Topic: Unofficial HTPC users thread: Tips, Tricks, and everything HTPC

[Stagea]

guys noob question..

I am currently using my 2 year old Acer M5711 as an HTPC with WMC7 as my player, it has HDMI out but
my problem is that my sound card has no Optical Out (toslink) to connect my PC to my non-hdmi receiver.

Will these solve my problem?  

Branded 5.1 external sound card around P4,000 here in the Phil.


or

Unknown Chinese Brand around P2,000 when imported


please help..  

Yes they would.

CD-R King sells an even cheaper option (990PhP according to their website), if you're okay with fixed 48/16 output for LPCM. It can bitstream AC3, DTS and WMA Pro as well.

Here's a link to the product:
http://www.encore-usa.com/us/taxonomy/term/366/all

Borix acquired one the other day:
http://www.pinoydvd.com/index.php/topic,138954.60.html

[ninjababez®]

Yes they would.

CD-R King sells an even cheaper option (990PhP according to their website), if you're okay with a fixed 48/16 output.

Here's a link to the product:
http://www.encore-usa.com/us/taxonomy/term/366/all

Borix acquired one the other day:
http://www.pinoydvd.com/index.php/topic,138954.60.html

nice find stagea!

[coolswitch]

Need pa ba nung nasa taas kung na-re-assign naman yung ports nung  onboard audio?   TIA

[Stagea]

nice find stagea!

Thanks Ninjababez! It's been around sa CD-R King since late 2009 ata, wala lang pumapansin masyado (hence Vista pa nakasulat sa box nya, but it should work without a glitch sa Windows 7).

Need pa ba nung nasa taas kung na-re-assign naman yung ports nung  onboard audio?   TIA

If your onboard audio has optical output (or if you're using HDMI), then there'd be no need for this. However, if you're still using analogue mini-jacks, then this might help improve sound quality. Mataas kasi ang noise floor ng analogue output ng internal sound boards usually (you can often hear hiss, buzzing, etc.), madalas lower quality ang components (unless higher-end sound adapter yan), at nagiging path din yung connection ng electrical noise from the PC to the AVR kaya double jeopardy.

Using an optical connection means that digital data is transmitted, so your AVR gets clean information (save for some possible errors and jitter, which are typically minor in comparison). Plus, the optical fiber inside the cable is not electrically conductive... therefore ensuring galvanic isolation between your components (no electrical noise).

In my HTPC, having an electrical connection between the PC and the AVR (coaxial digital, in my case) automatically adds a mild hiss to the sound the moment you turn on the PC (and the AVR's volume is up). This happens whether or not the PC is selected as the source. The reason for this is that the far majority of sound boards (and AVRs) don't have electrically isolated inputs and outputs. An optical connection, on the other hand is always electrically isolated (unless you deliberately make it otherwise). YMMV.

Best of luck.

[favalc]

ayun! thank you Stagea! It's just around the corner lang pala.. hehe! thank you talaga bro.. 

[Stagea]

ayun! thank you Stagea! It's just around the corner lang pala.. hehe! thank you talaga bro.. 

You're welcome, favalc.

[FrancisD]

@favalc

CDR King products usually works. My experience with their soundcards are OK, just dont expect its as good as the branded components in terms of audio quality (my return rate is about 25%). Just use their items a lot during the burn-in period, returns are kind of common and you only get the warranty for a limited period.

USB ports you use in a laptop matter - try changing ports if something doesnt appear to go right, sometimes this fixes it. And unfortunately, ground / hiss problems are common - sometimes these disappear when you use the battery of the laptop and / or  different usb port.

Note that there are soundcards not of the CDR variety that have filters that minimizes hiss problems. And theoretically and commonly, an optical output isolates the hiss problem to your laptop meaning with an optical and there is a hiss, the problem is with the source not the audio components.

[blake]

Hi

ok po ba tong mobo/cpu for HTPC

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3681#sp



or eto
http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=A330ION

[blake]

also



there are six holes here for sounds I assumed, is it compatible with analog audio wire?

so I can connect it to 5.1 speaker?

