Hope your build list works out. I just opted to build your HTPC rather than buy a boxeee box. I am hoping to use it as a boxee box plus do some lite gaming (using it for emulation rather than hooking up my extensive console collection).
Whether CableCard is DRM’d up the wazoo or not depends on your cable company.
Comcast is surprisingly good about letting you do whatever you want with the channels you pay for: Only premium channels get the “copy-once” flag set, which means you can still record them, but you can’t do anything with them outside of WMC.
Everything else I’ve recorded off the CableCard, both basic and expanded-package channels, has been completely unprotected: I can automatically remove commercials, transcode for the iPhone, and burn them to DVD without problems.
From what I hear, Time-Warner flags everything that’s not Clear-QAM, and FiOS is a crapshoot… YMMV.
How many watt-hours did it cost to construct this machine? Is it more watt-hour costly to run an old machine or buy a new lower-watt machine?
I have a cheap-o, Acer Revo AR1600-U910H (~ $199), added 1GB of extra memory ($24), and loaded XBMC. Plays 1080p on my 62" DLP with such glory I hear angels sing every time I watch a movie (and it’s not just the speakers hissing).
The trick is switching it to use hardware GPU acceleration vs. software.
Looking at the various solutions above, it seems that people are building these to play blurays, netflix, and torrents, but what about broadcast TV? I’d quite like a computer-based PVR. So far I’ve experimented with a PC with a DVB-T USB device (I’m in the UK), which works quite well with Windows Media Centre, but a lot of the open source solutions seem to ignore broadcast TV entirely.
I’m sure Jeff’s solution + WMC + tuner would work very well, but are there cheaper alternatives? Hacked Humax devices?
All of this progress, and the best Bluetooth keyboard out there for HTPC use is the Logitech diNovo Mini, which still has connectivity issues … Can anybody recommend something as nice, but is a champ at keeping its connection?
BTW Jeff, your 2014 home theater PC won’t exist at all. It’ll be built into your TV. TV operating systems are going to be a huge differentiator into the next decade. 1080p is obviously good enough for a long while. I have my doubts on 3D.
Those are some pretty nice specs for a Home PC. I will definitely give it a shot I’ve got some spare parts and a home PC sounds like fun 
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2008/04/revisiting-how-much-power-does-my-laptop-really-use.html
Your article “how much power does my laptop really use” at the link above got me thinking about your choice of the i3-2100T. Why not go with the i3-2100? It sounds like the only benefit of the “T” is that you could run a smaller power supply because the peak power loads would be guaranteed lower.
In practice, while idling, playing video, and doing many other HTPC tasks, both processors will use the same amount of power. (Search the internet for the people who have tested.) The benefit of the non-T version is that it might have extra capability during peak CPU loads to serve up another HD stream or recorded show to an extender or something. If you are worried about the fan spinning up and making noise or something because of the extra heat, you have the option of reducing the “maximum processor state” in your Windows 7 power options, which can keep the processor speed down. So, with the i3-2100, the only thing you lose is 5-10 bucks for a larger power supply. But you gain the ability to handle larger loads if necessary.
I used to really love Windows Media Center but it has failed to update over the last few years as technology has moved on. At this point we should have really cheap extenders that have the full functionality of media center desktop. Extenders in their current form are half baked at best.
Good to see so many people using XBMC its a great project and there is some very low power hardware available to run it now. Apple TV 2 being one of them although only at 720p hopefully Apple TV 3 will up this and it will be the perfect silent XBMC hardware.
I’ve built myself a HTPC on top of a mobile CoreDuo CPU that I’ve taken from my laptop about 4 years ago, but never really used it, because Windows Media Center was awful (IMO). Had TViX box that showed me all 1080p content while HTPC was downloading torrents. Besides, 1080p couldn’t be played on that old Intel video.
But I’ve tried XBMC a month ago and was amazed. Now, after 4 years I use HTPC as it was originally intended. The only thing I had to do was to upgrade my GPU to something that can handle 1080p with hardware acceleration. Apparently it’s very cheap these days.
