HTPC 7MC Configuration

I’m tracking this primary for my own reference, but it should be helpful to others as well.   First, here’s my current Home Theater PC hardware config: (last edit 07/24/2010)

Velocity Micro CineMagix Grand Theater™

Audio/Video Equipment

Software Installed

  1. Windows 7 Ultimate – courtesy of Microsoft Launch Party
  2. ATI Catalyst Drivers – V10.1  Posted 1-27-10
  3. Windows Security Essentials – free anti-virus
  4. Silverlight and latest Windows Updates (auto install at 3AM)
  5. Arcsoft TMT 3.01 for playing Blue Ray Disks (broke down and purchased the upgrade)
  6. TCP-Z RDP hack to allow admin access without interrupting TV.
  7. Guide Tool – this was definitely a life saver for dealing with Comcast Extended Basic.  See this post for more gory details.
  8. vim – a text editor (showing my age..)
  9. Hulu plugin + Hulu Desktop – Still had odd remote behavior when exiting Hulu after trying a number of things, I finally found a simple program that forces MC to exit when running Hulu, and then restarts it when you exit.   This works like a champ. Replaced this with the AutoHotKey solution described here.
  10. Media Center Studio this is another must have for editing the MC menu to your liking.
  11. Media Center Shoutcast plugin for Internet radio and other info.
  12. VirturalCloneDrive from Slysoft.  Much nicer than daemontools and no adware to remove…
  13. Avidemux - A simple MP4 editor.  I primary use this to join the videos from my Sanyo VPC-HD2000 (which rocks!  Thumbs up on DigitalRev as well)
  14. mcShoutCast - Internet Radio and more built into WMC. Never used it.
  15. NControl which is a remote control program for WMC for the iPhone.    I’m not terribly impressed with this, but it makes a cool demo for the iPhone geeks.   The iPhone app portion is free with ads.   It requires a WiFi connection to the HTPC. Removed this because it actually wasn’t practically useful.   It might be nice for music once the UI supports more than 30 items.
  16. Amazon Unbox – Until Comcast On-Demand drops it’s prices, this has become my new movie source.    Note that since Comcast HD movies seldom include the DTS soundtrack, you don’t loose anything vs. downloading from Amazon, and we don’t watch enough movies to justify the Netflix monthly fee.   Maybe that will change when the kids get older.  They are typically $2-3 cheaper for a rental.   They do make the PC download difficult to find.  Seems they’d rather push the Roku player.
  17. MediaInfo - For diagnostic information on recordings and what-not.  Unfortunately, this program doesn’t seem to handle wtv files very well, but seems to do a bit better if you convert to dvr-ms.
  18. StreamTorrent to watch out-of-market sporting events from MyP2P.    Encouraged by my inexplicable Miami Dolphin loyalty and this posting.   Quality isn’t great, but it was definitely watchable.   We’ll see how long it lasts…
  19. Had friends over last night who had a Netflix account, so we downloaded the plugin from the WMC menu.   I was very impressed by the streaming video quality compared to Hulu.   I was very unimpressed by the movie selection.   Note they only stream the stereo audio track, so no DTS or Dolby.
  20. Installed the octoshape WMP plugin to get RadioParadise in 192k format, unfortunately I experienced quite a few drop outs and choppy sound.    Switched to the 128K ACC+ stream with the Orban plugin.   It seems much better.
  21. Finally implemented the Hulu launch and resolution change using AutoHotKey and Media Center Studio.  The problem is that the Hulu Flash stream performs much better at 1280×720 (otherwise known as 720p) and my default config is usually 1920×1080 (1080p).   It was painfully simple.   I hacked the script a little bit to make it work better on Windows 7.
  22. Installed DVRMS Toolbox 1.2.2.0, along with DTBAdd-in for Windows 7 and ShowAnalyzer for commercial skipping.  Followed the directions at EngadgetHD and we are now automatically skipping commercials during playback.   Definite bonus points on the Wife approval factor.
  23. Following a tip from this 7MC config page, I installed the Adobe Flash 10.1 Beta to address a flash performance problem I was noticing.  This, plus the ATI Catalyst 10.1 drivers did the trick.  I now suspect it was a driver problem all along, since the release notes call out a problem dropping frames in Flash.
  24. So the upgrade of Arcsoft TMT to 3.0.1.170 completely broke ALL BD playback for me.   I opened an issue with their support, but never got anywhere.   They admitted there was a problem, but that was 3 months ago, and I still haven’t seen a fix.   So I finally broke down and just bought Slysoft AnyDVD. The weak Euro and a 20% discount brought the price for the lifetime subscription down around $110. Now I can play ANY BD disk and I finally have full HD audio through the HDMI interface into the Pioneer receiver. More on this later.

