Saturday, September 18, 2004
I'm Gonna Be Tweaking For A While
Just when I thought I was pretty much done -- The tweaking has begun, and it's gonna be a lot of fun, but will take a while. For me, it's the "Funnest" (I know, that's not a real word) part of all and IMO worth reporting on.
I've got the HTPC feeding the display video in its native resolution of 1280x720. At that resolution, the WinXP desktop exhibits significant overscan (that means some of the Windows desktop extends beyond the edges of the visible screen - both vertical and horizontal) To address that, I've used a "freeware" piece of software called Powerstrip. It works like a charm, allows me to define a custom resolution of 1248x702 which gives me 1:1 pixel mapping with no overscan. This was an issue that I was aware of from reading the AVS fourums, and Powerstrip was the recommended solution -- works like a charm. A great piece of software that works especially well with the Radeon family of video cards (9500 series and up)
I picked up a Home Theater Master MX-800 remote control off EBay, and will begin to integrate it over the next couple of week as my one universal remote. It is both RF and IR and very programmable and powerful. Once I have it completely programmed, the operation of the whole Home Theater setup including the HTPC should have a very high "WAF". A high "WAF" was one of the initial goals of the project.
Oh yeah, "WAF" is an acryonym for Wife Acceptance Factor.
I have installed both Musicmatch Jukebox and Windows Media Player 10 on the HTPC. I have always been an MMJB fan, but the new WMA 10 is very very nice. I have a platinum acct for MX radio with MMJB and I really like some of the features like "Artist on Demand". Audio quality of both players through the Linn system is awesome. I will likely leave both players on the HTPC, and only time will tell which I settle on. The integration of the new WMA 10 with Microsoft's new online music service is also very nice. I'm currently using the integrated sound capabilities of the ASUS P4C-800E motherboard and feeding the audio to the Linn system digitally via the integrated SPDIF. Both PCM and Dolby 5.1 is being fed as required. At this point, I've found no reason to use a 3rd party sound card. If that changes, I'll be looking a MAudio and RME for solutions.
My other focus on the project right now is researching "Front End" Software. There are severak to choose from, ranging in price from "free" to $100. The ones that have my attention at this point are Mainlobby ($60), Power Cinema ($50), J River Media Center ($25), and Meedio ($30). Most all of these products has a trial capability, so I can give them each a try at no cost before making a decision. I will probably start that sometime this weekend. Meedio which is the newest offering looks really good and I'll probably start with that. I'll report more on this later.
Currently DVD playback is pretty awesome, but can be much better. I'm now using WinDVD codecs and a freeware player called Zoomplayer. I have downloaded the latest Sonic filter pack codecs and will used that with either Zoomplayer or Theatertek. Both players are very good. Zoomplayer is freeware ($20 support donation) and is pretty cryptic, but very powerful and capable. Theatertek is comercial ($70) - also very powerful/capable, with a much more friendly user interface. If I can assure that the player is transparent to the user (mainly wife - remember WAF) I will likely stick with Zoomplayer and save $50. I will also implement FFDShow (freeware I think) and should end up with a very hi-quality DVD playback capability.
That's pretty much it for now -- I'll update as progress is made.
I've got the HTPC feeding the display video in its native resolution of 1280x720. At that resolution, the WinXP desktop exhibits significant overscan (that means some of the Windows desktop extends beyond the edges of the visible screen - both vertical and horizontal) To address that, I've used a "freeware" piece of software called Powerstrip. It works like a charm, allows me to define a custom resolution of 1248x702 which gives me 1:1 pixel mapping with no overscan. This was an issue that I was aware of from reading the AVS fourums, and Powerstrip was the recommended solution -- works like a charm. A great piece of software that works especially well with the Radeon family of video cards (9500 series and up)
I picked up a Home Theater Master MX-800 remote control off EBay, and will begin to integrate it over the next couple of week as my one universal remote. It is both RF and IR and very programmable and powerful. Once I have it completely programmed, the operation of the whole Home Theater setup including the HTPC should have a very high "WAF". A high "WAF" was one of the initial goals of the project.
Oh yeah, "WAF" is an acryonym for Wife Acceptance Factor.
I have installed both Musicmatch Jukebox and Windows Media Player 10 on the HTPC. I have always been an MMJB fan, but the new WMA 10 is very very nice. I have a platinum acct for MX radio with MMJB and I really like some of the features like "Artist on Demand". Audio quality of both players through the Linn system is awesome. I will likely leave both players on the HTPC, and only time will tell which I settle on. The integration of the new WMA 10 with Microsoft's new online music service is also very nice. I'm currently using the integrated sound capabilities of the ASUS P4C-800E motherboard and feeding the audio to the Linn system digitally via the integrated SPDIF. Both PCM and Dolby 5.1 is being fed as required. At this point, I've found no reason to use a 3rd party sound card. If that changes, I'll be looking a MAudio and RME for solutions.
My other focus on the project right now is researching "Front End" Software. There are severak to choose from, ranging in price from "free" to $100. The ones that have my attention at this point are Mainlobby ($60), Power Cinema ($50), J River Media Center ($25), and Meedio ($30). Most all of these products has a trial capability, so I can give them each a try at no cost before making a decision. I will probably start that sometime this weekend. Meedio which is the newest offering looks really good and I'll probably start with that. I'll report more on this later.
Currently DVD playback is pretty awesome, but can be much better. I'm now using WinDVD codecs and a freeware player called Zoomplayer. I have downloaded the latest Sonic filter pack codecs and will used that with either Zoomplayer or Theatertek. Both players are very good. Zoomplayer is freeware ($20 support donation) and is pretty cryptic, but very powerful and capable. Theatertek is comercial ($70) - also very powerful/capable, with a much more friendly user interface. If I can assure that the player is transparent to the user (mainly wife - remember WAF) I will likely stick with Zoomplayer and save $50. I will also implement FFDShow (freeware I think) and should end up with a very hi-quality DVD playback capability.
That's pretty much it for now -- I'll update as progress is made.
