DIY Windows Vista Media Center

Firewire 800 and Windows woes...

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 22:20:58 -0400

Surprisingly, you can buy a Firewire 800 PCI or PCI-e card today -- and on the box, it will likely say that it supports Windows Vista and XP. Not terribly surprising, right?

Well, not so fast... I purchased a Dynex Firewire 800 PCI-e card (pictured above) and it went in to the HTPC with no problems. A tiny card, so I was sure that airflow would not be a problem and it looked like installation would be a breeze. I plugged my Drobo into the card and sure enough, seems like it is working! But upon closer investigation, it is clear that it is not running as fast as it should -- Windows has installed Firewire 400 drivers for this card.

A little research on Google explains the situation. Microsoft, in their infinite wisdom, has decided not to develop drivers to support Firewire 800 (at lease not to date). So, as one would naturally do, I called the card manufacturer. A few short minutes on hold at Dynex support led to much disappointment... The clueless tech support rep left me on hold for 20+ minutes just to come back and tell me that the card was not supported on Windows PCs. WHAT?!?!? It says right on the box that it is supposed to works with Windows!! Ugh... Typical -- tech support folks rarely are paid enough to attract competent talent.

Ho hum -- off to go do some more research before I try to return this card. I figure it is worth the time. After all, the only thing worse than returning something at a Best Buy store is trying to return something at Fry’s...

Voila! Turns out there is this GREAT company out there called UniBrain. They make industrial process equipment that requires Firewire. Clearly, they also got sick of Microsoft not providing adequate drivers and decided to take matters into their own hands and write their own driver. Ok, I’m sure that happens often enough -- but how many companies then go the extra mile to make that software FREELY available to the public??

Said simply, UniBrain rocks! If I ever needed industrial Firewire stuff, I would buy from them first!

Mooner used: Dynex Firewire 800 controller (BestBuy house brand)
Mooner used: UniBrain Firewire drivers for Windows Vista

Ok, drivers installed with no difficulty. Plug the Drobo in -- and damn -- it works exactly like it is supposed to. In all fairness (as I discussed yesterday), the Drobo is not the fastest array in the world -- but it is noticeably faster with Firewire 800 working.

Freeware Firewire 800 drivers for Windows:

UniBrain kicks ass!! Thank you UniBrain!!

Next issue: Hmmm...

Media Center Storage: Take 2

Sun, 13 Sep 2009 22:09:18 -0400

Ok -- it has been a while since I’ve posted an update. Frankly, it has been due to some troubleshooting and back-peddling.

I’m rather embarrassed to say, but my last configuration (Seagate 1.5 TB drives in a Norco DS-1240 JBOD) just wasn’t as reliable as I needed it to be. I was completely sold on the fact that I didn’t have irreplaceable data -- so why bother with redundancy. I was willing to sacrifice some reliability for more capacity (and lower cost).

Well, all you need is a single drive failure to change your mind. Today’s hard drives are large enough to make this a major pain in the ass. Losing a single 1.5 TB drive could mean you lose as much as 30 Blu-Ray backups -- not a trivial amount of time to re-rip those movies. A bigger pain is trying to figure out what content you’ve lost and fixing all the broken links in MyMovies.

Also, I can’t seem to find a SAS controller (for use with the Norco external JBOD chassis) that works reliably with my Seagate 1.5 TB or 2.0 TB drives. I used the Seagate 1.5 TB ST31500341AS drives for a while -- and most of the time were working acceptably -- but they would randomly go off line and I would lose access to all the data on those drives. Write performance to these drives (when in the JBOD) were also abysmal. Oddly, when connected to motherboard SATA ports, these drive would seemly work fine. Seagate clearly has a major problem with these things...

So then the new Seagate ST32000542AS drives were introduced -- they are only 5900 rpm drives, but that actually works in my favor. This application needs decent read/write throughput, but is not dependent on latency -- plus, the lower power consumption and heat dissipation are always welcome! Damn if these drives didn’t have the same problems as the 1.5 TB drives...

Ok, I can hear all you Seagate sympathizers out there -- maybe it is my SAS controller? Maybe it is my JBOD chassis or cabling? No -- retested the entire configuration with OLD 400 GB and 250 GB SATA drives and everything works as it should. The SAS HBA and JBOD chassis are clearly capable of moving data reliably at up to 75 MB/sec with old drives -- much faster than anything seen with these new drives.

But Seagate claims that they have no problems! Ok, so this turns into quite the head scratching exercise. Well interestingly, Drobo announced that they now support the 1.5 TB Seagate drives with SD1A / CC1H and newer firmware versions. They are clearly talking about my drives now, so I will have to give Drobo a chance.

