New PVR, Latest & Greatest

[wesmon]

Hi guys.  This is a PVR I'm thinking of putting together.  Please make comments and question me.  It's my first!

It will be a primary PVR.  It will take input from a Comcast Digital STB.  (non HD, but may be HD in the future with an added HD-PVD from Hauppie).    This will either run Windows Media Center or GB-PVR.   It'll be used for TV watching (live and time shifted) movies, web content, music.

Here's the list:
Tuner: HVR-1800
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815116016&nm_mc=OTC-Froogle&cm_mmc=OTC-Froogle-_-Video+Devices+++TV+Tuners-_-Hauppauge-_-15116016
RAM: 2gig
Case: Lian Li PC-37B + Corsair HX 620W Power Supply
http://www.frozencpu.com/products/8131/cst-789/Lian_Li_PC-C37B_Muse_Multi-Media_HTPC_Case_-_Black.html
Mobo: ASUS M3N78-EM AM2+/AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 8300 HDMI Micro ATX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131354
HD1:Seagate 250meg 7200.12rpm 8meg 3gb
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148451
HD2:Seagate 1tb 7200 rpm 32meg 3gb
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148373
DVD: LG Blu Ray 4mb Cache/16xDVD RW
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136133
CPU:
  AMD Athlon 64 X2 5050e Brisbane 2.6GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM2 45W Dual-Core Processor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103298
or
  AMD Opteron 1356 Budapest 2.3GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 2MB L3 Cache Socket AM2 75W Quad-Core Processor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819105214
Remote:
Logitech Harmony
Keyboard:SolidTek KB-3462B-BT Black Bluetooth Wireless Super mini 6" x 9" Keyboard w/ Touchpad - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823111043



So, my questions are:
- Are the CPU and mobo combos good?
- Can I control the Comcast STB + TV + PVR + Receiver/Amp with the Logitech Harmon? Can you suggest a IT blaster?
- Should I get the frozen CPU sound dampening kit?   The PVR will be about 7 feet away from the TV & seating area.
- Lastly, I assume if I want non-powered speakers I need a receiver/amp that will take inputs from the mobo.  Recommendations?
- Is the config good for watching HD in the future, if I get the HD-PVR or hook in OTA Digital box.

thanks!

[Miller]

You will need an IR receiver/blaster for this setup. If you buy the retail version of the hvr1800 instead of the OEM version it should come with this. The IR receiver is so you can use your Harmony remote to control your computer. The IR blaster is used by the pvr software to control your cablebox.

The sound stuff is up to you. Personally, I find quiet fans (or fanless components) help more than anything else. Try the Nexus fans from EndPCNoise.com.

You want recommendations on a receiver or the how to hook up to a receiver?

[wesmon]

Yeah, if you could make a recommendation, that would get me started in the right direction on a receiver/amp.

thanks.

[Craig]

I picked up a Pioneer VSX-819H a few months back on recommedations from the guys over at AVSforum and it has been a great AVR so far. For $300 it was concidered to have one of the best bangs for the buck. I paired that with 4 x Polk Monitor 50's and a CS-2 for center from Newegg, and a TSW-10 sub from The Speaker Company. Overall I spent just under $1000. It sounds absolutely great to me. I like that I am able to send all the DTS and AC3 5.1 tracks over the onboard HDMI and have the AVR do the decoding. Gives you some real nice surround.

[Miller]

You can see in my signature that I have a Pioneer VSX-D608. It's an older model (got it about 10 years ago). It does not have any HDMI on it, but it does have spdif ports for audio input. Bottom line is that this is all you really need. Since the point of the receiver is to play back your audio for you you don't have to worry about the video stuff (like HDMI) unless you just want to consolidate all your connections in your receiver. I find most people have everything run into their tv and then you can just run an audio out from your tv's spdif into your receiver. You could also have all video connections sent to your tv, but all audio connections sent to your receiver (which is what I do). Then just setup a nice universal remote to power up your components and set everything to the correct inputs. So if you want to use an old receiver you can, just make sure it has spdif connections for all your digital sound sources.

That being said, you can get a really nice receiver now for pretty cheap. I think my brother just bought a nice one with HDMI and all that jazz for around $250-300. My suggestion is this. Go to a store where they have lots of receivers hooked up to speakers for you. Keep the same speakers every time and bring in a CD and a DVD. Make the CD some nice classical selection that has a nice range, but is recorded in stereo. When you listen to it check to see how the receiver remasters that sound into a surround sound setting. Also bring in a good DVD (I like Terminator 2.) and see how the receiver handles playback for it. Pick the cheapest receiver that sounds good to you. Keep in mind that a lot of the video you record off of the tv is stereo so the remastering of stereo sound into surround sound is an important consideration while you listen. Happy shopping.

[wesmon]

Thanks for the comments!

How's my proposed config?  Good, bad, room for improvement?

[Miller]

Sorry, I guess I meant to say that everythnig else looks fine except for this:

You will need an IR receiver/blaster for this setup. If you buy the retail version of the hvr1800 instead of the OEM version it should come with this. The IR receiver is so you can use your Harmony remote to control your computer. The IR blaster is used by the pvr software to control your cablebox.

The sound stuff is up to you. Personally, I find quiet fans (or fanless components) help more than anything else. Try the Nexus fans from EndPCNoise.com.

You want recommendations on a receiver or the how to hook up to a receiver?

The only other thing I might suggest is to bump to 4GB (2X2GB). You can't take advantage of all of it now, but if you update to Windows 7 down the road you probably will.

[wesmon]

You are right, for the cost of 4 gig vs 2 gig, I might as well!   Although, most of my servers at work have at least 4 gigs, some running several VM's, and they barely utilize the 4 gig.  Yes, we are talking apples and oranges, but your point is taken.

[Miller]

But the reason I say you won't utilize it is because at home you're (most likely) running a 32-bit system which caps out at 4GB of RAM. With Windows 7 (as you could with Vista and some XP) you'll likely move to 64-bit which has some huge number for the maximum amount of RAM allowed.

[wesmon]

How does AverMedia compare to the Hauppie cards?     I've seen some other forums where people seem to like to AverTV cards better.

[Miller]

In the old days where Hauppauge's line was PVRxxx (like the pvr150, pvr500, etc) then the competition was more intense because the card had to encode the video on the fly. (Which is why the hardware-based cards were better than the software based cards.) Well the quality of this encoding varied and this is where some like the Aver cards better. (As I recall the ATI Theater 550/650 cards were considered some of the best.) Well now that Hauppauge has switched to the hvr line the analog quality is all about the same.

More importantly, there is no debate for the digital part though. Since a digital cards doesn't do any encoding it just writes the stream to your hard drive you don't have to worry about the quality of the card. That quality level is dictated by the video source.

So the moral of the story is if you're recording digital, go with the cheapest card that is supported by your pvr software. If you want analog then any of the hvr cards are fine, but so are the Aver and ATI cards.