Category: Television

HTPC Advice Wanted

I want to build my own Home Theater PC (HTPC) but I have a number of decisions to make that I hope readers can advise me on.  I want to build a low-cost HTPC that also uses as little energy as possible, especially since I will need to leave the machine on 24×7.  The demands of a HTPC can be high, so I’m worried that a green low-powered chip might compromise the project.  I’ve read reviews of a Polywell Mini-ITX HTPC with a  N330 Atom dual processor combined with an NVIDIA ION chipset, using just 23-30w of electricity, but is it powerful enough to do the job?  And is onboard graphics good enough, or will I need a discrete graphics card?  Finally, I’d like my custom HTPC to replace several machines connected to my 52” Samsung DLP HDTV:

  • LG Blu-ray player
  • Pioneer CD/SACD player
  • Toshiba DVD recorder
  • Yamaha 5.1 receiver/amp
  • Roku SoundBridge M1001 media extender

I doubt I can find an internal Blu-Ray optical drive for my HTPC that can replace my SACD player, so it might be time to give up on that technology. I never bought more than a dozen SACDs anyway, but I will miss them.

I want my HTPC to do:

  • Record over-the-air HD broadcasts
  • Offer an elegant program guide to work with the DVR
  • Burn DVDs from shows recorded with DVR
  • Play Blu-Ray and DVD movies
  • Stream video from Netflix and Amazon
  • Stream video from Youtube, Hulu, Boxee, etc.
  • Stream music from Rhapsody, Lala, Pandora, etc.
  • Play music CDs
  • Use the Internet in my den while sitting in my La-Z-Boy
  • Store 200 GB of digital media
  • Be my digital photo librarian and slide projector
  • Be my home file and backup server
  • Run everything from one remote

Question 1:  Can a sound card replace an standalone receiver?

Is it even possible for a HTPC to replace my Yamaha receiver?  My current system has Infinity main and center speakers, and Bose for the rear channels.  I never bought a subwoofer.  I’m wondering if I could replace my receiver and speakers with some decent PC speakers or an amplified sound bar?  I’m not a audiophile by any measure, but I like good sound.

Question 2:  What benefits will I get from a more expensive chip?

I’m happy now Windows Media Center is working on my AMD 64 X2 4200+ chip, but would things be much better with a higher powered chip?  For $50-75 I could get a very nice AMD chip.  For $100 I can get a low end Intel Core 2 Duo, or even a AMD X4 chip.  For more than double that I could get a high performance, low watt Intel mobile processor or i5.  What HTPC features benefit from a more expensive chip?

Question 3:  Will onboard graphics be good enough or will I need a good graphics card?

In terms of power consumption and cost, it would be great to live with the graphics built into the motherboard.  I want to watch Internet TV, so how much does the graphics card affect the quality of Hulu and other streaming video sites?  I’m not a big video game fan, but if I could play games hooked up to my big TV that might be fun.  What’s a good green graphics card?

Question 4:  Would I be better off buying or building?

Are there any good HTPC makers that sell systems within the price range of building my own?  It’s a shame Dell can’t sell a Zino with a Blu-Ray player, 1GB drive and dual tuner TV card for $499.  I wouldn’t mind buying a HTPC if it was priced well and came with a warranty, but I’m figuring to get the features I want, at the price I’m willing to pay, will require building it myself.

Question 5:  Is there any reason not to base my system on Windows Media Center?

I’ve been happy with Windows Media Center in Windows 7 for TV recording, so is there any reason to consider another media center application?  I was disappointed that Windows Media Center needed hours to burn a DVD of a 1 hour TV show it had recorded.  Can other media center apps do it much faster?  I’m not sure that Windows Media Center handles large listings of recorded TV shows or MP3 albums very well.  What’s the best program for handling large libraries of media?

Question 6:  How does Hulu and other TV streaming sites look on a large HDTV screen?

I’m worrying about buying a decent video card to stream Hulu TV, but will that investment pay off?  Does TV streamed through Hulu look good on a big TV screen?  I’ll be very disappointed if I buy a video card and Hulu isn’t worth watching.

JWH – 12/28/9

Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1250 and Terk HDTVa Antenna Pro

My wife gave me and my computer a Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1250 TV tuner card and a Terk HDTVa antenna for Christmas.  I had to do a lot of research before I gave Santa my wish list, but I must have been a very good boy this year because that research paid off perfectly.  I want to build a HTPC for my den, but I thought I’d experiment first by adding over-the-air TV to my computer.  My previous TV tuner card experience consisted of working with an ATI HD-Wonder card on three different computers over the last three years.  What I learned by playing with that TV tuner card is making TV work on a computer leads to high blood pressure and a desire to seek the simple life.  And I’ve found many a blogger that confirmed this lesson. 

