So after my predicament with the crappy output of the N6, I decided to build a HTPC. Below are the specs.

Asus P4P800S Motherboard
Crucial 1GB RAM DDR400
Intel 3.0E Prescott S478

Maxtor Maxline III SATA 250GB HD
Asus DVD-ROM
ATI Radeon 9000 AGP4x/8x
ATI HDTV Wonder PCI
M-Audio Delta 410

The case is the DeVine D5 Media Enclosure. After putting all the pieces together, and installing Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, I was up and running! The good thing was the HDTV Wonder came with an antenna and cable and remote, so it was pretty good out of the box. I've got a MS MCE remote on order, and that will simplify things greatly!

The eight RCA outputs on the Delta 410 are wonderful, even though I'm only running with two channels at the moment. Once I get a HT receiver, it should make it that much sweeter.

I ran into a couple problems when putting everything together. First off, the drive cage in the D.vine D5 did not want to come out.. I was very close to stripping the screws clean off. That sorta sucked because you need to take the drive cage out to install the DVD drive! I ended up taking the entire front panel off the D5, just to slide the DVD-ROM in. The microATX powersupply is adequate right now, but I would love to be able to get a fanless PS to make the HTPC even quieter. The other drawback is that the M-Audio Delta 410 is an old card, and doesn't really work correctly with MCE (Media Center Edition) 2005. I originally bought the card for it's analog RCA out. It sounds very nice.. Unfortunately in MCE the volume controls are hosed and I'm stuck at a very low volume. I will try and just use the onboard audio to see if I get a similar audio experience. Luckily the analog outs of the 410 are going into my Preamp. The HDTV digital and analog tuners work fairly flawlessly in MCE 2005, the only potential problem being that it takes forever to switch stations. I will most likely have to upgrade the video card, because a Radeon 9000 isn't really supported by the HDTV Wonder. It requires a 9500 or higher. Live and learn.

Results: Outstanding. HD looks wonderful, albeit a bit choppy (because of the unsupported video card). WMV HD samples from www.wmvhd.com look great. The only downside is that it's resizing the files from 1280x720 to 1024x576.. I guess I need to build a 17" projector! MCE 2005 is so frigging cool.. Everything's nicely integrated, the programming guides for DTV and NTSC work great. I haven't tried recording live TV.. Must get a better antenna! DVD images look a million times better than the N6. I will post images later tonight of the differences!

I'm also using Powerstrip to display 1024x576 on the LCD monitor, so I'm always watching a 16x9 image! It works wonderfully. 4:3 shows and DVDs are displayed with bars on the left and right.. MCE2005 also has an option for zoom levels, which I haven't played with yet.

Images to come!

Nice setup. I have the silver D4 and love it.
One thing to remember with the D.Vine cases is that unless you modify them it has problems with the newer longer video cards as they will hit the hard-drive cage. The newest cards you can put in without problems is upto the ATI 9800Pro and NVIDIA 6600 series.


peace

What are the features of ATI 9800Pro and NVIDIA 6600 series?