New to this HTPC stuff

uaeB · 14th July 2012, 12:44 AM

Just bought some cheap 775 stuff and looking to setup a HTPC out of it

Specs are:

E4300
DDR2 2GB ram (adding 2GB in the next few days)
1GB XFX 5450
Maxtor 300GB HDD (Will go buy a 1TB soon as well, then maybe an SSD)
Dell case & PSU
Samsung drive

Being used on a Vivo 43" plasma with 5.1 sony HTS, questions are where do I start? is this even sufficient enough to be a HTPC and if so, what program do you recommend I start using. Basically I'm new to this all so I want to start from scratch, this is also going to be used as/for a torrent box, web surfing, youtube, with casual games of LoL/HoN.

It's running through HDMI but when I change the res to 1080p it looks out of wack, with black bars and it looks squished, looks fine on 1024x768 however everything's to big for my liking.

Dav · 14th July 2012, 1:05 AM

should be fine for watching movies. I use an e2200 with the same video card and 4gb ram and it plays HD stuff no worries. At the moment I run xbmc on mine.

to get rid of the black boarders go into the vid card driver settings, go to my didital flat panels > scaling options and the adjust the slider until the picture fills the screen.

Mau1wurf1977 · 14th July 2012, 10:15 AM

With these old Plasamas try the VGA cable. Not kidding you it's because at that input the panel knows it will be dealing with a PC.

I doubt that plasma has an option to disable the overscan and get propper 1:1 pixel mapping.

To start you can just use VLC for the time being as fiddling with frontends can consume quite some time

Sledge · 14th July 2012, 11:28 AM

yeah best to check your video card settings and check that everything matches your panel, and then also check the aspect ratio settings on your panel as well

14th July 2012, 12:44 AM	#1
uaeB Member Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Melbourne Posts: 133	New to this HTPC stuff Just bought some cheap 775 stuff and looking to setup a HTPC out of it Specs are: E4300 DDR2 2GB ram (adding 2GB in the next few days) 1GB XFX 5450 Maxtor 300GB HDD (Will go buy a 1TB soon as well, then maybe an SSD) Dell case & PSU Samsung drive Being used on a Vivo 43" plasma with 5.1 sony HTS, questions are where do I start? is this even sufficient enough to be a HTPC and if so, what program do you recommend I start using. Basically I'm new to this all so I want to start from scratch, this is also going to be used as/for a torrent box, web surfing, youtube, with casual games of LoL/HoN. It's running through HDMI but when I change the res to 1080p it looks out of wack, with black bars and it looks squished, looks fine on 1024x768 however everything's to big for my liking. Last edited by uaeB; 14th July 2012 at 12:46 AM.

14th July 2012, 10:15 AM	#3
Mau1wurf1977 Member Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Country WA Posts: 12,950	With these old Plasamas try the VGA cable. Not kidding you it's because at that input the panel knows it will be dealing with a PC. I doubt that plasma has an option to disable the overscan and get propper 1:1 pixel mapping. To start you can just use VLC for the time being as fiddling with frontends can consume quite some time __________________ Ultimate GOG.com DOSBox Tutorial, Roland vs Yamaha General MIDI DOS Games Music Comparison

14th July 2012, 11:28 AM	#4
Sledge Member Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Adelaide Posts: 3,126	yeah best to check your video card settings and check that everything matches your panel, and then also check the aspect ratio settings on your panel as well __________________ http://sledge1.mybrute.com OCAU Clan

14th July 2012, 1:05 AM	#2
Dav Member Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Sydney Posts: 154	should be fine for watching movies. I use an e2200 with the same video card and 4gb ram and it plays HD stuff no worries. At the moment I run xbmc on mine. to get rid of the black boarders go into the vid card driver settings, go to my didital flat panels > scaling options and the adjust the slider until the picture fills the screen.