HTPC Cases With LCD Screens: Bringing Bling

[manitoublack]

I'd like to back up what "cruiseoveride" said about the bling. To much bling is a bad thing and this is no exception. Like a DVD player and Amp you wnat your A/V components to exist but not dominate. Do what they're meant to do but not draw attention away from the screen and speakers. Fir this reason I bought a SilverStone LC-17 to build my new Core-i7 Gaming PC. I'm very mimited for space so it made snce to use a desktop / HTPC case that would fit in my AV component Stack. The best bit about this case is that it has a brushed aluminium cover (sorry american's that's just how it's spelt.) And no other defining features.

It simply sits in the Stack not drawing attention to itself, and fits in 3 HDD's, 2x GTX295's, 2 optical drives and the rest of my i7 setup. The only visable light from the case is the small dim on light.

I dare say anyone who buys one of these cases reviewd for the LCD will go "cool feature" -> "annoying feature" -> "how do I turn it off feature"

Cheers
Jordan.

P.S: It's a real tight squeeze in there

 

[Guest]

Looks like an old cassette deck.

 

[niknikktm]

No offense taken Cleeve. I really do appreciate your making the effort to get something moving.

 

[Guest]

I looked at building an HTPC system with these three cases about a year ago. I was all set to go with the Moneual case. However, I learned that the depth of the slot for the optical drive was limited - and I had wanted to put in a combo Blu-Ray/HD DVD drive, which was longer than the slot.

I wound up going with the DH-102 case, and the build process was pretty easy. I would love to have more room for additional hard drives - i mirrored the system drive (which has my music library), and have a third 1 TB drive for TV recordings. So no more room for internal hard drives.

In retrospect, the touch screen display has been more trouble than it is worth. I have the DH-102 hooked via HDMI to a Sony HDMI receiver - it switches between video game console, cable box, and MCE PC - and I put audio out over the HDMI cable from PC to receiver. The display is a large LCD TV and - when all is working - it works great.

The problem is that switching the video on the receiver from the PC to - say - the cable STP causes the primary display to shift from the TV to the touch screen display. Switching the receiver back to the PC then leaves the display in a strange setting (e.g., primary monitor is the small touch screen, LCD TV is disabled).

My wife and kids have been very frustrated with this behavior - and it has caused more trouble than the touch screen is worth. I have found some tools to help reset the correct system display settings, but this is not done automagicaly by the OS and video drivers.

For reference purposes, I have an AT HD 3870 video card on a Vista Ultimate 64 bit OS. I also have a Hauppauge 2250 dual combo TV tuner in the system.

Perhaps the display behavior with an HDTV and the touchscreen combo will be better addressed in Windows 7, but - given the behavior I see in the current configuration - I would skip the touch screen altogether if I had to do it over again.

 

[3lvis]

I wonder if you can fit a 4850 in one of these? Do they fit 10.5" video cards?

 

[Guest]

A screen capable of displaying POST info would be great on an HTPC case since many projectors and LCDs can't display that video mode, but these touchscreens seem pointless.

 

[cleeve]

[citation][nom]Been-there-done-that[/nom]The problem is that switching the video on the receiver from the PC to - say - the cable STP causes the primary display to shift from the TV to the touch screen display. [/citation]
I mention this in the review - the way to take care of it if you use an ATI card is to disable the 'ATI Hotkey poller' service. Then it will no longer automatically detect if a display has been detached.

Not sure if Nvidia has a similar issue, haven't had a chance to test that yet.

 

[Guest]

I have an older Silverstone case for my HTPC (LC11-M). I would say that for most HTPC purposes, fans, and fan noise don't really matter, because they can all be switched off.

I've got a Core 2 Duo E6400, 3GB RAM and a passively cooled GF 7300. To get rid of the noise, I bought some silent fans, but when I tried to get the old fans out, realised it wasn't at all easy. So I just unplugged all the fans. I am using the stock CPU cooler with it's fan on minimum speed (959 RPM), and there are no other fans in the system.

For media centre purposes, it runs completely fine. For games, I need to put the CPU fan on full, but I don't really play games on the machine anyway (too held back by the 7300).

 

[RoderickGI]

Please excuse me, but are those noise readings a joke? I would expect a good HTPC to have noise levels at around 20 dBA, not 46, or even 39 dBA! Especially as those readings were without a processor fan, hard disks, north bridge fan, graphics card fan, or any other noise generating components. Perhaps it was just because the measurements were taken four inches from the front panel, instead of one metre, which I believe is how the standard measurements are made. Perhaps because the measurement is in decibels (dB) instead of dBA?

