Solutions sought for the very likeable HTPC

[neel]

I see that sam9s HTPC project has a mine of information and has triggered a lot of enthusiasm to educate oneself on HTPC-XBMC way to home entertainment.

I too jumped into the fray like many others having been motivated by this thread. After deliberating over Zotac Zboxes etc for the form factor, I finally bought the paraphernalia from SP road, Bangalore, to assemble a PC with a regular cabinet. The reason I went for a proper desktop is I have dedicated HT room with lot of space and I do care about expandability of the configurations once in a while. In addition, the main focus is on blu-ray discs, so I wanted an internal bluray drive to do the job.

The story so far:

Configuration:
MoBo: Intel DH67 CL
Processor: Intel Core i3 2100
Memory: Corsair DDR3 2x4GB (8GB)
Graphics: Zotac GeForce GT440
HDD: WD WD10 EARX 1TB
Optical drive: Sony Bluray Optiarc BD RW BD-5300S
All put into an i-ball cabinet.
Input devices: Microsoft wireless keboard/mouse
OS: Windows 7 Professional
Bluray software: Cyberlink PowerDVD Ultra 11 (bought online)
(made the drive region B for UK bluray discs)
XBMC: came with graphics card.

Now the functionality ....

When I switched on there was a huge fan noise that disappeared after some time. I went ahead with loading of OS and applications. Upon subsequent bootings, the noise has come back. I have talked to the SP road trader and hope seek to resolve this soon. Initial suspicion is on the i-ball cabinet/power supply.

Otherwise the PC itself a beauty working effortlessly. I tested Region B bluray discs on Sony LCD tv (1080p) and Sanyo PJ(low resolution); they did very well. Since I am yet to decide on 3D display (PJ or Plasma), I ran 3D through the very juvenile anaglyph (?) technology with the funny cyan/red goggle. PowerDVD gave a reasonable depth here. The HD audio passthrough was not a problem here as I have a dedicated AVR/7.1 speaker set up.

Now coming to the 'seeking solutions' part.

1) How do I make XBMC my interface and ask it to run PowerDVD internally? I thought it would automatically do this. But when chose 'play' option within XBMC, nothing happens.

2) How do I configure a remote? I was thinking of using my mobile for the remote. I have downloaded both PowerDVD and XBMC remote applications on Samsung Galaxy S2, but still do not know how to configure it to handshake with the PC. Do I need to buy a remote, what make? What do I need to do from the PC side - interms of recognising that remote. Do I need to buy additional hardware (e.g. bluetooth) establish some kind of wireless protocol?

Any help is appreciated!

Thanks very much.

 

[manniraj]

Regarding configuring to load xbmc automatically in win 7 look at this sam's thread xbmc post#28.
Regarding how to load either MPC-HC or PowerDVD player refer to the xbmc forum threads/wiki External player - xbmc and there is a step by step instruction on how to change the playercorefactory.xml file.

Thanks.

 

[madhavk8]

You can easily make power dvd 11 region free with a simple patches available on net.

 

[ajayk]

Hi Neel,

Great Config! :licklips:

Though future mods are limited in the Zotac boxes, they do have a barebone variant AD 03 which has internal blu ray. Its on the pricey side as of now, but with the current flurry of mini-pc's I expect the pricing to get realistic sooner than later.

Good luck!

-Ajay

 

[neel]

You can easily make power dvd 11 region free with a simple patches available on net.

Could you point to any typical ones? Thanks.

 

[neel]

Hi Neel,

Great Config! :licklips:

Though future mods are limited in the Zotac boxes, they do have a barebone variant AD 03 which has internal blu ray. Its on the pricey side as of now, but with the current flurry of mini-pc's I expect the pricing to get realistic sooner than later.

Good luck!

-Ajay

I agree; by 2012 Q2 we should see tapering off of the prices especially with respect to the HDDs.