Fusion is the HTPC solution!

I've strugged with my HTPC over the years.  Bad software was vexing (solved by XBMC), and hardware was both horrible (the stupid cpu bracket which the fan attaches broke- thanks Chinese made ASUS), and vexing (heat and lots of fans).

I picked up a new AMD Fusion APU.  I've always liked AMD being a Canadian company and their buy of another canuck company: ATI.  With the advent of multi-core technology, you can cram more than one thing on a piece of silicon and AMD stuck a 6000-series GPU alongside a multicore CPU and they call it an APU.

I got an ASRock motherboard, a 4-core processor APU and some DDR3 memory for under $300.  The mobo is made in Thailand and appears very robust.  I made one small mistake- saving $20 on the motherboard, I got the one without SPDIF optical.  Oops.  I've got a new soundcard with optical out coming for $25.  Heck, at the price of the new mobo ($70), I might have been better off just buying another processor and retiring one of my other PCs.

With my newly minted MS technet membership, I've got Win7 running on it.  It is very fast with the multicore setup and it recognized everything including my HDHomeRun network tuner.

Best of all, it does FULL HD silky-smooth!  I had some full 1080p movies that stuttered with the Nvidia 7950GT card that was in there and now I'm finally using the Epson projector to its full potential.

Thank you AMD!

Streaming: long live VHS!

Just read a great article- I don't agree with all of it, for example, it says that DVD is going to be gone soon.  But then again, I thought HD DVD was the winner of the high-def war (and would have been were it not for Sony's bribery of the studios.  Maybe it'll bankrupt them!).

The article gives a history of the various formats, and then, of course, talks about streaming video.  Here's what caught my eye:

By contrast, streaming video seems like a return to the low-tech past. As Eric A. Taub reported on The New York Times’s Gadgetwise blog, the quality of Netflix’s streaming video seems roughly on a par with VHS: tolerable on a small computer screen but painfully inadequate on an HDTV.

Yeah, that's what I want.  My 10' screen, showing 1080p lines of resolution, giving me the equivalent of my old VHS player (which I still have, and it at least does s-video).   I'm sorry, but I'm a snob- the sound and video quality need to be good or I'm not going to watch it.  I don't order mac-and-cheese when I go out to dinner (nor do we eat it at home).  This is the same reason I don't download movies from the internet- it isn't the legality that bothers me, it's that they're ripped and compressed, missing most of the additional content.  I look at movies like I do wine- I want to enjoy them again and to their fullest.  My time is limited and filling it with substandard entertainment isn't going to work.   Here's a good example of how I got this way- my father videotaped my grandfather giving the story of his life (which is impressive- he was a general, an ambassador, a governor).  But to save tape.. recorded it on VHS-EP or whatever the hack was that made twice as much video fit on the tape.  The result?  For the most part, it is gone forever- some of the audio survived, but no player can seem to sync to that hacked analog player.  You can say that's because it was analog to start with- and you are partially right- but even when it was first recorded and played-back, it was lousy.

Anyway, what I'm getting at is that I don't see how people get excited about watching movies from streaming.  Rentals, be it Blockbuster- in-store or in-mail, or Redbox make it simple to get quality sound and video simple.  Leave the streaming for youtube (which is higher-quality than Netflix's streaming).

The New Projector

It's hard to believe that my Sanyo PLV60-HT is ten years old- and still going relatively strong.   My intent was that when the bulb went out that I'd get a new projector then... The 'replace lamp' light has been on for a few years now and finally I'm starting to see some LCD bleed at the edges of the picture.  Pretty impressive, so my first thought in replacing it would be another Sanyo. 

It didn't work out that way, however- Sanyo hasn't done a refresh in the last year or so, and the market has bypassed them.  Epson is selling the 8350 which just came out this summer. It's a bright 3xLCD 1080p projector, which is comparable to projectors selling for $2000+... for $1300.   From what everyone says, that's an unbeatable combination. 

My thoughts are that this projector will carry me until 3D becomes commonplace at which point I'll do that again.

This is the start of a waterfall of purchases.  I've stayed using component cable- because that's all the Sanyo could handle, even though I have a couple of HDMI sources.  But the new Epson handles them all, and I just got a 40' HDMI cable from Monoprice.  I splurged a bit on it, getting their 22 gauge model.  As we 'speak', the boys are in the 'overworld' running the cable through the piping I installed between the attic and the component area.  In my initial A/B test the HDMI is clearer than the component cables, even on standard DVD sources (probably because the Toshiba HDDVD will upscale over HDMI). 

