New HTPC Build for Dedicated theater need help, Pics

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Marcdaddy

2[H]4U
Joined
Feb 21, 2003
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Well my room is pretty much Complete all i have to do is move my Subwoofer to its final posistion and throw in my Center speaker which came Friday. I will list all my components but first here is what i need and want from my new HTPC. I want to play Blue-Ray/HD-DVD rips, i wont be gaming on this rig at all. I also wont need a tuner card for this setup either. What i do need is a soundcard capable of True Audio HD 7.1, a Video card that is the best suited for all hd playback i dont care about cost. A dedicated HTPC case ( keep cost on this from $100 to $200 ) Not sure on the Operating System, Needs lots of Hard Drive storage, i will like to get a windows media remote as well. As far as Mobo/CPU im open to suggestion, I do have a Athlon 3800X2 and Asus Mobo as well as a BFG 800 watt Power supply on hand but I will buy anything that is gonna just all out kick ass.
Here is what i have setup and ready to rock and roll.

RECIEVER - SONY DA5300ES this thing is pretty much the SHIZNIT does everything, says in the instruction manuel it will even wash my car. http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs...10151&langId=-1&productId=8198552921665532067

PROJECTOR - PANASONIC PT-AE2000U I love this projector colors and clearity are amazing. http://www.panasonic.com/business/projectors/ae2000/index.asp

SCREEN - CARADA 108 inch Brilliant White Matches up with my Panay very well, i was very excited to see the quality which Rivals my Sharp Aquos 52-92U LCD
http://www.carada.com/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=PROJECTION-SCREEN-H110C

SPEAKERS - NILES AUDIO HD-6 i used 7 of these and a Velodyne 12 Sub, I also bought the Metal IN_WALL speaker Enclousers to mount these speakers in, Very crisp clean sound.
http://www.nilesaudio.com/product.p...categoryID=Speakers&catcdID=1&prdcdID=FG00883

SEATING - I got 3 of these from Ashley Furniture in Black, it ran me about $1250
http://www.ashleyfurniture.com/Show...yle=&PageNumber=1&IsClicked=1&CatPageNumber=1
Sorry for the Crude Pics my wife has the good camera hehe.





 
Ive been looking online and cant find a Sound Card that fully supports True 7/1 HD audio or am i missing something?
 
looks like a nice setup. i wish i had that much cash to spend.
auzentech is coming out with a new card sson that supports the new hd formats but last i heard it been delayed.
 
I would go with Vista 32... Seems to work better with HTPC apps... Since cash isn't a concern, I would also go with a dedicated server to load all the media on... Blu-ray rips start taking up alot of HDD space... I use a WHS box with 6TBs to stream my rips to all my HTPCs(which only happens to be one at the moment) hehe...
 
Ugh, horrible placement of the center. I'd drop the center completely; you don't need it because your seating is good.

You do realize the STR-DA5400ES is out, right?
 
why would u say its a horrible placement of the centre channel?? it actually should be right under the screen if it cant be behind it. and why in the world would you think you dont need a centre channel???
 
He's in the center of his properly placed L/R channels which will make a phantom center 100% as good as an actual center if not better, especially a center of compromised design such as a horizontal MTM which will LIMIT his off-axis response.

All of your speakers should have the tweeters as close to ear level as possible. The only proper way to do it is with an acoustically transparent screen. Period. The floor is not acceptable and even if he got a stand to put it right under the screen, it would still not serve much if any practical purpose.
 
dandragonrage said:
He's in the center of his properly placed L/R channels which will make a phantom center 100% as good as an actual center if not better, especially a center of compromised design such as a horizontal MTM which will LIMIT his off-axis response.

All of your speakers should have the tweeters as close to ear level as possible. The only proper way to do it is with an acoustically transparent screen. Period. The floor is not acceptable and even if he got a stand to put it right under the screen, it would still not serve much if any practical purpose.
Click to expand...
I've got my center channel on a little table below my screen and it sounds pretty amazing. Also considering any discretely encoded media type usually uses the center channel for the overwhelming majority of the voice tracks, and much of the primary sounds you hear. I would argue you need to spend more on a better center channel speaker rather than cut it out of the picture. You just don't get the same sound as having a "phantom" center.
 
w1retap said:
I've got my center channel on a little table below my screen and it sounds pretty amazing. Also considering any discretely encoded media type usually uses the center channel for the overwhelming majority of the voice tracks, and much of the primary sounds you hear. I would argue you need to spend more on a better center channel speaker rather than cut it out of the picture. You just don't get the same sound as having a "phantom" center.
Click to expand...

