Dmitri's HTPC Project

OK, I dropped the ball on this blog. The project was quasi-completed. It was assembled and did power up, but I immediately ran into two problems. One, the thing was way too loud. Two, there seemed to be some sort of power problem. I would press power and the fan would start and then power down. Multiple presses would make the fan run longer until it would finally start up. I replaced the power supply with with a Seasonic, a high quality PSU that is whisper quiet. The noise problem persisted, so I would need to take a closer look into it. The power problem didn't abate either. I poked around on some of the htpc forums and consensus was there was some sort of short, which is well beyond my ability to diagnose. I've consider taking it to a shop to be checked out but I'm just not interested in potentially dropping some serious quid with potentially no solution. I will re evaluate once my next big project is complete. See the other blog....

Some more picts

Ok, So here's the case I went with. It's a Silverstone LC14B-M.

I just fugg it, and pulled the trigger. I picked up a Dual Layer DVD burner and a copy of Windows from ZipZoomFly, and went to PC Alchemy for the Silverstone LC14M in black.

So, I'm crawling forward on this. I want to get it done but I have the following issues staring me down:

• Case. Probably going with the LC14M, but I hate the fact that I don't know what the thing looks like in person. I'm uncertain it'll be fine.
• Noise. This could end up being an on going issue for me, but I have this worry that the noise generated by this thing is going to render it more annoying than useful.
• Data back up. I have several dozen GB of data I'd really rather not lose. I want to borrow an external Harddrive, but I don't really have one accessable. I could use the extra hard disk that is goign to go into my system, but I don't want to partition it down from 250 GB.
• I just need to hook it up to my current home theater set up to make sure the video and audio are going to behave the way they should.

Staples has a great deal on the Microsoft Wireless Intellimouse Explorer (crimson). Only $12.95! A nice inexpensive backup for a remote. I picked mine up yesterday.

Hi all. More progress! I was having a problem with BeyondTV, where it seemed like the first TV signal it would get when it started up would be stretched. It was like It was taking the left half of the screen and stretching it over the entire width of the screen. I posted about it over at htpcnews.com. Before I got any responses there, though I poked around at Snapstream's support forums, and found the solution. It seems to be working just fine. This pretty much locked me into BeyondTV, but what put it over the top was the $20 eCoupon Snapstream mailed me. So I bought it last night.

I also went to Radio Shack last night to pick up a cable that will allow me to get a digital signal out of my SoundBlaster Live 5.1 and into my receiver. I'll post the details of the cable once I know it works. I should send normal PC sounds, as well as Dolby Digital and DTS signals for DVD.

I'm continuing to hold off the case decision yet. I realize that once I order that I'm pretty much going to be putting the system together, and want to not have to do that over and over again. So I figure the next step is to test the connectivity from my system to the receiver. I'm going to disconnect my current PC, and move it next to my TV stand. My video card a GeForce 4 TI4400 by Gainward features a Video-In-Video-Out connector. It can export a signal either via a normal RCA video out or S-Video. My receiver a Denon (insert model number here), accept both, but my TV only accept normal RCA A/V inputs. Yes the TV was never meant for this. It was a 25 inches piece of Sharp that I bought at Best Buy back in 99 that was only ever supposed to live in my bedroom. I was living with a roommate at the time that had plunked down for a beautiful 36 inch Sony Trinitron. After I moved out, it became my main TV, as I held out for HD prices to come down. Between then and now, HD did sort of meander down, but I also got laid off, had to move from a nice 2 bedroom place into a smaller place, and finally into a Studio in NY. Now while I think I would plunk down for an HD solution if it were just a matter of price, I simply lack the space for one. Anyway, that's my TV sob story. My soundcard is a Creative Labs SoundBlaster Live! 5.1. It has a funky S/PDIF out that is a mini jack. I need to swing by Radio Shack to snag a cable that has a mono-minjack on one end and an RCA plug on the other end. I knew this would work for getting a Dolby Digital audio signal while playing DVDs, but I wasn't sure if I would get normal non DVD audio from that output when watching TV or playing MP3s. A quick query on HTPC News revealed the answer was yes. Thanks guys! I'll visit the Shack today and attempt the move this week.

The other thing on my plate is create a plugin for BeyondTV for Meedio. There is an existing one, but all it does is bring up BeyondTV when Meedio is closed. I want something that integrates it more into Meedio so going back and forth isn't quite so hacky. I did decide to go with BeyondTV, the web interface for recording shows is just too cool.

I just added the Silverstone LC14M case to the case comparison table. So far it's the front runner. Not being able to view these cases in person is really getting to be a pain. This case in particular because it has a plastic section in the middle of it that could end up looking decent or looking horrible. Silverstone's website doesn't help matters by have their pictures primarily of the black unit which really don't help you get an idea of how the thing may look in a natural setting. It does have a few pluses. The VFD/IR unit is USB, so none of that rear parallel port cable coming back into the case silliness. It includes a remote, which is nice. I mean it's not the Remote of the Gods, but it'll probably be adequate. Also of note is that I'm actually "flip-flopping", or as I like to call it: "rethinking my position based on new and relevant information", on an issue. This case has two expose drive doors. Previous to now, I'd always thought that was silly. What do I really need 2 drives for? I figured one DVD Burner was all the drive I would need. But something occurred to me yesterday. DVD is the format of right now, but on the not so distant horizon we have Blu ray, HD-DVD, and/or possibly a unified format. In any case, I'll need another drive to play that, thus a second drive no longer seems so useless.