i have a no-name laptop i recently acquired with a broken LCD. it's a little slow, and with replacement panels for ~$250USD not worth fixing for it's original purpose. so i started thinking of alternative uses for this laptop. i've heard a lot about Xbox Media Center, and how it's supposed to be the best media center application on the (free) market. i can't think of a better use for this old laptop than a Home Theater PC. as far as i can tell this is a debadged MSI MS-16322 laptop, although the inly thing referencing a manufacturer is the windows CoA saying "Windows Vista(tm) Ultimate CyberPower Inc.". all the places for a logo are either blank or have a piece of black plastic in its place. it looks identical to THIS (link goes to .PDF) MSI product page, with the exception of any stickers or logos. I just searched MSI's website and there is no "MS-16322", but searching "16322" brought back one result, but i could not verify that it was the same product besides any help i can get verifying the pedigree of this laptop, i would like advice on a case, wireless options, and video-out capabilities. going around the perimeter of the laptop it appears to have only an S-Video out and a DVI out. there is one PCMCIA and Expresscard slot, are there any options for video out through those? the plan in my head is to have a DVI and VGA connector mounted to the exterior of the HTPC case, and have both lead to the DVI out (of course the VGA would be through a DVI-VGA adapter) the laptop has ABG wifi, and it looks like it uses the standard super-tiny coax connectors that most laptops use for antennas. would using something like this: and connecting an external antenna help with wireless speeds at all? i could craigslist a couple antennas from an old router and attach them to the back of the case. i will be adding questions to this as i come across them, thank you for any help
An external antenna will definitely help the WiFi. Not necessarily with speed, but you'll get a better quality signal for sure. By the way, its just 'XBMC' these days; there is no support for the xbox in official builds - xbox support has been forked into a separate development project. You're right though, it is probably one of the best media centre front ends that I've seen. Provided that you're not interested in TV or PVR functions. XBMC can connect to something like a MythTV backend to watch TV, but it doesn't support any TV functions on its own. As for video out, you'll want to be using DVI-D or DVI-D to HDMI for a high def tv. You can use VGA, but DVI is preferable. Do you know if the laptop works with an external monitor? Best place to start is to just try it: plug in an external monitor (or HDTV), slap on a fresh windows install (preferably not Vista!), install XBMC and try it .
this is ultimately going to be a Xmas gift for the missus. at her house they all have SDTV's, one for sure with S-Video in, and one huge projection TV that i assume would have it (but TBH if it can only work in her room so be it) in my mind the hardest part is making a halfway decent case, i guess i could just use the laptop chassis, but that would look like crap. can you think of anything that would make a good case? maybe i could get a VCR from goodwill and make a new faceplate?
As far as the case goes, I'm not sure that there's an "off the shelf" solution that you'd be able to use easily. Probably the easiest way would be to use the existing laptop case, but remove the LCD screen - you've still got the keyboard and trackpad, should they be needed, and it shouldn't require too much custom fabrication. You'd probably only need to remove the hinges and plastic which attach the screen and cover the resulting holes. If you decide to remove the keyboard and trackpad also, be wary of ventilation: many laptops draw air in through the keyboard, so if you cover that with a plastic plate you'll want to make sure it's still ventilated. If there's space in the chassis, you may even be able to cut a hole in the casing somewhere to mount an IR receiver for a media centre remote. Of course, you could leave this dangling from a USB port and you'd have flexibility as to where you can mount it (i.e. computer tucked away with only the IR receiver showing). If this is indeed a re-badged/de-badged version of the MSI model you found, you may be able to find a service manual that tells you how to disassemble the chassis. You could probably do it without a service manual, but it's going to be a lot more complicated and there's a good chance you might damage the case unintentionally. If having it look like a laptop really isn't a solution for you, you'd probably have to fabricate something custom, or mod an existing case (as you've suggested). I have no experience with this whatsoever. I'm sure other b-t members have far more experience of this, but you're going to need to know the exact dimensions