My new HTPC (Home Theater PC)

I purchased a new computer to use as my HTPC two weeks ago.  The price was right and it had every component I was looking for.

Ever since Christmas, I've been keeping an eye on prices of Blu-ray players.  I saw an Amazon Daily Deal and one other Amazon bundle package that had a Blu-ray player priced under $150.  Otherwise, they are priced at least $199.  Instead of dropping that much on an early generation blu-ray player, I figured my best options came down to a Sony PS3 or a blu-ray drive in a computer.

On top of my blu-ray ambitions, I've also been a little disappointed with my current PC setup:

• No IR support when computer was "sleeping".  I had to physically turn it on and off (sure that sounds lazy, but I am seeking full automation).
  
• Sporadic power-offs (most likely a power-supply issue since I had to unplug it from the wall outlet for it to power back on, but the ultimate cause is still undetermined)
  
• Slow HDD (IDE.  Just something else that could be better...)
  
• Not enough processor to decode .MKV files (choppy playback and spiked processor utilization)
  
• No support for audio over my DVI-to-HDMI cable (an extra unnecessary cable since I was already connecting to my receiver over HDMI)

I saw a deal on HP's website that would answer all of these problems and give me a new setup for less than I was able to spec. out the parts individually.  My total cost was $599.

New computer

• HP Pavilion a6750t PC
  
• Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium with Service Pack 1 (64-bit)
  
• Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Quad processor Q8300 [2.5GHz]
  
• 3GB DDR2-800MHz SDRAM
  
• 512MB ATI Radeon HD 4650 [DVI, VGA, HDMI]
  
• 640GB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s
  
• Blu-ray player & SuperMulti DVD burner
  
• TV tuner, dual format ATSC-NTSC with PVR, remote
  
• Integrated 7.1 channel sound with front audio ports

After unboxing, I was stoked to get this thing running.  I knew I had to transfer my leftover digital media files over from my old HTPC.  I decided I would do that over my local network.  And that began the list of minor issues I still had to face during setup.

None of my old USB wireless G network adapters had drivers for Vista 64
This was an unforeseen consequence of choosing 64-bit windows.  Oh well, now I just have to keep my eyes open for wireless NIC deals.  I currently have a long network cable running across my house.  I just need to remember it is there when the lights are off.

No sound through my HDMI output

I plugged everything in and I got no sound.  I saw the sound bar indicating that sound should be coming out of my cable, but nothing came out.  Then I realized that I actually had to select HDMI as my default sound output device.

Still no sound.  :(

To the internet now... and sure enough, I hit upon a series of posts/links of people having the same problem of getting sound from HDMI out of their computers.  Many theories abound as to what was causing it:

• Total HDMI cable run > 15 feet
• Corrupt EDID
• No support from the av receiver

Well, I can only rule out the HDMI cable run, since mine is 9 feet total from TV to PC (by way of AVR).  I was able to finally get the sound to work by following an idea in this thread about only using HDMI input 1 on my Onkyo TX-SR606 receiver.  That worked.  Since that is my only HDMI device plugged into my receiver, I am not missing out.  It is possible that I will need to run Video/Audio separate on my other HDMI inputs, but I'll deal with that when I need to.

Videos not playing; only audio in Media Center

A little more searching on the internet and I find out that the Windows Media Center does not yet ship with codecs for Xvid and other common video formats.  I found many different codec packs on the interet to fix this, but I had to be careful again.  I had to find a 64-bit version of the pack.  Here is the site I used:  http://www.majorgeeks.com/download5535.html

Conclusions

Overall, the install went well.  I had couple of times when the PC locked up during Windows Update.  I attributed it to me trying to update too much at the same time.  Only one hard reboot and a little patience and I was able to sit back and spend some time re-programming my Harmony remote to connect to my new HTPC.