[ramaht]

I've been running MediaPortal for a couple of years now, always been very happy with it until recently.
I've upgraded my setup with a surround systeem and performed a software upgrade on the whole box. Since then I've ran into codec problems with MP, DTS wouldn't play, if it did play my stereo files wouldn't work etc etc etc.
Then I came across a post in another board from someone stating that xbmc is great, "oh well, let's try it out". To be honest, why have I been such an idiot and not tried it before?
I know my way around computers, but I hate messing with audio/video-codecs
And well, the best thing about xbmc is that I can change settings with my remote. With MP you have to exit the program, run the settings thingie etc etc etc.
Also thanks to this board I've solved some minor problems I had with XBMC, the not being on top when booting for example.

I also love the Android app!

So, I'm a believer


But what's a believer without a setup, so here it is.




[Case] Antec NSK2400 desktop case with 2x 120mm fan running on lowest speed
[Mainbord] Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H AMD780G chipset
[CPU]AMD X2 BE-2350 2.1Ghw 45w TDP, passively cooled by Scythe Mini Ninja
[Videocard]Onboard ATI Radeon HD3200 IGP
[Memory]2GB DDR2-800, more then sufficient
[Disks]WD Green 500GB + Samsung 500GB (In the near future one of them probably will be replaced by a bigger one)
[Optical]Asus DVD-player (also to be upgraded to a BR some day)
[Remote]Harmony 555
[OS]Windows 7 64bit




[TV]Sony KDL32-V4500
[Audio]Yamaha HTR-3063 AV-receiver + Yamaha NS-P285 5.1 Speakerset
[Other]Digital TV receiver (IPTV) and a Xbox360

Everything is connected to the receiver by HDMI, so one single cable going to the TV.
The exception is the audio of the HTPC, that's connected by optical cable to the receiver.

TV might be a bit on the smaller size but the image is great and I'm not able to convince my lovely wife to get a new TV
We bought this tv + 3 years ago when we were still living in our apartment, and I decided upon buying a higher end 32" HD Ready rather then to buy a lower end 40" fullhd.

I did however convince my wife to get a surround.
This setup is more then powerful enough for our place. We live in a house in the row, so I have direct neighbors... Also it's well insulated, so hardly any noise from the outside.
The only thing she disagreed on was hanging the L+R speakers on the wall, it would look awkward she said. So had to think of something else.
With some 3mm thick alu-bar I constructed a small frame to bolt into the VESA-holes in the back of the TV.



The other day I watched Tron Legacy again, I had previously watched it without the surround, and what a difference!


Maybe one day I'll upgrade to a beamer, but right now I don't have the time (read €'s) for it...

[eskro]

Wow! Very nice system ramaht!!
thanks for showing it!!

is the HD3200 iGPU good enough for smooth 1080P playback?

[Thomss]

I like. : )

[bluray]

you have capable htpc, avr, speakers and hdtv, why not connects it this way- htpc>avr>hdtv with two hdmi cables and set your avr to passthrough video. htpc and hdtv can handles video and avr can handle audio by itself. you'll get the best pq/aq with these connections!

[ramaht]

eskro, you have to excuse me but actually i have no idea about 1080P. Since the TV only dus 720P I don't have higher sources.
It can handle it, but it'll downsize it so what's the use If I would have the need for 1080P and it couldn't handle it, I can always upgrade the videocard. The mainboard has a x16 pci-express slot...

But I've just started a download of some 1080P demo movie. I'll let you know how it handles it, actually I'm curious also


Bluray, I think it's connected like that. Maybe I expressed myself wrongly. The setup is like this:
HTPC/IPTV/Xbox > Receiver > TV

The reason I run an extra optical cable to the receiver from the HTPC is because I had some troubles with only getting stereo sound to the receiver over hdmi.

[bluray]

eskro, you have to excuse me but actually i have no idea about 1080P. Since the TV only dus 720P I don't have higher sources.
It can handle it, but it'll downsize it so what's the use If I would have the need for 1080P and it couldn't handle it, I can always upgrade the videocard. The mainboard has a x16 pci-express slot...

But I've just started a download of some 1080P demo movie. I'll let you know how it handles it, actually I'm curious also


Bluray, I think it's connected like that. Maybe I expressed myself wrongly. The setup is like this:
HTPC/IPTV/Xbox > Receiver > TV

The reason I run an extra optical cable to the receiver from the HTPC is because I had some troubles with only getting stereo sound to the receiver over hdmi.

if it is configure correctly, you should be able to get all sounds thru hdmi. if you want to enjoy dts-hd/truehd on your avr and surround sound speakers, you can install one of these- Asus nVidia GeForce GT430 1GB or Sapphire Radeon HD6570 1GB .
with one of these cards above, it will give you a little more fire power too!

[ramaht]

The problem I had is that I was only able to select "stereo" in the drivers section of windows, same problem with the realtek software. And from what I've read on the interweb the system is only able to pass stereo trough HDMI. It's a hardware problem. Yeah, I know I can upgrade the videocard to something else, but then again it works perfect with SPDIF and I have great image quality...

Eskro, I've tried 2 1080p demo's from this place http://www.demo-world.eu/trailers/high-d...ailers.php
Tex 2: Moo Can (Lossless) & Cavalcade (Lossless)

Worked like a charm. I couldn't see any distortion or stutter in the image.

[eskro]

sweet!

[bluray]

The problem I had is that I was only able to select "stereo" in the drivers section of windows, same problem with the realtek software. And from what I've read on the interweb the system is only able to pass stereo trough HDMI. It's a hardware problem. Yeah, I know I can upgrade the videocard to something else, but then again it works perfect with SPDIF and I have great image quality...

Eskro, I've tried 2 1080p demo's from this place http://www.demo-world.eu/trailers/high-d...ailers.php
Tex 2: Moo Can (Lossless) & Cavalcade (Lossless)

Worked like a charm. I couldn't see any distortion or stutter in the image.

it seem that you're missing some audio codecs. you can try to use mpc-hc to passthrough audio. after you get it to passthrough with mpc-hc correctly, it'll work with xbmc. here is a short guide below:

follow these two posts #7 and #8. you can install the latest ati catalyst control center in instruction #2.

[ramaht]

Thanks, I'll keep it in mind but for now I have the SPDIF-connection ...