Whatever the reason, a HTPC case should be using 120 and 140 mm fans, not 60 and 80 mm squealers. While those noise levels may be fine when watching a Hollywood action blockbuster, imagine listening to the quiet sections of classical music, when the noise from fans would be louder than the music!

This was a very disappointing review (The content, not the author's work). I thought HTPC case makers may have actually made progress by now, especially at those prices, and since Windows 7 is on the horizon, but I guess not.

 

[manitoublack]

[citation][nom]3lvis[/nom]I wonder if you can fit a 4850 in one of these? Do they fit 10.5" video cards?[/citation]

Yes they do (silverstone model) I know they fit in the LC17 as I'm writting this message from that computer. But be mindul that it may limit use of all HDD bays.

Cheers
Jordan

 

[procyon]

Does anybody have recommendations for an htpc case with 5-7" lcd. No touch screens, can't afford those
All I've found have tiny lcds barely readable from the couch or those expensive 7" touch screens.

 

[cleeve]

[citation][nom]RoderickGI[/nom]Please excuse me, but are those noise readings a joke? I would expect a good HTPC to have noise levels at around 20 dBA, not 46, or even 39 dBA!

Perhaps it was just because the measurements were taken four inches from the front panel, instead of one metre, which I believe is how the standard measurements are made. [/citation]

You're right, I had to take the measurements close because they didn't register a meter away. I don't have the most sensitive meter available, but it does allow me to show the diffrence between the cases.

For what it's worth, none of the cases were noticable during movie playback.

 

[Guest]

I think a great feature would be to use the little screen as a channel preview before you change channels. That would be VERY useful.

 

[gimbal720]

This article looks awful timely. The paradigm of using a computer as a primary component in a home theater setup, I think, it needs a lot more attention.

Lately, on my own part, I've been trying to develop a solution, myself, to the problem of "computer as primary home audio/video component". It's a project that has been going for a couple weeks now. All told, it's taken about 10 hours total of driving -- going with brick and mortar in the state where I live, it's easier to return an item this way -- and $1200, and it's still not working out. Here's the setup, in its current revision:

* Polk Audio 5-speaker setup, with Polk subwoofer. Inputs: Conventional speaker wire.
* Harmon Kardon AVR-254 receiver. Inputs: Many; outputs: Many
* Toshiba Satellite X205 laptop. Outputs: HDMI, VGA, S-Video, digital audio via 3.5mm port, analog audio via 3.5mm port
* HP w2408h monitor (roughly 24"). Inputs; HDMI, VGA, 3.5mm analog audio

The laptop sports an HDMI output. The monitor sports an HDMI input.

This receiver, now, it's purported to support HDMI 1.3a. Even so, it cannot give me the full 1900x1200 resolution that is natural when the laptop is plugged directly into the monitor -- as without the receiver intervening.

That's one issue. Another issue is in that there is an outright crappy appearance of the fonts, and there is screen clipping, when I'm routing the HDMI connection through that receiver. I'd expected that a Harmon Kardon unit -- with its magical HDMI 1.3a support -- would've had what I was looking for -- namely, support for full, clear 1900x1200 resolution, with no issues. It is at least slightly disappointing that htis has not worked out. The HK receiver was a replacement for a Yamaha receiver, which did a little worse in many ways and a little better in some ways, overall.

Considering the items reviewed in this article, and how they might fit in with a home audio/video system, I don't really know what purposes those companies designed these cases (?) for.

It looks like we're still a ways off from having adequate (as in: full, by modern standards and modern hardware capabilities) so, full integration of the computer into the home audio/video setup.

Moreover, by the time it may ever get here, the manufactuers' IP-grubbing leadership will probably lock it in with proprietary DRM protocols.

I think I'll just buy a hand-crank phonograph, and play it all retro.

 

[fwupow]

Why spend all that money?
I just got a Philips DVD player (model: 5992/37) that plays DIVX Ultra and XVID mpeg4 files from CD/DVD or USB-2.0.

With a FAT32 formatted 1 terabyte hard-disk hooked up via the USB input you can play your whole DVD collection (provided you've ripped it).

Also plays mp3 and wma.