of everything and know exactly how they all have to line up and connect - there's not usually much flexibility with laptops, everything is designed to mount and connect in a specific place - this will make mounting the DVD drive trickier. Cooling will also need some consideration; you've got more options in a custom case, but you'll need to make sure that things like heatsinks/heatpipes can be removed from the chassis and mounted elsewhere. As far as video out goes, if the laptop has S-Video out, then you've already won half the battle. It's just a matter of making sure that it still works, and that you can boot the system with only the S-Video connected. Depending on the hardware, this might work automatically; it might not, of course, it might need you to specifically enable S-Video out in the graphics driver. This is the sort of thing that you can find out by testing. If the S-Video port doesn't work for any reason, then you can pretty much forget about using this with Standard Def TVs. It is possible to convert from DVI to S-Video, but the hardware to do this will cost a shedload - probably more than a replacement screen for the laptop (something like this http://www.amazon.co.uk/LINDY-S-Video-Stereo-Audio-Converter/dp/B001PMVBBY/ref=pd_sim_sbs_ce_4). It goes without saying that Composite video should not even be on your list of things to try! Composite video is truly awful, and not even worth trying! You really don't want to go lower than S-Video or SCART (in Europe); you're going to have interlace and flicker either way, but it's far less noticeable with S-Video/SCART. Oh and if you are in Europe, beware which S-Video to SCART converter you buy: all the ones I've tried were truly awful. EDIT: I've also never heard of any sort of USB or PCMCIA video output devices. If they exist, I'll be willing to bet that they're not cheap. You've already cracked the software: XBMC is definitely a good choice. It's just a matter of making more like an appliance, rather than a PC. Usually meaning that the media centre software loads automatically when the system boots, and that you're not presented with any "PC" interface (such as the normal desktop). I haven't toyed around with getting XMBC to do that, but it is possible. You could also use Windows 7 and set it to boot straight into Windows Media Centre. WMC might be a little more user friendly for non-techies, and it supports TV cards and PVR functions. My preference is for XBMC though - I have a set-top box to handle my TV!
They only work if the video card/chipset can support S-Video out and the unused VGA pins are wired up to S-Video out (http://forum.videohelp.com/threads/283861-VGA-to-S-video?p=1713279&viewfull=1#post1713279). I have tested similar cables in the past on standard graphics cards/laptops and they simply don't work. All of this could even be completely irrelevant: if that laptop only has a DVI-D connector, it won't output any analogue signals at all.
i could do windows 7 easily, but i'm more of a linux guy. i have install CD's for both laying around so which architectures XBMC is more stable?
To be honest, I've never experienced any major problems running XBMC under either Windows or Linux. It's arguable that hardware accelerated decoding would enjoy better support under Windows, but XBMC doesn't even support hardware accelerated decoding yet. I'd say go with what you're most familiar with. Quick Edit!! OK, I appear to have lied: XBMC under Linux supports VDPAU hardware acceleration on Nvidia cards: http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?t=45525 Yet another quick edit! Although, VDPAU only works on 8xxx series GPUs, and if the PDF you link to is the laptop in question, it uses a 7600 Go...
ok right now the laptop is hooked up to my moms monitor (only one in the house with DVI) and its not using the screen. anyone know a way to force a laptop to use a secondary monitor? .:EDIT:. just got off the phone with MSI, you change monitors with Fn+F2, but that didnt work on this laptop. i'm going to physically disconnect the LCD panel from the motherboard so there is only one monitor available (external) hopefully that works. if you guys know any other tips and tricks they would be appreciated .:EDIT^2:. i disconnected the internal monitor cable from the motherboard, and still no luck. it looks like this project is a non starter unless i have a eureka moment or someone else does. basically, i hit the power, the CD-ROM spins up for a bit, then nothing. it will shut down if there is no boot media (no hard drives or cd's) after the cdrom is done spinning. there are no system beeps
It's difficult to say without actually seeing it. Usually laptops have an "Fn" key which is used in combination with a row of keys with icons on them - one of these usually enables external monitors (as well as Wifi, sleep mode, etc). Can you post a photo of the keyboard?