I purchased a new Drobo (FW800 / 4 drive model) and loaded it up with 4 new Seagate 2TB ST32000542AS drives. Damn -- works great. Connected to Media Center via Firewire 800 -- that was a pain in the ass too, but a much easier problem to solve. See tomorrow’s article to read about that solution. My only complaint: The Drobo simply is not very fast. I reliably get about 24-30 MB/sec throughput on the Firewire connection -- don’t even ask what USB performance looks like. While certainly disappointing, fortunately, this is fast enough to play a BluRay movie without any problems.

I’ve been running the Drobo on Firewire now for about 3 weeks and everything has been working fine. I’ve been recovering all the data on the 1.5 TB drives and copying them one-by-one to the Drobo. This is NOT a fast process, but unlike manually re-ripping all my original BD optical media, I can move an entire drive full of movies unattended (albeit quite slowly due to crappy performance of the 1.5 TB drives on the SAS controller).

Mooner used: Drobo (2nd Generation)
Mooner used: Dynex Firewire 800 controller (BestBuy house brand)

Ok, so Drobo kicks ass, I get that... But next logical question -- why didn’t I get the Drobo Pro 8-slot chassis?

Damn good question. There are actually several reasons to consider the Drobo Pro:
1: Drobo Pro has a built-in power supply and does not require external brick (e.g. wall wart) style AC adapter.
2: Drobo Pro has an available OPTIONAL factory-supplied Rack Mount Kit.
3: Drobo Pro is equipped with Gigabit Ethernet iSCSI interface (potentially MUCH faster than Firewire).
4: Drobo Pro handles 8 drives in a single group (less capacity lost to overhead for protecting your data).

And I still bought the 4-slot Drobo because it is simply much cheaper... The 4-slot Drobo (2nd generation) is widely available brand-new for about $350 today (via eBay). Add on Bing Cashback and eBay Cashback for approximately 10-12% discount -- that means you walk away with Drobo for about $310 (that’s only $77.50 per drive).

In contrast, I’ve never found the 8-slot Drobo for less than $1450. You can buy 3 of the the smaller units for the price of the large chassis -- this would only make sense if they made Drobo Pro in a 10- or 12-slot version. Not to mention, the rack mount kit -- while quite pretty -- will set you back another $200. That puts your enclosure costs at over $200 per drive BEFORE counting disk space.

So, if you buy 2TB drives at roughly $220/drive and add Drobo Pro at $200/drive -- and you can store 40 BD movies per drive (I’m estimating 40 GB per movie and 22% overhead due to formatting and RAID) -- that’s more than $10 per movie -- a steep price to pay... Remember, you are competing with the Sony BDP-CX7000ES Blu-ray changer in terms of cost/capability. That solution is not very flexible and doesn’t really fit the Media Center concept, but is selling for around $1800 -- that’s only a $4.50 per disc premium...

Personally, I’d like to seem them make a full 19” rack width 2U Drobo Pro that packs around 25 or so 2.5” drives.

Side Effects:
There are multiple unanticipated benefits to this new strategy...

1: ZERO administration: Well ok, it is not quite ZERO administration, but Data Robotics (makers of the Drobo) have certainly come pretty damn close. Adding drives is EASY... Just find an empty slot and push a drive into it. No cables, caddies or trays and no OS-level formatting or configuration is needed. Don’t even need to reboot! Just configure the Drobo (at time of purchase) to the largest possible volume size (currently max is 16 TB) and take advantage of Drobo’s “Thin Provisioning” capability. It completely virtualizes the volume presented to the host and simply lets you write up to the amount of physical disk available in the Drobo.

Consider my scenario -- my Drobo is now filled with 2.0 TB drives and has no more empty slots. I could add another Drobo and get more capacity the traditional way. But in a couple years, I’m betting on the fact that SATA drives will be available in 4.0 TB or larger sizes. I can simply replace the current 2.0 TB drives with the new higher-capacity drives (one at a time, of course) and the Drobo will take care of moving things around for me. Voila -- instant capacity expansion. This capability will be even more handy with my 1.5 TB drives -- I was recently thinking I should sell the unreliable Seagate 1.5 TB drives and replace them all with 2.0 TB drives. But as long as the 1.5 TB drives work reliably in the Drobo (sounds like they will), I will just keep them around until the next larger size becomes available. I’m guessing I’ll be replacing these with 3.0 or 4.0 TB drives some time next year...

2: Redundancy: Or as Data Robotics calls it “Beyond RAID” -- I now have to pay a price for some overhead capacity, but I get redundancy. I said earlier that I was willing to live without this, but have since changed my mind. I do not want to do through that degree of wasted time again...

3: Scalability: As I mentioned above, a single Drobo can support a volume of up to 16 TB with current firmware. But the current config on my first Drobo tops out at just under 6 TB usable (4x 2 TB drives = 8 TB unformatted and approx 5.5 TB formatted and protected). What happens when I fill up the first Drobo??

