Am I saying audio is a more important factor than video in HTPC? No. Not really. But consider today’s new generation of graphics chips from ATI, Intel or Nvidia all supports HD video playback that off loads from the CPU. Even new IGP on motherboard chip sets such as ATI 4200, Intel X4500 or GeForce 9300, they all able to play the HD DVD or Blu-Ray smoothly without the need of high power CPU. In fact, even older CPUs such as AMD Athlon 64×2 5200+ or Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 can play Blu-Ray nicely with those IGPs.

The HD audio that is part of the Blu-Ray experiences on the other hand is very different story. One can not assume just because the motherboard or the graphics card has a HDMI port on it and the manufactures mentions audio pass through, they will support DTS-HD MA and DD TrueHD. In fact, none of the current IGP chipset supports in.

The AMD’s ATI 4200 from the current 785 and 890 chipset is the worst as it only supports 2 channel PCM audio through HDMI. By itself it would not even support the pass through of basic 5.1 DTS or DD core! It require additional s/w and/or h/w support to do so.The new AMD 890 chipset is particular disappointing as AMD clearly do not want it is used as HTPC motherboard without the need of adding additional graphics card.

The Intel X4500 or the GeForce 9xxx (including the 9400 used by the Ion platform) is only marginally better than the ATI 4200 on audio. While they do support 8 channels LPCM output, they don’t support DTS-HD MA and DD TrueHD. Again, external h/w or s/w decoding is needed to decode the HD audio bit streams to LPCM. If s/w solution is used, it will place a heavy burden to the CPU which requires more powerful and more expensive CPU and possibly memory too. In addition, although some people argue that LPCM conversion done right will preserve the lossless nature of the DTS-HD MA or DD TrueHD, but that will be putting a lot of faith to who ever is implementing the decoding in h/w or s/w to do the right thing not to cut corners to cut cost or gain performance or both. I for one rather want to see the original bit streams pass though the HDMI port to the receiver.

If none of those motherboards with built-in IGP can support native HD audio bit stream, then none of them, at least not by themselves is suitable for HTPC application. Built-in IGP or HDMI on the motherboard is therefore not a factor or even desirable when choosing a motherboard because of possible higher cost and power consumption for the parts that are useless.

While some of the new Intel i series CPU had built-in GPU that do support DTS-HD MA or DD TrueHD, The CPU plus motherboard combo is far more expensive than necessary. A better or less cost solution is to use older or lowly motherboard and CPU combo that using older DDR2 memory can be had around $50 is adequate.

When it comes to add-on graphics card, the real sections are between ATI and Nvidia. I was very surprised to find out none of their new generation of graphics cards from GeForce 240 on down supports native DTS-HD MA and DD TrueHD. They all require conversion to LPCM. As stated before, I don’t consider this conversion is acceptable for today’s HTPC at all. I did not bother to look Nvidia’s line above the GeForce 240 as their costs are way beyond what I have in mind for good budget HTPC.

On the ATI side, I did not look at their older 3xxx or 4xxxx series as the ATI 4200 did not give me a good impression. The ATI 5450 is the current entry model for the 5xxxx series and it is prefect for budget HTPC. First and foremost, it supports DTS-HD MA and DD True-HD pass through. Second, it and no fan and therefore no fan noise. Third it cost less than $50. While ATI 5450’s game playing ability is questionable, it plays all HD video files smoothly and with minimum demand to the CPU.

The advantage of using low power graphics card, CPU and motherboard means there is no need for high wattage power supply too. I used a 500W power supply not because I need one but rather it was no sale for $20. Some people may say these cheap power supplies’s real wattage does not even come close to the advertised number. But even if this power supply’s true wattage is only half of the 500W advertised, it is still more than enough to power my HTPC. The entire setup with ATI 5450, AMD Althon II x3 440, MSI 785GTM-E45 motherboard, two 1.5TB hard drivers, two optical drivers and uses less than 140W when playing Blu-Ray movies. My older CPU and motherboard combo uses even less power.

Speaking of AMD Althon II X3 440 and the MSI motherboard combo, I got them on sale and at the time I thought the MSI motherboard hat uses AMD 785 chipset will support DTS-HD MA etc. If I knew what I know now, I would have just added the ATI 5450 to an old PC setup that has AMD Althon 64X2 5200+ CPU as it can play the HD media just as smooth as the real work is done by the ATI 5450.

