Re: Building my first HTPC
@stretch
I've always just ripped all my DVD's as ISOs and when I want to watch one I mount it as a drive using MagicISO. This is probably the simplest method there is without losing any quality/features of the original disc.
How were you hooking up your HTPC to your tv before? DVI would be no different than HDMI aside from not passing any audio to the TV. S-video and even worse, vga are vastly inferior and I wouldn't even bother with those.
After putting together my HTPC and spending hours installing/configuring software...
Deft
Senior Member
Last Activity: 03-16-2017, 06:58 AM
Joined: 09-16-2010
Location: Toronto, Canada
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Re: Building my first HTPC
Today I was looking at my roof to see where it would be best to put an antenna and I saw that our old [URL="http://www.look.ca/en/tv/important_informations.html"]Look TV[/URL] (a digital OTA tv service provider) antenna from a few years ago is still up there on a tripod on the peak of the roof. I always thought they had took it back when we canceled our service with them but luckily for me they didn't. I was kinda excited about this discovery but when I searched the digitalhome boards I learned that that antenna was for designed for higher frequencies...Leave a comment:
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Re: Building my first HTPC
I think I'm gonna stick to OTA HD + Satellite. If it wasn't for live sports and specialty channels (like Discovery and History) I'd be satisfied with just the OTA stuff. I have 7.0 Mbps service but with a stupid cap on bandwidth means I can't rely solely on the internet.
Bgavin you just unintentionally reminded me that I don't need to buy a tuner card yet to test out what channels I can get OTA. I forgot that my new Sony TV has the digital tuner built in so all I need is the antenna to try it out.Leave a comment:
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Re: Replacement caps for Antec SP-450?
Thank you very much for your response Quasar.
I didn't originally intend on changing out the smaller 50v caps but somehow PCBONEZ managed to persuade me to fully recap it and I thought it was a good idea (but at the time I didn't realize I couldn't get 50v caps from TC). So now that I'm at the point where I've pulled out 90% of the caps already, I might as well follow through with what I started. Due to this choice of recapping everything, I want to get every cap from the same source (digikey most likely), hence my choice in...Leave a comment:
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Re: Replacement caps for Antec SP-450?
I've been checking out digikey and I've got a shopping list started at home (at work atm) and so far I think I have a handle on what I'm doing (Gonna use a mix of PW's/FM's or maybe RS').
I just have one question before I finalize my shopping cart. For the replacement 0.1uF/50v cap I need, the much cheaper, higher grade TS series is not in stock so my only options are between caps rated for 1000 hours@105C or 2000@85C are either of these ok to use? if so, which one is better?Leave a comment:
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Re: Replacement caps for Antec SP-450?
Thanks for the tips guys. I only have a few caps left to pull and they're mostly all between the two heat sinks which makes them hard to get at.
Here's what I've got so far:
Model: SP-450 / PCB: CWT KMG-SMT Rev: A
EC5 - ?? (only small cap on the input side)
EC6/7/8/9??? (guessing these are the numbers for the caps in the middle between the HS)
EC10 / EC11 - 1000uF/10v TNR (5vsb)
EC12 - 47uF/50V
EC13 - 10uF/50V?? (not pulled yet)
EC14/15/16/17 - 1uF/50V TN
EC18 - 220uF/16V TN...Leave a comment:
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Re: Replacement caps for Antec SP-450?
Thanks for the advice PCBONEZ.. It appears to me that every single cap in this PSU was Fuhjyyu so I'm going to pull out all of them aside from the 200v ones now and I'll let you know what I end what series/sizes I end up with....Leave a comment:
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Re: Replacement caps for Antec SP-450?
There's two things I don't understand about what you said; first, I only listed 7 caps but you posted 8, I don't see any place for 2 big caps like that on the 12v line. There are some smaller caps in that area but I have to pull out the larger caps first to see what they are.
Second, why am I going up/down in uF for the 5v and 3.3v? Having never recapped a PSU before (and not having any background in electronics repair) it seems strange to me. I would like to understand why/when it's ok to change the...Leave a comment:
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Re: Replacement caps for Antec SP-450?
Even though it's a little cramped in there I think I can manage without taking the heat sinks out. My only other issue is I need to know where the white and black power wires connect to the board. I forgot to write it down when I desoldered them.Leave a comment:
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Replacement caps for Antec SP-450?
I have an Antec Smart Power 450w I need to recap. It has a bunch of bloated FU caps (no surprise to any of you I'm sure).