I was very worried that Santa would bring me another lump of coal, but I got a cool toy instead!  I knew it helped to have a computer and graphics card with a certain level of oomph and I was worried my old HP Pavillion a6000n with an AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ and NVIDEA GeForce 8500 GT graphic card lacked the horsepower.  I kept reading Best HDTV Tuner for PC’s over and over, looking for clues and advice, and finally figured I needed a tuner card with a PCIe connector to increase the bandwidth between the card and computer.  I was going to go with their highly rated AVertTV HD Duet, but after comparing the buyer’s comments at Amazon with it and the Hauppauge 1250, I decided to go with the cheaper card. 

Both cards are designed to be simple, tuning either over-the-air TV or clearQAM cable signals.  Make sure you have a PCIe slot free if you buy this type of card.  Best HDTV Tuner for PC’s actually seem to prefer USB tuners, but I was afraid to try them because of poor bandwidth issues with my old PCI based card.

I made a very lucky guess because I popped the 1250 in my PC running Windows 7 Professional and the 1250 was recognized and installed automatically.  In fact Windows Media Center did such an excellent job of configuring the card that I decided not to install the Hauppauge media center software or even try out any of the other media center applications, like XBMC, Boxee, SageTV or MythTV.  I’ll save that research for when I build my den HTPC.

The Terk HDTVa antenna also worked out well.  We have two local channels here in Memphis that still transmit on VHF that causes lots of trouble for indoor antenna users.  I tried the Terk without amplification and couldn’t tune in channels 5 and 13, but the Terk tuned them in great after plugging in its amplifier.

The bundled Hauppauge remote did not work out of the box with Windows Media Center, but I went to the install CD and manually ran IR32.exe and bingo the remote was recognized.  I would love to find a way to get this remote to work with other Windows programs.  I’d like to be able to sit in my reading chair and change music from across the room.  I’d especially love to be able to remote control Lala.com.  However, this brings up another issue for dealing with building a HTPC, and that’s the user interface and how visible it is from across the room.

Even sitting right at the computer with mouse in hand, getting to a particular TV show, photograph, film or song takes a lot of clicking.  Windows Media Center works hard to help, offering many ways to search.   I was delighted by searching for albums by their release year.  I also liked searching through my music by album cover.  However, with over 1200+ CDs, it’s hard to find a particular CD.  This isn’t an Achilles heel of Windows Media Center, but a central problem of all media managers.  Try finding a song from 1200+ CDs in iTunes with a remote from across the room.

The ultimate solution is either to have voice commands like in Star Trek, or have a handheld controller like those from Sonos or remote control programs that work with the iPhone or iPod touch.  Having a touch screen UI on the remote is the way to go now.

One thing I immediately liked about Windows Media Center is it allowed me to list only my preferred TV channels in my guide.  I mainly watch PBS, CBS, ABC, NBC and extremely rarely CW and FOX.  I blocked another dozen plus local channels, and I may block CW and FOX.  This makes my onscreen guide very easy to read.  However, I haven’t found out how to make it jump to a particular time and day.  It will take me awhile to explore the depths of Windows Media Center.  From reviews I’ve read, Windows Media Center is a great program, but some of the other media center applications offer tremendous customization (but with steep learning curves).

Windows Media Center is like a super Windows Media Player, with a  UI that scales up with big lettering for watching on a TV set.  When I build my HTPC for the den, and start using it from across the room, while sitting in my La-Z-Boy with a remote in hand, I’ll know then whether Windows Media Center succeeds or not.  I gave up cable TV to save money and have a very simple TV lifestyle, so any solution I keep must be frustration free.

And any HTPC I build must be simple to use too, and so far Windows Media Center and the Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1250 fits the bill.  Right now I have a Blu-Ray player, DVD-recorder and CD/SACD player in my den setup, along with a receiver/amp.  I’d love to build a HTPC that replaced all four boxes so all I had was the HDTV and HTPC.  That would save electricity, reduce my pile of remotes, and may make my TV watching more simplistic.  As I get older, simple often means elegant.