[joko11]

also



there are six holes here for sounds I assumed, is it compatible with analog audio wire?

so I can connect it to 5.1 speaker?

 only 3 of that analog you need for 5.1 set up and 4 for 7.1.
others is for mic etc

[blake]

only 3 of that analog you need for 5.1 set up and 4 for 7.1.
others is for mic etc

so I need a splitter type cable for this to work on my 5.1 speakers

[joko11]

so I need a splitter type cable for this to work on my 5.1 speakers

what you will need is 3.5 jack

[mojako]

Are these CDR King / Encore sound cards any good?  Better than the built in sa motherboards?

http://www.cdrking.com/index.php?mod=products&type=view&sid=2293&main=91

[keema]

guys may tanong lang po ako about sa XBMC.

nag install ako nito sa laptop and then i connected my lcd tv sa laptop papano ko po magagawang mag launch ung XBMC dun sa 2nd display (LCD tv) ?


thanks..=)

[nerveblocker]

guys may tanong lang po ako about sa XBMC.

nag install ako nito sa laptop and then i connected my lcd tv sa laptop papano ko po magagawang mag launch ung XBMC dun sa 2nd display (LCD tv) ?


thanks..=)

See if there is an option to duplicate display on external monitor.

[ikatrese]

sirs,

gusto ko na sanang gawin na lang htpc ang old pc ko. eto ang specs:

procie: core2duo
ram: 4gig ripjaw gskill ddr3
mobo: asrock socket 775
vga: 9500gt 1gig 128bit ddr2
optical: lg

ano po bang marerecommend nyo na i-upgrade pa dyan? to be paired with toshiba 32inch HDReady LCDTV and onkyo HT-r390. gusto ko rin sanang palitan yung casing niya [astone enforcer] yung mas manipis o maliit lang sana. tia!

[ninjababez®]

sirs,

gusto ko na sanang gawin na lang htpc ang old pc ko. eto ang specs:

procie: core2duo
ram: 4gig ripjaw gskill ddr3
mobo: asrock socket 775
vga: 9500gt 1gig 128bit ddr2
optical: lg

ano po bang marerecommend nyo na i-upgrade pa dyan? to be paired with toshiba 32inch HDReady LCDTV and onkyo HT-r390. gusto ko rin sanang palitan yung casing niya [astone enforcer] yung mas manipis o maliit lang sana. tia!

video card lang 
ATi HD 6xxxx series 

[ikatrese]

video card lang 
ATi HD 6xxxx series 

thanks for the quick reply. ano ba sa series ang nasa 2-3k range?

[ninjababez®]

thanks for the quick reply. ano ba sa series ang nasa 2-3k range?

6470 should be within that range

[ikatrese]

6470 should be within that range

thanks again! will check this later.

cheers!

[klpangan]

Hi All,

Which is better Zotac Zbox nano AD10 or Xtreamer Ultra HTPC... di ako makapagdecide halos parehas lang....

need your input thanks

[HD_MOVIES]

^ ano ba mga specs nyan? kung di ka naman maselan sa physical look ng htpc mo, suggest mag buo ka na lang.. more or less yund in magagastos mo, pero mas powerful..

[seymorebutts]

hello, need help, maybe you can suggest something on my issue.

my setup as follows:

etrayz - 24/7 torrent rig/file server
e350 desktop - htpc
egreat m34a - nmt
gigabit switch - cnet
zyxel p661 - router/modem

i have an mkv file in the etrayz which is 9Gb and 2 bd rips which are 25Gb and 40Gb. htpc has gigabit connection and so is the etrayz, nmt with FE connection.

when i transfer file from htpc to etrayz and vice versa, transfer rate is around 6-8MBps, sometimes it goes to 11-12MBps (very rare).

I tried playing those 3 files i listed above in my htpc with etrayz as file server and it stutters bigtime, i tried xbmc, splash pro, boxee, mpc, vlc all have the same issue. at first i thought it was the etrayz so i transferred those files to my htpc hdd and all played fine , no stutter whatsoever but when i tried to play it in my jurassic egreat m34a streaming from the etrayz, i did not see any stutter at all  , so it is not the etrayz, it is not my gigabit connection, what could be wrong?

is there any software media player that i can use to boot up my htpc and use that for pulling and playing content from my etrayz? i would like to try not using win7 os.

any suggestions?

thank you!

[nerveblocker]

hello, need help, maybe you can suggest something on my issue.

my setup as follows:

etrayz - 24/7 torrent rig/file server
e350 desktop - htpc
egreat m34a - nmt
gigabit switch - cnet
zyxel p661 - router/modem

i have an mkv file in the etrayz which is 9Gb and 2 bd rips which are 25Gb and 40Gb. htpc has gigabit connection and so is the etrayz, nmt with FE connection.

when i transfer file from htpc to etrayz and vice versa, transfer rate is around 6-8MBps, sometimes it goes to 11-12MBps (very rare).

