Been gone from this scene, what's changed?

[kc10boom]

My last HTPC was a Dell XPS 420, ATI Tuner and Windows 7 Media Center. I was wondering what has changed lately ? My biggest pain building my HTPC was finding the Dell OCUR BIOS patch, which I still have if somebody is needing it. Right when I left the cable card tuner that could hold 4 tuner cards was about to come out.

There was also the "PowerDVD vs . TMT" Blu-Ray debate. I'm wondering how it handles 3D blu-ray now ?

Is the OCUR thing still a pain ? What kind of changes have been made to make our lives easier ?

[barnabas1969]

Windows 7 just works with CableCARD tuners. No BIOS patch needed. All you need to do is run the Digital Cable Advisor to setup your system for CableCARD.

TMT 5 works great with 3D BluRay. I no longer have a dedicated BluRay player in my living room... just an HTPC. I tried PowerDVD, and I did not like it.

[newfiend]

+1 for Win 7 MC and TMT 5. Things have been much simplified for cableCARD.

Sent from my SGH-i937 using Board Express

[kc10boom]

+1 for Win 7 MC and TMT 5. Things have been much simplified for cableCARD.

Sent from my SGH-i937 using Board Express

So I can build a Windows 7 Professional box (or maybe Windows 8 when it comes out) with any motherboard and Blu-Ray compliant video card and not have any problems with cable cards? I may just stick with Windows 7 Professional since I have an extra copy.

I have a dual core AMD running on an ASUS M2A-VM motherobard with Windows 7 Professional. I could get a good nVidia card and smaller profile case and be set up assuming that the whole OCUR mess has been resolved.

[newfiend]

OCUR Mess is gone.. Ceton has paved the way to CableCARD Bliss... You will need a video card or motherboard/cpu combo that is HDCP compliant. Do some reading on here or post more questions. We would be glad to help point you in the right direction. Either Windows 7 or Windows 8 will work.

Good nVidia cards are the GT430 or GT640 for HTPC.. I have had both and they work great. It's a nice all in one box solution now for TV and Blu-Ray playback.
newfiend~

[kc10boom]

What do you recommend for an internal 3D capable Blu ray player? The only one I've seen on New Egg saying it plays 3D, which I need, is the LG for $55.
How about a good low profile HTPC case? The one that looks like an old radio is pretty neat but too big for my setup.

[newfiend]

I think I see the LG drive you are talking about .. For the cost I would probably get it.. and the reviews are mostly positive..

As far as case goes.. keep in mind that smaller isn't always better. Especially if you are using a Ceton CC Tuner. They have a tendancy to put off a bit of heat. (4 Tuners on one PCB) when all are recording at once they can generate a bit of heat and you need to cool it down or make sure you have good ventilation through the case.

I have seen many posts where small cases gave the builder issues because it could not vent the excess heat. I have a Antec Fusion remote black case. It looks like Stereo Equipment basically but it's a well built and well vented case. I have two Ceton's in it and I have never had a heat issue.

nMedia cases are popular as well.. When looking for a case look to see if it has a built in IR if not you will have to get an external IR receiver

I love these cases but way out of my price range http://www.origenae.co.kr/en/index.htm

newfiend~

[kc10boom]

I like the case you have, it would look good beside my Yamaha receiver.

My current spare is the Asus M2A-VM with an AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000 3.1GHz 89W CPU. I think I'm good with the CPU, I don't plan now to use an extender. I only have 3GB so I may need to upgrade, have to see how it goes. I'm thinking of a SSD to hold the OS and applications. I've got 650GB now, plus another external WD 1 TB drive to hold movies. Honestly the internal Seagate drive performs great, I just love SSDs since my gaming rig is all SSD. I may just take the MSI GTX460 out of my game rig for the HTPC since I want to upgrade my gaming video card.

[CyberSimian]

My last HTPC was a Dell XPS 420, ATI Tuner and Windows 7 Media Center. My biggest pain building my HTPC was finding the Dell OCUR BIOS patch, which I still have if somebody is needing it.

