***HTPC/Lounge Room GALLERY THREAD***

[Johnny87au]

Time to show off some of your htpc builds guys,Please explain which software and hardware is involved into the HTPC as this would be a great deal of information for beginners... remember to keep images reasonable in size.. I'll be posting mine up tomorrow as I'm not at home tonight

[Donnie27]

Time to show off some of your htpc builds guys,Please explain which software and hardware is involved into the HTPC as this would be a great deal of information for beginners... remember to keep images reasonable in size.. I'll be posting mine up tomorrow as I'm not at home tonight

I need to finish touching up the Speakers and update my Photo/s.

[[DANGERDAN]]

im too lazy rofl, il see what i can do.

[Nanometer]

An htpc really isnt any different than a normal computer. Typically though people choose slim style cases to match other rack mount style component sizes such as DVD players amps, receivers, and other home theater products. The few things that make it a real HTPC are the easy to use wireless keyboard/mouse and perhaps some functional multimedia software such as a good media player, ac3+, powerdvd, etc. Like I said, an htpc is still a pc, it just happens to do more multimedia than normal computing tasks.

[Johnny87au]

An htpc really isnt any different than a normal computer. Typically though people choose slim style cases to match other rack mount style component sizes such as DVD players amps, receivers, and other home theater products. The few things that make it a real HTPC are the easy to use wireless keyboard/mouse and perhaps some functional multimedia software such as a good media player, ac3+, powerdvd, etc. Like I said, an htpc is still a pc, it just happens to do more multimedia than normal computing tasks.

People with a nice htpc with a nice skin setup to showcase is all i want here and the listed hardware which has been used, not too much to ask for

[Donnie27]

People with a nice htpc with a nice skin setup to showcase is all i want here and the listed hardware which has been used, not too much to ask for

While I'm waiting to finish the speakers I can give you the specs.
The PC is a;
Generic I Desktop full ATX Case, same size as my Receiver, looking at others.
Antec True Power 550 Watt PSU
Gigabyte P45 mobo (? exact model?)
2GB of GSkill RAM might up this to 4 since a I have another 12GB laying around unsed.
Liteon 4X BD Player only
Liteon 24X DL DVD-RW with Light Scribe.
750GB WD Black and 1TB external Not many movies stored so no biggie.
Intel E8400 at its stock 3GHz with a Zalman 7000 cooler set to low speed.
Auzentech X-Fi Prelude with Zero Driver problems LOL!
61 in 1 Card reader

LG 370 Blue Ray Player wired networking
TV pic for outside Antenna

Sound;
Pioneer or Technics Turn Tables
Optimus Cassette Deck Hahaha!
Old JVC RX Receiver Strictly for the Turn Table (give the model number later)
Pioneer VSX 819H 7.1 HDMI 1.3a Receiver
200 Watt Sony Center Channel
JVC powers Fishers for stereo music for now.
Pioneer for 5.1
Ole School Sealed Fisher XP 9V 15" Woofer two tweeters, two Mid-Range Cones.
Ole School Sealed Radio Shack Optimus Mach 1 15 woofer,
Vented DIYer with SP-1500 Crossover, 15" Pioneer Woofer , Dayton Planar & Optimus Horn Tweeters, Two Cone Mid Range speakers Cerwin Vega and ESS.

I will more than likely now move the Fishers upstairs and bring the more efficient DIYers down for rears. The "Sweet 10's" as I call them will come down stairs as rears to replace the Optimus Mach 1's that's kind of wasted there. The OM1's will then become my main Stereo Music speakers replacing the fishers and switchable with the new DIYers. The fishers being power by the Harmon Kardon 730 twin amp is a thing of Beauty but hell almost anything connected to it ROCKS!

[Donnie27]

Oh and about a video? I'd need a very expensive 20Hz to 20KHz Mic or the sound would be limited to the fidelity and frequency of the Mic, not the system. Even if I did it perfectly, the listener would be hearing his or her system, not mine. I really need to get off my Duff and get testing equipment.

