This will be the page where I'm going to chronicle my progress on building my HTPC. I will list my equipment possiblilties, pricing if I can, pictures of the system during the different stages of development etc.
First off, what I want the system to do. Basically the system has to be an all-in-one entertainment center. This means that it must be able to timeshift/record TV, play games, display photos and pictures, play DVD, play music and karaoke, show weather information, rip DVD's and music CD's, output to HDTV capable rear projection TV either by component or DVI/HDMI cable...and only controlled mainly with a simple remote that is used to control the TV and rest the system. It also has to be capable of future expansion such as HD capable (both via TV and HD-DVD/Blu-ray...or whatever the technology will be by that time).
Here is a list of equipment that either I have or I am looking at
Stuff still need to purchase:
Main Hard Drive: Seagate ST3500630AS Barracuda 500GB SATA - $124 cdn
-Mainly this drive would be used for the OS and storage of movies, pictures and recorded TV shows. Music resides on the music-server.
Accessories: USB-UIRT - $50 us
Stuff I have already acquired:
Case: Industrial Case
-Originally it was going to be either a Cooler Master Cavilier 4 or an Antec NSK2400. I have since been able to pick up an industrial computer case that was collecting dust at work. It is sturdy, heavy, and can hold a full ATX motherboard. It has a flip down front door that reveals 2x 5.25" drive bays, 1x 3.5" drive bay, power and reset buttons, HDD and Power LED lights can be seen throuh a small window on the door. This allowed me to save around $70 in the end, as all I have to do is find a good power supply. Those I can find at a decent price off ebay. So the Antec or Cooler Master are now officially off the table, but I will leave their respected descriptions here for keepsake. Pictures of the industrial case are to come. This will also mean that the Asus M2NPV-VM will not be used. I might as well pick up a full ATX motherboard to take advantage of the case size.
Case Fan: Nexus D12SL-12 Silent Fan
-I had the opportunity to power up the case that had a 120mm fan mounted inside when I temporarily had my MediaPVR system installed in the case. It was pretty noisey, so I decided to replace it. The Nexus has recieved exellent reviews, so I purchased this fan off ebay. It came in on 20/12/07 and I had a chance to try it out in the case. All I can say is...WOW!! What a huge difference it makes. What a reduction in noise. Now all I hear is a generic power supply which will be replaced anyways, and the MediaPVR CPU fan. Needless to say, I am very happy about this fan and would recommend it to anyone.
Soundblaster Live 5.1
- for Dolby Digital/DTS decoding as I don't have a reciever that can do it natively. I purchased this card off ebay, but I may look for a better Audigy, or something else. In the meantime, I will use this to get me by.
Twinhan VP-1020A DVB-S
- I bought this off ebay to experiment with FTA. It has worked so well for me, that I'm going to use this card for the dedicated satellite pickup in the home theater. The existing box will be removed and installed elsewhere. Most likely to the livingroom TV, and then the one sitting in the livingroom will be moved to the master bedroom (just because the one is nicer than the other). Currently I'm testing this card using DVB Dream and Emunation 3.0.3.2.
Pioneer DVR-108
- This was a dual layer DVD burner that I got as a Christmas gift. I unfortunately haven't even had a chance to plug this in and try it (mainly because I never had a computer powerful enough to fully utilize its features). It is still sitting in its original packaging. It has a silver bezel, but since the industrial case has a front door that covers all the external drive bays, it doesn't matter what the color of the bezel is. Currently this will be the drive of choice as Blu_Ray (which is the winner of the HD format wars recently) is still too expensive for me. I would find it rather difficult to justify to the higher powers that to see the extra wrinkles in some actors face is so much more worth the $250 to $300 dollars on a BD drive.
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800 Dual Core (Socket AM2) Windsor 2.5GH
-This CPU is a mid level CPU. Powerful enough for my needs, but being a Christmas gift, how could I refuse it? I'd be crazy. Maybe one day, if I really want to , and providing the motherboard I finally get suports it, I will upgrade to something like a 6000 (2.6GHz). This CPU should allow for the playback of HD content just fine using a WinXP OS.
CPU Cooler: Zalman CNPS8000 Ultra Quite CPU Cooler
-This CPU cooler should do the trick for keeping the CPU cool...and should be ultra-quiet. Pretty good pickup for a Chirstmas gift.
