Aaron Ledger

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Anyone considering this AVR should be warned that this model doesn’t have an Ethernet port and thus any firmware upgrades must be performed by sending the unit to the service center.

Denon has already issued a fairly significant bug fix on my 2112 where the AVR was clipping video levels <16 and >235. Fortunately, the 1912 and up have Ethernet and can download these types of updates.

[swoon]

Based on your requirements, I recommend the Hauppauge Colossus (assuming you caught our review) to fulfill your first two objectives. The Colossus will do an excellent job in digitizing your VHS content and liberating the STB content.

For a FiOS DVR replacement, I recommend you go with a Digital Cable Tuner (DCT) because it will allow you to tune all of your subscribed package without requiring a STB any longer. Verizon can provide you with a CableCARD which you can use with the Ceton InfiniTV, the soon to be released Hauppauge WinTV-DCR-2650 or the soon to be released Silicon Dust HDHomeRun.

While you can use the Colossus to accomplish 3 & 4, it will require the use of a STB to tune and decode video to send to the Colossus and you can only view and/or record 1 program at a time per Colossus installed. As you add STBs and Colossus cards, the solution quickly becomes more expensive, more difficult to maintain and more bulky than a DCT.

Since SageTV has been purchased by Google, you can no longer purchase a license so you can really forget about using it since you don’t already have one. You also need not worry about Boxee which is a solution designed to play back local media files or stream Internet content. Boxee has no electronic programming guide (EPG) or support for tuners. This basically leaves you with a solution based on Windows 7 Media Center which is included with Windows 7 Home Premium and will work with DCTs as well as the Colossus.

So, the choice in DCT is would you rather have a Ceton InfiniTV 4 which fits an internal PCIe slot and offers 4 tuners, a Hauppauge WinTV-DCR-2650 which is external, connects via USB and offers 2 tuners or the Silicon Dust HDHomeRun Prime which is external, connects via Ethernet network and offers 3 tuners? For the easiest setup, I recommend the Ceton or Hauppauge solutions because in some cases, the networking solution can be a little more tricky and advanced to figure out.

[swoon]

 

Let’s presume for a moment that the Atom with the Crystal Broadcom card will suffice. You will be adding another $50 to your price which brings your Atom system to $255 compared to a MUCH better Sandy Bridge system costing $290 that Andrew put together as an example. If you can wait until the Pentium G530T comes out (by end of Sept.), you can save another ~$15.

[swoon]

Can you start a new thread. I’m sure we can help answer your questions, but let’s not hijack this one 🙂

[swoon]

I have an i3-2100 running on a DH67BLB3 board with an InfiniTV 4 and BD drive. The system has plenty of power for handling all the HTPC duties I ask of it. The stock HSF has a reasonably quiet noise level. The only reason why you would want a more powerful CPU is if you will be doing something processor intensive such as commercial skip analysis, gaming, etc.

For audio, I am using i3 HDMI audio to an AVR. There’s no need even for on-board audio when that is the configuration. If you’ll be using S/PDIF, you can use the on-board audio. If you’ll be using analog, this is a case where you may decide that a discrete card might be warranted.

You’ll certainly want a discrete GPU if you’ll also be gaming on the machine, otherwise, in most other cases, the i3 IPG is going to perform well for video decoding and presentation.

For storage, I recommend using SSD for OS drives. For HTPC, it will make loading the guide, movie library, rebooting, etc. much snappier. It is a luxury though and not required.

Since you may have extenders and considering DRAM pricing, build with 4GB at minimum.

You’re looking at a very good board/CPU combo for HTPC. I would recommend you also spend a good deal of time looking into chassis that will fit into your living room. Since you’ll probably use it for multiple builds, it is not a place to skimp IMO.

You will need BD playback software. Often times, BD drives come with an OEM copy of CyberLink PowerDVD or ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre, but they will probably be older versions and may not have all the features you need. You can likely get an upgrade price from those OEM copies if you decide you want to upgrade. For 7MC, TMT5 is the most native look and feel though PDVD11 is not bad.

We’ve got reviews on both BD software packages as well Core i3/i5 processors and the DH67BL board, so check those out to get a better feel.

[swoon]

As you mentioned in your new thread on the Atom that budget was a real concern, you may be able to save ~$30 on a Sandy Bridge system if you wait until the new Celeron line comes out. They will probably be good enough, but we’ll just have to wait and see. Estimates peg their release by end of Q3 at worst.

[swoon]

I have used Gigabyte P35, H55 and 790X boards and in the past bought into their “value”. For the Sandy Bridge gen, I decided to try Intel boards and have recently built 3 DH67BL boards (1 i3-2100 and 2 i5-2500k). I couldn’t be more pleased with the quality of the boards and utilities.

Gigabyte boards (and many other 3rd parties) use Realtek NICs. They are “OK” for a client, but they really aren’t that great. One of my Gigabyte boards even had Realtek silicon that caused all offloads to be incorrect. When I used an HDHomeRun, I had to buy an Intel NIC to make it work perfectly without incurring network losses.

Both my Gigabyte P35 and 790X boards also had issues with not resuming from sleep properly 100% of the time.

Intel boards have great BIOS features and boot much quicker. As a bonus, the BIOS can be configured to not display a splash such that all you see is the Windows splash when booting which is much more CE-like experience.

The management utilities and driver package are more professional and relevant.

DH67BL or DH67GD would both be good choices for micro-ATX boards.

[swoon]

Run away from that board. You will not be able to use Flash in HD without it choking. Have you considered a media player or streamer? If your budget is a problem to the point where a modest budget HTPC as we suggested in the previous thread is out of the question, you’re probably going to be much happier with a media player than this Atom-based board you’re looking at.

[swoon]

I haven’t tried 16GB, but I am using 8GB of this @ 1333 1.5v just fine. I suppose it may be capable of 1600 @ 1.5v, it’s just not spec’d for it so YMMV.

[swoon]

If you’ve got your heart set on a mini-ITX platform, you can certainly get that. Here’s a $70 H67 board.

[swoon]

Unless you are strapped for space, the suggested Sandy Bridge platform is a much better idea. It will still run cool and be very power-efficient.

[swoon]

I think the Pentium G620-based system Andrew suggested fits your requirements very well. I definitely agree that you should not build the system you originally posted. The SNB Pentium system has a lot of legs and will serve you well for a long time. If your needs grow down the line, you can throw in some very powerful processors, discrete GPUs, additional storage, etc. On its own, the G620 is more than capable of playing back virtually everything there is today in video and handling basic record/playback HTPC duties.

[swoon]

Mike, don’t you read our forums? 

[swoon]

Let’s start with your budget (hard number you can’t exceed) and what sorts of tasks you want your HTPC to perform and then we can go from there.

[swoon]

Great deal. Thanks for sharing!

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