The hardware that I used has been purchased a while back and therefore the prices that I'll be listing up does not correspond with today's prices. But it should give you a rough idea how high your budget needs to be when you thinking about building your own home theatre pc (htpc).
My first intention back then was to watch, stream, share media, record my favourite tv shows from a dvb-s card, and eventually play Blu-Rays.
Here is my choice of my hardware:
Another thing that I didn't list up yet was the slim blu-ray drive. That is because I wasn't so sure that this or that drive would work since the prices back then were about 150 Euros, which is a lot of money that I'll be investing into something that "might" work or not. More about the drives that I'll be thinking about to use will be elaborated later in my blog.
The installation of xubuntu itself went as a breeze and therefore I will not elaborate that process any further in my blog. But the process of the installation of xbmc will be elaborated further in my blog. In order to make sure that everything works on my 42" HD Samsung I used it as a monitor so that I can see how it is when you install xubuntu on such a large system.
From the perspective of the system, I used the DVI output and connected it onto a HDMI slot of the Samsung TV.
The only thing that I noticed when booting the live cd and after the installation of xubuntu is that you will miss the outer regions of your desktop at 1080p.
So I scaled down the resolution to 1680x1050 and everything started fitting into my TV nicely. I had the same symptoms when connecting the HDMI output of my system but that was again solved with setting the screen resolution as mentioned above.
Apparently there is some differences when it comes with the detention of resolution on the linux side and consumer electronics. Why and how come? I don't know. So if there is someone who reads this blog and knows the answer, please post it. I'll be happy about the answer.
In my next entry I will be going through the basic installation of xbmc and reviewing number of remote control devices that I'll be using in order to control my HTPC from my couch.
If someone wants to have more elaboration on my choices of the hardware please let me know. This is one of the most frequently discussed topics in the xbmc forums in relation with power consumption. I will post the values of my power consumptions on my next entry anyway.
Here is my choice of my hardware:
- Intel BOXDH61AG Mainboard Socket 1155 (mini-ITX, Intel H61) costed about: 99,76 Euros
- Intel Celeron G555 Dual-Core Prozessor (2,7GHz, Sockel 1155, 2MB Cache, 65 Watt) costs about: 39,40 Euros
- Kingston KVR1066D3S8S7/2G 2GB costs about: 25 Euros
- Streacom ST-F7CB EVO HTPC Aluminium costs about: 90 Euros
Another thing that I didn't list up yet was the slim blu-ray drive. That is because I wasn't so sure that this or that drive would work since the prices back then were about 150 Euros, which is a lot of money that I'll be investing into something that "might" work or not. More about the drives that I'll be thinking about to use will be elaborated later in my blog.
The installation of xubuntu itself went as a breeze and therefore I will not elaborate that process any further in my blog. But the process of the installation of xbmc will be elaborated further in my blog. In order to make sure that everything works on my 42" HD Samsung I used it as a monitor so that I can see how it is when you install xubuntu on such a large system.
From the perspective of the system, I used the DVI output and connected it onto a HDMI slot of the Samsung TV.
The only thing that I noticed when booting the live cd and after the installation of xubuntu is that you will miss the outer regions of your desktop at 1080p.
So I scaled down the resolution to 1680x1050 and everything started fitting into my TV nicely. I had the same symptoms when connecting the HDMI output of my system but that was again solved with setting the screen resolution as mentioned above.
Apparently there is some differences when it comes with the detention of resolution on the linux side and consumer electronics. Why and how come? I don't know. So if there is someone who reads this blog and knows the answer, please post it. I'll be happy about the answer.
In my next entry I will be going through the basic installation of xbmc and reviewing number of remote control devices that I'll be using in order to control my HTPC from my couch.
If someone wants to have more elaboration on my choices of the hardware please let me know. This is one of the most frequently discussed topics in the xbmc forums in relation with power consumption. I will post the values of my power consumptions on my next entry anyway.
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