Memory: Kingston KVR800D2N5K2/2G 2Gig (2x1G modules) DDR2 800MHz memory
-Run of the mill memory. Nothing fancy but Kingston is known for producing good memory. Nice Christmas gift, and get's me well on my way for building the HPTC.
Power Supply: Enermax Coolergiant EG485P-VHB SFMA 480W
-Since the case was free, but did not have a power supply, and since I added this supply to the music server and I've been very pleased with it, I purchased another one of these Enermax supplies for the HTPC.
Actually, I won this supply off ebay. Originally I had thought I had won the 435W version (same as what is in my music server). The seller indicated to me that he made a mis-print and the actual supply is the EG485P-VHB SFMA 480W. Since it was his mistake, there was no extra charge for this upgrade. I have only nice praise for that ebay seller. The seller is bcom_eoutlet, and they are based in Edmonton, Canada. They do have some good deals, but it's their extra attention to their customers which really shine through. Hat's off to them, and I would do business with them anytime.
Video Card: Asus EAH2600Pro/HTDI/256M
-PCI-E video card with onboard HD decoding capabilities. Can output to 1920x1080i resolutions. It's also HDCP complient, so when I eventually get a Blu-Ray player, this card should be able to handle everything I throw at it. It even includes a DVI-HDMI adapter that is supposed to support HDMI audio. Since it can do decoding onboard, it will help take pressure off the CPU. Originally I had planned on a NVidia 7600GS, but figured it wouldn't be up to snuff. I had thought long and hard about an 8600GT, but with this card as cheap as it is, with the capabilities that it has...in the early going...this looks to be the winner. Though I was looking for something completely silent (Passive Cooling heatsink), from an indepth review by X-Bit indicates that the fan is quite and that the fan speed is automatically adjusted by the GPU demand. The next card I'm looking at is option 2 below. I can always upgrade later once media gets too demanding for this card to display.
Motherboard: Asus M2N-X
- This motherboard was acquired to replace the MSI board that I had bought. The MSI had a short circuit fault and could not be used. Unfortunately with this board, I had to drop the future expansion of GigLAN service on the board itself. It got some pretty decent buyer reviews that I have seen. All pretty much indicate that this board is not good for gaming but would do well in a HTPC enviroment. So far, it has proved that point pretty good.
Software Used In The System:
Below is a list of software that will be running on the HTPC:
Win XP w/SP2
KX Drivers
ATI Catalyst Drivers v8.3
Xlobby using the Mirage skin
Plugins: Xoapweather, xTransistion, xEvent, xReceive/xSend, xMenu, xlToolkit, xDVDecryptor, CDEX, USB-UIRT, xURL, xGetPhoto, xUTube, xAnt, xLiveShout, xScriptNG, xWOL, xSchedule, xInTheaters, xHideMouse
Winamp 2.95
Plugins: CDG Plugin, Milkdrop 1.3
ZoomPlayer Pro 4.03
FFDshow
Dscaler MPEG2 Codec
AC3Filter Codec
Real Alternative Codec
MPC (Media Player Classic) - loaded on from the Real Alternative Codec. Will use this for HD playback.
DVB Dream v1.4i
Plugins: Emunation
PowerDVD Ultra - only there to verify HD content playing...will most likely remove later.
Haali Plugin (for H.294 playback??? don't know much about HD playback, but will learn as I go)
ASUS monitoring software.
ANT Movie Catalog
MAME/SNES9X/Fusion emulation (along with ROMs)
Girder 3.3.4 (using it with WinLIRC for IR control)
Plugins: Igor Serial Plugin for XP
zap2xml - EPG scraping software
dabdig - TV recording scheduler program, passes recording events from xlobby to DVB Dream.
RealVNC - server for remote access control
Poweroff - installed as a service to powerdown the system when required.
MCE Standby Tool - installed to aid in bringing system out of S3 state with USB device.
Equipment No longer looking at:
Antec NSK2400 - $109 cdn - NOT REQUIRED
-This case is a uATX size case with a silent 380W power supply. It has received some rave reviews for its silent capabilities and features. It may not be the most esthetic looking case but it does what it is supposed to do, and does it very well.
Motherboard: Asus M2NPV-VM - $107 cdn
-The M2NPV-VM received some good reviews. It utilizes a multi-monitor Nvidia 6150 Chipset. The onboard video would just get me going until I saved up for a good video card.
