Media Centre Setup Advice

Mattw

Mattw

Mattw

Associate
Joined
15 May 2006
Posts
389
Hi all!

Basically i have a few bits of existing hardware, and in my head i know what I want to achieve. I just need some advice on the best way of achieving it!

I want to setup a media centre style system at home. In an ideal world i would like to be able to play any video file or audio file I can throw at it and also be able to access my dvd's (with menus etc) from one remote control sat on my ass!

At the moment i have the following hardware to play with-

32" CRT TV (this will be upgraded)

Xbox 360 premium

PC 1 (specs copy and pasted)
Intel®Core2Duo E4300 processor(1.80GHz,800MHz,2MB cache)
Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium - English
22" Black Wide Flat Panel
1024MB Dual Channel DDR2 533MHz [2x512] Memory
250GB (7200rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive with 8MB DataBurst cache
256MB nVidia® GeForce® 7300 Turbocache graphics card
16X DVD+/-RW Drive
Integrated Audio with Dolby Digital 7.1 capability

PC 2 (missing hard drive, keyboard, mouse, monitor, OS)
Shuttle SN41G2
Athlon XP 2500+
512MB PC2700 Ram
DVD Writer
Onboard Geforce 4

I was thinking about using the xbox 360 as a media centre extender, however the major drawback with this is it will only play wmv video files and not my dvd's etc.

So i was thinking about doing something with the shuttle i have lying around and using PC 1 as the server/my personal PC, my only concern being will the 2500+ handle HD video in the future? Also what software would I use to create the media centre?

I palyed with some software some years back called myhtpc i think? In fact it looks very much like windows media centre.

The other option i was considering was running xbox media centre on the original xbox to serve to my TV, however this doesnt output HD video so im assuming that is ruled out?

Any advice guys.

Thanks
 
I suggest that you setup one of the boxes to be a server. Running windows server or linux with samba or xp. Then the other box with xp media center or vista with the media center. Then workgroup them together. Setup so it sees the files on the server. And then you can stream. Theres lots of software to do this. I reconmend in the server it has some big HDs. And i would also get a TV card so you can watch tv on there aswell..

Phil
 
You could make your Shuttle into a Linux/MythTV box. MythTV can take quite a while to get all set up to your liking, but it has a very good wiki and community support. I've got an Ubuntu box running mythtv in the living room, apart from me somehow screwing up DVD playback it works wonderfully.

www.mythtv.org
 
I have tried them all and imho MediaPortal is by far the best.
MediaPortal is coded by the same dudes that bought us the amazing XBMC.
It's class but does take a little bit of setting up but once setup it's exactly what a media centre should be ie the OPPOSITE to crappy XP MCE :p

http://www.team-mediaportal.com/
 
well XBMC is awesome and sort of set the standard in its time, so mediaportal is certainly a strong choice based on that.

Id rather keep it all in windows, although i have some experience with linux it is only basic. So if LANGUAGE! hits the fan, i dont want to have to spend 4 hours working a problem out when im about to settle down to a film etc
 
MediaPortal Runs in windows ;)

Also once you have setup MediaPortal its solid. I find MediaPortal and Cole2ks codec pack work sweet together. Plus you can use MCE remote with MediaPortal even in just normal XP now MCE drivers have been hacked.
 
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No i was rulling mythtv out with my last post, not that it doesnt run in windows.

That software looks good, but is my little xp 2500+ going to be able to play HD video? What is it that i will need to upgrade to play HD? graphics, memory, cpu?

Currently: XP2500+, 2 x 256MB, on board geforce 4
 
Mattw said:
No i was rulling mythtv out with my last post, not that it doesnt run in windows.

That software looks good, but is my little xp 2500+ going to be able to play HD video? What is it that i will need to upgrade to play HD? graphics, memory, cpu?

Currently: XP2500+, 2 x 256MB, on board geforce 4
Click to expand...

My athlon 2600, 1gb ram, 9800pro played h.264 720p fine and my current pc plays 1080p h.264 video. I don't think amount of ram matters though. Just get a graphics card with wmv9 and h.264 decoding and you'll be able to play 720p vc1/h.264 fine. For 1080p you'll need to overclock a lot or upgrade everything.
 
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ok well 720 is fine at the moment for my needs.

However the shuttle unit is AGP, are there even any agp cards available with WMV 9 and h.264 hardware decoding built in?
 
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