HTPC

New HTPC2009 setup 20090404

Purpose:

  • Analogue Sky
  • PVR for Freeview DVB-S & DVB-T (DVB-T to be setup later) 
  • Player for movies from server (replace Mediagate 450HD)
  • Home security camera monitoring
  • Squeezebox server for Slimp3 device

Base Hardware:

  • Asus P5QL Pro P43 MB (wanted a P45 but issues with delivery times from suppliers)
  • Intel E5200
  • 2 x 2GB Generic DDR2 Ram
  • 1 x 500GB Seagate SATA
  • 1 x IDE DVD Drive as Master
  • Asus Silent 256MB 8400GS PCI-E card
  • Homebuilt case

Notes on hardware choices:

  • CPU is 45nm so power efficient
  • Needed 3 PCI slots for existing tuner cards, MB leaves 2 x PCI-E 1x slots for future expansion.
  • MB has advanced power saving option so will try those later
  • Vid card is hopefully fast enough for HTPC but also low power.
  • Will add other drives as they become available (will replace IDE DVD drive with SATA one in the future (or maybe no DVD drive) and will add in a couple of older IDE drives to spread the recording load between the PVR & Security DVR software).
  • Tom says: The power-saving wonder child for mainstream 3D requirements is the Radeon HD 3850.  Other sites again mention HD4650 HD4670 great for passive solutions as low power.. so later we will migrate video to something similar if required

DVB-T playback

500GB Sata 3 partitions:

  1. c: (20GB) System
  2. e: (400GB) Data
  3. f: (remainder)backups

Tuner Cards:

  • PCI LeadTek Winfast 2000XP RM Analogue Tuner card (for HVCPlus)
  • PCI Hauppage HVR4000 Quad-Mode tuner card (Has DVB-S2 over the HVR3000)
  • PCI Hauppage HVR3000 Tri Mode Tuner card

Security Monitoring:

  • Swann USB 2.0 Guardian + 4 cabled cameras

Isues:

Couldn't get the Swann USB 2.0 Guardian to install, works ok on a laptop. Trying to install it fairly late in the process.. but keeps failing..


Installation:

 

Base Hardware per above only then:

Win XP Sp2 (DM version) standard install

Name = HTPC

Created User account  HT

20090404 p5ql-01.gho


Supplied Asus P5QL-Pro DVD:

- Intel Chipset INF update (V 9.0.0.109 June 2008)

- Realtek Audio Driver 2.64

- Atheros Gigabit Ethernet Controller

- Nvidia Driver 182.50 DL 20090404

20090404 p5ql-02.gho


Sygate 5.6

Adobe Flash player in IE

Mapped z: as kangkong public share

Windows XP SP3 & post cleanup

20090404 p5ql-03.gho


All Windows updates

Dot Net 3.5 & all updates

20090404 p5ql-04.gho


PCI Slot 2: LeadTek Winfast 2000XP RM Card in & Drivers (DL20090404 Win XP 5.13.1.2713 X86)

20090404 p5ql-05.gho
20090404 p5ql-05.tib


7Zip442

WinFast PVR2

HVCPlus 1.1 & 1.064

- LeadTek Winfast TV2000XP is a Temic Pal BG  (4046 FM5) Tuner

- Audio Loop to DX5 Polling

Needs tweaking but ok on 1.0064, (1.1 seems to crash on exit)

Office 2003 Pro + Sp2

20090404 p5ql-06.gho


PCI Slot 3: Hauppage WinTV-HVR3000 card in & drivers (Driversdl20090404 88x_2_123_27056_WHQL)

After runing install, 'MultimediaController' was found but couldn't install, followed instructions and:

  1. Ran HWClear
  2. Selected last 2 options (Remove all , Search for conflicting HW) 
  3. Rebooted
  4. XP Found 'Multimedia Video Controller' & 'Multimedia Controller', did a cancel on the HW found dialog
  5. Reran the driver install
  6. Multimedia again found and not installed, so manually pointed it at the drivers source directory and it installed ok.

Note: The Singapore Hauppage site has 2.122.26109 as current and the UK site provided the above later version (I had already installed the above version when I found the Singapore version)

20090405 p5ql-07.gho


HVR3000 Hauppage Supplied CD installed:

-  WinTV 6.0.25347 Software Decoders only (Also it insisted on channel manager)

HVR4000 Hauppage CD 'pcm-5.1-hd-aac-v1.1' installed:

- Power Cinema V5.1HD Edition with AAC + (not WinTV IR application)

- Ran 5.1 NZ Transponder update patch

- Ran 5.1 Registry Override for 11300 LNB

Recording pointed to: d:\PowerCinema Storage\

Scanned DVB-S 1 Sat Optus D1 ok, confirmed Video & Sound working on live DVB-S

All Windows Updates (was 1 overnight)

Adobe reader 9.1 & all updates

User HT docs to e:\HT_Docs

20090405 p5ql-08.gho


Hauppage WinTV V7 CD 1.1 (DL20090404)

Channel scan Optus D1 (LNB 11300)

Video & Audio ok, except Sat radio stuttering

From Asus P5QL-Pro MB DVDROM:

- PC Probe II

- ASUS AI Suite (Overclocking / fan control)

- ExpressGate Installer

- ASUS Update

- ASUS EPU-4 Engine (to Auto)

- ASUS Video Smart Doctor 527 (DL20090405) and underclocked Vid Card to 40mHZ

20090405 p5ql-09.tib


C++ 2005 redist from GB-PVR

GB-PVR 1.3.11

HVR3000 configured as capture source, LNB is 11300MHZ

Recordings to e:\_GB-PVR\recordings

TV Buffer to to  e:\_GB-PVR\Buffer

e:\GB-PVR Dir shared

IP Fixed to 192.168.1.3

DNS Servers per Telstra account

HVR4000 In & Drivers loaded

Windows firewall turned off (not sure what enabled it..)

Workgroup to BBDAF

20090405 p5ql-10.tib


GB-PVR: Forward/Backwards increments

AVG Free 8.5 (not link scanner) and all updates

Spybot 1.62 & all updates & immunised

20090405 p5ql-11.tib


 

AVG Updates

SpyBot Updates

Windows XP Updates including IE8

O2003 SP3

O2003-O2007 file formats converter

20091011 p5ql-12.tib


Ok, replaced the 500GB with a 1TB drive at some time (unknown when.  I'm a bad boy)

20120316

Export recordings.xml & restored to 12 above

Removed AVG, installed MS Security Essentials

All MS updates

20120316 p5ql-13.tib

After:

Drive E (data is now drive D so updated GBPVR paths and imported recordings xml)


 

GB-PVR 1.4.7 VC redist

GB-PVR 1.4.7 Over the top of existing 1.3.11

Copied backedup config.xml & xxx.db

EA Download manager, downloaded Rugby 2008

 


 

 

Swann DVR USB 2.0 Guardian 

 

 

 

 PCDVR3101_3104

Driver proviser = SuperDVR