But now that I've got an HDMI source and projector... I need an HDMI receiver!  Well, I don't really, but that's how it starts.  And if I get a receiver, I'll want to upgrade the HTPC to output HDMI as well (right now it is analog VGA).  We'll see how long I can hold off...

Streaming dominance?

I got a call from my father today who told me that he's using his PC to send movies to his plasma TV over a VGA cable and is quite satisfied.

I have been excited by Pandora, and Brian had predicted that streaming would take over the world and to start selling off my DVD collection.

But, though the future looks bright for streaming, there are some issues.  We'll start off with the good:

• Blockbuster has unlimited Streaming with any plan but their basic plan
• The Samsung player has the best quality streaming
• Netflix offers streaming and the Samsung plays it.
  

And now the bad:

• Blockbuster streaming is only 2.1.  No surround sound!
• Blockbuster charges extra for Blu-ray movies
• Netflix charges extra for streaming a movie ($3)?

Initially, I was thinking that I'd just drop Blockbuster and go to Netflix, but it looks like the corporate bean counters made sure one was about as good as the other.  Here's a chart:

Both Netflix and Blockbuster have Blu-Ray.  Netflix charges extra.  Winner: Blockbuster
Both have streaming.  Netflix has unlimited viewing.  Winner: Netflix

Here's the conundrum:  if I want high quality- I need to watch Blu-ray movies.  But the only service that offers it at a reasonable price is Blockbuster.   If I want to watch movies instantly (the promise of streaming), the Netflix is the only real choice.

So, right now, neither is superior, and I'm not going to sign up for both, so I'll stick with Blockbuster for now and have already changed my queue to include BR movies as first preference.

Steaming with the Samsung

The Samsung BR DVD player has some interesting features- such as in-the-box support for Netflix, Blockbuster Pandora and YouTube.

With a disk out (one of the limitations of Blu-Ray- I started doing some development on the BR standard for an IPTV project), you get to choose which of the services you want to stream. 

I loaded up Pandora and was very impressed.  I got a key code to sign in and navigation was relatively easy.  Youtube, however was lame.  Instead of a virtual keyboard, I had to use number keys on the remote as if I were sending text messages on my cellphone. 

I can really see using Pandora as background music for when we workout on the climbing wall.

Some upgrades

The need to watch A Christmas Story in High Def made me dust off the HTPC again.  Somehow in its dormancy it lost the ability to do 5.1 and it broke the bracket for the heat sink.  I have no idea how either one happened, but the heat sink issue shows how far good brands have fallen with their migration of components to China.   The mobo is an Asus M2NPV-VM, which had a good set of features, but something as simple as the plastic bracket the heatsink mounts to being of poor quality sidelined movie night.  We tried watching Ralphie and friends- and had just gotten past when Flick sticks his tongue to the flagpole when the screen went blue.  Not the BSOD, but the projector showing no image.  I restarted the PC and it happened again.    Whenever something wacky like this happens, I suspect heat, and when I popped open the case, the heatsink on the CPU was loose- because of cheap plastic.  I'm not sure what the proper repair is- probably finding a new CPU heatsink bracket and mounting it.  But the mobo would have to come out, and I"m not sure where you find just a bracket for an AM2 socket, so I got out my racing safety wire and pliers and that sucker is on there well now.

Speaking of heat- while poking around my EP2500 was hot- too hot to the touch.  That can't be good.  I had done a trick of putting in a very quiet fan, and reversing it- so it pulled in cool air from the room and vented it out the back.  What it seemed to do was clog the front filter with dust.  I assume the hot case for the amp was due to lack of airflow.  After cracking it open, I'm not so sure.  I went ahead and restored the direction of the fan flow (pulls behind the amp, and vents out front), but I didn't feel any flow.  I crack open the amp case again, and I suspect my 2 year old had been doing modifications as he is apt to do.  I found a twist-tie stuck in the fan shroud, preventing it from moving.  I thought for sure the fan would be burned out, but it spun right up when I cleared the obstruction.

When testing out the sound, I noticed some drops during speech of the movie.  I wasn't sure if it was the receiver or the PC that was not processing the signal correctly, but the receiver certainly did over the SPDIF port of the HD DVD player.  I started playing with the PC and got stumped.  I finally had to revert the PC to do 2-channel sound to get decent playback.  Tonight I found some updated drivers for the onboard soundcard and have 5.1 again.

