Question about cases...

[GlenR]

I have hit a snag with the all imortant WAF. I intended to use a Silverstone LC17 case as it looked a good case at a reasonable price (even though I don't know why they put provision for two optical drives ).

Anyway, I showed she-who-must-be-obeyed a picture of it and she was unimpressed at the design. This is a major setback to my plan to dominate the household AV scene, so I'm now looking at alternatives. As the only cases she said she likes are the smaller ones that will not allow the expansion I want, there will need to be some compromise, but something a little less bland than the LC17 is in order.

I'm now looking at the LC10 and LC10M. My question is: Is the VFD worth the extra money? I don't want little bar graphs flashing away, but I'm not sure exactly what else these displays can be programmed to show in MCE. Can someone please enlighten me? A basic question I know, but I'm still trying to get my head around HTPCs before committing money. I don't want to regret any part of the purchase.

TIA

GlenR

[impact]

I have the LC10M and yes I think the VFD display is worth the little extra. The display aint perfect but it is at times useful.

It shows things like - the name of the recording your currently watching along with the current time and length of the show
What menu you are sitting on in the MCE interface
Name of MP3 playing and time / length
Name of the AVI your playing

And things like that... An earlier version would show the name of a program that was recording, but I must have broke that somewhere now...

Of course you can just display Date / Time.

Lots of other useless things can be done too - like scrolling world news / world weather / bouncing graphic equalisers / CPU statistics / New Mail Alert / etc / etc - but all these I have turned off as I think they are useless to a HTPC - You might like them on a PC but for me a HTPC just needs simple things like program names / data / time etc...


That is with the standard Imon software that comes with the LC10M - there is now support for the MCE plugin Frontview http://www.mediacentermagic.com/ with this case... (and others) - this software is much more customisable in its features... You can see a few screenshots of what you are allowed to setup here -> http://www.mediacentermagic.com/frontview_pictures.asp which may give a better idea...

Personally - I'd never build a HTPC without a display - whether its a VFD like the the LC10M or a full 7" wide screen color TFT touch panel display....

[GlenR]

Thanks Impact, I kind of thought that my be the sort of thing, but I wasn't sure. Like you I wasn't interested in flashing equaliser graphs, CPU stats, etc - too much bumpf for my taste.

Originally Posted by impact

Personally - I'd never build a HTPC without a display - whether its a VFD like the the LC10M or a full 7" wide screen color TFT touch panel display....

I'd like an LC18 or X15e too, but they're a little out of my budget unfortunately.

[impact]

Originally Posted by GlenR

I'd like an LC18 or X15e too, but they're a little out of my budget unfortunately.

Yep - would love one too... and although I think the price is becoming more reasonable - well still expensive, but a little cheaper than when they first appeared. I keep saying to myself - it would be nice, I cant really justify the price... but that has not stopped me before... but.... I think the hassle / problems in setting up the display to be the main problem.

As you can not run dual monitors - well only sort of via clone mode and things like that, but since MCE does not currently support proper dual monitors - with differing resolutions and the like - just to much hassle in getting it working or tweaking.. and the continual tweaking...

Maybe one day - but I'll let the others experiment at present... A VFD will do for me at present.... (or until I see one of those cases in the flash and just have to have it - lol)

[ranz]

Hi,

I'm not sure about the silverstone range - as I haven't had a chance to look at them closely. However - have you looked at the Accent case? My wife loves it!

Here's some info:

http://htpcnews.com/main.php?id=ht400b_1

BTW - I have one of these and am impressed (along with the wife)