The Experiment Gets More Experimental (Enter Windows 7)
When AMD sent us its Maui platform to test, it had preloaded Windows Vista Ultimate, ArcSoft’s TotalMedia Theatre, its own AMD Live Explorer software, and TVTonic’s control panel. We used the hardware and software configuration for a little while and it worked as advertised. But, after sitting down with Microsoft at CES in Last Vegas and getting the full preview of Windows 7’s Media Center interface, we hurriedly chose to shift focus and give the Maui box a spin under new management.
Getting the operating system installed (after downloading it from Microsoft’s site, which you can’t do any more) was a breeze. Most of the hardware was detected automatically, and the components that weren’t were summarily brought up to speed after a round of Windows Update. We’ll refrain from making any speed comparisons, since Windows 7 was loaded onto an OCZ Apex-series SSD rather than the PipelineHD magnetic drive provided by AMD. With that said, the Windows 7/SSD combination was smoking fast.
From there, setting up the included Windows Media Center only took a couple of steps.
Up And Running With Blu-ray
We had ArcSoft’s TotalMedia installed in Vista—and it worked well—but we wanted to try out Cyberlink’s PowerDVD 8, which is also optimized to take advantage of AMD’s Avivo decoding technology.
Our initial install enabled DVD playback right away, but we weren’t able to get Blu-ray content working. A subsequent patch, which the app automatically prompted us to download, rectified the issue. We were disappointed, however, in how PowerDVD handled Blu-ray content versus standard DVDs. With a regular DVD inserted, playing through Media Center is seamless. Playing Blu-ray content, you get kicked out to the Windows desktop, where PowerDVD fires up in its own window. It’d be nice to have the experience similar in either case.
Aside from that one snafu, movie playback is as easy as clicking a button in Media Center.
Turning On The TV
Getting television up and running under Windows 7 was a little more complicated, but very much a rewarding experience (minus one small technical hurdle left to overcome). And it’s worth noting that the process absolutely demands that you have an Internet connection already up and running.
With the analog cable line and ATSC antenna connected to their appropriate coaxial inputs, we began the TV signal setup process. Media Center correctly identified both attached devices and began downloading programming information for a two week span. After detecting available channels, we were able to see the analog and digital options available in one EPG--a task that had vexed Media Center editions prior.
From there, bringing up live and recorded content was simple. If you wanted an individual show, right-click and Record. To save an entire series, right-click and choose Record Series. If a given time slot was scheduled to be in high definition, it'd sport an HD tag. Otherwise, the digital channels were easily identifiable by their x.1, x.2, etc. designations in the EPG.
We'll get into our tuner-switching issue on the following page.
It's also worth noting that Microsoft is counting on an always-on Internet connection here. Company representatives made it a point to show off the growing list of Internet television offerings. And although there is limited content available during this beta period, Microsoft seems determined to get very Hulu-like with on-demand content delivery.
Listening To Some Tunes
After all of the new (to me) functionality, it was nice to wrap up with my good old fashioned music collection. Whereas I'd persistantly fought with the Playstation 3 in order to get my library to display in some logical fashion (who has time to organize tens of gigabytes of music files these days?), Media Center dove right into the shared music folder on my NAS and created entries in its music library with album covers--where available--to make navigation easier.
If you don't want to browse album names alphabetically, Media Center gives you a handful of other sorting techniques, though you're best off if you have put some thought into organization before-the-fact.
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You seem to have missed the big reason for a media centre (deliberately no capitals as I use MythTV on Linux): it's the network. I have a flat screen TV or computer in almost every room of the house, including wireless laptop access in the garden. That means that anything anyone in the family watches or records from the TV, together with our entire collection of music and movies, is available anywhere at any time with no reason to faff about with physical media. Sure, I don't usually want to watch a movie in the kitchen. But it's great a great place to catch up on yesterday's ski racing, or for my kids to watch their favourite bits from an old DVD.
You can't get that level of universal access with separate dedicated components in each room - at least in the UK.
Well said aahjnnot!
Also, there was no mention of the other options - 9300 based MB with C2D 5200, cheaper and plays BluRay perfectly. Or G45 based board, finally Intel does proper IGP.
The price point of the HTPC still does not make sense. You still get a better bang-4-buck with a second hand XBOX1 installed with XBMC.
It is such a shame that the video capabilities of the current generation of consoles is so under utilised.
It's still a long way until you have it all in one spot avaliable to regular customers, i mean with a single remote that can control everything (without having a keyboard at all). People of today barely know what to buy. They have no clue what a graphic card is or what model does what nore how to handle or install them properly. Hardware or software wise All this have to be done avaliable in a extremely simple way. Detailed information "what the product is capable of" to the customer in a very simple way of telling. But still not leaving the one that know what components they want out.
I think i could do all this, but i dont work for any of these companies and i dont know english to well so i guess this is not what i was suppose to do.
I think it's about time that there was another look at the htpc.