Cavilier 4 - $75 cdn - NOT REQUIRED
-Yes that's right, $75 cdn including taxes. A local computer store sometimes get these cases in and sells them as "open box" deals. This is a beautiful looking case that can house a full ATX mother board. It too includes a silent power supply (~400W). I had a chance to look/listen to a demo unit in the store, and it is pretty silent. The fans I did here I think were the CPU and video card fans.
Video Card: Asus EN7600GS Silent HDT w/512MB - $119 cdn
Video Card Option 2: Asus EAH2400Pro/HTP/256M - $53 cdn
- Basic PCI-E video card with onboard HD decoding capabilities. Can output to 1920x1080i resolutions. It's also HDCP complient, so when I eventually get a Blu-Ray player, this card should be able to handle everything I throw at it. Since it can do decoding onboard, it will help take pressure off the CPU. It's a passive cooled card as shown above. Doesn't hurt to be a cheap as it is as well.
Motherboard: MSI K9N Neo-F Socket AM2
-Basic full ATX motherboard by MSI with on-board sound and GigaLAN. It has received some very nice reviews. It was one of the few boards that offered GigLAN at this price point. Also it supposedly is a good board for OC...though chances of me doing that are slim.
I had this board all installed and on first powerup, found there was a short in the CPU socket connector. When locking the CPU in place, this short would appear on the 12V rail on the small 4-pin Molex. This would cause the PSU to go into short-circuit protection. As a result, I had to replace this board, and the replacement was an ASUS M2N-X.
HTPC LOG
*12/2/08*
As stated I started collecting parts for a HTPC build. Actually I started collecting parts over a year ago. Below are some pics of the parts acquired so far:
Cooler Closeup
PSU, Memory and wireless mouse
AMD CPU and DVD dual layer burner
5.1 soundcard
Wireless keyboard
Inside of case: fits a full ATX motherboard.
Picture of mounted drive cage (more on this below).
The Nexus quiet 120mm fan already on its mounting bracket. It works great.
Drive cage removed. Notice that it sits on top of rubber shock absorbers. This is to help take away any drive vibration, which equates to noise.
The bottom of the drive cage also has foam rubber for absorbing vibration.
DVD drive mounted in the drive cage.
What it looks like when the case door is opened. Drive cage re-installed in the case with the DVD drive.
Power supply before mounting in case.
Power supply installed.
The back of the case which shows the power supply. If you look hard, you will see the Nexus fan, and the back of the DVD drive.
*25/2/08*
Ordered some nice looking feet to mount on the bottom of the box. This will help in both giving the system some additional isolation, as well as give it a more authestics view of a normal consumer electronics device. The feet ordered are the RA45 made by Mitron Interlink and sold via Performace-PC.com. They were pretty in-expensive ($11.50 including shipping).
I also picked up the MSI K9N Neo-F board. Haven't installed it yet, but I'm looking very forward to it. I want to get the feet and mount them before installing the board, as I'm going to have to drill through the floor of the box and it would not make for a good scene should I accidently drill through the motherboard. Pictures to come.
*6/3/08*
The feet finally came in and I had the opportunity today to continue with installing more equipment. I first started by assembling the feet. Here are some pics:
I then installed the motherboard with no problems:
The next step was to mount the AMD CPU in its location:
The CPU cooler was the next step...this was also my first dilemma. If I tried to mount it one way I found out the cooling pipes interfered with a couple of capacitors and also with the ATX power connector. Mounting it the other way I lost out on two DIMM slots. Since I'm only using 2 RAM modules anyways, I ended up sacrificing the two memory slots:
The second problem I ran into was that the motherboard power connector off the power supply is only a 20 pin Molex, and the requirement for the motherboard is a 24 pin Molex. So I have to pick up a 20 to 24 pin ATX adaptor:
Some additional install pics:
Memory
Soundcard
Other than the main issue, which is the CPU cooler taking out the RAM slots, so far the install has been relative easy. I've also started some cable management which once done, I'll take some additional photos.
*11/3/08*
Well I found out that if I wanted to use my memory in a Dual Channel setup, I would have to use memory slots 1 and 3 or 2 and 4. Memory slot 1 was totally covered by the Zalman heatpipes, but slot 2, even though the heatpipes went over the plastic socket portion, they did not cover the actual socket. So I was able to move a RAM stick into that location. I used some Kapton tape to cover the actual IC on the board as a couple of the copper pipes actually rested against them. I also tie-wrapped the Zalman cooler control module to the back of the case. See the latest pics below:
The "Awesome" tie-wrap work (so far).