Well, since this will happen in a few weeks and bigger drives won’t be out by then, I’ll simply add another Drobo. That’s easy enough for Drobo #2 since there is another open Firewire 800 port on my PCI-e card -- but unlike the growth ceiling I faced with the SAS JBOD, I don’t need to add another controller yet. Because of the nature of video playback, I will only be watching one movie at a time -- maybe two if I add a Media Center Extender in the future -- that leaves plenty of bandwidth on even a single Firewire 800 bus to handle multiple Drobo units. So having the ability to Daisy Chain multiple Drobo units together on the same Firewire 800 bus will save lots of $$$ in the long run (not to mention not having to open up the Media Center PC to install another card)!!

Next issue: Firewire 800 support on Windows Vista

Media Center Software Selection

Fri, 3 Jul 2009 13:36:36 -0400

Let’s face it -- if you’re going to build a Media PC, Microsoft is the 800 pound gorilla in your viewing room. You simply do not have all the features available with any other platform. This may change over time, but if you’re building your machine today and need all the features I consider mandatory for a Media PC, then Windows Vista Ultimate is the best place for you to start.

“Why not WIndows 7 Ultimate Release Candidate,” you ask? Well, if you find yourself asking this question, you have far more patience than me. Remember what I said earlier -- build a reliable machine that you put together once and don’t have to mess around with for a while. Just think about how pissed you’re going to be if one of your shows doesn’t record. Or, you choose to add some piece of hardware that brings your machine to a screeching halt -- until you get it fixed and put back together, you won’t be recording or watching anything! So stick with Vista for now -- let the tweakers and your experimental desktop / laptop be the guinea pigs and leave your media system on a stable OS.

Ok, some of you might be asking in the other direction. If stability and cost-effectiveness are as important as Mooner says, you might ask, “Why not use Windows XP Media Center Edition?” Well, that is actually a harder question to answer. XP certainly would have less of the annoying aspects of Vista (user access control being my first pet peeve). If you’re cost constrained, certainly consider XPMC... But I think you’ll find that Vista Ultimate is going to have better longevity. If you have a lower-powered platform (e.g. Pentium 4, Core Solo/Duo, Atom, etc.), then I would still suggest Vista -- just use it with the legacy user interface.

Vista Ultimate -- you will definitely need Vista Ultimate... I was running my “media center PC” on Vista Business prior to this build. This was primarily due to the fact that I was being cheap and had no need for Media Center -- I had no TV tuners installed, I manually mounted .ISOs using Virtual Clone Drive and manually controlled playback with CyberLink PowerDVD. Although cumbersome for me, it was not particularly difficult.

However, it was not a system that I could easily enable someone else to use. So as long as I was there, we could watch a HD movie. My wife wouldn’t touch the system and (much to my chagrin) resorted to renting old-fashioned DVDs from RedBox (we call it bloody box) to play on a standalone DVD player.

I was skeptical that Media Center (Vista or otherwise) would solve this problem for me. Frankly, initially it only solved half the problem... I found this article on Engadget HD about putting ATI DCT cable tuners in Media Center -- that lit a fire. So I installed Media Center. Works great! Doesn’t work on ANY other platform, so Windows is the de facto choice. But disappointingly, there was no friendly interface for playing DVD or Blu-Ray content. The Media Center (with CyberLink PowerDVD) interface behaves like a single disc player stuck in the days of physical media. So I was still in the business of manually mounting and playing .ISO files.

So, Vista wins, but leaves major gaps in desired functionality...

Mooner used: Operating System -- Microsoft Vista Ultimate (64-bit)

CableCard support -- How did I get 2 digital cable tuners in my Media Center? Well, it wasn’t even going to happen until some genius dudes recently found a way to circumvent the Digital Cable Tuner BIOS check that is required in Windows Media Center. I’m not going to rehash the “how-to” for this, but here are links to everything you need to successfully install ATI CableCard tuners in your system.

Instructions: See Engadget HD Instructions on how to install the ATI DCT cards and get your system ready to run. Only AFTER you have completed these steps should you contact your Cable TV operator to have them come install the CableCard(s) in your Media Center PC. If you’re lucky, they’ll just send them to you or let you pick them up -- but I actually found the on-site install to be helpful. I had some audio problems that were quickly resolved because the CATV technician was on-site.

Utilities: If you follow the instructions in the Engadget HD article, you’ll see links to these utilities, but for the sake of completeness, I’ve included them here for posterity.

OCUR BIOS Check: This utility is used to verify that your PC BIOS is recognized as being capable of running a Digital Cable Tuner under Windows Media Center.

