Simple HTPC

Windows XP Pro 32/64 Home (with Media Portal)

Windows XP Media Center

Windows Vista Home Premium 32/64

Linux MCE

not sure if media portal with on windows xp 64.
 
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Stupidly asked whether media portal worked on Vista64 then last night thought.... Im using Vista64 you doofus, download it and see! And yes it does work ...Doh!

Ordered everything yesterday and have just received it ...went for the Spinpoint F1 1TB drive instead :p

Thanks for all you help, really appreciate it ;)
 
sWiZzle, what do you like about Media Portal over Vista's media center?
I use vista-32 on my network and have my dvd library loaded onto one rig. The other 3 pc's connect into it via media center and can watch any dvd without any glitches at all, even the same movie shared over 3 pc's over the cat5e network works effortlessly.
Also, are you not planning on having a tv card in your htpc at some point? Guess not, due to height restrictions, unless your mobo has a pci riser card.
In the middle of building my htpc with a dvb-c card, but can't decide on a case yet. Thats why i asked. :)
 
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I've never really used the Vista media centre. I tried it earlier today with the remote it seemed fine.
Yes i will at some point add a tv card, but for now we have this thing called a tv which does that ;)
I do have a tv card somewhere but i can never get it to work, there is supposed to be enough space for one, i'll have a look for mine sometime.
I've just had a look in the case, doesn't seem to be a riser card but, well there's some sort of mini card thing but i don't know what it is :confused: <-- Ahh its a slim CD/DVD to standard IDE adapter :)
And there's no card riser with the mobo.

Heatsink doesn't fit on the mobo, need to find a different cpu plate :( Bugger!

Can you get different plates? Not even sure what they are called so find one, which is make find one of this things a nightmare!
 
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yeah that's the only bad side about small cases if you don't do a lot of research
you end up having to pay out more money on parts to make things fit and work.

i hope you get it all sorted m8

so you can enjoy your media build
 
I've got it set up using the heatsink which came with the cpu, but of course i cannot put the lid on. This the first time i have been able to use Sata2 at full speed (at least i think its full speed), my shuttle doesnt support sata2.

In the bios under the Sata options, its currently set up as 'Native IDE', on bootup it keeps asking me whether i want to switch to AHCI but if i do, the Vista bootloader gets stuck. Do i need AHCI set for it to run at 3gb or is that just so it can be hotplugged?
Bit shocked how quickly vista installed - about 20 minutes or so :eek:

Tried Vista media centre and it's utter rubbish - i can't watch any of my videos on it - the online media was pretty cool after i got the appropriate flash active x components installed, but I cannot use it for the main reason i bought.

Tried Mediaportal and it all my media worked perfect without any problems.

Seft said:
I recommend you check out MediaPortal (and the Monochrome skin) for your software needs.
Click to expand...
Can i set up Media Portal to load up if i press the Windows button on the remote? Will i have to uninstall Vista media centre to stop it loading up at the same time or can i disable it from opening up somehow?
 
Thinking about getting a TV card now, whats a good one? Tried to search the forum but you can't search for 'TV' as its to short :rolleyes:

Hmmm WinTV Nova-T 500 looks tasty and quite small ....but £50 :eek:
 
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well im not sure how it works with sky.

but the way i see is it connects via your sky box to the card and that then
gets decoded by the card.

Hauppauge WinTV-HVR3000 PCI Analog+DVBT+DVB-S Satellite card seems to be
a good choice.

info found here
http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/pages/products/data_hvr3000.html

card costs around £55.00 to £60.00

here is the interface
2ocag.jpg
 
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Tosk said:
but the way i see is it connects via your sky box to the card and that then gets decoded by the card.
Click to expand...
Cheers, from that picture i would assume you wouldn't need a Sky box as the 3rd connector from the left looks like the socket on the back of the sky box and the only output from the sky box is scart i think (well on ours anyway). Looks like i would need to get one of these card readers: http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/pages/products/data_ci_setanta.html

Gonna pass on that card though i think, there seem to be quite a few unhappy customers in the forums - problems using it in vista and media centre, syncing problems etc, but thanks for the info - think i'll just stick with digital for now. The only thing we really use sky for is to watch football, but nowadays we seem to watch most of our football online.

Still not got the low profile heatsink in yet - gonna look for some nuts tomorrow so i can just bolt it on, but i am absolutely loving this thing and media portal is bloody superb! Just need to figure how to configure it and the remote.

Seft said:
I recommend you check out MediaPortal (and the Monochrome skin) for your software needs.
Click to expand...
Not sure which one you mean - i downloaded the 16:9 skins and i think my favourite one is xface
 
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hi again well im not sure how it connects really. with out the sky viewing card you cant watch
sky so im guessing the only way to take the stream from the box would be to connect the sky
box to the pci-tv card from the RF-1 output plug to the imput plug on the card. but i could be
wrong.

as for problems with the card your right, i didnt know untill i was looking into it how bad the card
really is lol
 
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ah it seems you need a Hauppauge WinTV-CI Common Interface Card for WinTV Cards to
view payed tv, and it aint cheap lol

2a0asg0.jpg


your right you use the 3rd connection on the left side of the card.
 
Got the Hiper heatsink on finally - got some copper buts and some thread lock, put the lid on, took it downstairs .... connected it to the telly via HDMI .... no sound :(
Picture quality was lovely but just could not figure out how to get sound - nothing was muted :confused:

HDMI is video and sound right?
 
not sure the sound from you pc might need to be done via the sound card.
but im not sure on that.

maybe some 1 here can confirm it
 
Im using latest MediaPortal + SVN + MyTVSeries with Monochrome Violet (atm) and I love it :) Monochrome (violet = blue + white, normal = black and white) is by far the best skin.

I found those such as xface too over the top and complicated personally. Too cluttered.
 
Yes, xface is very cluttered but i like the theme, got Monochrome on the go at the moment and layout is a lot better.

Also got hdmi sound finally, was the 'onboard vga output' bios setting which needed changing. Bloody ridiculous! Change the video output setting to get sound :(
 
Tosk said:
ah it seems you need a Hauppauge WinTV-CI Common Interface Card for WinTV Cards to
view payed tv, and it aint cheap lol

2a0asg0.jpg


your right you use the 3rd connection on the left side of the card.
Click to expand...
Sweet jesus! That tiny thing costs between £50-70 :eek:

Was considering getting one of the sky tv cards but after seeing the cost of that little bugger think i definitely pass!
 
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