[Johnny87au]

Oic, bit of a audiophile i see donnie, All jibberish to me tbh as i dont specialise in sound hehe.. Do you need a program made perhaps ?

[Donnie27]

Oic, bit of a audiophile i see donnie, All jibberish to me tbh as i dont specialise in sound hehe.. Do you need a program made perhaps ?

No biggie, tbbh the last thing I'd call myself is an Audiophile. For me, Blue Ray video without True HD Audio or at least DTS 5.1 is like watching a Poor quality 19" CRT TV. I'm so messed up and hooked, hell I can't watch sports (Except Golf) without 5.1 enabled. Man the "Turn Up The Sound" part of NASCAR is fraggin AWESOME!

Oh and look up my "Snake Oil" thread and you'll see why I call many in the Audiophile community Audiophools.

[Kingcarcas]

Like Nanometer said, i have the PC networked in the same room and use TVersity, but for the most part i prefer to insert the discs into the Ps3 or just stream Netflix.

[Donnie27]

Like Nanometer said, i have the PC networked in the same room and use TVersity, but for the most part i prefer to insert the discs into the Ps3 or just stream Netflix.

Yup, same here and I also have Hulu, Netflix, and a few others since I dumped Cable.

@Johnny87au

All I'm saying is that mine or anyone else's system will not be accurately heard when the end system plays back a recording or the sound from a video. You'll only be hearing your system.

The link from the guy whole sold the set of SP-1500 speakers shows some of the problem. His Mic couldn't record the Bass low frequency well enough so people hearing the Video made comments that the speakers didn't have enough Bass. The fact is most of the time they had to be tuned FLAT or they got Boomy(too much Bass)!

http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/ima...ies/ttiwwp.gif

[KaptainBlaZzed]

Like Nanometer said, i have the PC networked in the same room and use TVersity, but for the most part i prefer to insert the discs into the Ps3 or just stream Netflix.

Same here, my server is in the other room and networked to my xbox via wireless.
I use TVersity to stream content to the xbox.

Works great, I canceled cable about 3 months ago and have not regretted it.

Only minor issue is I am not out of the loop on what is new or coming out because i do not see any commercials.

[Donnie27]

http://www.google.com/images?q=custo...w=1280&bih=860

This is what I wish I had money, the room and time to do. Honestly there aren't many I don't like, I love most of them in fact.

I don't like streaming anything because I like first source Video and Sound. When the technology can stream Blue Ray and True DTS or etc.... Lossless-ly I'll gladly join the streaming craze. Now, can I stream, yes, all the time. Is my first choice, hell no! Sometimes I just like great quality.

http://www.homedit.com/most-expensive-home-theaters/

Folks spent 1 to 6 million U.S. dollars

[chew*]

http://www.google.com/images?q=custo...w=1280&bih=860

This is what I wish I had money, the room and time to do. Honestly there aren't many I don't like, I love most of them in fact.

I don't like streaming anything because I like first source Video and Sound. When the technology can stream Blue Ray and True DTS or etc.... Lossless-ly I'll gladly join the streaming craze. Now, can I stream, yes, all the time. Is my first choice, hell no! Sometimes I just like great quality.

http://www.homedit.com/most-expensive-home-theaters/

Folks spent 1 to 6 million U.S. dollars

Heh, I delivered to a house that had one of these heavy hitter setups.

We were delivering some 60" TV and just 2 speakers that cost $30,000 total......apparently those were for the "bathroom" which was twice the size of my bedroom and the bath was preety much a giant jacuzzi.......

While there they showed us the theatre room, and basically like many of this pics it looked like a mini movie theatre but with all the trimmings and comfortable seats with drink holders and crap.

Crazy stuff, seems like you could spend money on better things but hey if you got it you can't take it with you i guess.

[Johnny87au]

Heh, I delivered to a house that had one of these heavy hitter setups.