The control knob of the Zalman cooler protrudes out of an accessory hole in the case. I guess I should have used black tie-wraps.
A shot showing the CPU cooler heatpipes resting against the RAM module.
Another view.
A final shot showing the CD/DVD analog audio cable going to the soundcard.
*19/3/08*
The power adapter came in today. Quickly added that and took a photo:
Also added a little extra:
*21/3/08*
What a sad...sad day. I just got the video card, and was very excited to install it. I don't currently have a large SATA drive, so I connect a small IDE drive to get myself going and try out the hardware. I powered on and nothing...no fans, no LED...nothing. I quickly turned off the power, and rechecked all connections...everything seemed fine. Thinking the supply did not have enough juice, I disconnected the video card, Nexus fan, and hardrive and DVD drive....still nothing. Thinking still it was the power supply I swapped it with a generic version. CPU fan powered on. Tried a Theraltake supply from the MediaPVR, and it did nothing. I then disconnected the 4-pin molex Aux connector from the board and the system worked. So the problem was with the 4 pin connector that supplies additional 12V to the board...which I found out powers the graphics card "cooling system" . Taking out my trusted DMM, I found that there was only ~9 ohms between 12V rail to ground through that connector.
So, now thinking it was a motherboard problem, I disconnected everything to package it up to take back to the store. I decided to take one last measurement, and found that there was now an open circuit between the 12V rail to ground. I then found out that the short occurs when the CPU is inserted in the motherboard socket and the locking lever is just starting to lock down the CPU.
So now I'm still taking the motherboard back to the store, and hoping to replace it with a similar board...been looking at an Asus M2N-X. It is mainly the same as the MSI...and is $10 cheaper.
The CPU will also have to be replaced as it has most likely been stressed.
I just hope that nothing else has been damaged due to this issue...I don't think so.
I've put together many computers in the past...two are chronicled right here on my googlepages...except for the music-server, this one I was really anticipating to get going...so I was pretty disheartened to put it bluntly.
ASUS video card
Box unpacked
2600pro installed prior to motherboard problem :(
Another shot of video card installed in MSI motherboard
*22/3/08*
I went and checked out the CPU at the store where it was bought. Because it was a Christmas gift and I did not have a receit, they were pretty reluctant at taking it back...understandable. But in the very least, they checked it out with one of their test motherboards, and the CPU started up and went through its POST. That is further than what I got. So the problem was with the motherboard and not the CPU.
So I ended up taking the motherboard back and exchanged it for the Asus M2N-X. It was $10 cheaper. It doesn't have GigLAN, and it only has 2 memory slots, but all I have is 2 memory sticks anyways. Though it would be nice to have GigLAN for future HD transfer across my network, well either I will replace the board with something better, or just add a LAN card in the future. Other than that, I shouldn't have a problem this time around with the CPU cooler over-hanging the memory slots, so that is a good thing. I read some customer reviews of the board, and overall, pretty much everyone has said the same thing: "not a gamer board " (who cares), "not good for over-clocking" (again doesn't matter to me), "good board for HTPC use" (good to hear). Also poeple have commented that it is stable and runs without hassles. So hopefully by tomorrow, I will be posting something more positive.
New ASUS M2N-X mother board installed
Another photo of the ASUS board prior to RAM and additional boards installed
One more shot
*25/3/08*
I have now powered the system up. I had to do some re-configuring of the equipment as the IDE cable was too short to go from the board to the other side of the case to attach to both the DVD drive and the temp IDE drive. So now the IDE drive is sitting sideways about 1/2 way between the motherboard connection and the DVD drive.
This shot shows how I had to sit the IDE hard drive.
Another view of the harddrive mess. Thank God it is only temporary.
The system powered up, I installed XP Pro on it without any problems, it recongnized my RPTV and the ATI Catalyst driver set the 2600Pro card's output to 1920x1080. My Xlobby Mirage was loaded on, and some futher configuring was required (expected) before I was happy with the skin. Had to redo some of the events that use the xSend command, as they were setup with the wrong IP address.
Last night I followed a tutorial on setting up ffdshow to upscale DVD video, and now that even looks amazing.
I'm going to start playing around with EventGhost and see if I can get a HID device to work. Then use EG to send commands to control Mirage. This will get me around from purchasing a USB-UIRT for the next little while.