What does this OCUR patch do? My HTPC is also a Dell XPS 420, for which I purchased two TBS 6284 DVB-T2 cards, only to find that two out of the three PCI-E slots on the XPS 420 motherboard do not sleep correctly. I have had to remove one of the TBS 6284 cards, and re-install 2 Pinnacle 2000i DVB-T PCI cards (the PCI slots do sleep correctly).

Would this OCUR BIOS patch fix my problem? I am already using the most-recent BIOS issued by Dell. Thanks.

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

[newfiend]

I would definitely get a SSD for the OS. It's the single easiest PC upgrade you can do that the results are instantly noticeable. 3GB of RAM is fine if you do not plan on any extenders. RAM is cheap right now.. If you want to future proof a little you could probably get 8gb fairly cheap. You will need to install Windows 7 x64 to take advantage of any RAM over 3GB though. The Ceton card needs a PCIe slot just make sure you have an open slot on the motherboard for it if you use the GTX460 as I think that card uses two slots. Space is limited in small HTPC cases.



Sent from my SGH-i937 using Board Express

[foxwood]

What does this OCUR patch do?

Originally, you could only use a Cable Card tuner in a machine that was built for that purpose by an OEM - you couldn't build your own. There was a special table in the BIOS that was checked before you could install the Cable Card drivers in Windows. Once people figured out what was going on, they were able to patch the BIOS to get around the restriction and set up their own Cable-card HTPCs. This was years before the Ceton InfiniTV was availabe for retail sale, and before Windows 7 was released.

Would this OCUR BIOS patch fix my problem?

No - it was a patch that was really inly relevant in the US.

[CyberSimian]

Originally, you could only use a Cable Card tuner in a machine that was built for that purpose by an OEM. There was a special table in the BIOS that was checked before you could install the Cable Card drivers in Windows ... It was a patch that was really only relevant in the US.

Thank you for the explanation about the OCUR problem. It looks as though a new HTPC is still in my future...

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

[kc10boom]

I would definitely get a SSD for the OS. It's the single easiest PC upgrade you can do that the results are instantly noticeable. 3GB of RAM is fine if you do not plan on any extenders. RAM is cheap right now.. If you want to future proof a little you could probably get 8gb fairly cheap. You will need to install Windows 7 x64 to take advantage of any RAM over 3GB though. The Ceton card needs a PCIe slot just make sure you have an open slot on the motherboard for it if you use the GTX460 as I think that card uses two slots. Space is limited in small HTPC cases.



Sent from my SGH-i937 using Board Express

True about the space. There is a nice low profile Asus GT430 for $60. I'll probably get a 128GB SSD, usually I watch movies on the SSD then archive them over to the platter drive. I currently use a WD Live TV so I know I'll have fun finding all the codecs for the movies I usually watch.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814121397

I was also thinking of getting some copper heatsinks to put on the Ceton chips to help with heat.

http://www.xoxide.com/enzotech-copper-b ... ofile.html

[kc10boom]

My last HTPC was a Dell XPS 420, ATI Tuner and Windows 7 Media Center. My biggest pain building my HTPC was finding the Dell OCUR BIOS patch, which I still have if somebody is needing it.

What does this OCUR patch do? My HTPC is also a Dell XPS 420, for which I purchased two TBS 6284 DVB-T2 cards, only to find that two out of the three PCI-E slots on the XPS 420 motherboard do not sleep correctly. I have had to remove one of the TBS 6284 cards, and re-install 2 Pinnacle 2000i DVB-T PCI cards (the PCI slots do sleep correctly).

Would this OCUR BIOS patch fix my problem? I am already using the most-recent BIOS issued by Dell. Thanks.

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

As previous posts have stated, it was necessary for motherboards to be "OCUR compliant" to get the cable card tuners to work. The ATI external/internal cable card tuner was the only one available when I swapped to DirecTV and getting the whole OCUR thing to work was a huge pain. It was more of a challenge to beg Dell to give you a BIOS patch.

[barnabas1969]

What do you recommend for an internal 3D capable Blu ray player? The only one I've seen on New Egg saying it plays 3D, which I need, is the LG for $55.

Any BluRay drive that can read a BluRay at 2X speed or faster will work fine for 3D.