed on a CableLabs certified PC, and even if you buy one, the DRM in place will prevent any burning or redistributing of any kind of any content recorded on that PC...thus turning your $3000 PC into nothing more than a Tivo!
--
* How? Using what? I have no idea what Linux tools are available for firewire capture from an STB. Also, the only channels that are non-5c encrypted on TWC's local wire are the networks, so you won't be getting anything you can't get OTA or via QAM with firewire.
--
No, but it does provide me two additional digital tuners if I can figure out how to pull the data. Apparently, its possible, though I haven't seen a helpful walkthrough or anything like that at this point.
And trust me, the WFA is going to be extremely important here and I've already been told that once the thing is up and running, that I am to leave it alone! Things are not to change for any reason without appropriate notification and democratic procedures(ie she votes, I obey)!
Anyhow, Ill have a new post going up in a bit talking about this discussion and a few others that lead up to some of the other choices I made as well as a picture of our first arrival....the keyboard is here!
OK...per a posting on 12/14/06, it looks like at least one person has gotten your tuner to tune QAM signals in Myth:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/archive/index.php/t-705528.html
That's good news!
....Oh, and by the way...welcome to the hobby! This is a project that will have no definite ending, just so you know. This is a hobby!
You'll never get to the point where you step back from it and go "Whew, it's up and working, now I'll never touch it again!" Nope, each week you'll read about something that someone did, it'll give you an idea, and you'll be off tinkering. If you can go 2 weeks...shit, 2 days without tinkering with your configuration, no matter how stable it is, I'll buy you drinks for a night!
Re: "I've already been told that once the thing is up and running, that I am to leave it alone! Things are not to change for any reason without appropriate notification and democratic procedures"
* LOL! Impossible!!!! I can't tell you the number of times I said "Jen, are you really into whatever you're watching? I wanna try something..."
This is not a destination man, it's a journey and a fun one!
Even better yet, I intend to run three X sessions, one with Myth, one fullscreen firefox and one desktop as well. Myth also has a number of plugins that allow you to do things like play MAME games(or almost any emulator). So I cannot wait to get started!
I am very interested to see how wife friendly you can make anything Linux based. Once the initial install is done, configured and stable, I'm very interested in having a look at it.
Dude,
Love the keyboard and HD card! Have you had a chance to do any QAM research for that puppy? I just placed an order myself for an HDHomeRun. This is a VERY cool device! http://www.silicondust.com/
It's a networked attached QAM tuner that supports HD. Basically, you plug the cable line into it, connect it to your network, install some drivers on your PC that make your PC think there's a dual HD tuner installed in it and you're good to go! Someone even wrote a great little channel mapping utility for it. Here's the issue though, for you at least...it's winders...I have not seen any Linux drivers for it yet. However, that means I might have an extra AverMedia A180 kicking around. I know for a fact that people have been able to get this guy pulling in QAM with Myth, so if you run into any issues, with that tuner, you might have another option, at the cost of a few beers, of course! The really nice thing about this HD Homerun is that because it's network attached, I can use it on every Pc in my house. I'm typing this on a laptop with Vista Premium installed on it, which has full Media Center functionality on it, but no tuner. once I gt the HDHomeRun installed on my network, I'll be able to watch all QAM signals on this bad boy! and believe me, this guy has some horsepower! AMD 64 3200 Mobile, NVidia 6150 graphics and a GB of RAM. I've already watched HD recordings on this puppy with no stutter at all. For now, though, I'll just have my main PC serving up everything to my 360 extender using both of my Happauge 150s and the HDHomerun, giving me 2 SD tuners and 2 QAM/HD tuners. When you start getting more pieces parts in, let me know. I would love to come over and tinker around with ya on it and see what we can make this thing do!
Yessir,
I looks like the pchdtv card is a lock, I've found a number of success stories and apparently the tech support team is even awesome;-)
Ive got everything....EXCEPT THE CASE. And Ill be putting it up shortly, though it might take two posts;-)
Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeet
Dude!
Looks like you got a hell of a weekend in front of you! Man, I'm envious! I was informed by Jen that I'm not allowed to start building my box until we get these damn trees cut down, so, of course, I made an immediate call to someone to give me an estimate. He was supposed to show up yesterday, but never did.
On a good note, I got my HDHomeRun yesterday. What a COOL device! It's still in "tinker" mode as QAM mappings are a total bitch! You have to scan for all the unencrypted frequencies and then convert them to physical and virtual channels, add entries to the atscprefs.xml file and then add them to the channel lineup. The end result is that CBS-HD is now channel 2031, NBC-HD is 2041, ABC 2051 and Fox 2061. I"m also picking up PBS and MyTV in there somewhere. Of course, after getting nearly all the way through the painful channel mapping process, I took a break and did some reading up on the channel mapping utility...I thought it was just a little utility that would populate the atscprefs file with the values you determine in the channel scanning...nope, it's a start to finish, automated utility! It does the scanning, writes out the .remap file, and writes the atscprefs file! Basically, you click a button, go grab a beer, come back 15 minutes later and move the resulting atscprefs file into the right directory and you're good to go! So, I killed 3.5 hours for nothing! :)
I made a HUGE discovery though... the number of times you split your cable line has a direct impact on your ability to pull in QAM signals. By the time the signal made it to my HDHR tuner, it was being split 4 times! Needless to say, initial scans only found 2 channels. I was livid! After moving my HDHR tuner up in the chain, I was able to get all the networks. Now, I've got another issue, though. By the time the signal makes it to my MCE box, the signal is pretty degraded to the point where even the digital boxes are a bit glitchy. I've got to make a swing by Rat-shack tonight on my way home and snag a cable distribution amp and see how that works out. A recommendation for your prep for making this thing living-room-ready: Have plenty of RG6 cables, splitters, S-Video and audio cables lying around. Too many is way better than not enough. The last thing you want is to be one wire short when you're about to flip the switch.
Have you got the case yet? Have you done QAM research for that tuner and did you grab the install bundles yet? You might want to read up on avsforum.com beforehand. There's a great Linux HTPC topic over there where you might find a bunch of gottchas and work arounds before you hit them yourself.
Yes, the case made it in yesterday, but I didnt have a chance to get things moving along yet. I did grab all the firmware and drivers for the Hauppauge and PCHDTV cards, so I think Im ok there. The case is a monster, again very solid and well built(though it may be a bit short...)
I took a look at the HDHomeRun and its also supported by Linux so thats very cool, you can blaze the way for me there too;-) I hope to get started on the build tonight, but we have a "dinner" engagment, that I am sure I am going to a little less than into;-)
Ill keep you posted!
How goes it? Gt things together yet?
Post a Comment