Could not agree more. My center is just above the TV and I paid good money for it. A good quality center keeps you from turning up the volume of the whole system because you can't here what the people are saying.
 
dandragonrage said:
He's in the center of his properly placed L/R channels which will make a phantom center 100% as good as an actual center if not better, especially a center of compromised design such as a horizontal MTM which will LIMIT his off-axis response.

All of your speakers should have the tweeters as close to ear level as possible. The only proper way to do it is with an acoustically transparent screen. Period. The floor is not acceptable and even if he got a stand to put it right under the screen, it would still not serve much if any practical purpose.
Click to expand...

first of all im not blind and hes not in the center of his room. hes more towards the rear. i disagree with your stance on placement of the center channel under the screen (yes the floor is not good enough).

i guess they dont know what their talking about either.......

http://www.dolby.com/consumer/home_entertainment/roomlayout.html

ps: your phantom channel is only going to work properly if the media is mixed that way, sme goes for the center channel. but seeing how most movie media is using some form of 5.1 - 7.1 setups it would be more prudent to use that kind of setup.

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-gH219YGJoLL/learn/reviews/20030923/5_1_sound.html?page=2
 
A good receiver will blend the center into your FL/FR if you tell it you have no center.

Also, when I say center of the room, I thought it obvious that I meant left-to-right, not front-to-back.
 
Even on good receivers, blending sounds too stereo-ish, especially on discrete channel encoded movies.
 
Nice, sorry about drooling all over your furniture, set up looks awesome though.
 
dandragonrage said:
Ugh, horrible placement of the center. I'd drop the center completely; you don't need it because your seating is good.

You do realize the STR-DA5400ES is out, right?
Click to expand...

My center speaker is know in the enclosure, And Niles audio HD-6 have adjustments so i can angle the sound up from there, That Speaker on the floor was a temporary Fix until the 7th HD-6 showed up.
In regards to the DA5400ES, i bought the 5300ES earlier in the year.
I also moved my Velodyne sub the Front left of the Screen, The speakers are close to all ear level. The system sounds FANTASTIC using the Built in Calibration of the Sony Reciever with the supplied Microphone.
Im gonna start to order my HTPC stuff today, looking at starting out with atleast 2 Terabytes. Im still concerned about the sound card i can buy something now as a temporary fix i suppose until i can get what i need at a later date.
 
Ordering everything tomorrow, looks like ill have to hold off on the sound card i want and choose something for the short term.
 
In general

  • fronts, keep at ear level
  • rears, keep above ear level

However, it should be avoided to put them below ear level "if possible". The human, has the ability to pinpoint, to greater extent, if the sound is below the ear. Therefore, in most cases, the lower the center channel is, the better than chance you ears will be able to tell that the voices are coming from the speaker and not from the screen. However, a proper center with a wide cones of sound can minimize this effect. Also, slightly tilting the center up (if it is below the screen) helps quite a bit as well.
 
Ya it is tilted up, But since i sit so far from it i dont really notice that it is coming from under the screen. The only way i could have done properly i guess would have been behind the screen, then i would have had to buy a perforated screen and i didnt seem to keen doing that.
 
looks great, for a motherboard i would look into either a 780g amd motherboard or an intel 9300 nvidia chipset. both do well with blu-ray..... the 780 might have some issues with panning and 24fps blu-ray... but i havent seen it, yet.
 
It might be too late, but if I'm not mistaken the 4xxx series of the ATI line, does 7.1 audio on the vidcard with hardware decoding as well.
 
No its not too late, hehe. Im making the order from Newegg when i get home from work tomorrow, Im still sorting it all out in my shopping cart, Im gonna check out that card.
 
Please cover up those intake vents on the projector. The pannys are very prone to dust blobs and it looks like there isnt a lack of dust around that thing as it it.
 
Ok first what is a Dust Blob, and is it safe to cover up the vents? It sounds like it could overheat.
 
a dust blob is a piece of dust that gets in the light path of the projector that is visible on the screen. Don't block the vents but you could cover them with some sort of filters. Some people use, believe it or not, pantyhose.
 
needmorecarnitine said:
http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=25&l2=150&l3=0&l4=0&model=2355&modelmenu=1

http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=25&l2=150&l3=0&l4=0&model=2385&modelmenu=1


You need to do a search over at avsforum to see how well it works. I have no idea


Here is a start: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1065232
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info!
And yes i looked up dust blobs hehe, glad i got a 4 year extended warrenty, My projector does have a filter on the side which i can clean occasionally. Hopefully i wont get any dust blobs.
 
