And its done!
It is definitely an over kill for htpc but I will be gaming on it too, plus the quad core will be handy for encoding my blu-rays.
- Lian Li PC-C32 case
- Intel i5 2500
- ASUS P8P67 mobo
- Sapphire HD 5570 with integrated TV tuner
- Corsair XMS3 6GB DDR3-1600 Gaming Memory Matched
- Kingston 64GB SSDNow V-Series (This just makes every thing super fast, forget cpu and ram)
- Sony 12x Super Multi Blu-Ray Writer
- CORSAIR Builder Series CX500 PSU
- Stock Intel cpu fan, Im still looking of a good low profile and quiet cpu cooler
- Zalman 6 channel fan controller
- Replaced stock 120mm case fans with Nexus 120mm Real Silent fans.
- I'm running Windows 7(and it sucks) with MediaPortal, I still have to integrate it with the Harmony remote.
After doing some research, it seemed like MediaPortal and XBMC are ARGUABLY the best. Between the two, one has something better over the other, and it will boil down to which cons you can live with. The fact that MediaPortal can easily do bitstreaming for all formats simply made it a winner. Although it sucks that it only runs on Windows.
My impressions, compared to my previous PS3 + PS3 Media Server setup:
Media Library: MediaPortal + Moving Pictures(plugin) + TV Series(plugin)- Looks and feels better than what I previously had.
- Navigation is awesome.
- FAST, easy to use.
- Every thing just integrates well, with media info and all.
- Supports playlists, creating a playlist with remote files, "Add to queue", "Add to playlist", "Play next", and more.
- Integrates with
http://trakt.tv for managing my media collection info and stats.
- TV Series plugin just does wonders, must have if you have a big collection of TV serieses.
Video: MKV's can be a nightmare to deal with especially if they are not properly encoded. So Im using them as reference, plus they are the reason I decided to ditch the PS3 for media playback. I still yet to test DVD .vob playback.
Out of the box playing mkv's was noticeably faster, very fast if I may stress. I know people say you dont need a lot of power for htpc but I say you do especially if you have a big collection of mkv's. My 2.6Hz duo core cant handle mkv's as good as this new setup does. With a good dedicated video card, the picture looks great. I havent compared it with the PS3's but it is fairly good, it will be hard to beat the PS3's video quality without spending a lot on the video card alone.
Skipping scenes works! The PS3 suffered in this department, okay I wont blame PS3 itself because transcoding happens on the server side but it is still a nightmare. With most of my mkv collection I couldn't afford to miss a scene when watching a movie because navigating through scenes was close to impossible. MediaPortal doesnt have the cool scene view of PS3 but it works.
I was able to setup bitstreaming with some research and it works with HDMI out. I tested it with Dolby Digital and DTS formats, it should also work with high definition formats.
MusicOut of the box, MediaPortal supports all music formats I have and has a rather plain and simple layout. In fact, its a bit boring compared to the Movies and Series plugins' layout and presentation. Maybe there is a music plug in that will give the same effect.
MediaPortal is able to use iTunes, Winamp, and Foobar2000 as external music players. Unfortunately the latest version no longer supports Foobar2000, which is a big disappointment since it is my music player preference. Anyway, the idea of using external players makes bitstreaming music possible with tools such a ASIO and Kernel Streaming. I still yet to test this though.
I compared the default internal player with stand alone Foobar2000 and Winamp and I definitely could hear that the external players sounded better.
The one issue, BIG issue I have but havent had time to address is audio output with stereo sources. After setting up the graphics card to bitstream audio, every format is outputted as Multichannel 5.1
Overall impressions:Very happy with the performance, functionality, and the look and feel of the setup.
However, the fact that Im forced to run on Windows is still disturbing for me and I wonder if will get over it any time soon.
I will install Ubuntu and XBMC on a different partition and compare it with MediaPortal. Hopefully it will do what MP does and only then will I switch over
