Newbie to HTPC's

N

Nethel

n00b
Joined
Dec 13, 2004
Messages
46
Okay, my friend has recruited me to help him set up his new house with a kick ass home theater system. He will be going balls out on this, and money is not too much of an object.

First lets begin with what I know how to do. I can build him a PC. This PC can serve up music and video, and live TV to one TV.

What I need help on is serving this up to multiple rooms. He'd like to have the ability to watch a different show in two rooms, and record one of the streams. He'd like to be able to listen to some different music in each room (nice, but not necessary), along with playing the same music throught the house for parties. I've read about the Media Center Extenders, but I read they are not able to deliver HDTV. Is there any way to multi room HDTV and the audio that comes with it, apart from having multiple HTPC's?
 
Sounds like you'll want to build a media server and then some little client HTPCs.

1.) Media Server: Something in an A64 with atleast a gig of memory, several HDDs (5+) atleast 250gigs using RAID5 and several PVR150s or PVR500s as needed.

2.) Small HTPCs in each room or a mix of HTPCs and Hauppauge MediaMVPs (an HTPC in the living room with several MVPs in the bedrooms). The thinking on this is to centralise as much of the video and music as possible that way you can watch one TV show off of the server in one room while someone listens to music in another room and someone watches a DVD in the living room and another listens to some music in the kitchen (I like to cook and find music very conductive to the process. :) ) all while your media server records something like half a dozen shows at once.

Something like that. ;)

How many TVs? What TV service does he have? How many rooms? What TVs and connectors do they have? Is there a home network already installed? BTW this is something MCE won't do, I suggest using SageTV for the server PVR work and Meedio with Sage Client.

Go to PC Alchemy and get the copy of SageTV in a hardware bundle (saves some cash) and then buy a couple of copies of Sage Client for each HTPC (You might just need one or two, theres a mod for using Sage with the MVP also) and then Meedio. Meedio is going to be setup on the main HTPC which would sit in the living room with a copy of Sage Client running within Meedio, SageTV would be on the media server and setup in "Server mode" for recording. I'd also suggest getting the Web server plug in as well which would let him check up on whats being recorded from any web connection, example would be say the Misses calls him up at work and says that she's running late, could he record "Oprah" <or insert whatever afternoon show women watch> for her. Problem is he's still at work but with that plugin all he has to do is open a browser up to whatever address he gave the Sage server and then tell it to record <Generic womens show>.
 
How many TVs?
I think 4 TV's, but will check.
What TV service does he have?
I believe Comcast Digital.
How many rooms?
5 rooms, one with no TV.
What TVs and connectors do they have?
Will mostly be new TV's, one existing Sony 36", will get connectors. We're thinking a projector for the main screen, with a HDMI/DVI connection of course.
Is there a home network already installed?
Yes, it will be wired for networking.

Okay, so I need a capture card (or 1 for 2 in the case of the PVR150s) for every stream I want to watch and record, correct? If I buy one of the PVR150s bundled with Sage, it says I need to buy PVR150MCEs to add more cards to the system, is that correct? If I use WinXP with Meedio, and not MCE, is there any way I can still use a remote on the main machine?

How is the sound quality out of the MVPs? Would we be better off wiring the house for sound as well as networking, and just running it out of a reciever? If we decide to use HTPC's instead of the MVPs, what kind of specs are we looking at? For each room, is a good video card necessary to get the most out of the streams provided by the server? Do we need a good sound card in each of the computers?

The Meedio looks like an intriguing piece of software. He was also considering home automation, how would that interface with the hardware aspects of a system? It says, "Use your remote control, touchscreen, or Pocket PC to manage all your devices from a single interface." How would you use the software to control the hardware, and how would it communicate?
 
Okay since it's DigiCable you should check out ID's project: http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=873983

You'd need to do something like that for him.

Sound out of the MVPs doesn't matter much since you're using the TV's built in speakers. Personally I don't think it makes sense to get a reciever for the TVs that aren't the main TV.

Meedio can control X10 modules, 'nuff said. ;)

Okay so what I'm thinking is that the main room would benefit from the HTPC (this is a give in) and the bedrooms are fine with MVPs and any sort of Office/den would benefit from a small HTPC.
 
if money is no object, I wouldn't use MVP's. the remote is not great and the playback is limited to the few supported formats. also, if you are going to do sage, the sage plug in for the MVP's works, but has some underlying issues. of course, if money is any kind of concern, they are a great value.
 
I suggest you check out MythTV. Its client server right out of the box.
 
so is sage. so is gotTV. Myth is good, but unless you have Linux background or are ready to learn, it is not a first choice. also, there isn't anything as powerful as FFDshow for linux and playing CSS encrypted DVD's is a hack in Linux.
 
Word to the wise....

Move slow and prototype as much as you can. Nothing is worse than dumping probally 10k+ in his case and have a pile or stuff that just doesn't work right.

Also I think MCE supports extenders..but I think they are 200-300 each but I do think they support DVD's accross network with x.1 sound.

-tReP
 
Thanks for all the advice! I really think I will have to make a summer trip up there an set this all up for him.

He will have 5 TV's in 5 rooms, three rooms he wants full audio in. So, we can do 3 small clients, and 2 MVP's/Extenders. I still need some generic specs on how much power those things need. I will also need 5 tuners from the cable company, right?

What a project this is turning out to be!
 
Well for something like this I'd use something like this:
video card: http://www.computerhq.com/XGI_V3XT_...IT_64MB_BULK/products/partinfo-id-539217.html
or
Replace stock fan with a passive cooler

CPU: http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=19-103-440&depa=0
Run it at around 1Ghz at the absolutely lowest vcore and you could probably do it passively.

mobo: http://www.pcalchemy.com/product_info.php/cPath/47/products_id/192

Or but you'd have to use a regular AXP chip:
http://www.pcalchemy.com/product_info.php/cPath/47/products_id/162
Could use the onboard video also

With about 512mbs of memory something like an 80gig Seagate HDD if you need the local space.

You'll need as many Cable boxes as you have PVR cards, five PVR cards means five cable boxes.

What I would get for a client HTPC:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=19-103-440&depa=0
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=35-109-120&depa=0
http://www.pcalchemy.com/product_info.php/cPath/47/products_id/192
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-141-413&depa=0
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=22-148-015&depa=0
http://www.computerhq.com/XGI_V3XT_...IT_64MB_BULK/products/partinfo-id-539217.html
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=27-130-027&depa=0
http://www.pcalchemy.com/product_info.php/cPath/34/products_id/211
http://www.pcalchemy.com/product_info.php/cPath/23/products_id/212

Thats about under $700 for each client box.
 
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