I still have one more issue to chase down- that of the input to the sub.  My Behringer BFD shows the input as being maxxed out.   I assume as I was pulling and reinstalling the amp that something got knocked loose for the inputs.  I'm using balanced cables between the BFD and the EP2500, but the subwoofer output on the receiver is just mono and I need to chase down that cabling.  Should be easy enough to do.

But the big news of the day (Christmas) is that a buddy of mine bought me a Blu-Ray player.  He's a theatreophile as well (many of my ideas for my home theater came from his excellent setup). Having recently moved, he's without theater and we've had him over for movies all the time.  He decided to upgrade me to BR since I'm still angry from the loss of HD DVD, so this was going to be the only way he got to see high-def again.  I need to reprogram the remote to handle the new device, and need to figure out how to get additional component inputs, but we watched our first movie on it tonight. Very nice.  Thanks Brian!

'NAT' Network-attached-tuner

The HDHomeRun is the coolest device in your high-tech home theater.

Imagine a dual-tuner card you'd stick in your PC that can tune both OTA and cable-company encoded-but-not-encrypted QAM. Dual tuners means you can watch one station and record on a different one (if you have the right software).

Imagine also that it came with great software (Arcsoft Total Media). And fast channel locking- and built-in EPG, and high-output bitstreams for the two channels.

For $150.

Great deal, right?

How about this- it doesn't go in your PC at all. So not you're thinking.. it's a component that goes in my rack. Well it can.. but it can also go anywhere. The picture fools you into thinking it is something bigger than it is.

It's the size of a paperback book. And it only has 2 input jacks, 1 ethernet port and a power plug.

Meaning, it is a fully networked device allowing any- and all PCs in your network to access the tuner itself. Please realize the distinction between this and a 'media center' where you stored your movies- this device actually outputs live video streams- two of them- that can be shared simultaneously by all the deviceces in your network (where upon you could do the traditional media center functions with a networked PC).

I am thrilled with it. It's not an easy setup- documentation is scarce- but it works wonderfully.

Back to looking for HD DVD playback software

htI've been playing HD DVD movies with my Toshiba HD DVD player- which does a fantastic job. However, for mixed-media, I really want to get my HTPC going again. It should do everything, right? Playback software for HD DVD is not common- but oddly- there are probably more choices now than when HD DVD was still viable. Below are the software I have heard work:

• Arcsoft Total Media Theater. Though the website doesn't mention it, I have it on good authority that it does work.
• PowerDVD. I have an old version that actually works. The software is pretty clunky, but I have used it. The new version has dropped HD DVD.
  
• Corel WinDVD. Supposedly even the latest version supports HD DVD
• Nero 8 with BD plugin. The latest version of Nero (9) does not support it, but 8 may still be available.

I'm leaning towards Arcsoft's TMT3, as it was recommended by an HTPC person (who also share a fondness for AMD processors).

How I miss thee popcorn

One of the treats for me and Stef has been to enjoy her excellent popcorn while watching a movie. We gave up popcorn (among other things) for Lent and it has been rough. It's funny how much the act of eating some corn adds to the movie experience. We aren't nearly going through as many movies I think, in part, because of no corn. Not too much longer until Easter!

Upcoming plans

Very little has changed in the last year. We've moved the furniture around. I've installed a remote thermostat for the HVAC (which is shared with the game room in a different part of the house).

The HT is basically done. The little 'replace light' bulb has been on for about a year, and is still going. I figure when the bulb finally goes, I'll just get a new projector. I want to re-do the screen. My neighbor got Sherwin Williams Screen paint and loves it. I want to put trim up around it- but I'm holding off on both these until I replace the aforementioned projector. The Home Theater PC is more useful- I'm using it to watch HD-DVD movies (yes, I know, Blu-Ray won).

But, the reason nothing is changing is that we use it so much- We watch a lot of movies.

Wii Love it!

The kids (and their parents) got a Wii for Christmas. This is the way to play it!

Row Two

In the saga of this home theater, it went through several iteratations. Originally, this bonus room was to be a playroom for the kids. I had built a stage in the back of the room for 'performances'. It never got used. I then built a climbing wall in the unfinished space. That was a great project, but the stage got dragged to the center of the room to be used for a bench between routes. Then the brilliant idea of a home theater came in- along with "heat" and "air conditioning". That let to the project which has consumed much of the past year.