My goal for having a TV tuner in my home office PC is so I can record the news and documentaries and watch them while checking email and web surfing.  Setting up recordings was a snap with Windows Media Center  The image quality is excellent for HD broadcasts, so I might even start watching short shows like The Big Bang Theory at my computer too.  I doubt I’d want to watch movies or hour dramas while seated at the computer.  And if I don’t like watching TV at all on my computer screen I’ll yank out the 1250 card and put it into a new HTPC box for the den.

JWH – 12/25/9

NOVA – Becoming Human

The PBS show NOVA began a three part series called Becoming Human that is an excellent roundup on the science exploring the evolution of humans.  The show aired on Tuesday night but most PBS stations repeats NOVA throughout the week, and you can also watch the episode online.

Evolution is a controversial topic in this country, and a good portion of the population refuse to accept the concept, especially regarding the ascent of man from earlier species.  From the time of Darwin through the Scopes trial, attackers of evolution have claimed that anthropologists have never found the missing link between man and monkey.  Well this show covers a range of fossils that provide a succession of missing links.  Not only that, but the show covers many new theories that go well beyond anything Darwin imagined in the 19th century.  The time range and scope of human evolution is expanding as we gain more evidence.  This is a very rich in ideas documentary.

I doubt this show will change anybody’s mind about evolution, but it does summarize the current knowledge in an excellent manner and provides terrific graphics to help imagine the immensity of the topic.  I do believe that most of the people who refuse to believe in evolution do so because of their religion.  I also believe those religions will die off in the future if they refuse to incorporate scientific knowledge and evolve.

JWH – 11/5/9

The Good Wife – Dating a New TV Show

The best TV is evolving, becoming more sophisticated, especially when comparing today’s shows against those from decades past.  Imagine a science fictional time signal sending The Sopranos, Big Love or Deadwood back in 1969, and what a contrast those shows would make to viewers of The Brady Bunch and Marcus Welby, M.D.  Most of my Netflix discs are modern TV shows – which I prefer over movies. 

I see 2-3 movies at month at the theater, but for my meat and potatoes entertainment, I really enjoy contemporary TV.  I think I like the length and pace of TV seasons over two hour movies, they’re closer to the length of novels.  But getting involved with a new network show is chancy, because we never know when tuning in each week if our new friends have been murdered by bean counters.

TV producers have a tremendous challenge creating new TV series because they compete with the best shows of TV history, either with shows a few channels over in syndication or collected on DVDs.  Its far safer for a viewer to go steady with an old show then risk their heart with a new one.  I hate getting emotionally attached to a new characters that could just disappear on me.

One way producers fight competition with past shows is to create new shows with actors from older hit shows.  So we see old faces like Julianna Margulies from ER, Chris Noth from Law & Order and Sex in the City, Josh Charles from Sports Night and Christine Baranski from Cybil, making it easier to try The Good Wife.

However, for The Good Wife (2009), success rests on the shoulders of Julianna Margulies which causes me to wonder how far TV has come since ER (1994), a very groundbreaking show.  Poor Julianna opens in each series as a tragic figure – an attempted suicide in ER and as Alicia Florrick, the wife of a corrupt sex-sandaled imprisoned politician, Peter Florrick (Chris Noth), in this new CBS show on Tuesday nights.  ER went on to become one of the greatest TV series of all time, but I doubt The Good Wife will see season two unless it evolves very fast, but then I betting against the rave reviewers.

I’m quite sure CBS hopes to be as successful with its new show as NBC was with ER, but I have my doubts.  ER succeeded because it followed an ensemble cast of fascinating diverse characters, whereas The Good Wife relies heavily on the title character.  Most of the shows that wowed me in recent years have been ones featuring gangs of great characters, like Big Love, Freaks and Geeks, Mad Men, Lost, Deadwood, Six Feet Under, Heroes, Law & Order and so on – or even shows I don’t like but others do, like CSI, Gray’s Anatomy, Brothers and Sisters and Desperate Housewives. 

The most compelling single character driven show I like is Dexter.  Even shows like Dexter, that are dominated by a central figure, have good surrounding characters, and it’s too early with only two episodes of The Good Wife, to know if the lesser characters will bloom – but remember the pilot to ER and how riveting it was from scene one.    Right now the gripping aspect of The Good Wife is Julianna Margulies, and what drives me to watch is how she will play out the hand dealt to her by her scandalous husband.   It’s not a good sign that in two episodes I’ve yet to see much depth to her character other than common clichés.  The writers are spending too much character time on the legal drama, and those court room stories feel like very watered down Law & Order.  Everything is glitzy about this show, the set, cinematography, costumes, the beauty of all the cast, but I worry about such slickness. 

