HTPC Face, needs spicing?

[fragged]

Hey

I'm building a Wooden Case for a HTPC, my pre-worklog-worklog is located here (http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/forum/showthread.php?p=46736#post46736)

Problem is, the case is... well... a little bland, particularly the front panel...

Below is a rough drawup in sketchup, and I'm not sure what else to do, I dont particularly want a screen on it (as it will be sitting directly ontop of a TV) and I'm not sure what else I'd need, Power buttons are provided on a remote that comes with the motherboard (<3 Asus :D) and theres not much else I can think to add... Possibly directional buttons for when the remote is lost?

http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/8869/htpcfrontix2.th.jpg (http://img137.imageshack.us/my.php?image=htpcfrontix2.jpg)

Feel free to post any ideas, no matter how stupid they are, I'm in an open-minded state at the moment, but honestly cant think of anything to add...

Cheers

-Fragged

[AKA_RA]

perhaps you could go with some old analog meters similar to what is seen in old stereos. with a moderate ammount of knowledge in electronics im sure you could get them to respond to things like fan speeds, cpu usage, hard drive activity, etc. there is a very nice mod out there that uses a couple of them on the side panel, it looks really good, but that case is a bad example here since your going for a natural wood look and this had black light reactive meters and such.

[EPYK]

yes either do some analog meters... or you could make an led version of those bouncing bars on most stereos... i dont know the technical term, sorry.. but i got a nice tutorial to show you how to make a led matrix and communicate with yur com port... or just get a matrix lcd

[Cevinzol]

Most HTPC are designed to blend in.
I think it would be distracting to be watch TV or a movie while the box on top of it has flashing ligths or jumping needles.

Maybe what you should do is just make the case to match the entertainment center. Make sure the wood matches and the stain/finish matches. Maybe add some molding or a raised panel to the front.

[EPYK]

add custom wood detail to the front

[justblair]

I know you are against a screen, but have you considered one that displays HTPC info, such as what your watching or what song is playing.

Just built one into my current project
pc -playstation hybid (http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3356&page=6)

Using software such as sammurize you can tailor your display to something that matches your case

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h219/justblair/SamurizeMCEplaying.jpg

above is what I came up with, but its fully customisable

[fragged]

Is that fully supported with Windows Media Center? I've never actually used it, but have used a few alternatives, MythTV, GeeXbox, Media Portal...

Although I do like the idea compared to using it as an exact display to whats outputting directly to the TV

I might have to dig myself up a copy of Media Centre and see what it can do

Cheers
-Fragged

[chedabob]

that sammurize is pretty sweet, might see if i can get it running on a second monitor

[justblair]

Is that fully supported with Windows Media Center? I've never actually used it, but have used a few alternatives, MythTV, GeeXbox, Media Portal...

Although I do like the idea compared to using it as an exact display to whats outputting directly to the TV

I might have to dig myself up a copy of Media Centre and see what it can do

Cheers
-Fragged

The sammuraize is not supported at all by media center. I had to put some work in to get it running... I designed the screen you see there myself using various graphics robbed and modified to my puposes.

It is such a good program though that almost anything is possible with it. Though I did get a plugin tweaked by Uziq on the forums to suit my purposes.

This thread on the sammy forums (http://www.samurize.com/modules/ipboard/index.php?showtopic=9515)details both how I achieved the MCE config and also contains a link to the modified plugin Uziq wrote.

I also used a piece of software called MCIS (media center information system) from a company called axcis. This is required to get the information out of MCE that I needed. The same company do thier own display software called dashboard. It can present info, but I didn't find it to be so easy to get good looking configs.

I should really post my config on the sammy forums. My pc is in bits at the moment with modding in progress. I'll post it up when it is back in operation.

You could try out the new vista media center. Its pretty cool. Sammurize has issues with it though, but v1.6 seems to work 1.64 has reported problems