*26/3/08*
A couple of screenshots taken during the movie 300. Both were taken around the same time frame for comparision purposes. The first is untouched by any filtering/processing of ffdshow. The second image goes through ffdshow and is upscaled to 1920x1080. Where to look is at the extra detail in the helmet. The top image the features of the helmet seem to blend and are "softened". The helmet's pits are really detailed and are more defined in the upscaled image.
*Warning: Large Image*
Resolution: 704x480
*Warning: Large Image*
Resolution: 1920x1080
Some additional captures:
Additional screen capture of Mirage's main menu
*27/3/08*
I installed Xlobby's Xremote and Girder last night, along with a WinLIRC module I built a while back, I've been able to incorporate remote control using my Panny TV remote. Working out the flow of how it should all work still, but I'm able to navigate around Mirage with it. This should get me by until the day I decide to splurge and purchase a USB-UIRT.
*31/3/08*
Well, I had more bumps over the weekend. The minor one was I could not get Girder to work properly. I tried two versions and each crashed when receiving IR signals. They were versions 3.31 and 3.34. Maybe I will have more success with version 4, or I may just wait to purchase a USB-UIRT and be done with it.
The major hurdle was that I attempted to install the Twinhan card. I could not get many channels to scan after my initial install. The next day I could not even power on the computer while the card was installed. I ended up taking the card out and re-trying it in my test rig, where everything worked fine. I think the problem is that I am running the power supply at its max. When the additional sat card was installed....where it also has to power the LNB, it is too much for the supply and it shuts down. Gees and I figure 480W would do. So now the card is back in the test rig, until I pick up a larger supply. I'm going to have to go through all the components and re-calculate the amount of power I'm going to need.
The final bump, was that one of the soundcard jacks don't work too well anymore. Most likely I will go to Digi-key and pickup an equivalent part to use and just solder it in.
*1/4/08*
I've solved the satellite card issue. I calculated the expected power output for all I had and I should have been able to get by with a 350W supply just fine. I ended up pulling all the extra peripherals from the system, then installed the Twinhan. The system powered up fine. After I powered back down, I routed power to the extra peripherals, paying close attention to what was plugging into what rail (the Enermax has dual +12V rails, each about 15A). The system again powered up fine. The problem I had was that it was only scanning in a limited number of channels from horizontal transponders. I then went into the settings of DVBDream and changed the LNB type...Voila, I had very good results indeed. Now I need to integrate DVBDream into Mirage somehow. I still may use the TV plugin that utilizes the TV engine from MediaPortal that an Xlobby member put together a while back. We'll see. I'm just happy to get it working...and it is only using <10% of the CPU.
The other issue with the soundcard...the jack, though faulty, right now is working fine. Both channels are being broadcast no problems. If I need to change the jack, the quick and dirty way it so salvage one from an old IDA sound card sitting around collecting dust...provided the jack has the same footprint.
Girder issue still exits, and I'm not too sure what I'm going to do to solve that problem right now.
*3/4/08*
I have started to work on the TV/Sat integration into Mirage. I redid the TV screen, moved buttons around and the sort. I created more buttons to toggle record now, pause live TV, Mute, channel up/down, and created a database for the more watched channels (Treehouse, Disney, CNN, TSN and the sort). I would like to figure out now how to integrate xlobby's EPG into the mix now, but that will be an undertaking. The other thing I have to do is create a fullscreen effect. Once I get to a point of the completion with the TV portion (minus the schedule recording/EPG), and finish off my updates to the PPC screens, I will then release a new rev. Hopefully in a couple of weeks.
*6/4/08*
I've now almost completed the TV/Sat integration. I'm now able to change channels, start/stop recording, mute, select specific channels. To finish off, I've setup a full screen view as well. I'm using DVB Dream to playback the satellite. Though I can download and view an EPG using zap2xml, I've yet to be able to utilize this in channel selection. Though I will be looking into this more. The only thing that I don't think I will be able to do is to setup a schedule recording.
I also made a modification to my WinLIRC circuit to match the Igor Plugin that is currently available to XP. After updating the .dll and performing the circuit mods, Girder is running alot better. It is not crashing nearly as much as it was before.
Downloaded some HD clips off the internet, so I'll be looking forward to trying the system out with those.