OSFRLoader2: This utility is used to mask a non-compliant BIOS with the correct BIOS keys to allow running a Digital Cable Tuner on most third-party motherboards (without any hardware changes).

Mooner used: Tuner -- ATI Digital Cable Tuner (a.k.a. OCUR) x2
Mooner used: Instructions -- EngadgetHD guide to ATI DCT hacking
Mooner used: BIOS Spoofing -- OSFR Loader 2
Mooner used: BIOS Validation -- OCUR BIOS Check

HD-DVD / Blu-Ray Playback -- you need:
There are at least two reasonable software playback solutions. Neither is perfect... I have used both of these packages and have listed their pros and cons below:

CyberLink PowerDVD
+ Great Blu-Ray playback (great anti-aliasing and de-interlacing)
- No HD-DVD playback
+ Great DVD playback (picture quality similar to upscaling players)
+ Some integration with Windows Media Center
+ Works very well with “My Movies” plug-in (see below)
+ Works very well with Elby’s “Virtual Clone Drive” (see below)

ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre
- Mediocre Blu-Ray playback (poor anti-aliasing and de-interlacing)
+ Acceptable HD-DVD playback (hey, at least it plays)
- Mediocre DVD playback (picture quality similar to standard players)
+ Good integration with Windows Media Center
+ Works very well with “My Movies” plug-in (see below)
+ Works very well with Elby’s “Virtual Clone Drive” (see below)

I dread the fact that I may be saddled with both of these programs -- at least until I have replaced my HD-DVD collection with Blu-Ray versions of the titles. For now, I use both...

Note: Interestingly, old versions of PowerDVD played both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD just fine. In fact, my LG Combo-Blu player reads both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD formats and came with a version of PowerDVD that would play both formats. So, if you have an old version of PowerDVD installed, you might be able to get by with a single application to play both formats acceptably -- but I believe you will run into issues with some newer Blu-Ray titles that require features found only in the newer versions of the player apps.

Mooner used: Blu-Ray Playback: CyberLink PowerDVD 9
Mooner used: HD-DVD Playback: ArcSoft TotalMedia Theater 6

DVD / Blu-Ray Backup -- I can hear it already... Backup?? Why do you need to backup DVDs or Blu-Ray content? Well, frankly, I don’t know about you, but I HATE having to get my fat ass out of my chair to swap discs in my player. For me, that’s the whole point of having a highly-capable media server -- I want functionality that only the uber-rich have been able to have in products like the Kaleidescape System. If you’ve never seen Kaleidescape in action, be sure to watch their user interface demo video. Their DVD archiving, cataloging and remote playback system is the ultimate in media servers -- and is the inspiration for my build.

Unfortunately, there are two major problems with Kaleidescape’s wonderful vision:
1: It’s too damn expensive. I’m not sure why, but this company seems to think that it is okay to charge $10,000 for a “server” that will only hold 4 disk cartridges, currently only supports DVD-based content (granted, it is nicely upscaled) and don’t even ask how much they charge for a simple 1TB drive...
2: You’re locked into a single vendor solution... You have to buy your disk cartridges, expansion chassis and additional room receivers all from Kaleidescape. If this were a cheaper solution, I don’t even think this would be a problem. But at these prices...

BUT -- YOU are now able to build a similar capability system WITH SUPERIOR video quality! Ok, the user interface won’t be quite as slick as the Kaleidescape system, the chassis might not be quite as pretty, but it will much cheaper, much more expansion-friendly and will interoperation nicely with other children. Most importantly, it will backup, mount, play and catalog HIGH-DEFINITION content!

I hear some skeptics out there. “Why not just use a 400-disc changer?” Uh, what 400 disc changer?? Ok, that response would have worked 2 months ago -- but now, low and behold, there IS a Sony 400-disc Blu-Ray changer right around $2000. Here’s a link to a CNET review of the Sony BDP-CX7000ES. Interestingly, CNET praises the 20 TB combined capacity of the 400 Blu-Ray discs that would be held in this carousel -- but they forget to mention that only one disc is on-line at a time. Sure, it is a robotic loader -- but that means you can only play one movie at a time -- no simultaneous playback, even if you have secondary zones.

I can also give you a more practical answer... Before following the path towards this Media Center PC, I had a Video ReQuest system connected to a Sony ES-series 400-disc DVD changer (Sony DVP-CX777ES). I hated that thing after about a week of using it. Sure, it had a pretty interface, much like the Kaleidescape -- but the damn thing was still chained to the shitty Sony changer. If your database ever got out of sync with what was in the carousel, you were hosed. It was a mess. Without the Video ReQuest, there is simply no way that you could get me to use a carousel of that size -- I would rather hand-load the discs from their little plastic cases...