Hello jeff yesterday i read a post on SO blog about the database dump you provide in public. i am never used SQL before [i use MySQL] it. i spent my whole night on know how i can restore the database. i try with programmer exchange database but not found what’s the i can use them for playing sql command with them. can you explain me the way i can restore them in my own sql server.
Thanks
Anirudha
I just make sure my tv has DLNA and boom…one linux server running MediaTomb + networked tv = streamed xvids!
@Johndavi (and WMC/XBMC users)
Give MediaPortal (http://www.team-mediaportal.com/) a try. IMO it’s the best of breed for media center applications.
If you’re in it for low power consumption, WD TV Live is the way to go. I just measured it with killawat-like device - 8 watts on stand by, 10-12 watts while playing 1080p Avatar over network.
I just copied this build out to Rigsmith here: http://www.rigsmith.com/rigs/9-jeff-atwoods-home-theater-pc/, in case anyone wants to save it for later or further customize it.
I definitely might pick this up later - having your own awesome customizable HTPC is always a great thing. I thought about adding wireless keyboard/mouse, but was torn between that and an IR remote, or something similar.
Hi Jeff,
Could you do a post or a comment on your software setup, and elaborate on your ecosystem as a whole? Does your HTCP point to a share drive? Do you use a tool like ReNamer to sort your files?
People recommend MediaBrowser for Windows Media Center. What happens when you have multiple televisions around the house? I have an Xbox connected to one, I guess this could be used as a content streamer as well.
Have you tried XBMC or alternatives?
Cheers.
22 Watt is very impressive. I built an Intel Atom D525 based server at it uses 30 Watt idle (http://weblogs.asp.net/lichen/archive/2011/04/13/build-a-very-green-windows-server.aspx). core i3-2100T is a more powerful CPU than Atom D525.
Exciting stuff, I’ll probably get my first HTPC using this same setup. A couple of things to note for other enthusiasts.
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The DH67CF motherboard had a bug which has been fixed in DH67CFB3 [ http://www.anandtech.com/show/4143/the-source-of-intels-cougar-point-sata-bug ]
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The H67 motherboard has a CIR input header (receiver) which allows you to attach an infrared remote to it. It’s better than a USB-based infrared receiver because it allows you to turn the computer on/off/standby directly from the remote.
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The H67 motherboard has a CIR output header (transmitter or emitter). I have been unable to find any devices for this (though USB based IR trasmitters exist). This would allow you the HTPC to automatically power on your projector/amplifier/television/air-conditioner and so forth and even adjust their settings. But I haven’t found much here… not sure why hobbyists haven’t done more here. Any clue?
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The 65W PSU is great for lower power consumption (and also because the adapter is external which means the heat from the supply stays outside the box). However, it might be advisable to get the 150W if you intend to add other devices requiring more power. However, I am not sure if the 150W is needed if you just want to add a slim DVD drive and not much else.
Screw hooking your HTPC directly up to the TV. When you go that route you have to worry about getting exotic motherboards, good video cards, a super small cases, super quiet fans (or no fans), etc.
I stopped doing that and shoved the HTPC, the NAS, the set top box, and the rest of that mess in the closest. All the TV’s get hooked up via SageTV’s HD200/300 which are purpose built devices for streaming video off the SageTV server in the closet.
Thus I get a far less flakey system, I get the ability to add multiple tuners, I get the ability to add lots of disk (the lady can chew through a terabyte like you would not believe), and I don’t have to have a computer in my living room.
All and all, it just isn’t worth building an HTPC that actually serves the video to the TV. Let the HTPC do the recording. leave the playback to media extenders like the HD300.
My $0.02
Just an FYI, the blu-ray drive you link is a full-size internal blu-ray drive, which (from what I can tell from the specs) the case doesn’t have room for- You need a “slim” drive instead.