Another one...HTPC

gam3r

gam3r

gam3r

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Another one...HTPC..Edited

Yup. Another one of these threads!

Righty.. I got this PC lying around which i just got up and running with all my spare parts :

Intel P3 750MHz
Some old intel motherboard
512 MB Ram (1x256 Crucial, 2x128 Kingston, all PC133)
ATI Radeon 9200 128MB Graphics card with S-VIDEO AGP 2x
20GB WD Random hard drive which i found lying around
WIN TV Hauppauge PCI-Tuner

Ok, apart from a DVD-RW and a bigger hard drive which i shall pick up second hand/b grade no problems, what else would i need? Would this machine run ok? Is the 9200 suffiecent to handle it all? The machine seems quite nippy after this fresh windows install.

Im going to use GB-PVR as it's free and it's decent with loads of various plug in's..

http://www.gbpvr.com/

Cheers guys.
 
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squiffy said:
Remote control
Front end software
Soundcard, analogue and digital (to av amp)
Video cables to PC.
Click to expand...

I know i need a remote control and im on it asap..:)
Whats a front end?
Got a sound card already SB LIVE PCI card...cant i just use the tv speakers?
Got a s-video cable for the tv to pc
 
Front end is Media Center OS, Meedio or other pay/free front ends
You can use TV speakers, but a home theatre system will sound much better
S-Video will be ok, but Component or DVI higher quality picture. I'm building a HTPC from a P3 933mhz, 512MB, 20GB 2.5", Geforce 2 MX...just need souncard with digital out, case and IR receiver and IR codes ideally (already have a learning remote)

A learning remote another useful thing, rather having TV, DVD, MD, Tuner, VCR, Sky, DVB, Amp, HTPC remotes you just have one.
 
Easily, but will have problems with scaling (FFDSHOW resizing) and high definition. DVD-Video player and standard Mpeg-IV ok. Unless your video card is better than mine with video acceleration, as mine stutters with those two.
 
nah it just means CPU load will be higher, 700mhz should be fine for DVD playback.
Generally this lot will get 99% of stuff working. I recommend install Gspot, as any media file that has no audio and/or video will show what codec it uses in the utility. You don't want to install every single codec, just install one by one if one has no audio/video.

FFDSHOW
AC-3 filter
Vobsub

I tried Meedio but it reverts to subs on whenever a DVD-Video is inserted, usually subs are only on with non English films or if you've manually selected subs on English speaking films, so gonna dump XP for MC (MS remote power key apparently doesn't work in XP either)
 
Thanks again!

Meedio got bought by Yahoo..Can't find a copy anywhere :(

EDIT: You say it will increase load on CPU if the card has no hardware encoder, so if im watching the program im recording will i get a slow down?
 
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Guys,

Im pondering getting a WinTV-PVR-150 MCE as i can get it on the cheap but im not sure it will work with my system.

What do you think:
Specs as on the first post and remember im not gonna use MCE, but GBPVR..
 
gam3r said:
Guys,

Im pondering getting a WinTV-PVR-150 MCE as i can get it on the cheap but im not sure it will work with my system.

What do you think:
Specs as on the first post and remember im not gonna use MCE, but GBPVR..
Click to expand...

WinTV-PVR-150 MCE is a excellent card, use one myself in my media centre PC, although im running MCE which the card is specifically made for.

If your running different frontend software just check the website, it should be compatable though.
 
gam3r said:
{SNIP} EDIT: You say it will increase load on CPU if the card has no hardware encoder, so if im watching the program im recording will i get a slow down?
Click to expand...
It will start dropping frames on what your recording which is not good.

gam3r said:
Guys,

Im pondering getting a WinTV-PVR-150 MCE as i can get it on the cheap but im not sure it will work with my system.

What do you think:
Specs as on the first post and remember im not gonna use MCE, but GBPVR..
Click to expand...
The WinTV-PVR-150 MCE should work and has a hardware encoder built-in so takes away most of the load from the processor. Another thing that would definately help is more RAM. At least 1GB :)

http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/products/data_pvr150mce.html
 
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Right cheers guys. Im in for the 150MCE as it works with the front end ill be using :D Im getting it at 33 quid as well, :D
 
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