But perhaps most importantly, this allows me to be more flexible with my media. After I purchase a movie, I can rip it to hard drive and put the Blu-Ray disc away in a safe place and not ever worry about it being scratched, placed in the wrong case or losing it. I also do not have to worry about having an aesthetically pleasing “library” to display all those plastic cases. In theory, you could also use a hard disk-based system to store movies for time and place shifting -- borrow a Blu-Ray from a friend, rip it, return the disc, watch the movie at your leisure, then delete the backup .ISO file. Just make sure you do not simultaneously play the copy and the original -- and be sure to protect your content from being misused.

Here are some useful tools to help you build your virtualized library (on hard disk or other on-line media):

SlySoft AnyDVD HD -- this is the ultimate tool for backing up (also known as “ripping”) Blu-Ray or standard DVD content. Some folks will use AnyDVD in combination with other tools and re-encode video to a higher compression (or lower resolution) CODEC to save space. I would advise against doing this -- you’ll eventually regret it. Just backup the entire Blu-Ray/DVD to an .ISO image and call it good. You’ll be much happier in the end. Interestingly, this will also remove HDCP from your rip -- so if you have an older monitor that does not have HDCP, you are running an analog connected monitor (VGA or Component Video) or perhaps your DVI / HDMI cable is simply too long or low quality to support HDCP, this is a great solution.

Mooner used: .ISO Backup -- SlySoft AnyDVD HD

Elaborate Bytes Virtual Clone Drive -- After you have created the .ISO image, no need to burn it back to physical media. Simply use a tool like Virtual Clone Drive (a.k.a. VCD) to mount the .ISO file on a virtual drive. It will have a Windows drive letter, just like a physical disc -- and most importantly, CyberLink and ArcSoft both can play from a mounted VCD volume.

Mooner used: .ISO Mounter -- Elaborate Bytes Virtual Clone Drive

Media Center Plug-ins -- I started talking about this earlier above... In order to round out your Media Center’s capabilities, you need the “My Movies” plug-in. It adds the fantastic user interface to Media Center that allows graphical browsing through your virtualized library. It works surprisingly well with Virtual Clone Drive and both CyberLink and ArcSoft players. So, simply click around and find the movie you want to watch, read the synopsis and click on “Watch” -- it will mount the associated .ISO image for you and playback will start in the appropriate player.

Mooner used: MyMovies

Next episodes, we will cover the “How do I put it together?” question...

Media Center Storage: How much is enough?

Wed, 1 Jul 2009 23:38:23 -0400

When you start to think about your Media Center storage requirements, you should be sure to keep a long-term view. Decisions you make now could drastically affect your available options in the future. You should also realize that the real cost of storage is NOT the cost of the hard drive -- it is the total solution and life-cycle cost of that storage capacity. Sound like mumbo-jumbo??

Stop and consider -- if you buy a 1.5 TB Seagate or 2.0 TB Western Digital drive today, you might simply be thinking in terms of cost-per-gigabyte. Ok, so a 1.5 TB SATA drive at approx $120 is only $0.08/GB -- or a 2.0 TB SATA drive at approx $220 is only $0.11/GB. Seems cheap right -- so start thinking about how you add the next increment of storage. Ok, add another drive -- no big deal -- my case has an empty 3.5” drive bay and my motherboard has an empty SATA port. But how do you add the 3rd drive? Your case might be full, your motherboard may not have an available port and/or your power supply may not handle another drive. Now you have to think about the cost of an additional storage controller and possibly an external chassis, greatly increasing your cost per GB. Some case / motherboard combinations will support 6-8 drives before these costs are incurred, but eventually you run into a large “supporting infrastructure” step function that makes the next incremental drive significantly more expensive than the last.

Keep in mind that using a RAID configuration to protect your movies / music / TV will make your calculations even more complex. What RAID level do I use? How much storage capacity will I lose to protection? How many spindles can I spread my RAID controller cost over?

Internal -vs- External storage -- Once again, you need to consider some things that most home PC users ignore... If you’ve decided that your Media Center needs to live right next to the HDTV in the family room, your options may be limited to internal storage only. In scenarios like this, it is highly probable that the wife/girlfriend will not allow you to have 3-4 external USB/Firewire hard drives and their associated cords and AC wall warts cluttering the family room. You’re going to be forced to get a case large enough (yet pretty enough to blend in) to accommodate all your storage capacity.

If you’re like me, you have the luxury of putting the Media Center PC in a 19” rack cabinet away from the viewing room. This gives you much more flexibility in size, power consumption, acceptable noise level, cooling, cabling and aesthetic appearance. So, I opted for an external storage solution that has 12 hot-swap trays for 3.5” SATA drives.

