HTPC Build with SageTV

[Dermen]

I got the last part I needed today, the motherboard. Here are the system specs:

Athlon 64 3200+ Venice (sitting in my closet since my X2 upgrade)
Asus A8R32-MVP Deluxe (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131004) (from the classifieds, decided to go ATI for passive cooling and to try out their chipset)
Diamond X1300 256MB (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814103173) (passive cooling)
2x512 Kingston ValueRam
Hitatchi 80GB Sata1 (for OS/Programs)
Maxtor 200GB IDE (for recordings)
Lite-On DVD-Rom (had sitting around, will upgrade to a burner later)
Seasonic S12-330 330w PSU (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817151021)
Silverstone LC17 Black (http://www.silverstonetek.com/products-lc17.htm) (should arrive next wednesday)
2x ATI TV Wonder 550 PCI (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16815294004)
MCE Remote

http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/1082/img14239gq.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Since the case didn't ship on time I am running it caseless on a few cardboard boxes for now. A couple things I thought worth mentioning, the PSU is amazingly quiet, I put my head right next to it and still can't hear it. I am using the stock HSF on the CPU and it is making a loud buzzing noise, once the case arrives I will measure to see if the ThermalRight Ultra-90 will fit. The X1300 heatsink gets pretty warm with no airflow over it, once it is in the case I expect it to be cooler. I might overclock depending on the temps once I get it in the case. The CPU wouldn't do 2.4Ghz with stock voltage in my DFI so probably nothing over that as I don't want to raise voltage at all. I may do the opposite and undervolt it at stock speed to reduce temps.

I will be using SageTV (http://www.sagetv.com/) Ver. 5 with XP Pro. I thought about ugrading to ver 6 but the only new feature I was interested in is automatic transcoding, but since I either delete recording or burn them to DVD I didn't think it was worth it.

I have been running SageTV for about a year now on an old 1.5ghz P4 Gateway PC that somebody gave me. It is working ok but the TI4400's S-video out isn't very good. There is an area that has always had a green tint to it. Also I recently started using Comskip and it would take forever to process a recording. It takes almost 1.5 hours for a 1 hour recording and was set for about 60% CPU usage. I also had a bunch of these parts laying around so I decided to upgrade.

Right now I am finishing up tweaking XP to my liking. Next weekend I plan on installing it all in the case and ordering final parts like the CPU heatsink, case fans, and fan filters. I plan on installing SageTV tonight and tweaking it tomorrow so I should have more pics and info up sometime tomorrow.

If you have any questions or would like pictures of anything let me know.

[LandShark]

yes, more pics when you done please!! :)

[SeasonalEclipse]

I like where this is going, I wish I had th efunds to make a all out HTPC.

[Evilsizer]

if your looking here are some great soundcards for the HTPC..im eyeing the $80 nothing i read about the one for 180 i think makes it worth it. both have the same decoding features as far as i have read.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?Brand=10788&N=2010360057+50010788&Submit=ENE&Manufactory=10788&SubCategory=57

[Dermen]

I didn't post anything new yesterday because I didn't get as far as I wanted. Hopefully tonight I will finish installing the last two plugins and I'll post some more pics and info. I won't have any recordings to show until I get the case though.

Evilsizer, I am not looking for a soundcard right now, I'm going to use onboard. For regular TV I just use my TV speakers and when I watch a movie I have external speakers but they are only 2 speakers, no sub, and the stereo doesn't have digital input or anything good. In the future I will definitely be looking at those as I read they are great for HTPCs. But that will be after or when I buy a receiver and speakers for surround sound.

[Dermen]

UPDATE WITH PICS (Sorry for the picture quality, I didn't realize they were that bad until I started uploading them.)

I finished everything I could. I still need to install a DVD burning plugin but I need a DVD burner first :)

There is a good review of SageTV here (http://www.missingremote.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=488&Itemid=152) that will tell you about all of its features.

One thing it mentions is the old/outdated UI. The first thing I did after installing Sage was to upgrade the UI with a plugin called SageMC.

Pic of the default UI on the main screen (the review has tons of pics of the default UI so I'm only including this one)
http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/4357/default0ij.th.jpg (http://img440.imageshack.us/my.php?image=default0ij.jpg)

Here are pics of SageMC:
Main Menu
http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/5694/defaultsagemc0hy.th.jpg (http://img440.imageshack.us/my.php?image=defaultsagemc0hy.jpg)

My TV Submenu
http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/9954/mytvoptions9et.th.jpg (http://img440.imageshack.us/my.php?image=mytvoptions9et.jpg)

My TV Screen(if you just click on My TV it gives you a combination of the options in the Submenu)
http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/2759/mytvselected4ug.th.jpg (http://img440.imageshack.us/my.php?image=mytvselected4ug.jpg)