For HDTV tuner, I used a USB external tuner from Kworld. While I can never get the QAM tuner to work, it is not a great lost as the Windows 7’s MCE doesn’t support QAM and the local cable’s QAM offering is worst than ASTC any way.

The total cost of building this HTPC is very low as most of the components came from existing PC. As I have mentioned before, if I had know better, all I really needed to change the existing PC to HTPC is the ATI 5450 card that cost $40. Even in case I need to start from ground up, the cost would be about the same as a TVIX 6620N or Dune Prime but capable to do more than either of them can provided.

For people who do want to assemble a HTPC from ground up, they can get a decent desktop PC for around $300 from many retail places as long as the PC has empty PCIe slot to put in a ATI 5450 and that’s it.
As for media player software, the Media Center that came with Windows Vista and Windows 7 although not great but is more than functional. If you buy a retail version of the Blu-Ray drive, it is also likely to be bundled with player software that can play both Blu-Ray and DVD.

Bottom line, there is no need to get latest greatest CPU or GPU to build a great HTPC. Video play back for HD content is widely supported even by entry level GPU or motherboard IGP that came to market in the last year or so. HD audio support on the other hand is different story. Most of if not all of the current motherboard IGP and low end to mid range Nividia solution is not capable of full HD audio support. Some thing to watch out when building a HTPC.

To solve the lack of HD audio problem, it is obvious I need to add a graphics card that has the following features,

• Has HDMI port.
• Has hardware HD video decoding function so playback of HD video contents such as HD DVD or Blu-Ray or HDTV will not burden the CPU.
• Support HD audio streams, DTS-HD MA, DD TrueHD and 8 ch. LPCM in particular pass though HDMI port.
• Cost less than $60

Being able to play PC games on the other hand is not a requirement to me. None of the current Nvidia cards in this price range meet the requirement. The best they can do is to support 8 ch. LPCM which is not acceptable. The ATI on the other hand has a number of cards fit the requirement. I choose the PowerColor AX5450 with 512MB of DDR3 memory because ATI 5450 is a newer chip that consume less power and fanless which means no fan noises. Priced around $40 is also a big plus.

The package of the card looks more like a video game box than graphics card and the content is bare minimum. Even the CD looks like a generic ATI CD without any PowerColor added content.

Installation does require either temporary adding a second monitor or switch connection from the TV to regular monitor. This is because my TV only supports 1080i and that is not in the Windows’ generic monitor resolutions. After the first boot up and sign on to Windows, in this case, Windows 7 will pick up the card and associated it with the right driver, including the HD Fury driver I made for the 1080i resolution. Once this is done, the second monitor is not required.

Windows 7’s Aero score jumped from 3.8 of motherboard’s ATI 4200 to 5.0. But compares to GeForce 9300’s 4.7, this really wasn’t that great. HD DVD and Blu-Ray video play back are smooth as expected are smooth but then even the motherboard’s ATI 4200 is capable smooth playback of HD videos.

Audio playback through HDMI however, did not go well. The A/V receiver’s light indicates I only got 2 ch. LPCM out of the new card. Some thing was not right. As it turns out, it was motherboard’s Realtek HDMI driver is interfering. I need to completely uninstall the Realtek’s HDMI driver and then install ATI’s HDMI driver. Once set correctly, my receiver now receives the proper DTS-HD MA and DD TrueHD streams over the HDMI.

As a side note, some people complained that if HDTV resolution is selected, the ATI driver will default to scale the graphics image to 95% to compensate possible overscan. While I did not encounter this problem, I actually tried manually to scale the image down a bit to see if I can use this function to compensate HD Fury’ left shift problem. Well, it sorts of works but in return I now have a sizeable black bar on the right and less noticeable on top and bottom. Not very desirable tradeoff to say the least so I change it back and just to resign to live with HD Fury’s lift shift problem.

The ATI 5450 is a great low cost solution for HTPC.

