Personal notes on my HTPC setup
System:
Intel Core2 Duo E8400, 3.0gHz
2Gb RAM
1Tb Hard Disk
Asus P5N7A-VM Motherboard with:
- nForce 710i All-integrated Chipset
- GeForce 9300M Graphics Card compatible with nVidia CUDA, PhysX and VDPAU
- 4 video outputs: VGA, DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort (sadly, DP is video-only here)
This is my personal basic HTPC system. Not exactly the latest tech, nor the roaring beast some of us geeks may dream to have, but it decodes 1080p x264-compressed, 5.1-channel video files without so much as a hiccup… if configured correctly. And it wasn’t a walk in the park, more like a good hike with some slippery rocks here and there.
First: VDPAU is a b*tch. It requires pretty new drivers, which are, fortunately, already available for the karma-filled Karmic Koala Ubuntu distribution. Before even -trying- to HTPCize the setup, you need the video drivers and the VDPAU extensions. Look for vdpau in synaptic.
Second: VDPAU is a b*tch, the return! XBMC, my personal favorite HTPC software stack, supports VDPAU stably with the nightly builds; you need to use a Personal Package Archive because of this. Add
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/team-xbmc-svn/ubuntu karmic main
to your repositories so that you can apt-get the latest XBMC build.
Third: Don’t approach PulseAudio with a 10-foot pole!
Fourth: To get sound outputted to your receiver or TV through the HDMI plug without losing quality, put this in your /etc/asound.conf file:
pcm.!default {
type plug
slave {
pcm "hdmi"
}
}
You’ll also have to tell XBMC to use the default sound card and force sound output through hdmi (note the no-caps). That’s in XBMC’s system settings, for the audio hardware. Poke around and find it… If you’re here reading this, it means you know your way through computer stuff 
Fifth: Install
xbmc-standalone
so you can use XBMC as your desktop environment. That way, your system can dedicate everything to its media centre tasks.
There we go. That covers the basics of my currently-working setup that pushes a DTS-enabled compressed movie’s DTS feed directly to my receiver. Feel free to contact me for more info.
EndNote: Yes, Eric, you pwned me. You get a beer and a cookie next time you’re in Montreal.
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