Oh Yeah. It's only 50 bucks brand new!

 

[aapocketz]

I've thought about this issue in the past and there are times when I might want to use the small screen and not power up the big screen-
1) to set the PC to record something, say I get up in the morning and remember I wanted to record a certain broadcast, I can do that from the small screen
2) to take a quick look at the weather maybe
Actually I've thought about this with respect to just having a large screen and a small screen beside it, sort of the next step beyond "picture in picture". So maybe the touch screen aspect isn't useful but the screen itself might be useful, and if a person didn't want to use the touchscreen in the front of the case, they could use a small monitor or tv setting with the equipment. Some people might want the HTPC to set in the furniture along with the BluRay player and TV tuner, but others might have a more extensive setup with a place to sit and work, video games, multiple screens, etc.

I don't know about "touch" screen, but it would be nice to have an auxiliary screen because my projector takes time to power cycle, and you have to turn the lights off, and its wear and tear on the bulb. You can't beat a projector for a home theater setup, but for simple administrative non-video tasks its annoying (syncing ipods, reprogramming harmony remote, set to record, run backups etc). Only caveat is I would like to turn it off during movie viewing as I do not need another light source in my theater.

 

[bad_code]

[citation][nom]Anonymous[/nom]than it is worth. I have the DH-102 hooked via HDMI to a Sony HDMI receiver - it switches between video game console, cable box, and MCE PC - and I put audio out over the HDMI cable from PC to receiver.[/citation]

Do you get just audio out of the HDMI? I found ASUS has a new audio/video card which is really a video passthrough and has 1.3a output so you get both along with DTS-HD and Dolby TrueHD. I thought this was the first solution to do this. Actually they said there is a patch for the 1.3a output comming soon.

Can we get a review on this new audio card?

 

[bad_code]

Forgot the link

Xonar HDAV1.3 Deluxe

Enjoy 100% Blu-Ray Quality Audio with HDMI 1.3 Compliance, Video Enhancement and 7.1 Channel Analog Output


http://usa.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=25&l2=150&l3=0&l4=0&model=2385&modelmenu=2

 

[messa]

Cases almost don't matter at all at this point but they get the most attention.

The software, remotes and TV tuner cards are the biggest draw back in the HTPC world.

They almost all use the iMON remote and IR reviever which people have been having endless problems with. (look at their forums and real user reviews accross the web).

The next major problem is that there doesn't seem to be any dual digital tuner TV cards out yet so if you want to record and watch your out of luck.

Until these two things are remedied (Mainly software and remote. TV card is acceptable for some) HTPC's are just too non user friendly to hold real value.

 

[cleeve]

As an HTPC user, I disagree that HTPCs don't have value. I get tremendous value from my HTPC daily.


I will agree that the TV tuner limitations are inconvenient, but that doesn't affect the PC's ability to play movies or record a show while I'm away.

The biggest problem with the iMon remote is it's incompatibility with Window's Media Center's TV functionality, forcing the user to get a Microsoft Windows Media Center remote.

I'll likely do a TV-centric HTPC review in the future covering this stuff, but like I said, I am now a daily HTPC user and would really miss it if it were gone. THere's a lot of value there aside from some TV drawbacks.

 

[zalmeniet]

Fascinating review. Also because it is the first time I see the touchscreen and TV screen being used at the same time... Apparently that is quite difficult to get. Using an OrigenAE X15 myself, did not get software with it that allowed me to have control and information on the Touchscreen, while playing a movie on the Big screen. Makes the touch a bit useless.

Are wondering if the software can also be used on other Hardware? Believe Frontview? and IMedia HD is used...

 

[Guest]

Having looked around a bit for HTPC cases it seems that the case manufacturers are concentrating on enclosing a 'classical' PC case in a bling bling enclosure.
What would make more sense is to split the classical setup in a front and back end, keeping the front end small and disk free , i.e. noise free.Stick all the noisy bits at the back end and combine it with a classical file server functionality.
Create nice small cases around mini itx boards, that handle the graphics and sound. May be add tv/sat tuner to it and that's it.

 

[JohnMD1022]

Very simple piece of journalism... give the price in the first paragraph. It's often presented far down, or not at all.

 

[evlo]

1920x1200 touchscreen is very usefull, you can clone whole MPC bit screen to it. Ideal for mp3 playback with full gui.

 

[shoshu]

so what do i use this CRAP for ?? money waster!