Pro:

• Low cost. Current retail is about $40-$50.
• Fanless. No fan noises.
• Have HDMI, DVI and VGA ports.
• Low power consumptions. Does not require additional PCI power.
• Support HD audio format such as DTS-HD MA and DD TrueHD pass through HDMI port.

Con:

• Performance for none media video related regular graphics function is on the low side. 5.0 for Windows 7 Aero score is just a little than IGP like GeForce 9300.
• The PowerColor version is very barebone.

As whole, I am very happy with the ATI 5450 for HTPC. In fact, because most of the A/V decoding job of a HTPC is handled by this card, a lesser motherboard and CPU will do. There is no need or even desirable to get a motherboard with on board video for example. The Athlon II X3 is overkill for the job too. Even an old Althon 64 5200+ will do. ATI 5450 is the core of an inexpensive yet flexible and powerful modern HTPC.

I have been using Quicken since the good old DOS days. At the time it was relatively fast. When Windows comes along the early Windows Quicken seems improves with each version. But things start to change around the 2007 version as it did not offer much improvement and 2008 was even worse as it has become VERY SLOW.

I have decided to skip the 2009 version as it did not appear to add any improvements. When the 2010 comes along, again from the list of “features”, I don’t see any improvements either. But I was growing inpatient with the speed of bugs of the 2008 and thought if those greedy Intuit people can not add features from year to year, at least they should improve the speed and get rid of some bugs. Well, I was very very wrong!

While it seems fixed the UTF bug for none ASCII characters, this version seems has more bugs than ever! I have already encountered the update bug that auto update failed. Recently, I even found out this supposedly money management program can not even count correctly! I have noticed the supposedly same net worth chart on two different panels is different! When I go in and check out the report it was even worst as I have no idea how it got some of the numbers. I first thought it was some how I change the setting on one panel but after exam every settings and make sure they are at default, I still got the same result. In fact, when I added a new net worth chart to the same panel, I got two different charts on the same panel and both of them disagree with the net worth report to boot!

Bugs aside, this version also getting slower and doing certain things on its own. Take download account transactions for example, in the past, if I want to update one bank account and one bank account only, I can go the bank web site and down load the info to the Quicken and that is it. But now after the down load from the bank is completed, the Quicken 2010 will go off on its own to connect, down load “financial institutions” information that I did not initiate and do not know what exactly were down loaded! Manually update stock price is also getting worse as it takes long time for it to bring up the screen and then again take a long time to update after the new prices were entered.

Beyond been buggy and slow, the Quicken 2010 also retain all the greedy trademark of Intuit that it will without asking for consent install whole bunch self-serving advertising icons on your desktop trying to sell more Intuit junks. I would have not problem for the advertisement if Quicken is a freeware or even shareware. But when I paid for a buggy and slow software that have close to zero improvement over previous versions, unwanted ads without consent just to show how bad and greedy this company is.

Many people don’t like Microsoft. But I think Intuit is even worse. Far worse. Too bad Microsoft decided to abandon Money as I really want to abandon Quicken.

The bottom line is if you have Quicken 2008 or even Quick 2007, don’t bother to upgrade. I wish I did not.

There are two main problems with HD Fury. First, it has a left shift problem that shifts video images to the left a little. While the maker of the HD Fury has a later version claimed to have solve this left shift problem, they cost too much and most of time I don’t miss the “missing” left side so I just live with the problem.
The second problem has to deal with something called EDID. EDID is a data stream format used by HDMI devices to report its capabilities to sources so that the source will only send material such as 1080i video that the device is capable to handle. The problem is since the old TV predates HDMI, it has no EDID to pass on. HD Fury instead passes 1080p as its capabilities and therefore the problem as the TV can only handle 1080i. A source like Blu-Ray player will think the TV can handle 1080p and therefore sending 1080p to the TV. It is very easy to see things will fall apart quickly. Again, the maker of the HD Fury has a later generation that suppose let user select the right resolution to report instead of fixed on 1080p. Luckily, most, if not all the Blu-Ray players have a manual resolution override to send 1080i instead so this has not being a big problem to me up until now.

