SS40 as a DVD/MP3 box

[chedburgh]

Hi all.

I was hoping someone could answer a few questions i have :) so please forgive any ignorance i show. I have searched the forums and read many reviews, and although i have been building PCs for years, i am a little clueless on DVDs and these mini PCs.

A little background first. I have been looking to build a DVD/MP3 player for my TV (28" wide screen, does this make a difference for DVD playback?). The aim was to play DVDs as good as a stand-alone DVD player, and play MP3s to my stereo next to it. Also, i wanted a few options left open on the PC for future expansion, such as wireless LAN (i cant run a cable from my front room to my server) and TV in/out/recording. I don’t want to play games on it; I have another PC for this already :) The system is intended to be monitorless and to just use a channel on the TV. The last part of my spec was to not have it sound like a tractor engine, so as silent as possible. I was somewhat taken by the SS40G for the case/mobo.

The DVD side is where I am confused. I will add a DVD drive, question is: will software decoding / built in TV OUT and gfx card be adequate to get the level of playback I want on the TV (full screen, good as a stand alone player etc etc) or will I need to add a hardware decoder or some other stuff? Will it play to a wide screen TV ok to? Any ideas on how to do this or what hardware items would be much appreciated.

I am ok on the MP3 side, I was going to put in an old sound blaster live card I have and run that to my stereo.

On keeping the unit silent, I was curious if anyone knew any generally quiet hardware, i.e. DVD/harddisk? I was looking at a barracuda harddrive, as I have read they are very quiet.

Any thoughts or comments on any of this I would love to hear :)

Thanks in advance
Ched (yes, I am a newbie with DVDs) :D

[afraser2k]

I can run my LiteOn DVD from my PC to TV without any difference to performance so I would assume this is the case with most.

In my experience Fujitsu hard drives at 5400rpm are the quietest I've used and the 7200rpm one's are quite noisy.

I'm happy with the next-to-no-noise that my LiteOn 16x DVD-ROM drive makes.

Hopefully that will help you a little. :)

[PJ Matthews]

You don't want to play games? Forget the SS40 then and get an SV25 or SV24 which will save you alot of money.

PJ

[chedburgh]

Hi, thanks for the replies :)

After looking at the SV25 or SV24 I am still taken by the SS40. I don’t mind paying the extra money for the better spec, and I prefer the look :D That extra PCI slot will help with future expansion plans to. Although I am still not decided on what case until I know what I will do DVD wise. Its really down to whether i can play a DVD movie as well as a stand alone DVD player, i.e. get full screen with no loss of quality on wide screen. Cant test it at home as i never bothered to buy a DVD drive :rolleyes:

Thanks for the hardware suggestions to :)

Thanks again
Ched

[PD.]

Hi,

I put together an SS40 for a friend's parents a couple of months ago. I watched a DVD on it (using s-video) on a 29" 'normal' screen TV and the quality was more than adequate using winDVD. Not as good as decent DVD player (and you'll need a separate amp to take advantage of digital/dts sound through the spdif connector) but still very good nonetheless.
Being really fussy, but if you want a very, very quiet box, you would want to replace the 80mm fan with a quieter model, as although it is quiet (and the speed is temp controlled) the box did occasionally make a bit more noise whilst playing the DVD on a 1800xp. That'd only be a tenner and easy enough to do though so not a problem.

Overall I was very impressed with the ss40 and I would also recommend getting an infrared keyboard/mouse pointer (£37 from Kustom!) to go with it, as they are really good for long-range use.

Hope this helps.

PD.

[Graeme*Kustom*]

If you want to use an AMD system and need quiet , go for an XP1600 and fit one of the Zalman Quiet/Silent fans and enable fan guardian in the bios. Use Pioneer's 106 DVD as it can be slowed down to more of a gentle hum than loud whoosh when playing. The SS40/50/51 graphics drivers have the facility to stretch the screen and reposition it so that no black borders are left at the side when playing films etc

[chedburgh]

Thanks for tips again. I was planning to put the audio to my stereo, to hopefully get a good quality sound. I will do the fan mods to, i am fussy about the noise hehe.

I agree on the keyboards, i love them wireless compact ones on kustom :)

I have ordered a LiteOn DVD drive already, after reading a bunch of reviews that said it was very quiet. If its to noisy still, i can put it on my main PC, as its still missing a DVD Drive. Judging on how noisy it is, i may try the Pioneer one.

I am still undecided between the SS51 and the SS40 because of the AGP port and the possibility of putting a Radion 8500 AIW in or just using a PCI slot in the SS40 for a hauppauge digi TV Nova-T. Must make mind up…

I found that showshifter media software looks nice to integrate and control the thing to.

Thanks :)
Ched

[Rim Block]

Graeme,

With the ss-50 there is a black border around a full screen image using the TV out feature. How do you get rid of this as it is annoying on a 32" widescreen tv.

Is the function in the Graphics properties on XP?.

I have been hoping there is a way to get rid of them but admittidly I haven't searched hard.

Cheers
Rims

[PJ Matthews]

I seem to recall you can do this via windows. Visit shuttles web site and have a looksy, I'm sure they have a utility just for this.

PJ

[Graeme*Kustom*]

off the top of my head,

go into control panel
go to displays
go to settings
press advanced

somewhere in there there you'll see the options for re-positioning and stretching the screen, letting you get rid of the border!!!

[PJ Matthews]

I'm sure shuttle released their own utility.