Guide/EPG
http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/9035/guide4wg.th.jpg (http://img143.imageshack.us/my.php?image=guide4wg.jpg)

Show info of a recording
http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/4373/showinfo4uh.th.jpg (http://img143.imageshack.us/my.php?image=showinfo4uh.jpg)

Playback of show with onscreen info
http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/1430/playingsnl9pv.th.jpg (http://img440.imageshack.us/my.php?image=playingsnl9pv.jpg)

My Music (I need to get album art)
http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/9542/mymusicbyalbum7nb.th.jpg (http://img440.imageshack.us/my.php?image=mymusicbyalbum7nb.jpg)

DVD Playback
http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/1527/dvd9wv.th.jpg (http://img440.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dvd9wv.jpg)

This is the first time I have used SageMC and I am very impressed with it. It looks so much better and adds a lot of options/functions to SageTV.

I also installed a web server plugin. It allows any computer on the network/internet to access SageTV with a web browser. You just enter a username/password and you have access to manage recordings and favorites, view the guide, deal with recording conflicts, check diskspace, remotely control Sage, and a few other things.

The last thing I set up was automatic commercial skipping. To have the most customizations I used two programs: dirmon2 and comskip. Comskip scans video files for commercials and can output different types of files that will tell a video player what sections to skip over (I'm using .edl files). But you have to have another program to launch comskip and tell it what files to scan. Thats what DirMon2 does, it monitors my recording directory for .mpg files that do not have corresponding .edl files. If it finds one it launches comskip to create an .edl file for that .mpg. One of the reasons for my upgrade was my old setup took over an hour for comskip to scan a one hour show. With my new hardware and this different comskip/dirmon2 setup it takes about 15 minutes to scan a one hour show. So I am very happy about that.

I wish I had some captures of recordings with the ATI tuners, but I don't really want to move it all to my entertainment center until I get it in a case.

One last thing I have to mention, I love the MCE remote. Sage has built in support for it so it works great. On my old HTPC I used an ATI Remote Wonder and I had to manually configure all the buttons which took well over an hour. It was also pretty bad at registering button presses from more than 5' away. But it was only $10 and it worked alright for the last 6 months.

I'll post another update when the case arrives.

[Dermen]

UPDATE

Silverstone LC-17 arrived today. I must say for it being by far the most expensive case I have used that I am disappointed. The case was 1/4 of my budget.

1. the power/reset buttons feel very cheap
2. the +wire coming out of the power button actually broke off (I didn't notice until after I had put everything together and tried to turn it on)
3. the drive bays are removable but it is not at all easy to get to the screws holding them in. Removal isn't too bad but when you reinstall them it is a PITA since the holes don't always line up.
4. SHARP EDGES - I had read there were a few but every cutout of the case was razor sharp. Fan, power supply, I/O plate, 5.25 drive, and expansion slot cutouts were dangerous.

A few other minor things:
1. The 80mm side intake could easily be 92mm, they wouldn't even have to change anything other than putting a 92mm hole instead of an 80mm.
2. The power supply intake vent is oddly shaped. IMO it really should be a square 120mm hole since most power supplies have a 120mm fan on the bottom. Instead the vent is 80mmx140mm.

The only thing it really has going for it is it looks great. In the end that is enough since it was the cheapest case I could find that looked good and worked for the hardware I wanted to use. I'll be glad once I get it working and can just admire it's looks.

Unfortunately, I didn't actually power it on after putting it in the case. Since the power button doesn't work I have to remove all the drive cages/hidden wiring so I can remove the front bezel and get to the power switch to repair it. It is late and I have class in the morning so it has to wait.

[Dermen]

I repaired the Power button today. I actually re-soldered both switches and both LEDs that were on the front of the case. They are now much more secure and I don't have to worry about them when I install fans/future hardware.

Now that I have everything up and running I am much happier with the case. It is great looking, all the hardware fits nicely, and it has a lot of cooling options.

Some case pics:
http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/7378/img1424ym5.th.jpg (http://img145.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img1424ym5.jpg)
Two front fan holes. They actually mount inside the drive cages pictured below.
http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/262/img1425pn1.th.jpg (http://img262.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img1425pn1.jpg)
You can see it has mounting holes for 80 and 92mm fans. However the cages measure 110mm wide. I am going to get a couple Scythe KAZE-JYU 100mm (http://www.jab-tech.com/ScytheKAZE-JYU-100mm-Silent-and-Powerful-fan-Low-Speed-SY1025SL12L-pr-3480.html) fans that use 92mm fan mounts to try.
http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/9756/img1427uc2.th.jpg (http://img145.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img1427uc2.jpg)
The front fans draw air from below the front bezel.

