I notice that motherboard has got VGA, DVI, and HDMI video ports. Can you use all three simultaneously to extend a Windows desktop to three monitors?
@Zack Peterson: Just two.
I have an older HTPC with an E something something 2 something ghz and I can notice a slow down with 1080p content while playing Blurays. Turning of media centre actually fixes that. I’ve ripped a few to MKVs and the 1080p ones don’t work too well in VLC, but work alright played from within media centre. Which is weird as that never worked and all of a sudden it just did… no clue as to why, but I’ll take that over using PotPlayer any day.
I’m wondering though, do you know if these processors have the same BS issues as the last i3s? Not being able to play framerates correctly? Mentioned in this thread, basically it’s that movies play at 23.976 fps and the i3 GPU converts it to 24.000 fps as it cannot do 24p natively. This causes a (to me) very noticeable skip over and over and over.
Good post!
I’d add that HD Homerun (http://goo.gl/CQf7) is a great HTPC addition for Clear QAM cable: My kid gets to watch all the Mythbusters he wants, I get to watch PBS shows + CBC etc. It sends all video traffic across e’net in our house so any computer can use the tuners via drivers. Also, access to BBC iPlayer (via a UK tunnel, for now) adds some terrific content to the mix.
I used to run a few low-powered PCs, though I used MythTV. Frankly, the networked aspect of it makes it just no comparison to Windows Media Center. WMC feels more like a PC that has a remote, while Mythtv feels like a set-top box that happens to use PC-type hardware.
I had a single Intel Atom Ion 330 system (the Asrock ION 330 – which is a great little device), and a couple regular-sized PCs, one of which was my server. As I was starting to do a hardware refresh several months ago, I was pricing things out, and the cheapest I could build a single box was about the same as what you came up with, a bit over $300. That was going low-power, silent, and small.
I was comparing all of this to using SageTV, and specifically, their HD-300 boxes. For $150, you get a box that is absolutely tiny, has HDMI and a ton of outputs, ethernet, a remote, is COMPLETELY silent, and draws 8 watts. The appeal was too much, so I tried one out. After some getting used to the software (which is $70), I was sold. It’s frankly the best media experience.
I ditched all but my server (which is really just a PC running Windows 7 and SageTV server), and have been running 3 HD300’s for the last 4 months, and it’s great. I have the same experience on every TV, I have access to all my downloaded TV and video, ripped movies, youtube, music, pictures, etc. For the PVR functions I have an analog tuner, an OTA digital tuner, and a ClearQAM cable tuner (Using an HDHomeRun - I highly recommend that device also), and again, from any HD300 you can watch any show.
It’s easy to use, it’s stable, and it’s a heck of a lot less messing around than when I had 3 different incarnations of HTPC’s to run mythtv frontends. From scratch, you’re also looking at $450 for 3 HD300’s, vs ~$1000 for PCs hardware, with potentially more in software licenses. Granted, you also need a server on top of the HD300’s (mine is nothing special though, just a PC with several big hard drives which sits in my crawlspace and so I don’t care how noisy it is).
While it may be fun to do by hand, it seems like just using a console would do the job better and more cheaply. I play movies off my NAS all the time, and now that third party services are jumping on the consoles in droves, it’s a no-brainer.
Given the number of people in my friends list that show up as playing “netflix” every night, I don’t think I’m the only one.
Some of the Mini-PCs NewEgg has for sale look interesting as well. Many of them seem to made with this application in mind.
I’m especially interested in this one since I don’t yet have a BluRay player…
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856173007
Or you could do what I just did.
Get a Roku XD|S (which supports 1080p and has an AWESOME 10 foot interface) and build yourself very low power server which sits far away from the TV (and is my primary computer now in my office).
Add in a copy of Roksbox for local networking streaming and Handbrake and you’re all set.
The best part about this set up is that iPhones, iPad, windows machines, xboxes, playstations, macs, etc – anything that can do HTTP progressive download (or dlna using some of the linux software that does such) of an h.264 MP4 will play these files back.
So you can save your $99 windows license.
I was able to build the following (same processor though actually - the wattage is super low):
4 tb disk (2 x 2tb esata 3.0)
8 gb ram
dual core i3 3.2 gHz
case, power supply, dvd-rom and motherboard for about $400.
I paid €60 for a tiny, sitecom mediaplayer plugged into my network which has played everything I threw at it.
Do we still need HTPC’s?
