Info about HTPCs

Mikey1280 · 12 Jun 2006 at 16:19

Im not really sure if this is the right place but anyway... I am thinking about building a small htpc to use as a dvd player and hard drive recorder. Not really sure how it all works tbh, can htpcs be used with old tvs (CRTs with scart input)? How would I use an htpc to record programs from TV, how do I connect it to the TV? What OS should I run, do I need MCE?

Sorry for the noobish questions guys but I know nothing about HTPCs

hp7909 · 12 Jun 2006 at 16:26

Mikey1280 said:
Im not really sure if this is the right place but anyway... I am thinking about building a small htpc to use as a dvd player and hard drive recorder. Not really sure how it all works tbh, can htpcs be used with old tvs (CRTs with scart input)? How would I use an htpc to record programs from TV, how do I connect it to the TV? What OS should I run, do I need MCE?

Sorry for the noobish questions guys but I know nothing about HTPCs

Yes you can through S-Video or Composite out! But text/Windows will not be very sharp on the screen (sort of blury). Much better with MCE becuase it use a '10-foot' large-font, remotely accessible interface for TV recording & playback, DVD playback, video playback, photo viewing, and music playback. Windows XP (Pro) still runs in the background but you can boot, hot-key, etc staright to MCE.

hp7909 · 12 Jun 2006 at 16:28

...as you wait for the real experts, http://sysbuild.corsairmemory.com/report.aspx?id=4 :cool:

Radiation · 12 Jun 2006 at 18:25

If you decide not to use MCE or have a copy of XP already then try Mediaportal, it probably does everything you need and is always improving, it's a great bit of free software!

http://www.team-mediaportal.com/

Mikey1280 · 12 Jun 2006 at 18:39

Thanks for the info guys. I'm still rather puzzled about how I use it. I have a sky box and old TV with scart inputs. Do I put the HTPC between the sky box and the TV, if so how? What do I need?

Radiation · 12 Jun 2006 at 19:03

Possibly might be more touble and money than its worth if your only wanting to record sky and play dvds, sky+ might be a better option but if you want to do the full setup then 1 or 2 freeview cards with s-video/composite input for sky would be best and MCE or XP and something like mediaportal for software.

Usually goes something like, sky s-Video/composite cable to input on freeview card to decoding/postprocessing to graphics card s-video out to scart adaptor and tv.