Picking hardware for Media Center

[WilHarris]

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/200...ter_kit/1.html

[planki]

have you got that running on a dvi/vga connection straight into your plasma then?

ive built myself a lesser machine for playing movies etc using a mini itx and it peforms well granted it doesnt run wmce but it runs nicely. However it outputs to the tv using svideo which can be a bit grainy at times depending on what your watching.

looks like a smart setup anyway!

[JonDixon]

I have been running an epia board as well for my mce machine and it has been more than capable for playing/recording freeview, as well as playing divx movies and mp3s and it does this extremely quietly as their is only a single 60mm fan which is running at 5v.

[rupbert]

A list of specs that were used in the htpc example would be nice

Nice article.

[Kipman725]

ouch intell gets a real bashing.

[Flibblebot]

Originally Posted by Kipman725

ouch intell gets a real bashing.

Not really surprising though - personally, I think that recent batches of Intel processors are just too hot to stick into a small case, or a case that needs to be cooled quietly.

[lepre]

NMEDIA chassis is just Micro-ATX not full-ATX

[ch424]

Whey! Just the article I needed!

Got any more photos of that PSU? I've tried to find reviews but there are none. What does it look like with all the extra cables plugged in?

Thanks,
ch424

[manvadher]

yeh, i got mce running on me old p4 2.0ghz with 1gb ram. running sweet to be honest, got the str s3 thingy working perfectly so that the pc switches it self on 4 recordings and then off again (tuff little cookie to get working)
and im using it with a pinnicale media center 300i, not the best but works.
if ne ppl need help setting up some things in the mce, give me a shout n i'll c what i can do.
laters

ps

good guide btw

[WilHarris]

Quickly:

DVI into a 27" 1280x768 LCD.

Epia was one thing I didn't really go into. Most Epia boards don't really have the I/O functionality and they're pretty expensive for what you actually get - but bravo for finding a combination that works for you.

Intel doesn't get a huge bashing, I recommended the Pentium D 820

I can get some photos of all the cables plugged in sometime this week when I'm back in the office where it is.

Nmedia: erk, damn! Good spot, will alter.

STR S3 is a cow. So far I can get mine to come out of standby to turn on, but not from power off. That, to be honest, is an entire article in itself

[Stompy]

Are they surround sound speakers all in a line there in the last pic?

[RTT]

Originally Posted by Stompy

Are they surround sound speakers all in a line there in the last pic?

Yup

[herbs]

I'll come clean I haven't read the whole article nor do I own MCE. But I would like to add a few comments.
On the analogue part of tv cards it mentions

When it comes to analogue, try and get a board that has support for hardware encoding of MPEG 2 streams

well you pretty well have to get hardware encoder cards for analogue as out of the box MCE only supports them, there are hacks for ATi AIW cards and soon there will be a software mpeg codec that will allow software cards (http://www.gocyberlink.com/eng/press_room/view_886.html).

Here is the final thing you need to know: although Media Center only supports dual tuners in most cases, you can, however, add a third one - purely for HD video.

Yes out of the box you are correct but some bright spark has overcome this limitation and I understand has 4 tuners going click here for more.

Here is such MCE unit for sale

[FIBRE+]

Just about to start planing a htpc, so this is handy!

Just looked at pics so far, il have to read it at work, i mean in my lunch break



Prob gonna use my athlon 2500 mobile with a Thermalright Si-97 and fan running below 20db (set clock speed so its below 50oc load), a7n8x-e deluxe, gig o geil value ram, and a silent rad 8500 pr0, then add remote and 2 of those Playstion controller adapters (for emulators)

[Warrior_Rocker]

although the review is great, sometimes people dont understand really what its all about, sure you can shell out ~1000 USD for a kickass media pc, my media pc cost me 30 dollars, 30 dollars being (15) for sheet metal (5) for screws (5) metal stripping, (5) for dremel blades...., maybe my first go at it didnt turn out 100% like i wanted it, but ill say this much, my shuttle has a volume of 550+ cubic inches, while my media pc has a volume of 400 inches.... and has everything a media pc should have:

AMD Athlon 1.4ghz (pull from dead computer)
512 Special Edition Server ram (pull from old compaq proliant)
ecs K7SEM motherboard (got it from my friend who thought it was fried)
20gb laptop harddrive (since media pc pulls media from network)
Linksys Super low profile wireless-g pci card (had it just laying around)
Nvidia Geforce 4 440mx 64mb AGP graphix card
NVTV eVGA Nvidia low profile tv tuner
CUSTOM SHEET METAL CASE W/ FLIP TOP LID!!!!

i use it everyday, for spending 30 dollars, i couldnt be happier

[Who_me_33]

Why dont you use an ati all in wonder, for video and graphics.

[manvadher]

to get s3 str working properly, what i did was install 2 programs
one call close mce on standby
and the other one which sets up all the profiles for power management (coz i tired the hard way thru every menu, using some dos program everything u cud think of) but a program called Auto power on and shutdown.
and after that it worked perfectly... hope it helps mrhaz

[Da Dego]

@Who_me:
ATI AIWs don't have MPEG2 encoders, that I'm aware...so using them requires a much faster processor. The 3500+ Wil has in there will work fine, but you actually do need that much if you use an AIW (you want some processor power to spare in an HTPC). Second, you can't run dual tuners in MCE if you use an AIW, as you couldn't possibly have 2 identical cards. Also, keep in mind that not all tuners work well with MCE, which will be covered more in detail later...and some of the "supported" tuners work better than others.

@Warrior_Rocker:
Yeah, media PCs seem to fall into 2 categories: Either the really cheap, built from spares but work wonders jobs, or the higher end jobs. Since WMCE is (fortunately or un-) quickly becoming the standard, though, we are wanting to illustrate a system that works well for this program specifically. Yes, it is VERY possible to build a Media PC using almost all spare parts (I'm kicking one around with a P3 850 in it and an old NV Personal Cinema), these options don't always even handle WinXP well, much less WMCE.

As MCE2006 comes out, you will start to see more and more people building to it, because it really is a nicely integrated system, and it tends to get updated faster than other solutions (if previous versions are indicative of future). This is part of the reason Epia boards are not first on the list for this article...we're building for the finickiest, most power-hungry of the programs, and it does need to be fed. An Epia is a nice option for a smaller system, but with some of the stuff that's coming up...

[Hamish]

epias are slow as hell too, dont think you'd have much luck playing HDTV res videos on an epia

[Anakha]

Very nice. But personally I'm very happy with my MythTV box. Here's the specs (And the like):

AMD Sempron 2400+ (The 32-bit version)
512Mb RAM
ASRock K7S41 Motherboard
GeForce FX 5200 Graphics card
2xHauppague PVR-250
2xSeagate ST3200822A HDD
SilverStone LaScala LC11 mATX case (Black)
Debian 2.4.25 (KnoppMyth Build)
MythTV 0.19.20050712-1 (Custom Build)

It does everything I want, and more. And it doesn't use crappy DRM'ed file formats for it's recording (mpg2/mp4/nuv all the way) so all the recordings are ready to be written straight to DVD for backup purposes.

What's more, it's cheap, and reasonably simple to set up. And considering the system supports the remotes supplied with the PVR-250, and the software is all free, it's very easy to get hold of.

Just my £0.02