Topic: Share your HTPC Setup

[sanmig_ph]

nice bro , HP w2207h 22" monitor , wish list ko din yan
congrats

[john5479]

Just to share my recent PC upgrade to experience HD on my desktop...
Am actually checkin' out Quad and branded pc's for the first time. 
Hope it's worth the investment...



HP Pavillion M9299D [mod]
Neptune / Intel Core 2 Quad - Q6700 2.66GHz
3GB ram / 320GB SATA / Super Multi Drive + Lightscribe SATA
NVIDIA GeForce 8400

HP w2207h 22" monitor

The screen's HDMI-in allows 720p / 1080i HD viewing via PC.  Still ordering a BD player / burner via the web to complete the set-up. 

Cheers!
Marl_1

Nice, thats a lot of horsepower you got there, there shouldn't be problems playing blu ray or hidef mkvs. Thats my next project, upgrading to quad core.

[dyerds]

Wow! Nice setup sir Marl_1 . How much was the damage? 

[steelcrazy]

Just to share my recent PC upgrade to experience HD on my desktop...
Am actually checkin' out Quad and branded pc's for the first time. 
Hope it's worth the investment...



HP Pavillion M9299D [mod]
Neptune / Intel Core 2 Quad - Q6700 2.66GHz
3GB ram / 320GB SATA / Super Multi Drive + Lightscribe SATA
NVIDIA GeForce 8400

HP w2207h 22" monitor




The screen's HDMI-in allows 720p / 1080i HD viewing via PC.  Still ordering a BD player / burner via the web to complete the set-up. 

Cheers!
Marl_1

may i know ilan bit ang panel ng hp lcd monitor na yan?

[HD_MOVIES]

nice PC specs for an HTPC... upgrade na ng harddisk para sa mga MKV files.. )

[momay]

upgraded to 1TB Samsung SpinPoint HDD with external esata HDD enclosure.

[dyerds]

Ganda nyang hdd enclosure nyo sir.  How much for both and where did you buy it? Did you buy it separately?

[momay]

bought it separately here in japan. total cost for the samsung and the case was Php8,500. that external case is for japan local market only.for vista and xp no drivers required. just plug and play. my temps never go above 25C. hassle lang magformat ng 1TB with NTFS file system took me more than 7 hours to format the drive.

[Weng!]

mura pala ng combo na yan dyan sa japan. magkano lang ang 1TB hdd lang sir?

[momay]

HDD cost is roughly Php6,800.

[steelcrazy]

upgraded to 1TB Samsung SpinPoint HDD with external esata HDD enclosure.

very nice HDD ha with that massive storage, you can store lots of mkv files. talagang prepared kna to enter the HD world.

[HD_MOVIES]

HDD cost is roughly Php6,800.

wow mura! pabili na tayo.. group buy.. hehe

[amalvar]

i can regularly get hdd from japan.

anyone interested, just msg me.

[HD_MOVIES]

i can regularly get hdd from japan.

anyone interested, just msg me.

hi bro, pabili na kami..

[dyerds]

i can regularly get hdd from japan.

anyone interested, just msg me.

I am very interested. Do you have any idea on how much and what brand? Brand-new po ba 'to?

[momay]

consider the warranty pag nag pabili kayo dito sa japan. if the HDD fails, definitely RMA na yan. And as far as i know. seagate lang ang madaling RMA procedure dyan sa Pilipinas. other brands of HDD here in japan like seagate, toshiba, hitachi and western digital have comparative pricing dyan sa Pilipinas. Dyan pa ang warranty mo. Ang mga mura na brand new HDD dito sa Japan 1-3 months lang ang warranty sa retailer. after that RMA to manufacturer na.

[john5479]

I agree, how much is a 1tb seagate there in japan?

[Clondalkin]

Warranty coverage costs a lot of money, especially in a country like Japan.   If you want 1-year warranty or 3-year warranty (boxed sets), then you have to pay the price for that.

I don't know, personally I haven't had a single bad experience with any hard drive.   I've got Seagate, WD and Samsung in my rigs.   The last desktop PC I threw away lasted for 9 years with its WD hard drive still in perfect working condition. 

I am not sure if they have any "extra" QA/QC checklist for "bulk" (NOT BOXED) HDDs sold in Japan although that is quite common for other commodities imported to Japan (brand clothes in particular).  In any case, these "bulk HDDs" in Japan are made by the big players such as Seagate, WD, Hitachi, Samsung, Toshiba.   And although they lack the "box", they certainly are brand-new and properly packed.

Momay, I'm not sure if you can even do RMA to manufacturer for brand items "handled as bulk."  AFAIK, for instance in popular DIY store like T-Zone and Clevery in Akihabara, after the store's own limited warranty for a certain bulk item, or a "special store item" expires, that's it.  But then again what are the chances of total failure in 3 months anyway?   Well, for a 17,000 yen 1TB hard disk drive, that may or may not be worth the risk depending on your situation. 

[john5479]

I prefer seagate as I had 3 250gb western digital hard drives fail, bad luck I guess.

[momay]

Warranty coverage costs a lot of money, especially in a country like Japan.   If you want 1-year warranty or 3-year warranty (boxed sets), then you have to pay the price for that.

I don't know, personally I haven't had a single bad experience with any hard drive.   I've got Seagate, WD and Samsung in my rigs.   The last desktop PC I threw away lasted for 9 years with its WD hard drive still in perfect working condition. 

