Writing magazine article on ultimate HTPC - need XPMediaCentre's help

[philzgr8]

All great points guys. The key here being what someone might define as an ultimate HTPC. What works for me isn't necessarily going to cut it for you and vice versa. Therefore IMHO the article should start out by defining the desired outcomes and then construct the architectures accordingly. Something like a decision tree to see what the user finds important!

[merovingian]

Originally Posted by vlad

More and more TV/Movie content available in matroska but there are 2 problems here. 1. Most of people are like me and have a panel where is no real difference if you are watching SD or HD

True. However I personally don't see why anyone would want to pair an "ultimate HTPC" with a display or screen that's far from ultimate.

Originally Posted by vlad

2. H.264 is big and Australian broadband market is not mature enough to propose 200+ Gb per month.

True again, but you don't have to download all of it. Adam's article is already forecasting adding a Blu Ray drive in the immediate term.

Originally Posted by vlad

I can play H.264 on my gear, it takes ~50% of my P4 CPU

Fair enough. But not all H.264 is created equal. X-men: The Last Stand blu ray reaches around 40Mbps. From what I've read, your system probably won't be able to play that without an 8000 series card.

Originally Posted by vlad

There is no such a thing as just HTPC. You have to connect it to the internet, it means that you have to have home network. Then why not to have NAS?

I take your point of course. However, I don't quite agree that you have to connect it to the internet, or that you have to have a home network. Also the NAS adds cost (not massive amounts, but non-trivial), and offers marginal benefits if you will have, at most, two PCs in the house (which is probably the case for most people).

[merovingian]

Originally Posted by philzgr8

All great points guys. The key here being what someone might define as an ultimate HTPC. What works for me isn't necessarily going to cut it for you and vice versa. Therefore IMHO the article should start out by defining the desired outcomes and then construct the architectures accordingly.

This is probably the best point made on the whole thread.

[philzgr8]

Originally Posted by merovingian

This is probably the best point made on the whole thread.

LOL... Now I'm blushing!

Anyway it is fairly obvious. The term "Ultimate HTPC" means so many different things to so many different people that it's virtually impossible to define with any single construct. Hence a threaded response is likely to deliver a more meaningful and useful article. My point being that if you're planning on publishing a commercially distributed article in the form of a guide then it would be nice to think it is done in a meaningful way and not just the way that is easiest to write.

[slimf]

I cant wait till his readers try getting the EPG and Nvidia drivers working properly! NO EPG and a desktop that dissapears into thin air because of no desktop resizing will surly ruin anyones day! Ive had my Vista Ultimate package on my desk for months now.. and it aint goin near my media center box till the above two are sorted.

[vlad]

Originally Posted by philzgr8

LOL... Now I'm blushing!

Sorry, can't see your face any more - lust boobs.

[vlad]

Originally Posted by merovingian

This is probably the best point made on the whole thread.

You wound me.

[vlad]

Originally Posted by merovingian

True. However I personally don't see why anyone would want to pair an "ultimate HTPC" with a display or screen that's far from ultimate.



True again, but you don't have to download all of it. Adam's article is already forecasting adding a Blu Ray drive in the immediate term.

Fair enough. But not all H.264 is created equal. X-men: The Last Stand blu ray reaches around 40Mbps. From what I've read, your system probably won't be able to play that without an 8000 series card.

I take your point of course. However, I don't quite agree that you have to connect it to the internet, or that you have to have a home network. Also the NAS adds cost (not massive amounts, but non-trivial), and offers marginal benefits if you will have, at most, two PCs in the house (which is probably the case for most people).

I agree with you arguments, and Phil is right I guess - it is all perception.
I hope that our writer got some use out out technobubbles

[AdamTurner]

Lots of great points here, although it's a little hard to concentrate on philzgr8's comments

Clearly there is no such thing as the ultimate HTPC - the best HTPC is a compromise of size, power, features, heat, noise and aesthetics to meet the individual's needs. "High-end system without paying stupid premiums" is a good quote - that's roughly how I'm going to start my piece. As philzgr8 says; "Something like a decision tree to see what the user finds important!"...

umm... ... sorry, got distracted again.

I'm trying to keep it under $AU2000 - I haven't decided if that includes the OS. David's point on my blog is a good one; "for now, if you really want your readers to actually use their Media Center - recommend XP MCE". Fighting with Vista is the bit of this job I've been looking forward to the least. Exactly what MCE functionality do I lose if I go with XP rather than Vista? Can someone give me a good reason not to switch to XP?

The other consideration is that I think XP MCE is only available as an OEM - exactly how much gear do you need to buy from a shop before they'll sell you XP MCE. I suspect if you've got a good relationship with your shop/s - as the kind of readers I'm targeting will - you'll be able to sort something out.

I think the first choice people need to make is the case, because just about everything else relies on that. The Zalman HD160 looks good, but I also read good things about the Fusion. I'll mention a few in my review but when it comes to the actual build there can be only one - I'm open to arguments on both sides. atechfabrication.com is just too expensive - like I said, I'll have to ditch the "ultimate" tag

The network storage comment is a good one - the fewer the drives in the HTPC the better.

The graphics card is tricky. Needs to be dual DVI, if not HDMI, with HDCP. I think it also needs to be passively cooled to keep the noise down. I think it needs to be an 8000 - I'm open to suggestions of exact makes and models. Might narrow it down to two or three and try them all.

Keep the suggestions coming. I have to file in July so my goal is to have the box built by June and spend a month fine tuning it.

[vlad]

Seriously speaking - nicely set-up 2005 beats Vista to dust. No functionality lost. Vista is more stable as OS. Personally, I run Vista cause it is new and challenge is good.
Case is really personal choice. No comment here.
OEM - you can get both with a IDE cable, if you really want.

[AdamTurner]

Sure challenge is good, but do your want your HTPC to be a challenge or do you want it to work? It's a tough one, coz I'm writing for an audience that would probably like a challenge. Will I be able to build a reliable, useable Vista MCE box? Will all my components play nicely with Vista? I view a HTPC as a production machine and I consider my PVR mission critical - it's not a test machine. The impression I get is Vista MCE isn't ready for that.

[vlad]

Hate to say, but if you were my customer and ask to build reliable and usable HTPC then I would choose 2005. Vista is just not there yet. We run it for fun and make an effort to keep it functional, but if I had something else to do then 2005 all the way.