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12-28-2008, 06:42 PM
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#1 | | Where's my RS Christmas Lobster?!
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| Building hometheater computer
With all the sales going on I'm thinking of makeing a Hometheater Computer. Its going to hooked up to a 46" HDTV and my surround sound system. What stuff would I need? also are there any good programs to orginize dvds? I was thinking of ripping them into ISO files and hopefully have a cool menu interface, anything like that exist?
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12-28-2008, 07:12 PM
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#2 | | Where's my RS Christmas Lobster?!
Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Vancouver
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I think the only non-standard requirement will be an HDMI port on the video card. A DVI port can be used as well.
I find ISO files a pain to use. You will need to mount the ISO file to view them. You won't save any HD space by saving them as ISO.
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12-28-2008, 07:26 PM
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#3 | | Where's my RS Christmas Lobster?!
Join Date: May 2001 Location: richmond
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i forgot about mounting the image file and also the size of the file. what other options are there?
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12-28-2008, 07:53 PM
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#4 | | Willing to sell body for a few minutes on RS
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You don't need to ISO them, just copy the VOB's. Any decent DVD playback software will let you play the DVD from your hard drive.
A sound card with optical or coax digital output is a good idea too.
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Last edited by Great68; 12-28-2008 at 07:55 PM.
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12-28-2008, 08:46 PM
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#5 | | Resident Bullshitter
Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Hong Kong
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you can always rip the DVD and convert it to something like h.264 or xvid at higher bit rate to save some space. I used to use the Media Center interface, cuz its nicer and can be accessed with remote, but i ended up being lazy to set stuff up and just use a wireless kb and mouse and play videos using kmplayer.
For me, I always buy a nice looking HTPC case, silent ATI video card with HDMI (2400 or higher) CPU, depending on which one u are using, most of mine aren't very fast, so a passive heatsink will do the job. IF you are really concern about noise, the ideal thing to do is use a SSD for the windows install and network stream the movies from a NAS.
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12-28-2008, 09:13 PM
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#6 | | RS.net, helping ugly ppl have sex since 2001
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i think a wireless keyboard and mouse would be the best, the Media Center remote isnt the best for searching thru ur folders. i find a mouse much better to use.
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12-28-2008, 09:29 PM
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#7 | | To me, there is the Internet and there is RS
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I rip everything to video files at the highest quality I can, then when Im on my laptop I like using media center if it's hooked up to my TV. navigating with the remote isn't bad if you're stuff is well organized, if its just dumped in one big folder it can be a pain.
tho if you have enough room for the full ISO rips (menus and settings are always nice) then I'm sure you can find a program with a nice GUI that mounts the ISO when you select it from a menu. if there isn't someone should make one because that'd be awesome. Like Media Centre but when you pick a movie it mounts the ISO and runs it. hmm...
__________________ 1991 Toyota Celica GTFour RC // 2007 Toyota Rav4 V6 // 2000 Jeep Grand Cherokee
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Originally Posted by maksimizer  half those dudes are hotter than ,my GF. | Quote:
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Originally Posted by Good_KarMa OH thank god. I thought u had sex with my wife. :cry: |
Last edited by underscore; 12-28-2008 at 09:32 PM.
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12-28-2008, 09:46 PM
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#8 | | Resident Bullshitter
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i think ripping movies is a better idea, then you don't have to go thru all those warnings and shit. not to mention much faster to open up.
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12-29-2008, 10:26 PM
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#9 | | Where's my RS Christmas Lobster?!
Join Date: May 2001 Location: richmond
Posts: 867
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I was watching "Cribs" and someone had a crazy hometheater room with an menu screen to pick movies. It looked so clean. I know I wont be at that level but something that would work like that would be sweet.
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12-29-2008, 10:36 PM
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#10 | | To me, there is the Internet and there is RS
Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Okanagan
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^ that wouldn't really be too hard/expensive to do. just get an extra 15" LCD or whatever, find a program with a nice GUI to run on it that lets you select your movie, and have the video playback program set on the TV screen in fullscreen mode.