Internal Side shots:
http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/4447/img1426iz0.th.jpg (http://img145.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img1426iz0.jpg)
http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/94/img1428cr1.th.jpg (http://img443.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img1428cr1.jpg)

Finally, with everything installed:
http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/4291/img1429jg3.th.jpg (http://img443.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img1429jg3.jpg)

I still have the stock HSF and I am sad to say that the ThermalRight Ultra-90 does not fit. So instead I am going with a ThermalRight XP-120 with a Yate Loon. The XP-120 is coming out of my gaming computer and will be replaced with an Ultra-120. I also ordered a Sunbeam Rheobus to control the fans. I plan to mount it backwards in the extra 5.25" bay.

I connected the HTPC to my TV with component out and the x1300 is 100 times better looking that S-video from the TI4400. The difference is amazing, I don't know how I lived with that crapy TI4400 for so long.

I will have pics comparing the Hauppauge PVR-150s to the ATI 550s in the near future along with pictures of the new heatsink and fan install.

So far I am very happy with the way it is turning out.

[Evilsizer]

when i was looking at the lc-17b i figured that the u-90 wouldnt work. i came across this one when looking at newegg
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835207001
looks just like the freezerpro7 but cheaper.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835186134

does sageTC allow Recording of OTA-HD? havent looked at sageTV before, well never really knew about till your thread.

[Dermen]

when i was looking at the lc-17b i figured that the u-90 wouldnt work. i came across this one when looking at newegg
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835207001
looks just like the freezerpro7 but cheaper.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835186134

does sageTC allow Recording of OTA-HD? havent looked at sageTV before, well never really knew about till your thread.

I already purchased the ThermalRight heatsink, but thanks for the suggestion.

SageTV does allow recording of OTA-HD. I'm not sure about what HD cards it supports but I know the HD HomeRun is very popular on the SageTV forums (http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/).

[Dermen]

I finished up everything this week. I got the XP-120, all the fans, fan controller, and DVD-RW drive installed.

I would not recommend trying to install 100mm fans in the drive cages for intakes. I had to do a lot of dremeling to get the fans to fit. However, the Scythe KAZE-JYU 100mm (http://www.jab-tech.com/ScytheKAZE-JYU-100mm-Silent-and-Powerful-fan-Low-Speed-SY1025SL12L-pr-3480.html) fans are very quiet, even at full speed. They are the only fans in the HTPC that are getting 12v, all the rest are running at 7v thanks to the fan controller. Even with six fans running the HTPC is still very quiet, the HDDs are the only thing I can hear from 5+ feet away.

EDIT:
I forgot to add temps. The CPU at full load runs at 44C and idles in the low 30s. I need to cut a larger hole in the back of my entertainment center to allow the hot air to escape. I also created filters out of dryer sheets, but I did not finish the one for the lower front of the case yet.

I also installed an NEC-3500 DVD-RW. I took it from my main rig and ordered a Lite-On Sata burner to replace it. Depending on how I like the Sata burner I may get another to put in the HTPC instead of the NEC. I think most of the burning I will be doing is with DVD RW disks and the NEC only burns them at 4x, where the newer drive will burn them at 8x. Plus Sata cables are easier to hide, and it would also cut down on the number of wires I have running across the case.

I installed a DVD burning plugin for SageTV as well. It works quiet well as it doesn't have to transcode the Sage Recordings unless I put more than 90 minutes on a disk. It automatically creates menus that are actually good looking. It will allow a max of 7 shows on a disk if you chose to transcode them to a lower bitrate. It also generates chapters at the comskip break points so you can still skip commercials when watching a burned show on a dvd player. It would be nice if it removed the commercials but that isn't available with the plugin for SageTV version 5. I think a plugin for SageTV version 6 will actually remove the commercials.

Here are some pics of everything installed:
http://img76.imageshack.us/img76/9703/img1430mg9.th.jpg (http://img76.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img1430mg9.jpg)
http://img376.imageshack.us/img376/1398/img1431ez9.th.jpg (http://img376.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img1431ez9.jpg)
http://img76.imageshack.us/img76/3041/img1432fd3.th.jpg (http://img76.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img1432fd3.jpg)

Also I have some comparison shots of the Hauppauge PVR-150 vs. the ATI 550. It isn't the best comparison because I had tweaked the PVR-150 over time and I haven't tweaked the ATI 550 at all. Also I tried to get two shots of David Palmer sitting still, but in the ATI 550 shot his hand is moving so it appears a little blurred. Both were recordings of 24 Season 2 on A&E. Maybe once I tweak the ATI 550 I will post another screenshot.

ATI Theater 550
http://img76.imageshack.us/img76/590/atiik6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Hauppauge PVR-150
http://img76.imageshack.us/img76/7141/hauppaugegh9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)