Turning PC into Entertainment System

[Kemik]

Hello all,
As my TV is basically dead I'm looking at buying a new one. However, I LOVE watching things on my PC's monitor as it's bigger than me portable tv (19" LCD).
If possible, how could I connect Freeview up to my PC?
Can I buy a remote control for my PC for things like watching DVD's on VLC Media PLayer?
And the final question, could I get sleep mode to work via remote control? I cannot go to sleep without the TV on

Thanks guys.

 

[pcoltrane]

Adding freeview is dead simple. You just need a digital TV card like the Compro T200 and a strong aerial signal.

If you want everything remote controlled, ie TV, DVDs, Divx movies, Music, photos etc you'd be best getting windows media centre, or using one of the alternatives like GBPVR or Mediaportal. The microsoft MCE remote, although a little expenisve is very good.

As for sleep mode - do you want to turn the pc to sleep mode by remote? or do you want a timer so the PC goes to sleep after you have drifted off watching TV?

With the mce remote it is one button press to send the pc to sleep. In a S3 sleep state the PC will wake up for scheduled recordings etc.

If you want a timer - I'm sure there must be some way to set that up

Marc