Conclusion
There were a number of other questions and comments in the original HTPC/Windows 7 coverage, but these were the few that I felt belonged together in the first follow-up story.
There will be a Part 3, where I address niknikktm’s request to see an alternative operating system. While I thus far haven’t been very impressed with the performance of Nvidia’s Ion platform, I’m going to do something about it (rather than just lament Windows-based performance) and try getting the mini-ITX machine still sitting in my lab working—functioning fully—under Ubuntu. We’ll see how that goes. Of course, if you have any experiences you’d like to share about Linux-based HTPCs, please feel free to speak up in the comments section.
Part 4 of this series is going to revisit the hardware scene for movie buff. I do think it’s possible to do better than Maui for the folks looking to output to a receiver. And at least until the chipset guys are able to offer something better than CD-quality sound via multi-channel LPCM, the Xonar HDAV 1.3 stands out as the sole enabler of Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio.
We’re also going to have some coverage of a wireless technology that might just make it possible to stream Blu-ray-quality content without the need for a wired Gigabit connection.
Hopefully this HTPC/Windows 7/Maui-revisited piece has answered some of your questions and concerns from the original story. We now have a better idea where the AMD-based platform shines (sound quality, upgrade potential, dollar savings on other HT components) and where it still needs some improvement (protected audio path, poorly-implemented speaker block).
The good news is that, in the process or revisiting our HTPC, I had a chance to try Asus’ Xonar HDAV 1.3—a card that knew some serious teething pains, but is now in significantly better shape and backed by a company that hasn’t forgotten about its customer base. Asus is taking strides to get the card working smoothly in Vista before the operating system is even final, it’s going to be upgrading users to ArcSoft’s TMT3, and it remains the only vendor able to bitstream TrueHD/DTS-HD. For that, I’m comfortable giving the HDAV 1.3 a Recommended Buy award.
- Consumer Electronics,
- windows ,
- 7 ,
- htpc
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That set up looks really nice.
I wish someone would write a bit about cool gadgets and things to child proof you HTPC setup.
An electric fence to stop speakers being smeared with jam sandwiches – stuff like that. LCD screens being scratched and hit with logo.
I’ll have to wait a few more years before it can all go on display like that again.
Waxdart - Another good reason to buy Plasma over LCD, finger prints and jam are easily cleaned off of a plasma! I know from experience :-)
I think this article is very well-written and bang up-to-date.
Banana clips are one of the poorest audio interfaces available! It's not the end of the world not having them.
banana clips offer a cleaner connection and decent channel separation due to the form factor alone. My speaker cable is also a deal sight heavier than the reviewers and would never fit in there. If it did then there would be a large risk of crosstalk and shorting. So I think this amplifier is targeted at very low-end 5.1 setups with low output power. Looking at specifications of the card it also has very high THD figures, giving 0.1% THD where most receivers would be in the 0.0002-0.05 range. This indicates a poor signal path and underpowered output stage.
That's a cool idea for the remote and a good example of 'thinking outside the box'.
As far as games go I think you should be benchmarking more casual games when looking at HTPC's as I can't see myself sitting on couch playing Far Cry 2 with a keyboard and mouse for practicality reasons and I can't use a gamepad for FPS games. Personally I think you should be looking at games like Race Driver GRID, Audio Surf, Assassins Creed, and Fifa (or Madden if you American) as they suited for playing with a joypad and as such as suited for HTPC's.
BTW this article should be on the features section at the top of the site not tucked away near the bottom.
@ Belrik
The THD figures are nothing to do with an 'underpowered output stage' - it's because the unit is a Class D amplifier, as clearly stated in the article. Class D works by 'faking it' using very-high-frequency PWM. They sound better as the frequency goes up, but the efficiency goes down due to switching losses.
Secondly, banana clips are *hideous* connectors.
They are used in domestic audio because they are small and cheap.
Clamp connectors (like the one used in the Phoenix-type connector here) make considerably better contact with the wire.
If you want *proper* audio, then you shouldn't be using flat cable either, as it has practically no noise rejection at all. Professional audio uses coaxial cable.
Have a look at the connections made to the cabinets in an actual live performance, say of The Who or another *very large* gig.
You will not find banana clips - you'll almost always find Neutrik Speakons.
(To be fair, they are quite large. 20mm diameter knockout IIRC)
Hi all,
I was wondering where I could find the config of this HTPC used in the test.
Thanks in advance.
Ciao
I'd love to see a good operating system roundup for media center's. Personally I don't like windows media center. I've had too much problems with it in the past.
some possible software:
LinuxMCE
XBMC
MythTV
Freevo
SageTV
Plex
MediaPortal