The reason why I gave up on Gray’s Anatomy is it wasn’t a very good show about medicine, and the soap opera relationships just got too silly.  If The Good Wife is going to be a mediocre show about lawyers, it really needs to be a fantastic show about relationships.  It has the potential to do that.

What piqued my interest the most so far, are her two kids and how they are reacting to daddy being in prison with their lives shattered by lurid TV clips.  The son Zach Florrick, played by Graham Philips, intercepts photos intended for Alicia.  Viewers are shown a scene where Alicia, the good wife, attacks her husband’s prosecutor for showing sex films on TV to make him feel guilty for hurting her and her children.  The prosecutor defends his actions by claiming he held back evidence to stay within good taste.  We viewers assume the photos Zach sees are some of what was held back, including photos of their dad doing drugs.  But Zach believes the photos are Photoshop fakes.

Now here is the crucial point on whether or not I’m going to like or dislike this show.  I want this story to be emotionally honest and realistic.  The setup is good, how a corrupt man hurts his family.  I don’t want a razzamatazz conspiracy plot to complicate an essentially genuine emotional landscape.  We have the lives of a good wife, her two children and Peter’s mother hijacked by the bad husband, father and son.  I know the husband isn’t going to be all bad, but I don’t want pulp fiction narrative stringing me along episode by episode trying to trick me into caring about him because he was framed.

If Peter Florrick isn’t like every other politician caught with a three thousand dollar an hour hooker, then it undermines the premise of the good wife – we see Peter Florricks in the news all the time, the story everyone wants to explore is why their wives stand beside them during the press conferences when they confess.  Unfortunately, The Good Wife’s writers will only be able to string that story line along for maybe one season if they are lucky.  I expect Peter to get out of jail and be reunited with his family, and thus the title of the show can be carried into new realms of good wife-ness when Peter continues to explore new ways of hurting his family.

Now here’s the six-four thousand dollar question:  Should I watch The Good Wife now?  I could wait until it succeeds and finishes its first season, gets a guarantee on having a second season and rent the first season on DVD.  Because of the endless TV season of DVD shows, why watch any new show?  Well, if everyone did that networks would stop producing new shows.  What the networks need for their new shows are fans willing to date the series and commit.  Any show getting such fan support will have time to shake out the kinks and beef up the story lines so fans will fall in love with attractive, complex characters.

I’m doing my part by trying The Good Wife, FlashForward, Cougar Town and Modern Family.  All have potential but each are very weak at grabbing my attention.  Compared to HBO and Showtime favorites, like Big Love and Dexter, that hooked me completely with their first episodes, these new shows can’t even be called mildly narcotic.   To be be frank, I’m getting very close to giving up on network TV completely, and just live off DVD TV from Netflix.  But I worry, what if everyone felt that way?  This would be a whole new level of time-shifting, much different from VCRs and DVRs.

JWH – 10/3/9

Toshiba DR570 DVD Recorder

I bought a Toshiba DR570 DVD Recorder to be my poor man’s DVR.  After theorizing about saving money by giving up cable TV, I quickly learned that I missed having a DVR after living without cable.  I love  having fewer channels, but I do miss the on-screen guide and being able to record one show while I watch another, or to record a show when I’m not home. 

DVD Recorders aren’t popular like the old VCRs once were, but they function in the same way – the media you record on, the DVD, is just different, but the setup and operation is the same.  You have to program the timer to record a future show, or go to the show and hit record to snag what’s showing on screen now.  It’s no where near as convenient as a DVR – but if the DR570 had an electronic programming guide, it would be close.

A DVD recorder works just like the old VHS machines, and the switch to digital TV has affected them too.  You can no longer use old VHS or DVD recorders with analog tuners.  I had a perfectly good Samsung DVD recorder that worked with analog signals and my Comcast DVR, but doesn’t work with over-the-air digital TV – and that’s why I had to buy the DR570 – it has a tuner to receive over the air digital signals.

Because the DR570 has a digital tuner and my Samsung DLP TV has a digital tuner, I can record one show and watch another.  One antenna works for both.  The indoor HDTV antenna plugs into the DR570 DVD Recorder, and then a second coax cable goes from the DR570 to the Samsung TV.  This pass-through arrangement doesn’t interfere with the reception on the TV when the DR570 is off or while recording.  The DVD Recorder has a HDMI output, so switching to it just means pressing the Source button on my TV remote.