Configuration

  1. Create TV account (non-admin).
    1. Give tv remote permissions
    2. Configure automatic login for TV account, though “control userpassword2” didn’t work for me, but “netplwiz” (the old Vista command) did the trick.
  2. Create another account for remote access, give it remote access
    1. Add a Pandora link to this desktop.  When I’m in the office, it’s easiest to play Music, NPR, etc from a remote desktop.   Don’t need Media Center for that.
  3. Configure Media Center
    1. Turns out there’s a separate Digital Cable Activation key (PID) which needs to be entered as well.  On the Velocity Micro, it was on a sticker behind the front facing USB door.
    2. Note the SSD doesn’t help the channel scan go any faster. :)
    3. Add missing unencrypted channels.    The process is described in detail here, though this guy really did it the hard way.  It’s much easier if you use silicondust.com’s cable listings and Guide Tool.
    4. Copy show recording schedule from Vista.   Unfortunately, this must be done manually.
  4. Add registry hack such that the Microsoft IR receiver can deal with my Universal remote by disabling debounce.
  5. Change the power buttons to sleep.   Set sleep time for 1hr.
  6. Tips from TheReaper on TGB to fix a hang problem I was experiencing with dwm.exe (Desktop Window Manager)
    1. Right click on desktop -> Personalize -> Theme -> Windows 7 Basic
    2. WinBauble -> type: advanced system settings -> view advanced system settings -> advanced tab -> Performance settings button -> Visual Effects tab -> adjust for best performance -> recheck the few effects you want on the bottom like smooth scrolling/font smoothing/use styles
    3. WinBauble -> type: services -> (right click runas admin) Services -> Desktop Window Manager -> properties -> Startup type: Manual
    4. WinBauble -> type: turn windows features on or off -> Turn Windows Features On or Off -> uncheck Windows Gadget Platform (Restart required)

TODO

  1. VLC Media Player – occasionally I get an MP4 file that Media Center doesn’t like
  2. Firefox – always handy to have a second browser that doesn’t share cookies with IE

When I feel I have money to burn:

  1. Product Image
     

    Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550S 2.83GHz 12M L2 Cache 1333MHz LGA775 Low Power (65W) Processor – because I REALLY NEED those two extra cores…  Actually, with the commerical skip processing and using Handbrake for reducing video for streaming, this may have some payback.   Note the “S” version is the low-power version, but even with the release of the I[3,5,7] chip series this puppy is still at $350, which is only 12 PM/$.

Full blogger disclaimer: Microsoft gave me a free copy of Windows Ultimate, but did not ask me to blog.

TX Black – Home Theater Enclosure, Pure Aluminum, with Remote and Front Panel VFD Display
Power Supply 550 Watt Antec® TRUEPOWER TRIO Quiet Power Supply with 120mm Smart Fan (+$75.00)
Motherboard Genuine Intel® P35 ATX Motherboard with DDR2, PCI Express, 1333MHz FSB, RAID DP35DP
Processor Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor E8500, dual 3.16GHz cores, 6MB L2 Cache, 1333MHz FSB (45nm) (+$75.00)
CPU Cooling Arctic Cooling® Freezer 7 Pro Heatsink, Ultra Quiet Fan, Copper Heat Pipes
DDR2 Memory 4096MB Corsair™ XMS2 DDR2-800 Low Latency Extreme Memory with Heat Spreader (2×2048) (+$60.00)
PCX Video 512MB Visiontek Radeon HD 4850 GDDR3 (+$160.00)
TV Tuner ATI TV Wonder Digital Cable Tuner – Internal* (HDCP Video Card Required) (+$165.00)
Second TV Tuner ATI TV Wonder Digital Cable Tuner – Internal* (HDCP Video Card Required) (+$275.00)
HDTV Terrestrial Antenna None
Third TV Tuner None
Fourth TV Tuner None
Monitor None
Audio On-Board Integrated Intel® High Definition 7.1 Channel Sound, with Optical Digital Output
Hard Drive 1 1TB Hitachi 7200rpm 32MB Cache SATA 300 w/NCQ (+$80.00)
Optical Drive 1 4x Lite-On Blu-ray Burner (HDCP and Play Movie 1.5 REQUIRED for playback in Vista Media Center) (+$315.00)
High Definition Media Software None
Media Reader Integrated 52-in-1 Internal Media Card Reader
Network Adapter Integrated 10/100/1000MBps Gigabit Ethernet Network Adapter
Network Adapter 2 or WiFi Adapter None
WiFi Router None
FireWire 2 Integrated IEEE 1394 FireWire Ports, 1 front & 1 rear
USB 2.0 Ports 6 USB 2.0 Ports, 2 front & 4 rear
Bluetooth None