We were delivering some 60" TV and just 2 speakers that cost $30,000 total......apparently those were for the "bathroom" which was twice the size of my bedroom and the bath was preety much a giant jacuzzi.......

While there they showed us the theatre room, and basically like many of this pics it looked like a mini movie theatre but with all the trimmings and comfortable seats with drink holders and crap.

Crazy stuff, seems like you could spend money on better things but hey if you got it you can't take it with you i guess.

Chew the courier driver ay :P , Nah seriously though, Thought all that money he would of atleast had 3 projectors ..

[Donnie27]

Heh, I delivered to a house that had one of these heavy hitter setups.

We were delivering some 60" TV and just 2 speakers that cost $30,000 total......apparently those were for the "bathroom" which was twice the size of my bedroom and the bath was preety much a giant jacuzzi.......

While there they showed us the theatre room, and basically like many of this pics it looked like a mini movie theatre but with all the trimmings and comfortable seats with drink holders and crap.

Crazy stuff, seems like you could spend money on better things but hey if you got it you can't take it with you i guess.

Again, just like with LN overclocking, STEVil at a SPL shootout, NASCAR or etc....(all things I like BTW) to me it is just a spectator sport. The problem I have with a lot of this is that 97% of the systems used, far exceed the fidelity of 99% of the movies made. It's like hooking up a very nice set B&O, B&W and or Martin Logan Speakers to a Boom Box You can't make a 90 grain Album sound like a High Speed 200 Grain Album. You can't mass produced CD Audio at 16bit/44.1kHz so it'd sound like a (Stereo Mode) 24bit-192kHz DVD Audio Disk made from the Original Masters. Or have Movies sound like Super Audio CD. The technology is there but currently not even half-a$$ed used.

Don't get me wrong here, I know of at least one smart person who spent about $32,500 on their system and if I had that kind of budget for such things, I'd have spent too!

That said, I don't really think a value can be put on something of beauty that pleases someone. Sometimes IMHO, the more simple of these HT's are some of the best ones IMHO. You're right, you can't take it with ya'.

[JamesXP]

my main computer gets used for music and movies it's not much good for anything else



A64 3200+
1.5GB RAM
8600GT
Happauge Nova-T PCI
Windows 7
LG 42" 1080p with S-IPS panel

Plays 1080p movies just fine.

sound consists of:

Yamaha DSP-A595
Monitor Audio Bronze BR1
Sennheiser HD201 (headphones)

[Johnny87au]

wow nice displays dude, those 950 movies for the htpc along with the server though right ?

[wiretap]

wow nice displays dude, those 950 movies for the htpc along with the server though right ?

Yes, it streams over GigE to my HTPC and other computers.

[Nanometer]

[Anniemay]

WOW. Very impressive wiretap.

Beautiful setup. I had a 120" 720p projector setup with 7.1 surround a few years ago. Nothing better than kicking back to watch a movie in the comfort of your own home. I definitely need to do a ton more research on HTPC. Want to build one but don't know that much about them right now. Anyone have any suggestions on sites to go to or anything?

[wiretap]

The Green Button is probably the best HTPC related website.. and AVS Forums has some good information. It really isn't too hard to get a home theater up and running. I'm a pretty avid HTPC builder, although I haven't built a new one for myself in quite a while because mine is still working perfectly for what I use it for. But.. I have probably done over 20 HTPC builds for people in the past year. Fanless/silent solutions, large storage solutions, 3D Blu-ray solutions, etc. My favorite builds are mini-ITX sized HTPC's. That's probably what I'll go with next.

[Johnny87au]

Nice information and displays guys, More pics i say MOAR!

[Donnie27]

Another good site.

http://hometheaterreview.com/

Example;

http://hometheaterreview.com/has-net...its-own-grave/

Has Netflix Dug Its Own Grave?

[SabreWulf69]

Would pictures of general stereo setups be allowed here? Mine is directly hooked up to my PC.