yeah more tuners and such.. but no cam or ci module support for DVB. MS is not going to burn their fingers on a delicate "rights" matter. Especally in the Euro countries...
We just have to stick with 25 year old technicks mixed with the new stuff. oa: digital (DVB decoder top-boxes) - > analog (tvcards) -> digital (tv/plasma/lcd) in the european country's.
And it could have been soooo easy...
Put a DVB into a free slot, hook up the digital signal and put in your smart card somewhere. and watch in a complete digital enviroment with only a HTPC and a dedicated Suround reciever in your slick 21 century furniture.
Originally Posted by Da Dego Bubba, any HTPC equipment will make you look like a "geek."
This topic is probably getting old, but I thought I'd throw my hat into the mix anyways. I'd have to disagree with Da Dego on his opinion. You don't have to be a geek to have an HTPC. When I have new people over it's always a great ice breaker when entertaining guests when you can easily play almost any song that they can name (and by song I mean porno).
Originally Posted by I_Slider_I This topic is probably getting old, but I thought I'd throw my hat into the mix anyways. I'd have to disagree with Da Dego on his opinion. You don't have to be a geek to have an HTPC. When I have new people over it's always a great ice breaker when entertaining guests when you can easily play almost any song that they can name (and by song I mean porno).
It's ok Slider, this thread won't die anyways. :)
My comment was actually to say that a bit geeky can be cool. If you read through the person who I was, ahem, politely disagreeing with, he said that anyone with an MCE box built like this was sure to be challenged when finding a mate. That having this type of setup was a guaranteed strike against any male who wants a girlfriend.
My comment was that ANY HTPC stuff is a little geeky by his definition (which was that a woman can't even operate a remote control, throwing more at her is a sure sign that you are a geek who will be celebate through old age). This whole site is built around geeks. And some of us, including Wil and I who each have setups like this, have girlfriends (or in my case a wife). Women don't all fear technology, and many even embrace it. Truth is, being a little bit geeky is not bad at all, and even a benefit at times.
So, I don't disagree with your point at all, just that I think you maybe misunderstood mine. Technology as a whole can be a tremendous ice-breaker, a great social "oooh" and "aah." You would have to read it in the full context of my back-and-forth with that other party, but I meant what I said in a very positive way. We are all geeks. And you know what, geeks can be cool too.
My mother was stunned: "So i choose "record all episodes?" and all dr phil episodes are recorderd?"
yes mom and all episodes that are comming...
"amazing! so i can watch it when i need to watch it?"
yes mom...
"this is much much easier then a vcr. i dont know how those things work. i have one but never recorded something. i tries but i failed everytime. how much is it, can you build me one?"
hey y'all, and howdy - my first post in here, but this seems like a really good place to get the best info on new hardware.
This article is EXACTLY what i've been looking for now im putting together ideas fo a new PC, and considering going down the MCE route.
Mobo decisions? im going to get a Micro-ATX Asus A8N w/onboard 6150 Nvidia and PCIe 6600 Ultra, obviously this has all the nice nforce4 features, and enough capacity for two seperately driven displays one for watching movies etc, leaving a completely seperate display controller (the onboard 6150) for web surfing and generally using the pC whilst its playing videos.
What i need help with , is that the mobo i want only comes with two PCI slots, now i dont need a hell of a lot of stuff, but dont want to use both of them up with two tv cards, can someone suggest a PCI DVB dual card that will serve this purpose and give me DAB radio too? ideally a one card solution is what im after here, leaving me with room for somethign else in the future.
id like it ideally to be supported by MCE, but essentially this PC will be a dual boot Linux box and will be used under both OS's.
Originally Posted by djDEATH hey y'all, and howdy - my first post in here, but this seems like a really good place to get the best info on new hardware.
This article is EXACTLY what i've been looking for now im putting together ideas fo a new PC, and considering going down the MCE route.
Mobo decisions? im going to get a Micro-ATX Asus A8N w/onboard 6150 Nvidia and PCIe 6600 Ultra, obviously this has all the nice nforce4 features, and enough capacity for two seperately driven displays one for watching movies etc, leaving a completely seperate display controller (the onboard 6150) for web surfing and generally using the pC whilst its playing videos.
What i need help with , is that the mobo i want only comes with two PCI slots, now i dont need a hell of a lot of stuff, but dont want to use both of them up with two tv cards, can someone suggest a PCI DVB dual card that will serve this purpose and give me DAB radio too? ideally a one card solution is what im after here, leaving me with room for somethign else in the future.
id like it ideally to be supported by MCE, but essentially this PC will be a dual boot Linux box and will be used under both OS's.
