Setting Up A Living Room Media Center

jcb33 · 19 Aug 2006 at 16:02

Well, in my living room I have:

21" TV
DVD Player
VHS Player
Games Consoles
Freeview Box

And i got to thinking, what if i set up a media center and replaced all of these?

So firstly i would like opinions, should i do this, or should i not?

Secondly i would like to know if anyone else has done this? and could i see pictures?

Finaly in my thinking i decided if i do this i would need a 20" TFT, a small case that would fit on my stand and a freeview card.

So i was wondering what case would be good for this? I already have my old pc with Abit NF7-s and 2500+ AMD and a X800 graphics card, so i would need to be able to fit thoes in, but still have it on the stand

Picture Of Stand:

I was also wondering, if i were to set up a wireless network, having my main pc in the bedroom and the media center in the living room would i be able to stream things?

E.G My bedroom has 900GB of HDD Space, my living room one would have 40GB so i would not be able to store to much.

So lets say i have my music colection on my main pc, would i be able to go in the living room, access the network and play the music over the network?

Also i was wondering, if there a remote that makes it posible to browse music, etc that is over a network, and will media center allow you to add music from another pc on a network to its library?

I also have 6.1 creative speakers, does anyone know some good stands for these if i were to set them up in my living room?

Thanks for the help!

Jcb33 Out

Ender · 19 Aug 2006 at 16:14

well you could try a sugo case as they are compact and stylish. As for streaming music i use itunes between two computers on a wireless network and playing songs is instantaneous.

Larnica · 19 Aug 2006 at 16:32

I want your SNES / NES

I'm under the impression your going to be using a monitor (TFT) instead of a television, why is this?

jcb33 · 19 Aug 2006 at 17:33

Larnica said:
I want your SNES / NES

I'm under the impression your going to be using a monitor (TFT) instead of a television, why is this?

Because a 19" Monitor is £120 a 19" TV is £300

nshire · 19 Aug 2006 at 18:08

As he wont need a tuner as it be in his Media Centre and he wont need speakers because he has 6.1 so thus only need a display. but resolution you may need to check out tho cos most 19" TFT are 1280x1080 so may look bit odd. Apart from that it be fine.

jcb33 · 25 Aug 2006 at 10:48

nshire said:
As he wont need a tuner as it be in his Media Centre and he wont need speakers because he has 6.1 so thus only need a display. but resolution you may need to check out tho cos most 19" TFT are 1280x1080 so may look bit odd. Apart from that it be fine.

Got a 20" Viewsonic VA2012W With Resoultion of 1680x1050, How will this work for a media center? And why could it look weird

?

Ender said:
well you could try a sugo case as they are compact and stylish. As for streaming music i use itunes between two computers on a wireless network and playing songs is instantaneous.

Cool, I need the case to fit in:

Wireless Card
X800 AGP Card
Abit NF7-S V2.0 Mobo
Audigy 2 Soundcard
And Posibly my SLK-900 Heatsink, but not sure how much that would be pushing it!

What wireless stuff would you recemend? I Curently have a Netgear Router, that conects to my main pc and provides my internet, So i either want something that will work with that router and beam the network/internet accross my house, or something that will conect to the internet and work as a network.

Im very new to networking and even newer to wireless, so what i want it to do is:

Connect both my pcs together and provide interenet as well as the ability to share/stream files

I Have a wireless card already in my main PC, and i will get another one for my media center.... my PC Card is:

ASUS WL 138G 802.11G/b wi-fi PCI Card

Will i need to buy the same card for my media center?

TY