Keep in mind that hi-def content consumes A LOT of disk space. Native Blu-Ray HD content will require 20-50 GB per movie -- so even a 2TB drive may not be able to hold more than 25-40 movies.

Mooner used: JBOD Chassis -- Norco 1240DS

RAID -vs- JBOD -- This is actually one of the simpler questions to answer... But first, you need to consider:
How much is your content worth?
How difficult would it be to re-acquire your content if a drive failed?
How permanent does your content need to be?
How sensitive to cost are you?

If you have content that you simply cannot afford to lose (wedding video, pictures of your kids, etc.), your question is answered -- you cannot simply rely on RAID -- you MUST resort to other-media backups. Given the currently high cost of tape backup or optical disc backup, you’re probably better off using another hard drive that is only used for backups, then DISCONNECT it from your computer. You could also consider online backup services like MobileMe, SkyDrive, etc. Optical discs in your bank’s safe deposit box is probably the best reasonable option.

If you have content that would be expensive to replace, but is not pricelessly irretrievable, RAID is a good option. For movies, music, photos, etc., you probably do not need the speed of RAID 1. Remember that RAID 0 actually INCREASES your probability of failure, so never use RAID 0 unless you have a specific need for the performance and capacity gains (at the cost of potential reliability). That realistically leaves RAID 5/6 or proprietary data protection schemes as your primary option.

If your content is easily replaceable or transient in nature (like recorded TV episodes of Seinfeld), consider using no RAID at all. This gives you maximum capacity and any failure you do encounter will limit data loss to the affected drives.

You can also use external intelligent enclosures like the Windows Home Server boxes, integrated NAS boxes, Drobo arrays, etc. All options have their benefits and drawbacks...

Mooner used: SAS JBOD HBA -- LSI SAS3801e (in Media Center)

What about external NAS or iSCSI targets? -- Now you’re barking up my tree! I originally started this project thinking I could / should continue to simply add HBAs to my Media Center PC. I’ve since come to the conclusion that this is not desirable. I’ll cover the build of an iSCSI target server in a separate DIY article series, but the bottom line is that approach leads to a much more stable configuration. I have limited expansion capacity in my Media Center PC and the configuration is already a little fragile -- after all, you have a lot of specialty hardware in there, like the DCT tuners, high-end graphics card, VFD display drivers for the front panel display, Media Center software, etc... No need to make the storage solution equally complex.

By using an iSCSI target on a separate server, you can isolate the storage problem on a box that only deals with storage. You can add iSCSI LUNs (volumes) without having to do very much on the Media Center -- most importantly, you can now add volumes without cracking the case on the Media Center. If you have heat / power / noise issues with adding lots of drives in your Media Center, this is another way to move the storage to a desirable location away from your viewing room.

If you choose to use a NAS (OS level share over TCP/IP & Ethernet) or iSCSI (a virtual hardware level volume), you should consider isolating your storage network on a separate LAN. That way, you do not introduce additional latency, packet loss and security issues to your Media Center storage environment. The combined use of iSCSI and a separate Gigabit Ethernet LAN enabled my configuration to move 40+ MB/sec -- rather than the anemic 3-4 MB/sec that I was seeing with Windows File Sharing on the shared LAN.

Mooner used: Server -- HP Proliant DL380 G3
Mooner used: SAS JBOD HBA -- LSI SAS3800x (in Win2003 Server)
Mooner used: JBOD Chassis -- Norco 1240DS (same one as above)
Mooner used: iSCSI Target (Server) -- StarWind iSCSI Target
Mooner used: iSCSI Initiator (Client) -- Microsoft Vista iSCSI Initiator

What about external USB drives? -- Well, I won’t tell you not to use an external USB drive. But I will suggest that you will have unsatisfactory performance if you try to play feature-length HD video content from a USB drive... The nature of USB is simply not ideal for high-bandwidth, long duration, latency-sensitive data transfers.

What I will say: This article series is meant to help walk though the process of building a “Rolls Royce” level media center and only having to pay “BMW” prices. It is not a guide to building a “Cadillac” at “Chevy” prices, so I might practically rule out solutions that seem perfectly reasonable to you. But for a high-capacity “theater-grade” Media Center, I advise against using standalone external drives like this. If you ever get to the point where you are growing, you WILL be disappointed.

If your external drive / array has a FireWire, eSATA or iSCSI port, use that instead. You will be much happier.

Mooner used: External Drive -- nope. Nothing in this category.

Tomorrow, we cover the “What software will I need?” question...

Media Center Case Selection

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 00:06:52 -0400

Probably the most “exciting” piece of hardware to purchase is the case... After all, this is the face of your Media Center. If you are salvaging parts from your existing desktop PC, spend the extra couple hundred bucks and make it look nice. Nothing is uglier next to your 50” HDTV Plasma than a beige ugly tower PC. Get something that looks like it belongs with your HDTV...

