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I am a fan of the panny tv’s their built in media/DLNA features are really nice and have the ability to add apps when new ones come out.

-Josh

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[quote=jrandeck]A Radeon 6450 or 6570 or NVida GT 430 or better should fit the bill here from what you’ve said and should fit in your budget just fine.[/quote]

 

What he said: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150581

6450 for like $30 will get you all the advance hardware acceleration, get you HDMI audio, and then some.

 

-Josh

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I am still a fan of Sharks. I have never gone wrong with using sharks, I just don’t install everything it comes with, I don’t install AC3 filter, or any of the other addons sharks put into the install.

-Josh

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[quote=rocks911]

I apologize for ranting.

other than that, nevermind. You can erase my post

[/quote]

Why would we delete the post? We’re here to help, I tend to make side remarks about things because I don’t want to get a post on a one way biased track. Other people read these posts and want to make sure everyone gets a valid stake in the game (IE Media Center).

We are here to help, the biggest issue that people have, which is what I assume you are having is that you jumped in and purchased the first thing possible, research is your friend when it comes to HTPC’s and getting them setup correctly.

-Josh

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[quote=rocks911]

Thanks for the replies, please dont go to fussing on my account. I was a little quick to post my frustrations, so for that In apologize. I think exhaustion and vodka had me just a tad edgy.[/quote]

As George said it’s all in good fun here.

[quote]

I like XBMC because to me it is quite elegant and provides a good user experience particularly for my wife (and it’s all important to get her buy-in) because there is tremendous support for the app and it’s not geared towards selling you something. I’ve just grown tired of Microsoft and Apple developing apps that loop you around to a store with every mouse click. I know thats what corporations do but I dont have to like it.[/quote]

Not sure what you mean about Microsoft trying to “sell” you something, that is the farthest from it when it comes to Media Center, it is soooooo far disconnected from anything else that MS does.

[quote]

Thanks for the links to the PS3 workarounds. Theres another manufacturer whos products are awfully restrictive, PS3 dont like Microsoft, Microsoft dont like Apple, Apple dont like anybody and I’m tired of the restraints they put on technology.[/quote]

What restraints are you talking about? Seems like mindless ranting really.

 

 

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[quote=mpatnode]

[quote=buddymd]

I’ve also been wondering about the two flat-screen TV hook-up. Is it even possible to watch two shows at once (football games) with a Ceton card and whatever app I use to watch FIOS TV?

[/quote]

Basically DHCP restrictions are going to bite you if try this trick, but I’m wondering if you could pull this off by running a VM on one screen, and then sharing the Ceton card over the network?   But as mentioned previously, you’re going to have a headache with the remote…

[/quote]

Best bet is as I mentioned above, using extenders for the second TV. That is the only real option as you can’t watch two different shows from one pc at the same time without an extender.

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[quote=buddymd]
Initially, I’d like to build an HTPC on which I can stream netflix; play cool games; watch the occasional movie (I have a large library of ISO and VIDEO_TS movies); and hook FIOS into so that I can watch/record the occasional show; maybe play music occasionally.[/quote]

Neflix is easy, however multiple screens in the scenario you are talking about isn’t easy. Same with gaming. Movies are a no brainer there.

Fios is bascially the same technology as cable tv, so pick up a cable card tuner (Ceton quad tuner, Silicon Dust HD home run prime, and Happauge). Run windows media center and you’ll have a multi tuner, virtually unlimited storage DVR solution.

[quote]
I’ve shopped a bit on-line for a large case and found the huge range in prices, higher-priced cases coming with an LCD, controls on the front, etc. I think I’ve settled on the Antec Fusion Remote Max, largely because of looks and large (quiet) fans. I looked at the really high-end cases, but I don’t see a compelling reason to spend the extra $300+ to get the 7″ touchscreen LCD on the front. The $500+ cases don’t seem to offer that much more functionality. What does the touchscreen LCD do that I need, or am I missing something with those cases? I just read that the touchscreen LCD is nice to control playing music so that you don’t have to have the big screen powered on. Anything else?[/quote]

Honestly all of the cases with built in LCD screen cause nothing but trouble and headaches. Don’t bother. You can control music and all that without your tv on with an ipad, andriod tablet, smartphone, ect… just all depends on the software you run.