I am not sure if they have any "extra" QA/QC checklist for "bulk" (NOT BOXED) HDDs sold in Japan although that is quite common for other commodities imported to Japan (brand clothes in particular).  In any case, these "bulk HDDs" in Japan are made by the big players such as Seagate, WD, Hitachi, Samsung, Toshiba.   And although they lack the "box", they certainly are brand-new and properly packed.

Momay, I'm not sure if you can even do RMA to manufacturer for brand items "handled as bulk."  AFAIK, for instance in popular DIY store like T-Zone and Clevery in Akihabara, after the store's own limited warranty for a certain bulk item, or a "special store item" expires, that's it.  But then again what are the chances of total failure in 3 months anyway?   Well, for a 17,000 yen 1TB hard disk drive, that may or may not be worth the risk depending on your situation. 

for RMA to manufacturer of bulk items in japan, wala naman problema. may manufacturer warranty card naman ang mga bulk items dito na nabibili.

sa DIY store like dospara 6 months ang warranty but you have to pay an additional 5% to the price of the product you are buying, kaya sa sofmap ako bumibili. mas mababa ng upto 2000yen ang price plus the 3months warranty pa. sa 5 HDDs na nabili ko dito, sa 200gb PATA maxtor lang ako nagka problema. and guess what, na-RMA ko yun sa seagate when i was there sa Pilipinas kasi 5 years naman ang warranty ng seagate. pero kung di na-acquire ng seagate ang maxtor, 3years lang ang warranty. happy parin.after that incident, its either samsung or seagate lang binibili ko. for all the samsung HDDs that we've owned wala pang bumigay. most of them are more than 5 years old. ang seagate naman, 5year manufacturer warranty sulit na sulit sa presyo.ang dali pa ng RMA.

like i've said, seagate HDDs here in japan have comparative pricing dyan sa Pilipinas. price difference will not exceed Php500. maganda pa ang warranty program ng mga retailer natin dyan sa Pilipinas. most of them have 1year store warranty. walang hassle di ba.

[steelcrazy]

I,m on the stage of planning a HTPC set up. Whats the cheapest videocard w/ hdmi connectivity available in the market?

[pchin]

Earlier, I tried to play an original LOTR DVD on my PC, sobrang laki ng difference ng PQ compared sa ripped Bluray ng LOTR (720p). Hindi maganda yung DVD sa PC.

Would you say na pareho or minimal difference lang ang PQ ng ripped HD-DVD/Bluray (720p) at regular DVD played on Upscaling DVD player?

Regardless how you play the SD, the HD ripped source which is 720p will be always better PQ than the SD. But some good SD source if upscalled tru a good upscalled player may give you a "near HD" look.

[momay]

any videocard with dvi-d would do. use can always use a dvi-hdmi adaptor.i think only the nvidia 9800gx2 have an audio through hdmi if integral sound is your concerned, and i think its only stereo. i do not recommend going for the cheapest videocard with hdmi connectivity. i'd recommend amd 3800 series chips or nvidia 8600 series chips with 512mb video ram as minimum. mura na lang naman na mga videocards ngayun.

I,m on the stage of planning a HTPC set up. Whats the cheapest videocard w/ hdmi connectivity available in the market?

[et414]

if you are starting from scratch, may lumabas na na motherboard with hdmi ah. it can supposedly handle 8channel pcm. nakalimutan ko yung name pero nvidia ata yung chipset. yung mga video card kasi they can only output dolby digital or 2 channel pcm. parang toslink lang ang equivalent nya. if you don't plan on gaming, the motherboard's onboard video can already play 1080p rips.

[GioSpike]

Regardless how you play the SD, the HD ripped source which is 720p will be always better PQ than the SD. But some good SD source if upscalled tru a good upscalled player may give you a "near HD" look.

Thanks pchin! I was just wondering because a lot of people here at PinoyDVD are getting upscaling dvd players for their HT setup. I guess its for those people who do not have HTPC + ripped HDs, but have huge collection of DVDs.

[dyerds]

I,m on the stage of planning a HTPC set up. Whats the cheapest videocard w/ hdmi connectivity available in the market?

Check these mobos sir.

Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H - (HDMI and Toslink)
EMAXX - EMX-NF7050HD-PRO - (HDMI and Coax)

They almost have the same features except for 5.1 audio connectivity. Emaxx is also cheaper than Gigabyte.

[RU9]

ASUS Brings Joy to Our Ears




http://anandtech.com/tradeshows/showdoc.aspx?i=3324

[pchin]

Wow...with 7.1 channel, 24-bit/192kHz LPCM output capability & also support bitstreaming DTS-HD Master Audio and Dolby TrueHD during BD playback!!

Did it mention the price? 

[dyerds]

"Pricing is not set yet, but we expect the Deluxe Version to carry a heft premium over the current Xonar D2X card. However, based on initial experiences I am sure my Visa card is going to get a workout when the card is released in late July. We have provided a few additional screenshots of the new control panel in operation and a look at the demo unit on the main floor. We will be back with an update on the card and other new releases from ASUS shortly."

Wow!  Ganda pa ng kulay.

[HD_MOVIES]

naku baka mas mahal pa yang card na yan sa HTPC ko... ahihi