In my case, I was installing my Media Center in a 19” rack with a bunch of other components. So I selected a horizontal case with a pretty front panel. Ultimately, I decided against spending the extra bucks on a case with a built-in touchscreen. Ok -- so you think I’m being cheap?? No -- after looking at how most vendors got those screens to work, I’m not impressed... It is basically a VGA resolution panel stuffed in the front of the case, but even worse, most have VGA cables that snake out the back of the case and plug into your video card’s precious second display connector.

Well, that doesn’t work for me -- I plan to have the primary display connected to a projector (DVI to HDMI) and I plan on using the secondary display connector to feed a DVI/HDMI splitter to provide video to 3 identical 37” LCD HD Monitors I have in a multi-room configuration.

Now that USB display adapters are readily available, it wouldn’t surprise me to start seeing more elegant solutions in the not too distant future.

Desktop -vs- Tower -- Again, you need to consider some things that most home PC users ignore... You shouldn’t be concerned with saving desk space with this thing. Now you’re having to consider where is this case going to live. If it lives in a rack with other equipment, you’re going to want a “desktop” format case (wider than it is tall). Preferably, it will be standard rack width and include ears for mounting in a 19” rack -- but I couldn’t find a case that I liked with ears. So I had to put it on a shelf. Not ideal, but it works...

If you’re going to put your Media Center inside furniture or on the floor, you might need to consider a tower / mini-tower case format. Frankly, I think these cases are not ideal for Media Center use -- they just don’t look right in a media room / home theater. But, often these cases have more bays and might be easier to work on -- you so need to make that call based on your own priorities.

A great selection of HTPC cases: http://www.newegg.com

Mooner used: Case -- ThermalTake DH101

Active -vs- Passive Cooling -- Fans, or no fans (or water-cooling) -- that is the question... I am of the opinion that you should put lots of fans in the case unless you install the Media Center somewhere fans would simply be unacceptable. This is not an issue for me -- the case is installed in a rack that is separated from the theater viewing room. So, I opted for a power supply with a fan and used all the fans in the case.

I did choose to use a beautiful Zalman copper heat-sink for the CPU -- this is definitely overkill, but I like it. If you’re stuffing a bunch of fans in the case anyways, you really don’t need anything other than Intel’s stock cooler.

Don’t screw around with over-clocking on your theater PC. You need to design, choose components and build this machine for reliability -- you do not want to be tearing it apart and putting it back together frequently. It will simply cause you to miss your favorite TV shows and piss off your significant other who would have preferred you to just buy a TiVo...

If you must build a Media Center with passive cooling (no fans), you should seriously consider water cooling. Sure, you might have to have a pump running, but that should be quieter than a bunch of fans. But that is a lot of extra complexity and won’t be required for most applications. Also, if building a fan-less system, be sure you purchase an appropriate case -- not all cases are designed for adequate cooling without fan forced airflow.

Mooner used: CPU Heatsink -- Zalman CNPS950

Power Supply -- Don’t skimp on wattage... The wattage rating on most power supplies is a maximum capacity, not an “all the time” consumption figure. So don’t be afraid to buy a bigger supply -- a higher rated power supply running at a lower output generates less heat than a smaller power supply running at its maximum. It is also usually more efficient... I also like modular designs so you can remove all the unused cables from the power supply -- that leaves less crap in your case to block airflow.

If you build a fan-less system, be sure you buy an appropriate power supply too... Most power supplies are going to add heat inside the case. Well designed fan-less power supplies have their own heat sinks that hang out the back of the case and do not add to the thermal load.

Again, I’m in an isolated rack-mount situation, so fan noise is not an issue. I have had a couple Ultra power supplies fail on me, but not since I’ve put the system on a UPS. No surprise, clean power makes for a more reliable power supply...

Mooner used: ATX PSU -- Ultra X3 600W Modular Power Supply

Tomorrow, we cover the “How much hard disk is enough?” question...

Media Center Hardware Selection

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 20:05:44 -0400

Ok -- you’ve decided to build a Windows Vista (or Windows 7) Media Center. If you’re like me, you probably got a bug in your bonnet to do this because you have an unused PC sitting around gathering dust -- so how to re-task that PC into doing something useful?

That’s not a bad way to get started -- but don’t underestimate the how much PC you need to throw at this problem. You’re going to need beefy hardware, particularly if you plan to build a multi-zone solution, store a hi-def large movie library and routinely watch Blu-Ray or want to record multiple HDTV streams at the same time.