Connecting a HDMI based HTPC to HD Fury on the other hand, is problem as there is no easy resolution through remote or front panel on the PC. If HD Fury reports the TV can do 1080p, at initial startup, Windows will read the EDID from HD Fury and set the resolution to 1080p and the TV screen will be all scrambled. One solution of course is attach another monitor via DVI or VGA to the PC and change the resolution but this is not very practical if needs to be done every time to turn on or reboot the PC.
The maker of the HD Fury offers a solution to re-program the HD Fury’s to report 1080i instead of 1080p. To do this, one needs to download the new EDID data and use software called PowerStrip to program the HD Fury. While PowerStrip is available as trial shareware, only the paid registered version is capable to program the HD Fury as an “unofficial” function and there is not guarantee it will work. If it doesn’t the software is none refundable.

Luckily, there is an alternative free solution to the HD Fury EDID problem if the reason to re-program the HD Fury is to connect a HDMI HTPC. The PowerStrip’s maker also makes a free utility called MonInfo. I used the MonInfo to read the 1080i limited EDID file from HD Fury’s people and output it Windows INF file. On the first time the HTPC is to connect to the HD Fury, a second monitor will help to ensure the right INF file is pickup by Windows when it sees the HD Fury as new device and trying to install drive for it. It is important to get Windows to install the INF file we just made as the driver for HD Fury. Once the right driver is loaded, we are all set. Removed the second monitor, that it.

It needs to be mentioned that HD Fury’s left shift problem now is more of an issue with the Windows than previous with HD DVD or BD movies. It also need to mention that a 1080i display is not suitable for anything other than media file play back as regular Windows fonts become too small and too blurry. Windows’ MCE on the other hand works quite well as it uses much bigger fonts.

Download

• MonInfo
• EDID file for HD Fury

After I updated the TV with the HD Fury to accept HDMI signal and the Yamaha RX-V665 for the new HD audio formats such as DTS-HD MA and DD TrueHD, it is time to revisit the HTPC setup. Before jump into a new HTPC setup however, media players has gaining popularity in recent years and it certainly has its advantages being more like consumer electronics than PC and possible easier for day to day use in a home theater environment.

After looking into the many available media players on the market such as WD TV Live, I was disappointed to found out none of the sub $200 players are capable to act as DVR. In other words, if I get one of these players, I still need the PC to record TV program. Another problem these media player is most of them are not capable to handle HD audio formats. Take TVIX 6620N for example, I have considered it because it can function as DVR. The problem is the TVIX is not only very expensive but also not able to pass through DTS-HD MA and DD TrueHD. For something cost close to $400, I expect more. In addition, TVIX’s local dealer has a rather unfriendly return policy and all the unhappy user feedback on the web make me to give up even give it a try. Then, there are the equally expensive Dune players that seem to be able to handle the DTS-HD HA and DD TrueHD but there is DVR option available. For the price those TVIX and Dune guys ask for, I can build a HTPC and be able to handle both DVR and HD audio.

While it is true, the HTPC can have a lot of issues, lacking proper remote friendly UI is just the most obvious. On the other hand, all those media players seem have their own set of problems too. One just has to search the web to see for example so many unhappy users about them too.

At the end, I went back to the HTPC option. After the failed trial with XFX GeForce 9300, I have settled with MSI 785GTM-E45 motherboard but only to find out it cannot do HD audio either. The great thing about HTPC is it is expandable and I am not depends on the media player companies to make good on their product. In this case, I added an ATI 5450 graphics and now my HTPC can do both DVR and handle HD audio. To me, this is a better choice by far than any media player on the market today.

Follow up:

• As of 4/15/2010, TVIX now has an “updated” 6600N+ selling in China using an “updated” Realtek 1283+ chipset that they “hint” will support HD audio down the line but as of today even this “new” upgraded 6600N+ still does not support DD TrueHD and DTS-HD MA. People who brought the “old” 6600N seems out of luck ! If you think TVIX’s customers got short change, the US dealers did not even mention this “new” model!
• Also as of 4/15/2010, it seems models from Dune has problems with many Blu-Ray disc.

Whether Toyota’s electronics may or may not be the source of the problem, the fact is there is too much electronics computer controlling too many aspects of the modern cars, regardless the maker. 

Take out 2008 Audi Q7 for example. A few days ago, after driving it during the day, we park it on the curb first and moved it to the drive way. Up to this point, everything is none eventful. It is when we want to park it a little better, things start to happen. 