I was a big fan of HTPCs, built one off Jeff’s last specs pretty much. I am also a big fan of Windows 7 as a desktop OS. However I have found it completely lacking as a HTPC OS to the point I want to throw the box out a high window. There is always something not quite working which makes it a real pain in a house of not technically literate partners, and kids. Not waking up from sleep, or waking up when you don’t want it to. Waking up from sleep and not turning the display back on. Rebooting, and losing HDMI audio (possibly fixed in SP1).
Sadly I have settled on a Boxee box for video, which is working fantastically, and Apple TV for music mainly due to the remote app. After going through a lot of pain with many devices this is so far the one that is keeping me (and therefore the rest of the house) closest to sane.
I echo Chris Mayer. Run away from Windows.
I have basically the same HTPC as from Jeff’s earlier post – and Windows 7/Media Center is abysmal. I have taken two years of beatings from the rest of my house as a result: lockups, restarts, audio drops, no native Blu-Ray (forcing loading of TotalMedia Center to play BRs), etc. As I type I am awaiting a restart from another HDMI audio drop (this after Service Pack 1).
There is something at least weekly wrong with WMC, and this from a dedicated device only used for TV.
If another box had a suitable tuner card I would switch. Any options for that?
XBMC is by far the best media center software. Run it on a jailbroken iOS Apple TV2 (I know it is only 720p, but) and for AU#130 that’s the cheapest media center with built in WiFi I have seen anywhere. The Down side is you have to stream your media from elsewhere - No Problem! these days your Linksys CISCO modem has a USB port for builtin uPNP filesharing over your N wireles network.
… or you can run xbmc on whatever you said.
Nice post! And I strongly agree with the Megamind comment. It’s way better than Rotten Tomatoes gave it credit for.
The issue for me when it comes to HTPC’s isn’t the hardware but the software. I’m using Windows 7 enterprise x64 SP1. Media Center and Media Player are not designed for large collections. If you’ve ever used a media app/system like Kaleidescape you realize how lacking Media Center is.
Let’s say you have about 20 TV series on your disc - all MKV files or AVI - cause let’s face it those are the most common codecs. You have about 500 DVDs in your collection.
I say - let’s go with comedy. I decide I’ll go with a TV show. I decide I want Boston Legal, Season 2, Episode 3 (for whatever reason) - drilling down to a particular show - all of Boston Legal, then Drilling Down to all of season 2, then picking an episode is rediculous. The database structure for Media Center is way too flat.
Furthermore - MS can control what tags you can assign to AVI’s or MKV’s but they choose not to add fields for whatever reason. You can say - no that is the nature of an AVI - yet 3rd party software does let you assign more fields to that AVI. If 3rd party software can work around the fields assigned to an AVI - sure MS has the brains to figure a way to do the same? The choice is MS’s.
In 2014 your HTPC will be ARM-based, running Linux (although you probably won’t notice or care), and use 5-10 watts of power. It won’t double performance although that really doesn’t matter for playing videos (all hardware accelerated).
Oh, and it’ll probably cost you $100.
There is a misspelling.
congolomerates -> conglomerates
Huh? A computer from 2008 that can’t play 1080p video?!
My flintstones machine from 2003 can do that, and it wasn’t even top end when i bought it. Just make sure you have a graphics card(not integrated!) with shadermodel 2 and use a new release of VLC or mPlayer.
It might not be very silent or consume 22 watts but i’m still baffled over the fact that people struggle to run hd-video on new cpus when there has been a solution for ages.
Good thing the sandy bridge closes this gap to make it easier, cheaper, smaller and less power consuming to run graphics heavy applications and video.
So, where’s the heat-sink? I would think that a CPU with integrated GPU would need a monster heat-sink. Was it not included in the picture of the motherboard you posted?
Many people above have commented on how overpowered this box is for what you’re trying to do. Ignoring the future-proofing built in (since you mentioned you’ve still been running a box from 2008 until now)… Can you tell us how well this box performs today under various loads? Can it download multiple torrents while transcoding a video AND playing back a 1080p stream?
@Jim - from what I’ve seen online, the T2100 uses the same generic HSF as other intel processors, which is downright amazing, if you ask me.
Slap on a beefier heatsink with proper ventilation (which, admittedly, is tough to do in a miniITX environment, and you’ll have even less of a power draw, AND 0 dB!
Drooling… kind of wish my bonus came around this time of year instead.
Really happy with my Boxee Box.
Spent 230$ on, 0 hours of hacking. It has a beautiful UI, remote & iOS app