Marcdaddy said:
Gonna buy the XONAR 1.3 and see if it works, i hope it does.
Click to expand...
stay away from that card unless you like headaches...

That said, have you considered the newer Nvidia onboard chipsets? The 8200/8300/9300/9400 chipsets can output LPCM 7.1 and video over a single HDMI. Let your receiver do the work...

Here's my planned build:
-----------------------
HTPC SYSTEM
-----------------------
CASE: Antec Veris Fusion V2 Black (w/430w PSU) = $160.99
MOBO: GIGABYTE GA-E7AUM-DS2H LGA 775 NVIDIA GeForce 9400 HDMI Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail = $134.99
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0GHz Processor = $159.50
MEM: G.SKILL PI Black 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL4D-4GBPI-B - Retail = $59.99
CPU HEATSINK: Scythe SCMNJ-1000 80mm Sleeve "NINJA MINI" CPU Cooler - Retail = 35.99
CHIPSET HEATSINK: Thermalright HR-05 SLI/IFX Chipset Cooler = $26.99
HDD0: (WD 1TB - already owned) = $N/A
HDD1: Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31500341AS 1.5TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive (bare drive) - OEM = $129.99
TUNER(S): Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1800 HD tuner = $95.00
HD OTA ANTENNA: Philips PHDTV1 Silver Sensor UHF/HDTV Digital Indoor TV Antenna = $24.99
MOUSE/KEYBOARD: LOGITECH diNovo Mini = $125.00
OPTICAL DRIVE: LG Black 6X Blu-ray DVD-ROM 16X DVD-ROM 40X CD-ROM SATA Internal Combo LG Blu-ray/HD DVD-ROM & 16X DVD±R DVD Burner Model GGC-H20LK - OEM = $129.99
REMOTE: Microsoft Remote Control W/RECEIVER = $36.96
MISC: Need MOLEX TO SATA Adapter to add power for third SATA device (http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...10226&cs_id=1022604&p_id=2195&seq=1&format=2)) = $1.27

Planned software (all already owned):
- Vista 64-bit (VMC + MyMovies Plugin)
- Firefox
- Orb (Server)
- Simplify Media (Server)
- iTunes (Server)
- VLC
- PowerDVD and WinDVD
- Slysoft AnyDVD HD
- VideoRedo TVsuite
- DVDshrink
- Daemon Tools Lite
- WinRAR
- PAR Buddy
- Newsleecher
- B*Torrent
- MediaMonkey
- Hamachi
- Handbrake
------------------------------------------------------------------
ESTIMATED HTPC SUBTOTAL = $1121.65
------------------------------------------------------------------
 
For the case I would recommend the Silverstone LC17 over the antec. I have the NSK-2400 (the "lite" version of the fusion that doesn't have the VFD or remote (because i don't like vfds and already have a remote and i wanted 2 cd-rom drives) Anyways these would be my reasons for choosing the Silverstone over the antec:

- doesn't have a vfd because I dislike them (you might like them though)
- cheaper
- supports full ATX (being limited to only micro atx does suck when upgrade time comes around)
- 6 internal 3.5 bays instead of 2
- predrilled screw holes for rackmounting it....could come in handy if you ever decide to move it to an actual rack in a closet (additionally, you could repurpose the box as a server in the future if you decide you dislike it as a HTPC case because of all the hard drive bays it has.
- I think it looks as good as, or better than the antec case.

I've been thinking about getting it and giving the antec to my sister. :)
 
As for the computer components - why are you not going core i7? Every build i've ever done i've gone with the newest chipset and i have never been disappointed (875, 915, G33 chipsets and their matching processors all within the month of release). Getting them early isn't as much of a premium as you'd think, and they have a MUCH longer lifespan and upgrade path - my 875 system saw a good 5 years of service until i needed to upgrade.
 
rofl... seriously? ahaaha. Man I love [H]... sometimes it is just downright hilarious.
 
Isnt core I7 overkill, How bout just a Q6600? Sounds like that would be more then enuff, Im gonna go with that silverstone case it looks pretty sweet.
 
I use the analog outputs of my x-fi to my onkyo 605 and get all the lossless sound from blu-rays. im using arcsoft totalmedia theater.
 
Why would you go Q6600? You either need power (i7) or you don't (anything that doesn't take the ridiculous power that Q6600s and i7s do).
 
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