I've identified the main caps as:
2x 1000uf/10v 8mm/20mm
1x 3300uf/16v 10mm/35mm
1x 1000uf/10v 10mm/20mm
1x 2200uf/10v 10mm/25mm
2x 4700uf/6.3v 10mm/30mm
I could be wrong on some of the heights though. It was hard to measure them while still on the board.
I was wondering if anyone knows what series of caps is best for replacing these? I tried searching digikey for the first time and I'm not getting... -
Re: Building my first HTPC
I'm just curious how much bandwidth is needed for 1080p streaming? I don't really intend on streaming 1080p video from the internet because my shitty ISP has me capped at 60GB/month....Leave a comment:
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Re: On board HD4200 vs 9500GT
I came across this [URL="http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/graphics-card-geforce-radeon,2761-7.html"]Graphics Card Hierarchy Chart[/URL] article @ Tom's Hardware which shows the 9500 GT is 5-6 tiers higher than the HD 4200 depending on what RAM it uses.Re: On board HD4200 vs 9500GT
I came across this [URL="http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/graphics-card-geforce-radeon,2761-7.html"]Graphics Card Hierarchy Chart[/URL] article @ Tom's Hardware which shows the 9500 GT is 5-6 tiers higher than the HD 4200 dependingLeave a comment:
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Re: Building my first HTPC
Thanks for linking to your post.. The picture quality you're getting from that homemade antenna is pretty good. I'll make my own before I ever buy one. But before I build my own I'll see if I can find someone with an old UHF antenna on their roof willing to get rid of it
Newegg.ca didn't have the HD 650 model so I just googled for it. They do have the HD 750 w/Remote but it's $65 and is software encoding :/ After looking through some more google results I did find a PCI-E version of the 650 for $54+shipping but that's probably as good as...Leave a comment:
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Re: Still problems with Hakko 936?
I will testify that the Hakko 936 is a-ok for cap replacement. I'm in agreement with willawake about some people not knowing what they are doing.Leave a comment:
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Re: Building my first HTPC
I was checking out the HD Wonder 650..the cheapest price for the PCI-E version is $85 but the external USB version is only $50 so I might get the USB version and modify it to sit inside the case if it's possible. Gonna look at some hauppage cards first though.. I'm definitely interested in getting a tuner/antenna setup asap now that I know people in my area have been able to get 20+ HD OTA channels from Buffalo/Rochester/Toronto. Thanks for Wrog/Weirdguy for helping me figure this stuff out.
So far I've only pulled the trigger on that IOGEAR...Leave a comment:
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Re: Is my motherboard dead?
I'm happy for you
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Re: Building my first HTPC
Mind if I ask what tuner you have and if it came with a remote? If it did, what else can you control with it and it is easy to use?...Leave a comment:
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Re: Building my first HTPC
@wrog The video card is fanless, so no noise there.. A lot of the cooling will depend on the configuration of the case fans and ventilation holes. I like the fact that the Apevia X-Master case has mounts for two 120mm fans.. The Silverstone case I wanted seems to only support 80mm fans :/
7GB for an hour of TV.. wow. I didn't expect that but I get why it up so much space. I can live with only being able to store up to 25 hours of HD TV.. For me that's like 3-4 weeks worth of shows. I'd probably erase shows after I'm done watching...Leave a comment:
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Re: Building my first HTPC
I have [URL="http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?Sku=T925-1074"]this HSF[/URL] from a PC 3 I built years ago (board died because of bad caps after 2.5 years and it's still awaiting recapping). The HS is copper and it works quite well. The fan started making noise after about 2 years so I replaced it with an 80mm Artic Cooling fan which is so much quieter. The original fan was 92mm thought (it has mounting holes for both sizes).. I'll probably swap the 80mm fan for a 92mm AC fan at some point....Leave a comment:
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Re: Is my motherboard dead?
How long did you let it dry out for before trying it? Are you sure water didn't get on the other side too? Did you check the power switch? The connection on the board is correct? Is the PSU power on? Is the PSU in working condition? Is it plugged into the wall? So many variables.. I really hope that stupid little CMOS battery didn't really kill it and it's some other reason..
Personally, I've dropped an mp3 player in a pool of oily water while it was turned on and it worked again in less than 24 hours.
My parents dropped their...Last edited by Deft; 10-19-2010, 09:29 PM.Leave a comment:
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