I love the discussion here about the "complexity" of HTPC interface and about EPIA vs. full size motherboard and Pentium/Athlon quite solid and interesting. The topic "Picking hardware for Media Center" is quite relevant to what I am currently thinking of - what do I really need from an HTPC box in the living room...????
1. BIG or small case
If you build smth on Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon - it becomes (a) a BIG BOX (b) rather a lot of heat and typically case fan requirement - meaning noise (c) 3.5" harddrives are as noisy as a silent case fan. Fist reaction of my friends was often ..."why is it so big???", they expect it to be of a DVD player size as any other entertainment electronics. This brought me to a conclusion to check if my dream model can be built in mini-ITX form factor.
2. Configuration
You don't really need the 7-in-1 card reader, keyboard and mouse, many USB ports in your living room. It is actually MUCH MUCH more convenient to upload and edit your pictures or home videos at your home office PC or laptop, when you can sit at the table, have a keyboard to type, a mouse to navigate the program, monitor to see the small text and scroll through directories. When you come back to the living room, you just want to crush on the couch, quickly turn it on (your HTPC) and operate it with a remote. It is ok to schedule some TV recordings from time to time, but not ...remove red eyes in your recent picture... right? The point here is - you don't need many things which are typically there in a standard off-the-shelf HTPC. Rather you look for a combination of two computers in your home: a home office PC (laptop) + living room HTPC.
Comment: This argument may not hold true, if you have your home office also in the living room and you can use your BIG BOX HTPC as both - home office PC and living room PC, having it connected to TV and to a Monitor. This is not the case though I would like to discuss here.
3. HDTV
CableCARD option will become available in US only end of the year with release of Vista and CableCARD tuners. My understanding is that CableCARD is already available in Europe - so some of the European readers here may have their practical experience and correct me... My experience though is the following:
a) only limited HDTV content is currently available, about 10 channels (I have a COMCAST HD cable).
b) when I watch TV - I will want to send the DVI output from cable box through a DVI switch directly to the Flat Screen LCD TV to avoid delays in channel switching the PC brings (almost 1 second) and the trouble of switching channels on the cable box through an IR transmitter (it is not reliable). So, I don't actually need a PC when I watch TV, only to record from time to time - which in such case I could also do in a non-HDTV format by taking analog TV signal out of the cable box and recording. So, I may actually not need HDTV tuner... This will potentilly reduce the load on CPU, and make mini-ITX configuration possible.
So, what the requirements to the living room HTPC are
- need to be small (the only option is to build it in mini-ITX form factor)
- need to be absolutely silent (basically fanless case and small 2.5" hard drive)
- will use for recording TV, show home videos, pictures, play music
- need to have a DVI output
- don't need a large hard drive (to reduce noise/heat) and will either use external USB drive or network storage
- don't need or optional HDTV tuner or HDTV recording (there is a Firewire option to get HDTV from cable box - if it works fine, good...if not, also ok...). There is also an option to experiment with external USB HDTV CableCARD tuner later - I don't need an extra slot not for it).
So, I guess, I am putting for discussion the "living room HTPC" vs. "big box universal HTPC". I would like to check my assumptions with others on what is needed in a living room HTPC first, than we can build the hardware configuration accordingly...
Comments 51 to 60 of 60
Not sure how that might affect you guys - supports even more hardware now maybe?
We just have to stick with 25 year old technicks mixed with the new stuff. oa: digital (DVB decoder top-boxes) - > analog (tvcards) -> digital (tv/plasma/lcd) in the european country's.
And it could have been soooo easy...
Put a DVB into a free slot, hook up the digital signal and put in your smart card somewhere. and watch in a complete digital enviroment with only a HTPC and a dedicated Suround reciever in your slick 21 century furniture.
:(
This topic is probably getting old, but I thought I'd throw my hat into the mix anyways. I'd have to disagree with Da Dego on his opinion. You don't have to be a geek to have an HTPC. When I have new people over it's always a great ice breaker when entertaining guests when you can easily play almost any song that they can name (and by song I mean porno).
My comment was actually to say that a bit geeky can be cool. If you read through the person who I was, ahem, politely disagreeing with, he said that anyone with an MCE box built like this was sure to be challenged when finding a mate. That having this type of setup was a guaranteed strike against any male who wants a girlfriend.
My comment was that ANY HTPC stuff is a little geeky by his definition (which was that a woman can't even operate a remote control, throwing more at her is a sure sign that you are a geek who will be celebate through old age). This whole site is built around geeks. And some of us, including Wil and I who each have setups like this, have girlfriends (or in my case a wife). Women don't all fear technology, and many even embrace it. Truth is, being a little bit geeky is not bad at all, and even a benefit at times.
