2. home-theater
  3. 1048288886

Any interest in a Home Theater PC Specification?

I have been playing with a spec of sorts.
Taken pieces from a variety of sources.
Have not had it built ... please feel free to comment and make suggestions ... now it will be very cheap to change.

The biggest challenge so far is keeping it QUIET.

Here you go ....
HTPC Specifications / Wish List
2003–03–21

General system requirements:
•HDTV Decoding at 480i/480p/720p/1080i natively
•Recording HDTV to hard drive
•DVD and CD-Recordable Drive
•Highest Quality Case and quiet cooling
•Progressive Scan DVD output at up to 1080p
•Dolby Digital and DTS via S/PDIF or 8-Channel analog output

Pre-installed SW
•Windows XP Pro
•TheaterTek DVD Player
•Cyberlink's PowerDVD XP4.0
•EnTech's PowerStrip
•MyHD HDTV Application

Specifications (options are in italics / DC = http://www.digitalconnection.com/))
•Black (powder coated not spay painted) Metal Case / Cast aluminum faceplate (prefer 17" wide to match other components)
•Enermax P4 Compliant 350W "Whisper" Dual Fan Power Supply ($49 @ DC model number EG301PFMA)
•Optional use of a Zalman 300W Silent PS ($??)
•Silencer Quiet 80mm PC Case Fan 20dB @ $12
•Zalman Quiet CNPS6000-ALCU Copper Heatsink/Fan (available for P3 @ $40 or so from DC)
•Optional Zalman Quiet Pentium 4 Socket 478 Copper Heatsink Cooler @ $50 from DC)
•ASUS P4B533 ATX Motherboard with Intel i845 Chipset 9 (preferred)
•P4 (1.8 GHz minimum)
•Zalman Silver Rounded Cables Aluminum Braided Cover (Premium IDE and Floppy Rounded cables)
•MyHD MDP-100 HDTV Tuner/Decoder PCI Card
•Toshiba's new 16x12x10x40 with TheaterTek @ $120
•Pioneer DVR-A05 DVD-R/CD-RW Drive (painted black - at DC for $309)
•ATI Radeon 9000 AGP 64 MB DVI/VGA Graphics
•Zalman Copper Heatsink Fins Copper Video Card Heatsink Wings no Fan ZM17-CU @ $22 for Radion video card
•M-Audio Revolution PCI 24/192 Digital/Analog 8 channel sound card w/TheaterTek (just released @ $139 at DC)
•512MB PC2100 DDR, 1.44MB Floppy Drive
•80GB Primary/120GB Hard Drives (Seagate Baricuda V / No Vibes III suspension)
•IEEE 1394 Firewire
•56K V.90 Fax/Modem and 10/100BT NIC (Cable/DSL Modem)
•Windows XP Pro with CD Pre-installed
•Infrared Wireless keyboard and mouse
Comments

Case & Power Supply
1.a Kanam HT-200B (black @ $245 - DC) seems a good choice and can be ordered with 350W Enermax PS with adjustable fan ($65at DC)
2.Avance CI-6004BM Low Profile Black Plastic Bezel ATX 300W PS @ $99
3.The ideal case is the one used by RKR called the Titan RD Home Theatre PC
4. There is a "Barebones rack mount system which includes Pioneer DVD & P4 / motherboard for around $1000
Video Card (please advise - I am open to selecting the best for progressive scan DVD 720p & HDTV)
- ATI Radeon (I am not a gameboy ... want the best VGA projector match - Runco 930 DTV CRT)
- most stable and least number of bugs

DVD
- Toshiba's new 16x12x10x40 with TheaterTek if possible ($120+ at DC)

HDTV
- FusionHDTV with remote control ($178 at DT)
- not sure it is required but I saw it advertised and it may be of interest.
harleyhawk
mrpoindexter
63 posts
 
If you want the best video quality, you need to get an Immersive Holo3DGraph card. Preferably the new H3DII that is coming out now. It will act as a capture card via S-video, composite, component and SDI. The H3DII has the newest faroudja chip, uses a 12 pot scaler and has add on options for an HDTV I/O board, an MPEG hardware decoder board like the XCard, an RGBHV output card and an extra input card for up to 4 more SDI inputs. It does everything in hardware, so you could put it in a PC with a real low end CPU like the 1.12 GHz celeron, which is famous for being able to run WITHOUT a fan. You would only need the fan for your power supply and you are set.

For cases, the best looking cases are the CRT Cinema and A-Tech fabrication cases. Unless you knew the cases beforehand, you wouldn't know it was a computer.
geoffgarcia
92 posts
 
I see that PC's used for HT are becoming more and more popular.

Looks like your rolling DVD player/decoder, audio preamp/processor all into one unit.

Is the quality a PC puts out better? or is it just cheaper?
What gives? I'm wondering why people are using this alternative to the typical "boxes"
mrpoindexter
63 posts
 
An $1100 home theater PC will look a lot better than a $10000 DVD player/video scaler combo.

You are rolling the DVD player and scaler into one unit, but are not using it for an audio pre-amp. The HTPC isn't going to top a low end stereo receiver in that category, but it is pretty tough to beat for DVD playback. With an SDI modified DVD player and an H3D card, you will probably be beating anything short of a Teranex.

A $2000 reference VHS deck won't look as good as a $400 DVD player. Likewise, a $2000 reference DVD player won't look as good as a much cheaper HTPC. It isn't even close. Go to AVS forum and find somebody in your area who has one and ask if you can come over and see it. Once you do, you will understand.
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