Home Cinema Vista based Media Centre PC - advice required!

The Old Man

The Old Man

The Old Man

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Hi all,
I've been toying with the idea of setting up a Media Centre PC for the living room 32" Wide-screen TV, to surf the Wireless broadband net, share photos and video's, listen to MP3's, play games etc. I have a 5.1 surround system which will be handy for the 5.1 sound from the PC.

My main PC upstairs has Vista 64bit OEM Home Premium which has the Media Centre built in and it looks quite good. It gave me the idea to build a PC for the living room so I've been browsing OCUK for some parts to go with what I have already.

I noticed that OCUK is selling the Windows Media Centre 2005 Remote Control and the separate Microsoft Windows Media Centre keyboard. If I want to build a Vista based Home Media Centre, should I wait for newer versions of these controllers if there are any? I like the idea of the remote but I also want to surf the net and play games on the PC too. Any advice on the keyboard/remote setup?

Also, I'm assuming I can buy and install Vista Home Premium for the downstairs living room and its integrated Media Centre will share in some way the files that are stored on my main PC upstairs through the 2 integrated media centres of Vista? Is this how it works and is it a fairly simple procedure to set up (the wireless setup is no problem, I'm talking about the software)?

I know the XBox360 has some kind of Windows Media Extender which gets the photos, music and videos from a main PC but I don't yet have one of these so I'm hoping the lovely Vista Home Premium will do the job.

Finally can you recommend an inexpensive but pleasant enough case for the Vista Media Centre PC, I want it to fit a 6800GT graphics card. Would the Antec Fusion take a 6800GT?

Thanks!
 
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To share files just share the directories, you'll be able to access them anywhere on the LAN (need to set up user rights though)

Dunno about new versions of the MS remote/keyboard, but I have the MS remote and it does the job. The MS keyboard is rubbish though, expensive, joystick control is naff and it's IR. I've just bought a Keysonic wireless keyboard/trackpad and it's pretty good. Better quality keys then the Logitech Denivo are whatever it's called.

Antec fusion will fit a X1800XT, so others shouldn't be a problem. You could get the cheaper Antec NSK2400, it's very similar, front isn't metal, and it doesn't have a VFD but that's useless feature anyway. My HTPC is in a Silverstone TJ-08.

I believe a Xbox can be used a media streamer/player, sharing over the LAN too.
If you don't have a LAN setup you'll need to decide wired/wireless, if you have cable/wireless. I use a Speedtouch DSL, connected to Netgear FS608 8 port switch (two computers, a NAS, squeezebox, and looking at another squeezebox later on)

I've found MS HTPC front end pretty rubbish although I haven't played with Vista MC due to no Vista driver support with my SC.
 
Thanks Squiffy.
What do you think about HPTC's/Media Centres? Do you use it much? Is the picture okay enough on the TV for gaming or internet use?

To share files just share the directories, you'll be able to access them anywhere on the LAN (need to set up user rights though)
Click to expand...

I do this to share files on my Wireless Laptop so its not a problem. When you use the remote, does the Windows Media Centre just picks up the shared files?

Dunno about new versions of the MS remote/keyboard, but I have the MS remote and it does the job. The MS keyboard is rubbish though, expensive, joystick control is naff and it's IR. I've just bought a Keysonic wireless keyboard/trackpad and it's pretty good. Better quality keys then the Logitech Denivo are whatever it's called.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the feedback, I'll check out the others.

Antec fusion will fit a X1800XT, so others shouldn't be a problem. You could get the cheaper Antec NSK2400, it's very similar, front isn't metal, and it doesn't have a VFD but that's useless feature anyway. My HTPC is in a Silverstone TJ-08.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I'm not bothered about the VFD too much either. I was just looking at the Zalman cases. They seem expensive but as they ATX I could use my existing spare motherboard which would save on the cost. The Antec NSK2400 is a great price but I'd have to buy a new motherboard and I'm not sure it would take a full size graphics card like the 6800GT. I just found the Asrock 939NF6G-VSTA Micro ATX (Socket 939) PCI-Express DDR Motherboard and its AMD 939 but its PCI and not AGP.

I've found MS HTPC front end pretty rubbish although I haven't played with Vista MC due to no Vista driver support with my SC.
Click to expand...

People seem quite impressed with the built in media centre in Vista. I'm going to give this a go.
 
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I use a HTPC for all my avi's. I don't use it for DVD playback due to noisy PC drives (have a Oppo 981 for DVD's) Picture quality with FFDSHOW scaling is great, depending on the source. I wouldn't use a normal TV for gaming or internet, too low resolution and blurry. I have my HTPC connected to a 28" Panasonic CRT and a 15" CRT monitor, using dual screen (15" primary, 28" secondary, with MC set on the secondary display)

When you setup MCE you can configure what directories allow access, this can be local directories or over your LAN.

As for music playback, I would just use a Squeezebox instead, I've played around with music playback on a HTPC but the Squeezebox does it better. You need plugins with HTPC front end (flac) then fart around with dual screen, also configure right font size, database in MCE is unbearingly slow (3 minutes just to open "My Music") I'm planning on adding another Squeezebox for the HTPC system, so that'll be used for selecting music, rather than the HTPC software. HTPC front end will be used purely for videos and photos. Also means I don't need monitor or TV to be switched on to listen to music, gonna ditch both screens eventually and just use a single large screen flat panel.

You could look at Media Portal, if you alreay have XP. I did try Vista MC for a short while on a spare HD I have, and wasen't too impressed with it. It just looks a prettier version on XP MCE, it still can't fast forward or rewind avi files. Media Portal can.
 
The Antec Fusion and NSK2400 are both MATX. I've fitted a ATI X1800XT into a NSK2400, so I don't think you'll have a problem with that card. The ATI is a big card.

If you want a full size ATX HTPC case look at the Silverstone Lascala range.
 
I have got Vista Home Premium with the remote and keyboard.

The remote is great and works flawlessly. The same however cannot be said for the keyboard. You need a very direct line of sight to the IR receiver and the maximum range is nowhere near the stated.
The mouse pointer is also the most frustrating thing you will ever use!

You be better off getting a seperate wireless keyboard with mouse pointer/pad included for surfing the net and the MCE remote.
 
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