2011-07-11, 05:06
I'm glad to see another AsRock zacate owner. I built a similar mini-htpc as you, but I use Windows 7 MCE as my main media player. I selected MCE because I like the integration of the Media Browser, TMT5 and cool skin/mce remote. I installed XBMC as my second media player. To my suprise, this mini-htpc can playback 1080P BD (m2ts, ISO and MKV) files with DTS-HD and TrueHD audio codecs ( and all other audio codecs) flawless. I can do multi-task with it too.
As for the ATI settings, I didn't have to do much on the 56" HDTV. I installed everything using the 27" HDTV at first. With the 27" HDTV, I have to manually adjusted the screen to 1216x688 in ATI Catalyst Control Center to fill in the entire 16x9 screen.
1. APEX MI-008 Black Steel Mini-ITX
2. ASRock E350M1/USB3
3. Kingston SSDNow V Series SNV125-S2/30GB
4. Kingston 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500)
5. SilenX IXP-74-09 120mm Case Fan
6. HP MCE Remote Control
7. LG Black 10X BD-ROM
8. Buffalo Technology MiniStation Stealth 1 TB USB 3.0
9. Windows 7 ultimate 64-bit
10. Windows 7 MCE
11. Windows 7 Codecs Pack
12. Shark007
13. Media Browser
14. RealTek HD audio codecs
15. Arcsoft TotallMedia 5
16. MPC-HC
If anyone interesting in Windows 7 MCE fancy skins, you can download: Media Center Studio (it is below the instructions). I used StarTrek as my background. It is cool!
As for the ATI settings, I didn't have to do much on the 56" HDTV. I installed everything using the 27" HDTV at first. With the 27" HDTV, I have to manually adjusted the screen to 1216x688 in ATI Catalyst Control Center to fill in the entire 16x9 screen.
1. APEX MI-008 Black Steel Mini-ITX
2. ASRock E350M1/USB3
3. Kingston SSDNow V Series SNV125-S2/30GB
4. Kingston 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500)
5. SilenX IXP-74-09 120mm Case Fan
6. HP MCE Remote Control
7. LG Black 10X BD-ROM
8. Buffalo Technology MiniStation Stealth 1 TB USB 3.0
9. Windows 7 ultimate 64-bit
10. Windows 7 MCE
11. Windows 7 Codecs Pack
12. Shark007
13. Media Browser
14. RealTek HD audio codecs
15. Arcsoft TotallMedia 5
16. MPC-HC
If anyone interesting in Windows 7 MCE fancy skins, you can download: Media Center Studio (it is below the instructions). I used StarTrek as my background. It is cool!