Media Centre PC selection advice please

[Wing Commander Fowler]

Hi chaps,

I am looking to reduce the clutter in my house beneath the television and leap into the beyond to turn my media experience into something slightly special. I have been watching some of these under tv style media centre pc's and am worried (since I have never seen a demo) that they may not supply a decent picture to the tv as they use a tv card for tuning. My only experience of pc tuner cards was an early hauppage and wintv unit displayed on my monitor and I remain to this day distinctly unimpressed.......

So, does anyone watch tv through one of these and if so do they really do what it says on the tin?

Some further questions: I have seen playstation 3's which have blue ray and internet access and some usb ports but you can't record from tv and use them as a pvr I believe.

Ok - here's the kit I have at the moment: A wireless network via a philips wireless g router, 2 laptops (wireless enabled) an internet radio and some philips dect house mobile handsets which we use for skype. Two tv's in seperate rooms, each with a seperate satellite receiver (no terestrial tv here). A Philips 80Gig pvr.

My wish is to be able to wirelessly share all media around the house and to base this all on a central media centre pc in the lounge by the router. I would like this media centre to become the pvr and to be able to see the internet on this lounge tv and maybe emails and perhaps games.

I envisaged maybe getting an additional external 500gig or terra hard drive and whilst looking for these I stumbled across some media centre units no bigger than an external hard drive but some reviewers on DABs site said they had had big problems with connection to the network? I also don't think they will function as recorders.

I'm guessing someone here will have done something similar and look forward to receiving advice (preferably with links to descriptions of the equipment please).

ORAC!!!! Where are you? If ya still in the middle of the country do ya fancy a trip out to the coast to sort me out hehe!

[oby]

no brainer...go get one....the tricky part is whether you want to use Microsoft or Linux. MCE is good, Vista Home Premuim a challenge....DONT build your own!

Speak to my mate Rob @ http://www.funky-frog.com (http://www.funky-frog.com/)

[Wing Commander Fowler]

Hi oby, thanx for the reply. I know the old saying " ya gets what ya pays for" but sometimes you can get the same thing cheaper........ Looks nice kit but not too sure about the pricing. Sony do a blue ray unit not so very far from Rob's E300.

Anyway - does the picture really look good though?

[Parapunter]

No brainer indeed they're great. I'm on my third one. However, they can trip you up if you're not careful. Also why not build on? It's no harder than lego & you get A LOT more bang for your buck.

Here's some pics - sorry for the ugly Frenchman in some of these, but Sky Sports news is a good arbiter of picture quality. These are freeview broadcasts via a Hauppauge Pvr500 & an xfx 8500gt which is really overkill for telly.

http://i27.tinypic.com/okzuaq.jpg

http://i29.tinypic.com/5zp2m0.jpg

http://i25.tinypic.com/2psri2e.jpg

and here's the machine:

http://i32.tinypic.com/2yywk6o.jpg

You will get a slightly blocky picture on bright colours & fast motion, but it's nowhere near as bad as you may think. The obvious pitfalls are do you really want a pc in the living room - this is often cited as the main resistance to the wide uptake of media centre, but as you can see, pc's don't have to look like pc's. However, unless you go big time upscale on cooling, it will hum away in the corner.

Don't go sff, they're limiting in every way. If you do build & why wouldn't you? then take advice from the communities of geeks (I.e. me) who love these things. Green button, av forums, google around.

Enjoy.

[Wing Commander Fowler]

No apology for the ugly paddy tho Parapunter! SFF??? There we go, two replies, one says don't build and the other says do....

Am looking at ALL options though and would consider it. Dare I ask Para how much and what spec to build ya own please?

Cheers

[Parapunter]

SFF = small form factor = small pc's there's plenty of small media centre pc boxes about & they limit you in terms of expansion cards, cooling, usb ports etc.

Mine is an Antec Fusion box with an Asus mobo, 2 x 500gb hdd, 2 gig ram, Creative 5.1 soundcard, xfx 8500gt gpu & a wintv 500pvr dual channel tv card (dual channel = watch one prog whilst recording another) Vista premium 32bit.

All in about £600 - took 2-3 hours to build and about 4-5 hours to set up. The thing with building is you can get it cheaper, so a more powerful system for your money, but you do need to know your way around as in particular with media centre, it will need some setting up post build in terms of decoder software for tv, codecs for video files etc.

None of this is particularly taxing & all the info is out there but still potentially difficult. I've built 3 media centres now & feel I know my way around but if you buy one off the shelf, then you get a warranty, support etc. So that can be the way to go if you're pushed for time or talent:p


I haven't used the Linux mce but I've watched the video & it certainly looks good, but then you will need a compatible system - I understand you can download the o/s & mce package in one go.

There is also Media Portal, which is an open source media centre & is very, very good. I've had it & loved it, however it is open source freeware & in my experience, works flawlessly provided you're willing to tinker fairly extensively with it. Having said that, I haven't been near it for a couple of years & my guess would be it's come on a lot since then, since that was what it would do on an almost weekly basis.

In a nutshell, if you get XP media centre, then you will need a tv decoder to watch tv - it doesn't come with one. I have used all the tv decoders & find Nvidia's pure decoder to be the best - although this is only my opinion based on my builds.

Vista come with a tv decoder so you can plug in your tv card & off you go. However, I would still use a third party decoder.

In either version, you will need codecs to play avi mpeg & wmv files. Use ONLY ffdshow tryouts, which is a free download. Do not confuse FFDshow with FFDshow tryouts - they are different things & whatever you do, do not use codec packs, they're more trouble than they're worth.


If you've swallowed it this far, then you are a step away from Movies, TV, music, pictures, video & on demand services all in one box on one remote. It pauses & rewinds tv, will work with sky & virgin media, comes with a tv guide - you can record entire series with the touch of a button, in short nothing comes close.

[Wader2]

The technology wows me. It is the programmes that disappoint. Mrs Wader and I simply do not watch enough TV to justify either the cost or the time to set up :(

[Beagle-eye]

After months of swithering, I have just ordered myself one of these :

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Home-Entertainment-Media-PC-Core-2-Duo-VIIV-VISTA_W0QQitemZ290130041686QQihZ019QQcategoryZ179QQtcZphotoQ QcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1742.m153.l1262

Seems to do everything that I want it to do (twin Freeview tuners, 250 Gb disk etc., DVD/CD R/W, Vista - plus Windows Media) plus has top class component parts.

Haven't received it yet so can't comment on performance.

B-E

[Parapunter]

You'll need to add an MS e-home receiver & remote to avoid using a mouse - you'll definitely want that with media centre anyway. About another 20 quid or so, maybe less on fleabay. Nice box though.

[TURIN]

PCOPTIONS (http://www.pcoption.co.uk/pcpackages/) has some good deals and you can mix and match to suit your pocket and/or add extra ram HDD tuner cards etc at the website before you purchase. Mine cost about £650 and included 2GB RAM 300GB HDD dual tuner Intel Duo core CPU 2.67Ghz. It sits in a nice silver and black case under the telly and lets me record and watch what and when I want. I can also stream music throughout the house through an internet radio (£49.99 from Aldi) All my CDs are now in a box in the loft the files loaded on the Media centre. Photos are next along with the wedding and little un's video.

Down side is VISTA by default but i'm getting used to it. :ugh:

Hope this helps.

[TURIN]

Sony TP1 (http://vaio.sony.co.uk/view/ShowProduct.action?product=VGX-TP1E&site=voe_en_GB_cons&pageType=Overview&category=VD+TP+Series) Looks nice and should do the job very nicely.