The car would not start. This is not like battery is dying and the starter is attempting to crank. No. It is like the instrument panel gong dark altogether. Normally, for most of the cars and this Audi included, the instrument cluster consists of a number of warning lights that will light up briefly when the ignition key is first turned on. In addition, in the center of the instrument cluster of late model Audi, there is a so call “Driver Information Display” was dark too. 

Since we just moved the car no more than five minutes ago when it all the sudden decided to quit on its own and the radio, interior lights and remote door locks etc. works, I did not think it is a battery problem and the only thing to do is to call Audi’s road side assistance. They first want to try jump start to call, although I was pretty sure that would not solve the problem and surely it didn’t work and the car was towed to dealer. 

What surprised me next was after I did not hear any thing from the Audi dealer and called them the next day, I was told after they connect the diagnostic computer and reset the Q7’s internal control, the car just came back to life. The dealer did not replace anything and they while said this problem is rare, they have seen it before but not sure the cause of the problem. What is even less settling is of course since they do not known the cause of the problem, it means this problem may happen again and may even happen under unsafe conditions. 

In this age, computers have been used to control many things we use daily. The problem is computer has bugs. When a PC or notebook bugs surfaces, most of time one just reboot it without too much a problem. But when a car is controlled by computers it is something else. If the computer all the sudden decided to go crazy, at the very minimum, it is an inconvenient annoyance I just experienced, at worst, well; you can fill in the blanks. 

May be we should not let the computers control things that can end very badly.

Our 2008 Audi Q7 all of sudden was not able to start. Since we just drove the car a few times that day and the interior lights, radio, electronics door locks etc still works, I doubt it was a battery problem. Instead, I thought it could be a fuse got blown as the center instrument cluster would not light up and the “Driver Information Display” is totally dark and the starter did not even attempt to start.

When I reach to the fuse panel and indentified the main fuse for the control, it looks ok. Just to try, I plug in the key and turn. Nothing happen. But then I did not expect it to. But what happens next was a big surprise as I was trying to pull out the ignition key. The key seems got stuck and I was not able to pull it out. I first thought may be I did not turn it to the right position but after tried it several times, I have concluded somehow the key was locked inside due to lack of electric power. Sure enough, after I put the fuse back and restore the power, I can remove the key as easy as before. When the car was towed to the dealer, the tow truck driver confirmed that he has seen the Audi key locked when the car looses electric power.

It seems this “problem” I just experienced is really Audi engineers’ design “feature”! It also seems to me that Audi’s engineers have a very odd sense of logic that I can not understand. With this “feature”, if the car is immobilized due to any electrical failure, and the key was already been inserted into the ignition switch, the key will be locked by the car and the driver will not be able to take the key. If the driver has to leave the car behind to find assistance, the key will stay with car. It is very easy for some one else to come along and fix or tow the car away along with the key during owner or driver’s absent.

Whatever design logic those Audi engineers might have, to me this design is totally absurd! This Q7 is my first and likely the last Audi if they choose to stick with this absurd design.

I was thinking building a HTPC for some time. My first choice for a HTPC motherboard the XFX GeForce 9300 did not work out when it went dead in just three days. Luckily, right after I returned it, there was a sale on a AMD Athlon II X3 440 CPU and MSI 785GTM-E45 motherboard combo for just $10 more than the XFX board by itself. I naturally jumped on the deal.

Compares to the XFX GeForce 9300 board I just returned, it only has 4 USB ports on the back panel and there is no eSATA port. It does however have HDMI; DVI and VGA video ports. More importantly, unlike the XFX board only has PS/2 keyboard port; this MSI board has both PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports.

On board, the MSI MB also has 6 SATA ports and unlike the XFX only has 4 of them active on default BIOS settings; all 6 SATA ports are active here. But equall bad as the XFX board, the SATA ports are also facing side rather than up. To make up for the short fall of USB ports compares to the XFX MB on the back panel, this MB has 4 two ports USB connectors on board compare to three on the XFX so the total max. Possible USB ports for both boards are 12 if one buys USB back or front panel brackets to bring the ports out. One thing not so great aboutthis board is it only has two memory slots but this is ok with me as I don’t plan to use more than 4GB of memory any way. What is more important to me is this board at least has one IDE port that XFX lacks. This is important for the old IDE based HD DVD drive .

