Now mid-range DVDP oso have scaler for less than RM900.

Pioneer will also be launching new x9x-s series which can scale to 720p/1080i via HDMI in May. Should be reaching our shores 1-2 months later after the release date. Don't know if it can be hacked to send HD signals via component. U know lah...not everyone is rich enuf to buy a display with HDMI...

Not in M'sia but down south in the neighbour's http://www.htpc-gear.com/index.php?module=...=viewallfolders

been around in KL shopping and demo for htpc related stuff, not much, in fact only one shop in mid valley, digital living got demo, the price is 3999 and above, not much choice, a bit pricey. the so called promotion leaflet is for chinese new year one, and now the price is still same, hauppauge 150 for RM499, lowyat stores selling at 399 nia..have to wait for more choices la, especially the casing

I built my HTPC a year ago from my old P4 rig.....its a poor man htpc with full capability.

as for the remote, i made the home brew IR receiver and using Girder software (very powerful remote solfware, can do anything that you can think of). actually if you invest in the hauppauge pvr150, then you use girder to control the ir receiver/blaster c/w pvr150, then you have the full function remote.

silverstone casing is very costly, at least to me . i have a custum htpc casing modified from tower casing. DIY lcd 40x4 for display.

i'm using Sagetv for frontend. a highly customisable PVR + Media center solfware . the easy wayout is to install windows XP MCE 2005 os and buy hauppauge 150MCE edition with come with MCE Remote and receiver.

using fx5200 gfx card(budget issue) via svideo to my 29 in TV. S/pdif out from my asus mobo to my yamaha receiver. DTS, AC3 or pcm depending on the source file.
I got few HD 720p and 1080i movies through BT (china) and it run smoothly on my 2.4 rig.... this rig cost me less than RM1600.....cool huh ?

ihave another HTPC (P3 rig, cost me less than RM300 as i bought all the parts in lelong) in my room as extender, runing sagetv client which is a client of the sagetv in my main rig via wifi. of course it can't play HD files with the P3.......

you may notice 1 thing is missing.... I WANT MY LCD TV!!!!! I'm eyeing on AMOI 37" LCD tv with native resolution 1920x1080 and it supports 1080p . you may ask "AMOI"??? yeah it's china brand but with its spec and the price of sub RM7K....can't beat it! any how the price tag is still far from my reach......

one thing for sure, there are not many htpc kakis around.........

Saw this local HTPC ad at Bluedot. Anyone seen the actual device and have further info?

Bluedot M89 at RM4688.

1 word, OVERPRICE

but i heard that they (if not, techdos) got the EPG working for astro with MCE.... i wonder what's the net address to download the EPG......

Hey, no need MCE actually, guys out there can try out Media Portal, a hidden secret and easy to use, just need a hauppauge with remote, and there you go...I just install, now playing around, try out and talk here la..hehe

How's your htpc project? mind to share your setup?

yeah heard of media portal as well but have not try though....where to download?

as i mentioned before, i use sagetv with hauppauge pvr150 have you tried before?. i tried before meedio but not to my liking...

about EPG, any idea?

ha, quite ashame to say that I am still in the look-around mood, not yet really put my hand on the project yet, Media Portal can be download from here

http://www.team-mediaportal.com/

try it out, guys and share the experience, cos we all love free and legal stuff, right?

by the way, there is another brand currently selling amp-lookalike htpc, it's m-Life from hyundai, not cheap also

http://www.hyundai-it.com/

Sorry a bit late here, busy...

But bose sats has proprietary jacks, correct me if I am wrong, so you will have problems blending the 2. If you like your existing 5.1 sound, why don't you get another 2 spkrs to up to 7.1.

Sony if got cash go the ES range, much better sound...but unfortunately also very exp.

Cheers.
Dirtrun

Ahh..about time i found other msian htpc enthusiasts. I've been playing around with htpc for some time with my main rig but finally have enuf cash to set up a dedicated htpc rig. Most of the components are transfered from my old rig plus a few xtras Will post some pics when I'm done assembling it

Silverstone LC10M Black
P4 2.6C
ASUS P4P800 deluxe
9800 PRO + HDTV Component Adapter
HDA X-Plosion - DTS & Dolby Digital Encoder
Kingston Value 1GB DDR
2 x 250GB IDE WD
2 x 250GB SATA WD
Pioneer DVD-RW
Haupage MCE150
MCE OEM
Denon AVR 2106
Klipsch Quintet I
Mission MS6 Subwoofer

Was planning to get KEF eggs (KHT 2005.2) but it was way out of my budget after i included my speaker, woofer & component cables.

I've tried Frontends such as myHTPC, meedio and media portal but how do u find sagetv so far ryansia? I'm gonna give MCE a try since so far it seems to be one of the most stable PVR/Frontend software.

There's a site where an enthusiast has created a software to provide EPG to MCE, sage tv, etc at this site www.tvxb.com. Basically its a plugin to convert a schedule into *.xmltv and it works together with another plugin called Bladerunner Pro which reads the xmltv file and plays it to MCE.
Have yet to test it out with MCE or other frontends since i dont have an IR blaster yet. Maybe you can give it a try..hehe

This post has been edited by Moonguy: Apr 19 2006, 08:06 PM

i've build one for my friend about 2 years back. he's a $$$$$ guy, RM 300k spent on audio / home-theatre setup is serious shit.......

anyway. the machine is P4 2.4C with ABIT IC7-G. can't remembe RAM size, but of course it's DvD capable, with output from Radeon 9700 to his like RM 20k SANYO (i think) projector.

damn nice the experience. since he wanted 16:9 ratio - had to manually configure for him lor.

hey, moonguy, you sure a htpc guru there, i wanted to set up something like yours, how's the sound with denon 2106? i will hook up mine (denon avr 2105) but not sure about the soundcard thing, do i have to get one serious one or just stick with my on-board sound system? any big difference?

Sage tv is quite fun to use as there are many customisations like special features, UI, prefered audio/video decoder and renderer. Much more flexible than MCE. Due to the facts that i'm still using CRT TV, i did not use the ffdshow to resize (upscale) to HDTV resolution.

as for the EPG, the problem is we have no programe source schedule (not sure if there is any), how to generate xmltv?

going through ur setup....... what's the diaplay u use? with HDTV Component, i assume your display does not have DVI or HDMI. aren't you need to rezise the video frames to have proper HDTV resolution to match your component out signal? I've no experience yet with HDTV out as i i'm still using CRT......

if your on board sound do not have s/pdif, then you could only hook to your denon by 6ch/8ch analogue in. have to rely on DTS, DD solfware decoder. to me i'm satisfy with my on board digital out, connected to my Yamaha to do the decoding. really envy moonguy's DTS/DD Encoder.....

not much info on the web site.....

Moonguy, can u post a pic of ur setup? seem interesting..

When my new house is ready, im planing to use this MSI Mega PC as HTPC..but it will be used in room..hehe



It has been bundled with Media Centre with remote control.. So, what i plan to add on some HDTV capable Video card, wireless keyboard/mouse, TV card, Dell widescreen LCD or 34" CRT TV and Edifier S2000 speaker system to become a complete entry level HTPC...it will be a 2.0 sound system in my plan..

Current Spec:

MSI MegaPC 180
AMD Athlon XP 2800+
80GB Samsung HDD
Kingston 512MB Dual-Channel RAM
Integrated Geforce4 MX
Nvidia SoundStorm
Edifier MP210
Lite-On DVD Combo
Internal wifi card built-in

This post has been edited by accs_centre: Apr 21 2006, 05:43 PM

sevendogz,

i think is good to keep this thread alive....