Just recently we added a dual-reclining sofa for overflow. One thing we found- that sofa is heavy. And we have to move it around to be able to climb safely behind it. Which brings us to this post. That would give a higher view from the back. We considered different alternatives- such as building a platform. I was wishing for that stage/platform again. But- that still doesn't let me move the sofa out of the way. Worse- I found that when I did slide the sofa around, it tore up the berber carpet! I needed to solve this problem. Andy suggested 'moving pucks', which would allow it to slide, but not easily. I want to kids to be able to move it. I also wanted it higher, so I kidnapped Steff and went to the big box store and looked at casters for 40 minutes. They weren't cheap, but they're nice rubber wheels, smooth bearings and lockable. I cut a piece of plywood that matched the steel frame. I also bought some U-Bolts, drilled the frame, did a little measuring, drilled the wood.. presto! Raised, moveable sofa.

Hooray!
(Steff is seated in the first row- motorized recliners, some kids are in the second- and Aidan is doing a little climbing between movies)

Bipolar tendencies

I struggle with purchases because I am very careful with what I spend. I want it to be the right thing- both quality and price. This is the reason I held off so long on HD DVD- I was waiting for the right solution- it turned out to be the one that cost $98. I'm quite happy.

But, what of surround sound? I built the system with the future in mind- 7.1 system- even though my current receiver only does 6.1 (though it has 7 outputs, the two rears are the same channel). I got a beautiful Paradigm center channel, some gorgeous Yamahas as mains, and Polks for my surrounds. Looking back on older posts, I really struggled with those choices until the Polks fell into my lap.

But, maybe I wasn't on the right page to start with- surround sound is not supposed to be direction, but the Polks I bought are two-way speakers pointed right at my ear. After doing a lot of reading- that's plain old wrong. You shouldn't know where surround comes from other than 'over there'. Even worse, with direct surround, the experience will be different based on seating position L/R and front row, rear row. Only the guy right in the center (me!) gets the correct experience.

What's supposed to happen is that there's actually a null for the listening position for surround sound. It's supposed to be 'to my left', rather than 'right there!' as we expect with stereo imaging of the front/center combination.

To get this null, there are dipole/bipole speakers. They have drivers facing away from the listening position and out-of-phase so you can't pinpoint the sound, other than the desired 'to my left'.

I found a small pair locally and am trying them out by pulling out the Polks, but I really need some good material to decide if I'm going to go on and maybe go whole-hog with something like Speakercraft. The price people are charging for nice dipoles are very expensive. Try to Google them yourself to see what I mean.

As usual, this decision will take some time.

The peanut gallery

We bought a nice sofa to use as row two a while ago. It is leather and close to the color of our front row of seats. However, it was no higher, so you depended on the front row to recline- and the second row would not want to recline.

I considered revisiting the platform I had originally done for the home theater, but I'd want it carpeted, maybe lighted, etc. Then there was the second problem of the original purpose of the room. There's a climbing wall back there! A permanent platform with a sofa on it isn't conducive to climbing.

I needed a way to move the sofa. I considered some rails to move it back and forth, but it would still be semi- permanant. I really needed a way to move it out of the way completely. The wife suggested wheels, and that was it. I could get some height and mobility by putting it on wheels. I bought some nice big heavy-duty casters, cut a piece of ply the size of the frame under the sofa and attached the frame to the ply with some ubolts.

Steff suggested that for climbing, we spin the sofa around- a place to sit and observe as others work on boulder problems. Excellent!

QAM

Apparently, I can bypass my antenna altogether and get HD local broadcasts using the cable. I read a blog about a local guy doing just that, but he doesn't seem too impressed. My Samsung HDTV tuner can do QAM as well as NTSC, so we'll see how it works for me.

On the antenna front, I hooked up a big antenna in the attic and still didn't get much for channels. I tried the amp Darrylo gave me and I don't think it made a difference either.

The reason for this recent activity is that I'm getting closer to revitalizing the HTPC to get HD DVD using (temporarily) an XBOX HD drive. Since I already have an HD A2 and an OTA HDTV tuner, I'm not getting anything new other than DVR for the HDTV stuff, and perhaps a simplified setup (and no BS 'won't upgrade your DVDs over component').

This week I'll give the Samsung a try.