So, I don't disagree with your point at all, just that I think you maybe misunderstood mine. Technology as a whole can be a tremendous ice-breaker, a great social "oooh" and "aah." You would have to read it in the full context of my back-and-forth with that other party, but I meant what I said in a very positive way. We are all geeks. And you know what, geeks can be cool too.
My mother was stunned: "So i choose "record all episodes?" and all dr phil episodes are recorderd?"
yes mom and all episodes that are comming...
"amazing! so i can watch it when i need to watch it?"
yes mom...
"this is much much easier then a vcr. i dont know how those things work. i have one but never recorded something. i tries but i failed everytime. how much is it, can you build me one?"
eh...
This article is EXACTLY what i've been looking for now im putting together ideas fo a new PC, and considering going down the MCE route.
Mobo decisions? im going to get a Micro-ATX Asus A8N w/onboard 6150 Nvidia and PCIe 6600 Ultra, obviously this has all the nice nforce4 features, and enough capacity for two seperately driven displays one for watching movies etc, leaving a completely seperate display controller (the onboard 6150) for web surfing and generally using the pC whilst its playing videos.
What i need help with , is that the mobo i want only comes with two PCI slots, now i dont need a hell of a lot of stuff, but dont want to use both of them up with two tv cards, can someone suggest a PCI DVB dual card that will serve this purpose and give me DAB radio too? ideally a one card solution is what im after here, leaving me with room for somethign else in the future.
id like it ideally to be supported by MCE, but essentially this PC will be a dual boot Linux box and will be used under both OS's.
Welcome to the forums :)
why thank you :D
I have built one HTPC configuration on Pentium D already [http://www.buildmediacenter.com/html/projects.html ]
and now realize, that I need a different kind of HTPC in the living room:
1. BIG or small case
If you build smth on Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon - it becomes (a) a BIG BOX (b) rather a lot of heat and typically case fan requirement - meaning noise (c) 3.5" harddrives are as noisy as a silent case fan. Fist reaction of my friends was often ..."why is it so big???", they expect it to be of a DVD player size as any other entertainment electronics. This brought me to a conclusion to check if my dream model can be built in mini-ITX form factor.
2. Configuration
You don't really need the 7-in-1 card reader, keyboard and mouse, many USB ports in your living room. It is actually MUCH MUCH more convenient to upload and edit your pictures or home videos at your home office PC or laptop, when you can sit at the table, have a keyboard to type, a mouse to navigate the program, monitor to see the small text and scroll through directories. When you come back to the living room, you just want to crush on the couch, quickly turn it on (your HTPC) and operate it with a remote. It is ok to schedule some TV recordings from time to time, but not ...remove red eyes in your recent picture... right? The point here is - you don't need many things which are typically there in a standard off-the-shelf HTPC. Rather you look for a combination of two computers in your home: a home office PC (laptop) + living room HTPC.
Comment: This argument may not hold true, if you have your home office also in the living room and you can use your BIG BOX HTPC as both - home office PC and living room PC, having it connected to TV and to a Monitor. This is not the case though I would like to discuss here.
3. HDTV
CableCARD option will become available in US only end of the year with release of Vista and CableCARD tuners. My understanding is that CableCARD is already available in Europe - so some of the European readers here may have their practical experience and correct me... My experience though is the following:
a) only limited HDTV content is currently available, about 10 channels (I have a COMCAST HD cable).
b) when I watch TV - I will want to send the DVI output from cable box through a DVI switch directly to the Flat Screen LCD TV to avoid delays in channel switching the PC brings (almost 1 second) and the trouble of switching channels on the cable box through an IR transmitter (it is not reliable). So, I don't actually need a PC when I watch TV, only to record from time to time - which in such case I could also do in a non-HDTV format by taking analog TV signal out of the cable box and recording. So, I may actually not need HDTV tuner... This will potentilly reduce the load on CPU, and make mini-ITX configuration possible.
So, what the requirements to the living room HTPC are
- need to be small (the only option is to build it in mini-ITX form factor)
- need to be absolutely silent (basically fanless case and small 2.5" hard drive)
- will use for recording TV, show home videos, pictures, play music
- need to have a DVI output
- don't need a large hard drive (to reduce noise/heat) and will either use external USB drive or network storage
- don't need or optional HDTV tuner or HDTV recording (there is a Firewire option to get HDTV from cable box - if it works fine, good...if not, also ok...). There is also an option to experiment with external USB HDTV CableCARD tuner later - I don't need an extra slot not for it).
So, I guess, I am putting for discussion the "living room HTPC" vs. "big box universal HTPC". I would like to check my assumptions with others on what is needed in a living room HTPC first, than we can build the hardware configuration accordingly...
---
Andy at http://www.buildmediacenter.com