Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater HTPC Build In Progress

Looks great, Dennis!

Is that MDF? Are the backs closed?

Waiting for the final photos....(!)

Yeppers it tizz MDF and the cabinets are fully enclosed, I will be cutting out the openings for the two top mounted vent fans in the racks today.. I usually use oak ply but because of the dimensions of the racks there was going to be considerable waste, and at HD cost of $ 54 per sheet there is about a $ 22 per sheet savings by going with MDF and just laminate oak skin over it. A bit more labor intensive offset with the advantage of having a better looking finish when done becasue the oak skins have a much tighter grain than oak ply.

With no longer having room for a nice cabinet grade table saw and just using straight edges and a skill saw for cutting sheet goods, the MDF is nice to work with and has the 49" x 97" dimension. First time I have seen this available in HD, its a special size used mostly by cabinet shops. Actually had a good day yesterday as once the cabinets were finished, the dimensions of each were within 1/64"of each other and perfectly square, which was critical for the racks as I don't want more than about 1/8" distance from the rack rail to the finish trim on the opening.................so I screwed up some how. lol

Did not get both cabinets skinned today, only one. The stain was not completely dry, so the color is a few shades lighter than it will be.

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Their application ties in with the IMDB and pulls down movie description/actors/etc... It is so cool AND free. I've also looked at XLobby, which is also free....

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The My Movies plugin uses IMDB as well (its free as well). As far as PQ I'm still using a SDTV so its impossible to tell the difference. My friends who do the exact same thing do say they can tell the difference on their HDTV's. One of them tells me he is going to start use DVD Shrink to just rip the mpeg2 off the DVD onto the hard drive. My Movies is very flexable, doesn't really care what format the video is in.

I don't have kids but several of my friends who do this do, and it sounds like it is really good for keeping their little hands off the DVDs, plus makes it easy for them to find what they want to watch.

I sometimes will use shrink to rip only the movies with or without compression, depends on the situation. The problem is the development stopped on Shrink over a year ago, however, it still works fine for most DVDs.

The custom rack mount for the HTPC arrived today, one minor issue is the front frame was suppose to be the brushed aluminum. A replacement is being shipped so decided to assemble it, the frame seems to have been laser cut and fits the MCE601 perfectly. Included were a pair of rear brackets to keep the unit from sliding back.

That looks great!

It appears your restricting air flow from the sides of the HTPC when you consider the special mount/enclosure and wood rack?

That's very true, didn't think about that...
Maybe Tharkun is planning on having some fans sucking the hot air out? He hasn't cut any openings yet.

Heat is a computers worst enemy. Also, not all computer fans are created equal on cooling ability and noise level.