How ever it does cost and I feel cannot be done on a budget in order to get the full use of it. To get full use of bluray that sound card used doesnt support full bluray sound, I use a ASUS Xonar for this and it's great I get my sound and video through one cable to my av receiver, this is were the market needts to be going. I have got full bluray play back at 1080p and 96khz sound. also plugins are easy to add into media center to allow games & email or nearly anything else you want to be used from the media center.
I have been using Mythtv since 2001. My current setup with 3 DVB tuners, and a diskless and fanless front since 2004. It still looks like windows media centre is lagging behind.
The HTPC age has been upon me for the last 8 years.
Hello Chris,
Although for the most part a great review, I think you miss the essence of this platform, namely it's great audio quality combined with great onboard video quality. You say that you have used your own multi-channel receiver connected to the motherboard’s S/PDIF output. If you use this great motherboard like this, it's just another great motherboard with a few plusses.
To name one, the 780M chipset comes with an additional 128MB side-port memory. This allows the ATI Radeon HD 3200 access to its own graphics memory, instead of sharing memory with the processor, making the configuration more efficient and strips away loading access to the processor’s memory bus which will have a positive effect on playback of 1080p content.
The very, very special thing of this board are the audio capabilities. There are effectively 3 different audio codec's on this board. ATI for audio over HDMI. Realtek for the SPDIF (that you have used) and D2Audio for the analog amp or pre amp card. This last one makes the board special and is the reason you want to buy this board. On the board you will find the DAE-3 Digital Amplifier chip from D2Audio (recently taken over by Intersil).
D2Audio is a very well known chipmaker in the audio space; they make high quality class D digital amplifiers for folks like B&W, Polk, Control 4, Phasetech, Denon, Marantz, etc. This code provides much higher audio quality than traditional PC audio. Signal to Noise Ratio is 105dB or higher, Total Harmonic Distortion is 0.1% or lower. This is similar to fairly expensive Mainstream Amplifiers.
D2Audio specializes in Class-D amplifiers that achieve remarkable 93% power efficiency. This means that for every 100W of power delivered to the speakers, less than 7W is dissipated by the amplifier. Because of the way audio power is distributed between channels, the overall amplifier thermal dissipation inside the enclosure will typically be below 20W. This compares with the 40% to 50% efficiency of Class-A/B amplifiers which dissipate as much power inside the enclosure as they deliver to the speakers. That's why receivers are so heavy (a very huge cooling block and powerful PSU).
The 5-channel amplifier with a 100W peak power (at 8Ω or 200W at 4Ω) per channel can draw as much as 500W peak alone from the typical 300W ATX power supply. If such a high power were drawn from the supply in an uncontrolled way, the CPU voltages could not be maintained at correct levels and the system would crash. Having a digital media platform crash every time a loud sequence is played in a movie or game is obviously unacceptable. Fortunately, D2Audio developed real-time power monitoring and management firmware that runs on the embedded DAE-3 DSP to carefully monitor and control the power draw from the ATX power supply. With careful supply loading and local power storage, the system is able to meet the 500W peak amplifier demands delivering outstanding audio, while also protecting the CPU operating voltages.
If may do a suggestion, pull your speaker cables out of your receiver, including your sub and hook them up to the 5.1 AMP card that came with the board. I think you will be suprised.
I have used the AMD Maui platform now for almost two months. Especially with Windows 7 it gave an awesome experience. I have sold my HD satelite receiver, my Pioneer receiver and DVD player. I have now just one-box-fit-all HTPC. My build can be found at www.htpcplus.com
Nice article; but would have been nice to see ClearQAM performance and/or use with two 650s All-wonder cards.
I'm sorry but I really cannot see the point in this article. All of this technology has been around for years! On the Windows platform, MCE 2004/2005 offered all this functionality in a stable, easy to use package years ago; Vista and 7 offer a few minor tweaks, but nothing substantially new. Also MythTV has been doing this for much longer.
The only really interesting thing about the article was the sound card, but you brushed that aside.
Also, don't forget standby mode. There is no "booting" of the PC to watch TV etc. It is either on standby, or on all the time. My (Vista) HTPC hasn't been rebooted for weeks.
a real eye opener for a newbie in the UK. have wanted home theatre but without the Receiver. I new there was a way.
Quick question though. I have a Virgin Media cable box in the UK which is connected via Scart to my TV. Are you saying I just pull the Coax out the back of it and bang it in the TV card? then HDMI or Component into TV?
many thanks and hope to hear from you..
atm
Just a note of warning, Windows 7 and TV pack have some serious bugs for Australian users which aren't present in Vista and XPMCE prior the TV changes. While MS Media Centre is comparitively easier to set up and is arguably "prettier", offerings such as Media Portal and MythTV (although more involved to configure and perhaps less tuner support in the case of MythTV)at least offer a generally more stable offering.
Two Words.... Good Laptop... Just hook your laptop to you TV and there you go. Wireless to your network attached storage device for all the movies you could ever want. Access it any where in the house. PUt in a sling box and what them anywhere. you don't have to spend thousands to do these things or even reinvent the wheel.
I have used media portal for over 2 years now and there is nothing better.
http://www.team-mediaportal.com/
& with custom skins like monochrome....
http://forum.team-mediaportal.com/ [...] ted-29566/
visually it is a winner!