The
front was made by printing onto OHP acetate sheets and fixing
with 3M glue spray. The power and reset are touch sensitive switches
similar to remote control switches. The acetate sheet is flexible
enough to activate the switch when pressed. A second layer of
acetate film is glued on top to eliminate printer dye smudging.
An aluminum Cooler Master front is added to the DVD drive. The
feet of the case are plastic disks that are used under furniture.
The
old CPU fan and PSU fan were too loud so were replaced with a
Thermaltake volcano 9 and a Thermaltake smart case fan II. Both
fans speeds can controlled with either a manual variable speed
controller or temperature probe. I set the system up in manual
control and set both fans to minimum speed. I used Motherboard
monitor to check CPU temperature which never hit 55oC.
Installed
a Lan network from the study PC (had a built in network interface
on the mobo) to the living room (borrowed a Lan card) and connected
both PC's. Use win vnc for remote control of each PC over the
LAN, so can completely control the study PC from the living room
and the other way round, great when the wife is watching TV and
you need to do some upgrading
Problem
1) On the HTPC I acquired a PC to TV box but the quality was a
bit poor and could not fill a wide screen. Swiped the GF5200 from
the study pc with the gf2fx.
Problem2)
No DVD playback, swiped the Sony DVDRW from the study PC, not
a problem now both PC's are interfaced. Play back on some fast
moving films a bit jittery.
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March
2004
Purchase
Nebula DVB PCI TV card and installed into the study PC. I did
not require the HTPC to view TV as the Sony TV has a built in
DVB tuner. I only required the HTPC to be a player. Great quality
recordings.
Problem3)
play back of the Nebula DVB very jittery on the HTPC, and the
old SCSI hard drives are a bit noisy. Upgrade the hard drive to
a Samsung spin point 120GB. Much faster at loading and much quieter
but still problems with playback, but watchable.
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April.
2004
Found
Digiguide + DVTRecord and started subscription much better schedule
recordings and now able to record complete films without missing
the ending. Good job that I upgraded the HTPC hard drive as this
allows for more media storage.
Purchased
a DVD rom and switched back the DVDrw into the study PC as this
was now the server and most of the programs were stored on the
study hard drive.
Purchased
a Audio Extreme 5.1 PCI 3D Audio Adaptor and an optical cable
to connect to the Sony AV amp .
Optimised
myHTPC interface
Purchased
DivX Pro. Great now can store 4 times the amount of media but
the HTPC stutters like mad playing DivX.
Problem
4) The HTPC has major problems at playing DivX.
Problem
5) Not all programs fill the wide screen TV. Downloaded Zoom player
great.
Purchased
a IR receiver. Not really very use full
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May
2004
Upgraded
the HTPC swiped the study mobo, Athlon 2.6ghz, CPU cooler 512MB
ram. Complete reformat of the HTPC hard drive and system install.
This mobo can control the speed of the fan via bios and worked
well in the study however in the living room, the fan was much
noisier than the Thermaltake. Purchased a Zalman copper cooler
CNPS6000-Cu. The HTPC runs fine now.
Purchased
new Asrock mobo, Athlon 2.6Ghz and crucial 512MB ram and a nice
GF5600 for the study. Used the old HTPC Thermaltake volcano 9
as the CPU cooler. Complete reformat of the hard drive and system
install.
Purchased
a Matrix Orbital 2 LCD display for the HTPC
Purchased
a IR keyboard and mouse, much better
Purchased
Zoom player Pro.
Installed
FFDSHOW
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July
2004
Ah
the MPEG2 decoder has a time limit and have dancing logo all over.
Required purchase of Moonlight Elecard MPEG Player.
Purchased
a 8:1 card reader for the study includes extra audio in and out
options, so still utilise the 5.1 out and have a secondary audio
out and mic/audio in
Used
the video and audio out of the study pc to feed the old VCR, and
send the VCRRF out into an TV distribution amplifier that feeds
all the TV's in the house so can watch any free view, recordings,
listen to music etc on any tv in the house. Not as good quality
as direct feed.
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The
Future.
I will
be enclosing the PSU in a wire mesh, and making the hole in the
case lid larger to allow heat from the PSU to rise out of the
case and covering with wire mesh and securing the back with MDF.
I would
like to have a silver front for the matrix display and possibly
next time opt for no controls for the display. The power and reset
may be change to round buttons, and change colour of the HDD and
power LED to blue to match the display. Possible change the front
layout.
Purchase
a RF converter to replace the VCR
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