Help With a Media Center PC

noobert

As the title says, i'm looking to build a PC for my room to use for:
Watching Movies/Series
Watching DVDs
Watching Free to air TV
Stereo Replacement
Surfing da Interbuts
Instant Messaging
File Server

All from the comfort of my bed.

So, given that list, i reckon i won't be needing anything very powerful at all. I've been thinking along the lines of:
E2140 or X2 3600+
Motherboard with on board Graphics
1GB ddr2 RAM
Using an old 40 gb IDE drive i have as an install dirve
Taking the storage drive (250gb SATA) from my current box and using it in the new one
Some basic tv tuner card
Some dvd burner with a silver face plate
This case
Basic wireless keyboard and mouse
19 - 22" widescreen
and Ethernet Over Power to get it connected to the interbuts.

Anyone done this sort of thing before? All suggestions/advice/help would be appreciated.

Oh yeah, my gaming box specs:

CPU: E4300 @ 2.7Ghz
HSF Noctua NH-U12F w/ Noctua NF-S12
MoBo: Gigabyte 965P-S3 Rev 3.3
RAM: 2GB Generic DDR2-667
GFX: Sapphire x1950PRO 256mb
HDD1: 120gb WD (on IDE)
HDD2: 250gb WD (on SATA)
Optical: Pioneer DVR-108
Case: CoolerMaster Centurion 5 w/ Noctua NF-R8 & Noctua NF-S12
PSU: Antec NeoHE 430W
OS: XP Pro
Display: 17" BenQ LCD
Display: 17" LG LCD
Speakers: Logitech X-230
Headphones: Sony MDR-7506
KB/Mouse: Logitech MX 3200 Wireless

Seguer

Having made a GBPVR (media center) box, I'd suggest getting a separate video card. Watching live tv is fairly taxing, and if you're going to watch anything else as well they too can be taxing. I'll leave the other components to others with more experience :P

embrik

Here's what I recommend:
Buy a Hauppauge TV tuner card. They work great, especially with Media Centers. Don't even attempt another brand.
The more RAM, the better. Media Center is basically working with large, uncompressed files, so if you want to rewind, fast forward, skip, etc, flawlessly, you'll want more RAM.
I'd recommend a video card with 128MB of VRAM or more, with DVI-out.


Edit:
Almost forgot. Get the Media Center remote. (and the infrared keyboard, too, if you want)
Oh, and if you can, get Vista Home Premium instead of XP MCE. The new version of Media Center is absolutely beautiful. The System builder version is only around $110. Of course, then you really should go with at least 2 GB of RAM (I use 3 for mine) and a better graphics card. What was your spending limit?

grungebox

I also have a GBPVR box, but I've messed with every windows option available. However, my experience with MCE is limited to messing around at Best Buy a few times, but I've installed and tried various other varieties.

First off, embrik is 100% right in re the tuner card. Also, make sure you get a HARDWARE TUNER CARD. Very important. Do not cheap out and get a software tuner card. Those things suck and are 100% useless as a PVR. I have a Hauppauge PVR-150. Stay with Hauppauge brand cards. Also, these cards come with a remote that's pretty good and works on most software, though not MCE, I think.

Get a separate video card, but 128MB VRAM isn't necessary IMO unless you are using MCE or MediaPortal. If you have a TV with a DVI-input, clearly get one with DVI-out. Don't use onboard cards.

The more RAM the better. If you can get 2GB, I'd do it, but 1GB is good.

I have the predecessor to that Antec case, the Overture II. It's a good case, though a little bit bulkier than you'd think (it's also much bigger than your stereo equipment). Is your PVR just for yourself, or are you in a dorm or something where it would conceivably be a community device? The reason I ask is you can get quieter, better cases for cheaper, though they'll be ugly. If you want sexy PVR cases, though, Silverstone makes some nice ones.

What software do you want to use? MCE?

fforde

If you are going to get an ATSC/QAM card (i.e. one that will receive HD/digital signals) you will need a beefier system. HD stuff is broadcast already compressed (mpeg2 I think) so you will have to decompress it real time as you're watching it. No sweat with standard def stuff, but if you have a 720p signal or higher it can take some significant processing power to decode it fast enough for it to not stutter or skip. A decent video card can help with this, I know nVidia has an mpeg2 decoder that is specifically designed to take advantage of your video card hardware when decoding video.

If you want to do a remote control (I would) I would recommend the Harmony 880 or 890, the USB-UIRT infrared receiver for the PC and the open source software EventGhost. Thats what I use on my setup and it is very very flexible. If you think about going to Girder, don't. If anyone recommends it to you, tell them they are crazy. It is over priced, overly complex and just not a good solution. EventGhost does all Girder does and more and it's free.

As far as PVR software, sounds like a lot of people are recommending GB-PVR. I can't comment too much on that, I have never used it, but I am using Media Portal and I am loving it. It is still a young product and has some bugs that need to be worked out but it has a LOT of potential and some of the plugins for it are simply amazing. Take a look at a few of the screenshots here. The only real problem with it is there is a bit of a learning curve getting it to do anything non-standard. It's not super difficult, my not computer savy friend also got it all set up and figured out on his HTPC with minimal help from me, but it's not really an install and use type product. It requires tweaking.

If you like to hold onto anything for any period of time, or if you plan on ripping your DVDs to your HTPC (which is really nice) You will need more than 250gb. You can get a 500gb drive for barely over $100 right now.