[quote]

I’ve also been wondering about the two flat-screen TV hook-up. Is it even possible to watch two shows at once (football games) with a Ceton card and whatever app I use to watch FIOS TV?[/quote]

1.) PC running windows media center

2.) Cable card tv tuner

3.) one or two xbox 360’s

http://www.hdhomesportsbar.com/2011/01/windows-media-center-controller-for-hd.html

go there, watch the video, see his setup. He takes multiple TV’s connects Windows Media Center Extenders to each tv (Xbox 360 is a Media Center Extender).

What you can do is connect your HTPC to one TV, and the 360 to the other tv, and this will allow you to watch two different things at the same time on each tv.

Setup media center with an IR receiver to only accept media center IR commands, and setup the Xbox to only accept Xbox IR commands, and you can control them separately without the IR commands interfering with each other. This is by far the easiest and pretty much the most straight forward option.

-Josh

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[quote=skirge01]

[quote=umdivx]

Blasphemy…. how can you NOT like Media Center 😉

[/quote]

Simple… he has good taste.  He CLEARLY would have chosen SageTV if it were still available.  😉

[/quote]

you can take that java based crayon drawn UI and keep it.

-Josh

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[quote=rocks911]

I ordered a Snapstream Firefly remote. That was a mistake, it’s not really supported by the manufacturer. It arrived with severely corroded batteries and an installation CD with a date of 2006. I cant even get it to load on my new machine. Probably have to eat that.[/quote]

That is one issue you have right there. The snapstream remote is and was only made for beyond TV. So out of the box it will only work with the Beyond TV application. What you want to do is find a remote that will work out of the box for whatever “front end gui” you are using, in your case it appears XBMC.

here’s a good list of reviews for remotes for XBMC: http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Remote_Control_Reviews

[quote]I have a 2 story house with a mancave upstairs. The cave is where the PC is and an A/V center with an Emotiva pre/pro, a Sunfire amp and 5.1 speakers. I also have a 58″ Panny plasma. Downstairs in the family room I have an LCD. The PC has HDMI out of the video card and thats what I want to share with the TV’s runnign XBMC. I also have 2 PS3’s and a  WD TV.[/quote]

Next question is are you trying to share the video out from this one PC to both TV’s?

If you are, and you are hell bent on using XBMC maybe check out http://www.xbmc4ps3.org/ this will get the XBMC interface running on the PS3’s.

[quote]How do I get all this to work?[/quote]

Maybe some more details on exactly what you are trying to do here.

[quote]Nothing seems to like the W7 64 bit OS, the remote I got is dead in the water, the PS3’s doesnt play many file types (which got me on this road and also got me interested in the WD TV which plays just about everything) I dont care for the Windows Media Center or the Windows Media Player as they are not flexible enough.[/quote]

Blasphemy…. how can you NOT like Media Center 😉 its arguably the best all around, easy to setup, user friendly, high on the WAF scale, setup out there and guest what, you buy a Windows Media Center Remote, plug it in, and it just works, no tweaks or tricks or setup needed, it works out of the box.

So really the issue you have is that you purchased a remote that doesn’t work out of the box for XBMC in the first place. You should never have to run things like Event Ghost (which is an in-between app) to get commands to work for what you need. Too much of a hassle and not needed at all.

-Josh

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Cable card tuners require end to end connection in the chain, when you setup cable card tuner is does a check, if EDID is broken and there is a flag set on your show of any sort it’ll throw up a warning. This could be the issue of media center is running, the tv is off and the pc isn’t getting the EDID data it needs.

-Josh

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Interesting. Nice catch.

-Josh

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how fast is your processor? how much ram?

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Are you using HDMI from your HTPC to the TV? I am trying to track down this issue to see if it correlates to HDMI EDID handshake issues.

-Josh

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Though a little harder to do, did you test the ethernet cables at all?

-Josh

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[quote=oliverredfox]
You could always use a hardware device like the HDMI Detective to make the system always think the TV is there and active but does seem like their should be an easy software/setting fix.

[/quote]

Just as above, sounds like an EDID issue. I’ve always had EDID issues when trying to do HDMI switching via a receiver, solved ALL of my issues with the HDMI Detective

http://www.amazon.com/Gefen-EXT-HDMI-EDIDP-HDmi-Detective-Plus/dp/B001RIMZUW

 

-Josh

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