Trying to plan a HTPC

strumpusplunket said:
Any opinions on how easy-to-use the TV channel-hopping/PVR is in Media Portal? Could my technophobic wife manage do you think? Any recommendations on TV tuner?
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I used XP MCE for 4yrs, Vista MC for about 6months, and am now running MediaPortal (for about 4months).

The PVR is really important to me and i use it constanly.

My thoughts are that the PVR side of XP/Vista is a lot more refined, and is easier to use. It's not really one of MediaPortal's strong points. I am not saying its not good in MP, but it's really not as complete as XP/Vista.
 
Matt said:
I used XP MCE for 4yrs, Vista MC for about 6months, and am now running MediaPortal (for about 4months).

The PVR is really important to me and i use it constanly.

My thoughts are that the PVR side of XP/Vista is a lot more refined, and is easier to use. It's not really one of MediaPortal's strong points. I am not saying its not good in MP, but it's really not as complete as XP/Vista.
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I tend to agree, MP is perfectly usable for PVR, its just not its strongest point.
 
Ah, ok. Thanks for clarifying.

I got a bit alarmed by the whole "not its strongest point" and it not being as easy to use as XP MCE there. I may be over-sensitive to this issue because I am aware I have a wife who is a bit (a lot!) sceptical of this project from the start...

So, with some tweaking do you reckon PVR will work easily enough in MP for a complete PC noob to use with a little tutoring? And what exactly are the weak spots of PVR with MP?
 
Software wise i would say Vista media center would be the easiest to use, followed by XP MCE. MP isn't not hard to use, but it does have some querks!

If i was to setup a system that was used by non-techy people and mainly as a PVR, i would use Vista. If anything else takes priority over PVR though (eg. downloaded videos) then MP would be my choice.
 
I think you would be best off just trying MP and Vista out to see which suits you best. I wouldn't bother with XP MCE anymore though.
 
Right. That's a helpful distinction, thanks.

I guess priority would be: digital TV and DivX streaming (both top priority, I think) > music streaming > PVR > DVD playback >audio CD playback > Blu-Ray playback

So would the best combination likely be using MP within Vista MCE then? Or does that just cause extra confusion?
 
Matt said:
Software wise i would say Vista media center would be the easiest to use, followed by XP MCE. MP isn't not hard to use, but it does have some querks!

If i was to setup a system that was used by non-techy people and mainly as a PVR, i would use Vista. If anything else takes priority over PVR though (eg. downloaded videos) then MP would be my choice.
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I hate micro$haft, but I would have to agree with Matt :/

EDIT: if you have XP already I would use that, seems pointless buying vista just for a HTPC when you already own XP.
 
Kearney_1988 said:
First of all welcome to the forums

Everything specced out there looks fine, i brought pretty much a similar setup a few months back and love it.

one thing to watch with that motherboard is that it doesnt output audio over hdmi
also you could buy a slightly cheaper cpu if you wanted to save a bit of money

Just as quick note i would make sure you get a tv card with dual tuner functions
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I'd have to disgree with one of your comments. The GA-MA78GM-S2H does support audio out of HDMI, ref page 19 of the manual. I know as the only connection between one of my HTPC's and the TV it's connected to is via HDMI and I get sound from it :)
 
One to add into the mix - how easy would it be to add the ability to record onto an HTPC from a source such as Sky+? I use my HDD / DVD recorder for this, but an HTPC could replace this if this is possible... SCART into HTPC anyone?
 
1 up for media portal, great program also it should be noted if you have a nother pc in the house media portal act as a tv server so you can both watch differnt programs which wmc can not :)
 
Ok, so after all the helpful advice in this thread, I'm now looking at this spec:

AMD Phenom X3 Tri Core 8650 2.30GHz (Socket AM2) - Retail £89.69
Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H AMD 780G Micro-ATX (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £79.34
Antec NSK 3480 Micro ATX Case - Black/Silver (380W Earth Watts PSU) £80.49
Sony BDU-X10S Blu-Ray Reader Serial-ATA Drive - Retail £57.98
Samsung SpinPoint F2EG 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD502HI) £47.14
Keysonic Wireless Keyboard/Touchpad ACK-540RF £30.99
Corsair XMS2 2GB DDR2 6400C5 TwinX (2x1GB) £22.99
Compro VideoMate Vista T750F Dual DVB-T Hybrid Internal PCI TV Tuner - Retail £52.89

Shipping : £12.50
VAT : £62.07
Total : £475.88

Leaning towards using my existing copy of XP with Media Portal, PowerDVD, ffdshow, etc., installed, and getting an MCE remote for around £40.

This brings the total to just over £500, which was my upper budget limit, so all good there.

A few questions remain if anyone still has the patience to lead me through this:

1. With MP is there any delay when changing TV channels? Or does this depend on the TV card? With my old Winfast TV card the delay was intolerable and was the main reason hat led to us ditching the thing on the bay.
2. Is the TV card I've picked here ok?
3. How easy is it to get MP up and running and showing the user interface by default every time the PC is started? And does it take long to load?
4. Sound - what the hell do I do about sound? I want this thing to be my primary music playing equipment as well, so clearly I can't go through TV speakers! Am I facing a killer expense here?

Thanks again for everyone's help so far. I feel like I'm getting some direction and I think the wife is slowly coming around! :)
 
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