*7/4/08*
I had an opportunity to view the HD clips through both PowerDVD Ultra and Media Player Classic. I want to be able to use MPC as there is a plugin that already exists to use it within xlobby. The clips downloaded were HD-WMV files from Microsoft's website. I only used PDVD to figure out why MPC was skipping and stuttering. I found out that I had to stop ffdshow from processing the video. I was using ffdshow for processing/upscaling DVD video, but it is not required for HD. As soon as I blocked ffdshow's merit, everything ran smooth in MPC. The picture looks really good. Not sure if I'm convinced on spending the money on a HD Sat receiver, or an internal B-Ray drive right now, but later on, when BR prices finally fall...we'll see.
*8/4/08*
Received some 3.5mm to RCA splitter adapters. Installed and working fine. Decided to take a break for building and tweaking and just relax and enjoy so far what I have done.
*24/4/08*
I haven't reported too much here in the last little while as I've just been sitting back and enjoying everything. One thing I have done, is I started to use the xltv plugin for xlobby, this forced me to switch over to ProgDVB. Currently I'm using version 4.56, as version 5 is not supported by xltv, and the later versions of 4 seem to crash when loading. Been defining more WinLIRC functions as well. At this point I'm thinking of dropping the UIRT...the only deciding factor here is that I can't bring the system out of sleep with the LIRC receiver. Other than that minor drawback, it's been running really good. I also started in the completion of the new PPC screens, so once that is done, I will be packaging it all up for distribution.
*19/5/08*
It has been a while since my last update. I've been working on exaclty what TV module I was going to install in the system. I first started out trying xlobby's xltv plugin. Though it worked well enough, I didn't like using ProgDVB. Instead of expanding SD content to fullscreen, it would zoom in...making an already sub-par picture look even worse. To top it off, it would cut the top and bottom of the picture off...this was a no-no for sporting events as the score board would get chopped off. I also tried the MediaPortal plugin for xlobby. Though most of it installed, the portion that didn't was the portion that has always given me problems in the past. That's MediaPortal itself. Not only is it bloated, but I've never been successful at getting it running. So now I'm trying and older plugin called xschedular. It alows to setup recordings from xlobby's EPG. I'm back using DVB Dream as well, as I have been very successful with using it in the past. It allows greater selection of codecs, and instead of zooming the image full screen, it does a proper stretch. I've had help from the developer of a program called dabdig. Dabdig is a inbetween program which interfaces the xschedular plugin with DVB Dream. I'm now able to select and EPG item and record it via DVB Dream, with a couple of bugs still to work out. I then have to integrate this into Mirage.
*28/5/08*
Well, I have finally found my TV solution. As of last night, I was successful at setting up a recording schedule using the xschedule/dabdig/DVB Dream setup. The past week was interesting as the EPG scrapper went on the fritz for a few days, and then alot of trial and error with the developers of dabdig and xschedule. The developer of xschedule doesn't really support this plugin anymore, so I am very grateful that he took the time into looking over my request. The big problem was that xschedule would wait for the recording request to pass from Dabdig, then it would pop up an overlay saying that the request has been passed...only dabdig wouldn't pass the request until the time to record. Until this happened, xlobby would appear to be frozen (crashed/locked up). So now a mock plugin was created that doesn't wait for dabdig, and it would appear to be working very well in the early going. Now I just have to work on the logic of how DVB Dream opens, both in window mode and fullscreen (and how to swap between the two). Also how to exit DVB after a recording.
*7/6/08*
Since my last update, the one big change that occured was the addition of a new plugin. An individual on the xlobby website who goes by the name "tswhite" created a script a while back that allowed to download movie house information and showtimes. He recently created a plugin in its place. So I transfered this into Mirage. The software section on xlobby plugins above has been updated to reflect the changes has been updated.
*12/6/08*
I've worked out the IR using winLIRC to control Zoomplayer. It was rather easy as I configured the Zoom Player controls within Girder. So now when Zoom takes over focus from Xlobby, the remote controls automatically control the Zoom player.
*14/6/08*
Right from the beginning I've had this problem that I couldn't wake the system from S3 using a USB device (keyboard or mouse). I could, no problems if the system used S1 (basic standby, supply still powering, fans running etc.). Up until now I had to wake the system via power button. I found a post on the avsforum website, where somebody mentioned using a tool called MCE Standby Tool. Well I decided to try it out, and it works great. All that is requirec is a simple mouse movement and the system turns on. Thanks to the poster on the avs site thread.