__________________ 1991 Toyota Celica GTFour RC // 2007 Toyota Rav4 V6 // 2000 Jeep Grand Cherokee
1992 Toyota Celica GT-S ["sold"] \\ 2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee CRD [sold] \\ 2000 Jeep Cherokee [sold] \\ 1997 Honda Prelude [sold] \\ 1992 Jeep YJ [sold/crashed] \\ 1987 Mazda RX-7 [sold] \\ 1987 Toyota Celica GT-S [crushed] Quote:
Originally Posted by maksimizer half those dudes are hotter than ,my GF. | Quote:
Originally Posted by RevYouUp reading this thread is like waiting for goku to charge up a spirit bomb in dragon ball z | Quote:
Originally Posted by Good_KarMa OH thank god. I thought u had sex with my wife. :cry: | | |
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01-11-2009, 03:45 AM
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#11 | | I don't get it
Join Date: May 2001 Location: Vancouver, BC
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| Quote:
Originally Posted by westcoastgsr With all the sales going on I'm thinking of makeing a Hometheater Computer. Its going to hooked up to a 46" HDTV and my surround sound system. What stuff would I need? also are there any good programs to orginize dvds? I was thinking of ripping them into ISO files and hopefully have a cool menu interface, anything like that exist? | There's lots of frontends out there. Obviously Vista Media Centre is something to look at, there's a plugin called MyMovies or something like that indexes movies very nicely. However, my personal favourite is Mediaportal which is a free open source media frontend. I'm using the StreamedMP skin that was ported from XBMC. A somewhat older how-to can be found here: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1092168
As for ISO, MP can use daemon-tools to mount your ISO files. But if you're doing the ripping your self, I'd save the hassle and rip into x264/mkv for space savings or copy the vobs into subdirs.
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01-11-2009, 02:03 PM
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#12 | | RS.net, helping ugly ppl have sex since 2001
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What do you guys think about using a PS3? Like the original poster, I really want to build a HTPC as well to power the new HDTV that we got.
__________________ All hail 2.3 turbo
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01-11-2009, 02:23 PM
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#13 | | Zombie Mod
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PS3 can work. It's just tricky playing downloaded HD stuff. For HTPC vs PS3, it depends on what features you're looking to implement.
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01-11-2009, 03:32 PM
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#14 | | I don't get it
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Originally Posted by Levitron What do you guys think about using a PS3? Like the original poster, I really want to build a HTPC as well to power the new HDTV that we got. | PS3 can be pretty strict as to what it will play. I don't believe it supports mkv's for one thing, and you have to encode x264 with specific parameters for PS3. Problem is alot of the stuff from the net are half assed encodes. There's an app called Tversity that will transcode media on the fly for PS3/X360, but I don't have any experience with it except for early revisions with the X360. If you don't want to tinker but want the mkv and support beyond what the PS3 has, then look into the Popcorn Hour. If you want control over every aspect of what you can do etc, then HTPC is the only way, but it can take hours and hours of tinkering to get an HTPC just right.
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01-11-2009, 04:12 PM
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#15 | | Even when im right, revscene.net is still right!
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PS3 + Tversity is great but as mentioned the PS3 doesn't support .mkv. What I do instead is convert the .mkv into a .vob and play it that way and a 1080p vob file runs perfectly fine.
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01-11-2009, 04:16 PM
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#16 | | To me, there is the Internet and there is RS
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01-11-2009, 04:47 PM
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#17 | | RS.net, helping ugly ppl have sex since 2001
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The WD TV is $130usd....interesting device.
I'm wondering if the Apple TV is a good choice too. Lots of hacks for that.
__________________ All hail 2.3 turbo
RIP: long live 1.6
-Former S.O.M.O. Vive la resistance!
-MFC Fan # 3
-RS ELITE NINJA smurf-ninja
-L.B.C.: REVscene's Resident Lowballers
-RS Photography Crew WpnOfChoice: Sony DSC-F717~"Dana" http://www.flickr.com/duckducksnap | |
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01-11-2009, 07:04 PM
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#18 | | To me, there is the Internet and there is RS
Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Nanaimo
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| Quote:
Originally Posted by Levitron The WD TV is $130usd....interesting device.
I'm wondering if the Apple TV is a good choice too. Lots of hacks for that. | I'm tempted to buy one from WD. The only thing it's missing is network support. If it had wifi I would be all over it.
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Until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter. | |
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