The idea for this project came from wanting to watch iplayer or DVDs from the comfort of my bed without the hassle of having to use my work laptop or my iphone. Oh, and I didn’t really feel like spending much money either....
Introducing the mighty “Shoddy” Home Theatre Personal Computer
The main problem with this project was connecting a computer to my ancient TV. I got it at uni when it was left in a house we moved into. Its on/off switch doesn’t work which is why there is an extra switch on the mains lead. It doesn’t have scart or S-Video inputs, so somehow I had to use the analogue RF aerial feed.
The solution was surprisingly simple; use the component to RF adapter that came with my old original playstation. It was just a simple case of connecting up the 5V supply it needed and plugging in the component output of my old graphics card.
Sadly there isn’t an old fashioned component output on my HD5770, so I couldn’t hook it up to my main PC. So instead I had to use my “Frankenstein” build, which is just what it sounds like, a collection of bits from old builds. Originally I put it together so I could play around with Ubuntu and use it as a quiet download box, until I realised I don’t actually download much stuff. It also makes a good stand to keep my main PC off the floor.
Unfortunately I couldn’t get it to work with Ubuntu, it just didn’t want to let me use the component output. I think this might have been a driver issue with my main monitor and the TV working at different frequencies. So on went an old copy of XP home, which got working straight away.
There was a minor issue with getting the sound to work, which actually had me convinced the line out plug on the motherboard was broken, until by chance I was reading the manual and spotted that I had to have some jumpers in place if it wasn’t connected to the front panel.
Finally after getting a long enough audio lead (thanks Axeboy) I added some old PC speakers so I could enjoy stereo sound too. And my plasma ball, because it’s cool.
Yes I know I could have just spent some money on a bigger better TV, but this was more about the technical challenge than picture quality. I’m surprised how well things play considering the amount of RAM it’s got, and I had been looking on the members market for some extra. The next step will be to see if it can cope with my USB freeview stick, so watch this space.
PK!
Introducing the mighty “Shoddy” Home Theatre Personal Computer
- State if the art AMD 3700+ 2.2GHz single core processor
- Amazing 512 MB of RAM
- Customised ATI X800XL graphics card with Zalman cooler
- Mighty 80 GB 7200 RPM Seagate laptop hard drive
- Compact 350W power supply
- Blistering stereo speakers
- Huge TV with advanced CRT technology
The main problem with this project was connecting a computer to my ancient TV. I got it at uni when it was left in a house we moved into. Its on/off switch doesn’t work which is why there is an extra switch on the mains lead. It doesn’t have scart or S-Video inputs, so somehow I had to use the analogue RF aerial feed.
The solution was surprisingly simple; use the component to RF adapter that came with my old original playstation. It was just a simple case of connecting up the 5V supply it needed and plugging in the component output of my old graphics card.
Sadly there isn’t an old fashioned component output on my HD5770, so I couldn’t hook it up to my main PC. So instead I had to use my “Frankenstein” build, which is just what it sounds like, a collection of bits from old builds. Originally I put it together so I could play around with Ubuntu and use it as a quiet download box, until I realised I don’t actually download much stuff. It also makes a good stand to keep my main PC off the floor.
Unfortunately I couldn’t get it to work with Ubuntu, it just didn’t want to let me use the component output. I think this might have been a driver issue with my main monitor and the TV working at different frequencies. So on went an old copy of XP home, which got working straight away.
There was a minor issue with getting the sound to work, which actually had me convinced the line out plug on the motherboard was broken, until by chance I was reading the manual and spotted that I had to have some jumpers in place if it wasn’t connected to the front panel.
Finally after getting a long enough audio lead (thanks Axeboy) I added some old PC speakers so I could enjoy stereo sound too. And my plasma ball, because it’s cool.
Yes I know I could have just spent some money on a bigger better TV, but this was more about the technical challenge than picture quality. I’m surprised how well things play considering the amount of RAM it’s got, and I had been looking on the members market for some extra. The next step will be to see if it can cope with my USB freeview stick, so watch this space.
PK!