I tried playing those 3 files i listed above in my htpc with etrayz as file server and it stutters bigtime, i tried xbmc, splash pro, boxee, mpc, vlc all have the same issue. at first i thought it was the etrayz so i transferred those files to my htpc hdd and all played fine , no stutter whatsoever but when i tried to play it in my jurassic egreat m34a streaming from the etrayz, i did not see any stutter at all  , so it is not the etrayz, it is not my gigabit connection, what could be wrong?

is there any software media player that i can use to boot up my htpc and use that for pulling and playing content from my etrayz? i would like to try not using win7 os.

any suggestions?

thank you!

Try using TCP Optimizer.  Many have improved the performance of their networks thru this. 

[seymorebutts]

Try using TCP Optimizer.  Many have improved the performance of their networks thru this. 

will try that sir, thank you!

[theblue]

Hi sirs,

please help me get an idea on what I need to be able to make a receiver output DTS MA and Dolby True HD sound.

My current PC specs:
i7 920
DX58SO board
GTX 570 GPU
6GB ram
3Terra HD space

I'm currently connecting my onboard Optical SPDIF output to HK receiver. I play BD rips that has DTS or Dolby. Everything was fine until my HK receiver died 2 weeks ago. 

I am now planning to get a Denon 1612 or 1912 receiver for DTS MA or Dolby True HD.

Questions:
1. What files do I need to play HD audio? Do i need to get the BD image files that are around 40GB each?
2. Will the HDMI output in GTX570 be able to pass these HD audio to receiver or do I need to buy another soundcard?

Thanks in advance sirs!

[Stagea]

Hi sirs,

please help me get an idea on what I need to be able to make a receiver output DTS MA and Dolby True HD sound.

My current PC specs:
i7 920
DX58SO board
GTX 570 GPU
6GB ram
3Terra HD space

I'm currently connecting my onboard Optical SPDIF output to HK receiver. I play BD rips that has DTS or Dolby. Everything was fine until my HK receiver died 2 weeks ago. 

I am now planning to get a Denon 1612 or 1912 receiver for DTS MA or Dolby True HD.

Questions:
1. What files do I need to play HD audio? Do i need to get the BD image files that are around 40GB each?
2. Will the HDMI output in GTX570 be able to pass these HD audio to receiver or do I need to buy another soundcard?

Thanks in advance sirs!

1. Any playable file that has a supported HD Audio track would do. It doesn't have to be a BD image.
2. The GTX570 does not bitstream those compressed lossless formats. You can output multichannel LPCM to your receiver with that graphics adapter. If you really want to bitstream DTS-MA or TrueHD, then you'd either have to switch over to AMD/ATI graphics or downgrade to a lower Nvidia model (HTPC-oriented models... which throws 3d rendering performance out the window).

[theblue]

1. Any playable file that has a supported HD Audio track would do. It doesn't have to be a BD image.
2. The GTX570 does not bitstream those compressed lossless formats. You can output multichannel LPCM to your receiver with that graphics adapter. If you really want to bitstream DTS-MA or TrueHD, then you'd either have to switch over to AMD/ATI graphics or downgrade to a lower Nvidia model (HTPC-oriented models... which throws 3d rendering performance out the window).

Thanks sir!

That means I now have to sell my Nvidia Card or settle for a multichannel LPCM. By the way is there really a difference between LCPM and the lossless formats? Which one is sounds better?

[Stagea]

Thanks sir!

That means I now have to sell my Nvidia Card or settle for a multichannel LPCM. By the way is there really a difference between LCPM and the lossless formats? Which one is sounds better?

You're welcome. Theoretically, they should sound about the same. Unfortunately, most BDs with DTS-MA or TrueHD tracks only include 16-bit Unpacked LPCM tracks to save disc space (as uncompressed data consumes a lot of space), while the compressed tracks may be in 24-bit.

If you want to, you can have the PC translate the DTS-MA / TrueHD bitstreams into LPCM. Just hope that AACS compliance does not screw anything (if it does, it'd convert the material to 16/48).

[seymorebutts]

Try using TCP Optimizer.  Many have improved the performance of their networks thru this. 

sir, tried this but didnt work anyway, right now im using openelec which i boot from usb, so far all the files i have were successfully played by it tingin ko problema ko os na