MoBo & CPU -- you need to consider some things that most home PC users ignore... A high-performance Media Center has more in common with a gamer’s rig or data center server than a typical home PC. Think in terms of I/O (input/output) capacity -- or bandwidth -- of your system. Your typical Blu-Ray movie will generate a bitstream of XXX Mbps. If you’re recording two HDTV programs on your DCTs (digital cable tuners) at the same time, each of those cards will generate an additional XXX Mbps load on your system. Make sure you build a system that will meet -- and exceed -- your expectations. These factors will help you select a motherboard and CPU -- and to a lesser extent, your graphics card and GPU.

Mooner used: Motherboard -- DFI Infinity 975x
Mooner used: CPU -- Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz
Mooner used: RAM -- Corsair 2 GB DDR2

GPU -- you will need a GPU that has hardware H.264 acceleration in order to watch Blu-Ray content. So if you’re recycling hardware, you might still need to purchase a new video card. Any mid-range or high-end graphics card purchased since 2007 will almost certainly work...

Mooner used: GPU -- nVidia 8800 GTX

Optical Drive -- since you’ve read this far, of course, you will want to include a Blu-Ray capable optical drive in your new Media Center. This is your best source of the highest quality HD content available today. Sure, some folks think broadcast HD might yield better quality -- but then you’ll have to deal with commercials and the vagaries of DTV (digital TV) signal reception. Your real decision is if you buy a BD-R drive or a BD-ROM/DVD-R combo drive. Personally, I find BD-R media to be so offensively expensive that I will likely not burn BD content until it gets significantly cheaper. Additionally, a BD-ROM combo drive is really cheap!

Mooner used: Optical -- LG HD-DVD/BD-ROM combo DVD+RW

HDTV Tuners -- Ok, some of you out there are thinking that your only choice for a home-brew Media Center is to use an OTA (over-the-air) broadcast DTV/HDTV receiver. Well, forget it... You can still add one of those to your system as an auxiliary tuner, but don’t start with one of these unless you already have one. Start with a ATI OCUR DCT (available as an internal card or external box). Regardless if you go internal or external, the ATI DCT is a USB connected device. The PCIe internal version does occupy a PCIe slot, but there are no electrical contacts on that slot connection -- it is just to physically hold the card in place (see photo above). You’ll need to find an internal USB header to USB-B cable to get the best installation results -- or else you’ll be routing cables from the card out of the case and plug them into standard external USB ports. In case you’re wondering, OCUR stands for Open Cable Unidirectional Receiver and DCT stands for Digital Cable Tuner. ATI prefers that you do not refer to these cards as OCUR -- but I think that is stupid. Eventually, they will likely have a Bi-directional card that will need to be differentiated from the OCUR.

Oh yeah -- get a couple of these... You’ll want to be able to record / watch more than one program at a time...

Mooner used: Digital Cable Tuner -- ATI (OCUR) DCT Internal x2

Tomorrow, we cover the “Which Case do I put it in?” question...

Media Center Platform Selection

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 00:37:19 -0400

Let’s start with the first question you need to answer when considering a Media Center PC build -- platform:

“Why Windows and why Vista Media Center?”

Ok, skeptic. There are definitely alternatives to Vista... For instance:
• XBMC http://xbmc.org
• MythTV http://www.mythtv.org
• MediaPortal http://www.team-mediaportal.com
• Boxee http://www.boxee.tv
• Plex http://www.plexapp.com
• AppleTV http://www.apple.com
• etc...

Well, if you agree with my minimum features requirements, then this is quite easy. Let’s take a look:

Mooner’s mandatory Media Center features:

• Remote control friendly GUI

• Streaming Playback from Hulu, YouTube, Flickr, etc.

• Audio CD / DVD playback from physical media (disc) and playback from online backup media (hard disk)

• Blu-Ray / HD-DVD playback from physical media (disc) and playback from online backup media (hard disk)

• “Digital Cable Ready” Tuner (CableCard) for both display and recording of both standard definition (SD analog and digital) and high definition (HD digital) encrypted content

The first three are pretty much offered by any media solution. But the last two pose some specific challenges that only Windows Media Center can address. On Mac (at current writing OSX 10.5 Leopard), it is simply not possible to play Blu-Ray content or use an OCUR/DCT CableCard tuner. There are no software solutions and no reasonable hardware solutions around this shortcoming (yet). Linux platforms are quite as impossible, but are not easy/elegant at all. For example, “...all you really need to do is install the UDF 2.5 files system, get a hold of BackupHDDVD C++ (decrypts both Blu-Ray and HD DVD discs), and the latest MPlayer or VLC media player. At this point it’s not an elegant solution...” -- not really a compelling solution.

So, I’m sold... Frankly, at this point, if you’re still not a believer, then you have vastly different requirements then I did when I started this project. Anyone with a serious media room or home theater has the same requirements that I do (more or less).

Tomorrow, we cover the “Which Hardware?” question...