Installation

After the board is installed, updating the driver is quite easy as MSI has an on-line update utility that will check for the latest drivers and BIOS. Updating the BIOS is easy. This factor alone makes the MSI board a far better choice than the XFX.

The BIOS is able to unlock unused core from certain AMD CPUs. Of course, being able to unlock a locked core does not mean it will functon correctly. I tried on my X3 and it hangs which means the 4th core is really a bad one to begin with.

The on board video, ATI 4200 turn out to be somewhat disappointing. I first tried the board with an AMD Athlon 64 5200+ I have. The Windows 7’s Aero scores in a low 3.8. In comparison, the GeForce 9300 of the XFX MB with an Intel Core Duo E4300 that in general performs around the same as the AMD CPU gets a 4.7 Aero score. When I put in the AMD Athlon II X3 440, the Aero score still a low 4.3.   Even when over clock t he ATI 4200 from 400MHz to 700MHz, the Aero still not able to compete with the GF9300 with an Aero score of 4.5. It is certainly a disappointing performance to say the least. Especially when the AMD 785 chipset is a newer chipset and it’s ATI 4200 graphics processor is AMD’s top IGP. Over clocking, at least for the on board video is easier and more stable than the XFX board.

Regardless of the Aero performance, the ATI 4200 is capable to playback both HD DVD or Blu-Ray video without any problem. HD audio on the other hand turn out to be very different story. The MSI’s web site somewhat imply this board supports HD audio. What they neglect to make it clear is that HD audio only means the on board Realtek’s audio chip supports 8 ch. analog output. The HDMI port on the other hand only supports two ch. stereo LPCM sounds.

HDMI Setup

After first boot up, the Windows 7 will install the default HDMI driver automatically. Unfortunately, the default Microsoft HDMI driver only supports 2ch audio. Furthermore, the MSI driver CD split the HDMI driver from the chipset driver and requires separate installation. Even after install the ATI HDMI driver from the CD, I still only got 2 ch. Audio. Upon further on-line search, I was dismayed to found out that the AMD 785 chipset only capable to support 2 ch. LPCM output. An updated Realtek HDMI driver on the Realtek’s web site allows pass through of none HD audio stream such as regular 5.1 ch. DD and DTS sound tracks. After download and install the Realtek HDMI driver however, I still only got 2 ch. PCM output. Its only looking into the matter further, I found out there is an option on the Windows Sound manager that need to be selected to support pass through of none LPCM sound tracks. There is NO documentation that I can find on either MSI, AMD or Realtek ‘s web sites to state very clearly what is supported and how to make best use of the on board HDMI connection!

Summary and Conclusion

Pro:

• The board is more stable than the XFX GeForce 9300 board before it.
• MSI has a much better support web site and on-line update driver update mechanism.
• There is a printed manual.
• Able to unlock unused core of AMD CPUs.
• Reasonably easy to over clock for the onboard ATI 4200.
• HDMI, DVDI and VGA video output.
• Total 12 USB and 6 SATA ports.

Con:

• HDMI only supports 2 ch. LPCM audio. Even with updated Realtek HDMI driver, it can only support pass though of older 5.1 ch. DD or DTS sound tracks. No HD audio.
• Only 2 memory slots.
• Only 4 USB ports on the back panel. One needs breakout brackets to bring out the rest.
• No SPDIF port on the back panel.
• Performance of the ATI 4200 even over clocked is no match to GeForce 9300.

This MSI 785GTM-E45 is a reasonably priced board with decent features and performance. The big surprise and disappointment is the AMD 785 chipset only supports 2 ch. audio over HDMI. It really shows AMD really don’t care that much about design a chipset that can support modern HTPC applications. As far as I can tell, even their new flagship chipset 890, is still unable to support HD audio. Of course, AMD is not alone being guilty on this regard as Nvidia and Intel are no better.   

For people who are happy with regular DD or DTS sound tracks, this is a good board for an all in one setup. If you want DTS HD MA or DD TrueHD however, you still require having an add-on graphics for that.