There is a picture quality difference between the two tuners which makes me think there might be a lot of variation in the electronics to digital tuning of over-the-air signals.  The DR570 picture seems softer than what I get from the Samsung TV, but quite nice.  The recorded quality varies greatly between the 5 recording modes (1, 2, 4, 6 and 8 hours).  Two hour mode is OK, but one hour mode is so impressive that I try to use it exclusively.  I can accept two hour mode, but four, six and eight hour modes are unacceptable by my picky standards.  Now my wife wouldn’t complain about four hour mode, but at the four hour mode I see  artifacts from fast moving elements of the picture – even people’s lips moving when they are talking, I find this annoying. 

I’ve also learned that turning on progressive mode within the DR570 settings menu greatly improves the recorded results.  One hour mode is as good as a DVD on a high definition TV, but not Blu-Ray quality, about equal to HD DVR output.  The output fills the wide screen HDTV and looks like high definition TV. 

Neither of my two digital TV tuners comes with the over-the-air TV Guide.  My friend Mike just got a new digital HDTV with a TV Guide brand on-screen guide built in.  I wonder why neither of my digital tuners has this feature because it would make living with over-the-air TV so more of a luxury.  It would also make recording a show on a DVD Recorder a snap, like using a DVR.  The David Pogue article I link to above suggests that manufacturers don’t want to compete with the cable TV industry, and this might be true.  The broadcast of a electronic program guide is required by the FCC, but the display of the guide by TV makers is not.  Bummer. 

If free over the air TV came with an electronic program guide that worked with a cheap hard-disk recorder I wouldn’t miss cable TV at all.  A TiVo would be the perfect over-the-air DVR solution, except TiVo wants $12.95 a month for their program guide, which jinxes the deal for me.   Many people make their own TiVo by building a Home Theater PC and using one of the many Internet program guides.  I might do this in the future, but for now want to avoid complexity and cost.  My goal is to stay on the path to simplicity – if you can call our high tech world simple.

The DR570 has turned out to be a good solution as my poor man’s DVR, but if it had come with the TV Guide On Screen feature it would have been fantastic.  DVD disks clutter my TV stand and are annoying to keep up with, but they do the job – I don’t miss my TV shows, and I can record now and watch latter (and skip commercials).   The TV purist in me wishes I’d only watched TV in real time and just let go of the anguish of missing TV shows.  My Zen mind tells me to let go, and let time flow naturally, but I’m still a grasshopper.

DVR +R or –R discs are dirt cheap.  Recording isn’t as convenient as a DVR, but if you don’t do a lot of recording it’s no big deal.  Recording three or four shows from one evening on one disk in four hour mode is possible, but it’s work, and the quality of the results is poor.  An electronic programming guide would reduce the work, but not improve the video quality.  Four-hour quality is OK if you don’t want to miss your shows, but not to save them or show off high definition TV to your low definition TV friends.

The DR570 cost me $159.95, or ten months of DVR service on Comcast.  I selected this Toshiba unit at Amazon sight unseen because many customers gave it positive reviews.  However, I agree completely with all the complaints about the terrible remote.  The buttons are small, oddly arranged, with hard to see labels.  Engineers working on the next model should overhaul the remote and add TV Guide On Screen.  A killer device would be to add a DVR drive to the mix with a dual digital tuner.  That way you could record to disk for convenience, and burn to DVD when you want to save a show or make sure your friends didn’t miss something cool.  Content creators will be horrified at this idea.  A DVD Recorder/DVR combination designed to work with over-the-air broadcasts and over-the-air TV Guide would probably convince a lot of people they really don’t need  their cable/satellite services.  I have no desire to see these businesses go under, but there’s a lot of people out there that don’t want or need the fire hose blast of hundreds of TV channels.

One nice side-effect of the DVD Recorder is if I record a show and want someone else to watch it, I can just give them the disc.  That’s better than a DVR.  Or I can save it to watch again in the future.  I keep a Sharpie by the TV and mark my discs as I record them and store them on an empty DVD spindle.  The DVD Recorder can use DVD-RW discs if you want to watch, erase and record again, and I have some of those, but I’ve found in my quest for watch less TV, to also try and record less.  The DVR made TV watch too easy, encouraging the bad habit of cramming huge amounts of TV into my life.  Moderation is now my goal.  I like to think before I record any show:  Is it DVD worthy.

 

JWH – 9/26/9