Another HTCP Build

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pierrehugo

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So I searched the forum and there have been quite alot of HTCP threads, I would also like to build one and have done some reasearch, what do you think of the following components? Any suggestions ??

Case: Dunno yet, Computor-Mania have crappy ones or prophecy have R2k ones ??

Power Supply: Dunno yet (may come with case)

Motherboard: ?? also dunno (got to accept CPU

CPU:

Intel Pentium E 2.0GHZ (Dual Core) (775) - R736.87 (cheepo?)
Old Celeron Dual Core ??
or the nice one - Intel Core 2 Duo 2.53GHz -R1290.50

Graphics:

either one of these:

Asus GeForce 8500GT 256MB (heatsink only) – R648.60
Asus GeForce 8500GT 512MB (heatsink only) - R826.55
BFG GeForce 8500GT 1GB (active) - R1155.34

HDD's are not important as the HTPC will be attached to our file server...
but a small OS one is obviously required, I was looking at the Caviar 80GB

Memory (RAM)
I was just gonna hobblen down to IC and grab some DDRII 800 at R160/GB maybe two or even 4 depending on how the rest of the system handles


Tuner Card is not required...

was gonna go Windows XP Pro MCE for OS

please advise ??
 
Home theator computor

its a media center, thats in a set top box that goes under your tv in your living room... to watch movies and listen to music and stuff
 
Cool, i know them as multimedia pc's..lol. Look for a small form factor barebone unit, i cant recall the make now, but it was called a "mini me". Had a remote too, very nice looking also. Ill try and get some info on it for you.
 
Take a look at pcint.co.za for componets...kinda cheep if you don't have a contact with resellers. (prices vat ex)
500Gb sata2 32mb seagat R655
8600gt ddr3 R609

I'm also looking into a HTPC. Probibly gonna turn one of my old IBM T21 laptops into one... will see.
 
Wow thanks for the links guys, and spiderz shot those prices are suspiciously cheep, ave you had any experiance wit them ??
 
pierrehugo said:
Wow thanks for the links guys, and spiderz shot those prices are suspiciously cheep, ave you had any experiance wit them ??
Click to expand...

Yip, bought 2x 500gb last week, with mb & graphics & memory for laptop.
Have previously bought UPS's and sum other stuff.

Never had anything break yet. so don't know what there after sales service is like. But do shop around before you deside to buy. (Make yourself a shoping list with best prices) Some ppl have crazy specials going every now and then.

:D
 
I built my own HTPC at the beginning of the month. It is running great. just a few questions.

Why don't you require a TV tuner, will you only be playing media? Then why not get one of those mvix players, a unit and can play media, or even better one of those Dlink or ASUS media NAS. so you can stream over the network and play on tv?

Then one thing to remember is what system you are building for I have a linux based system running MyhtTV, so I needed to choose my hardware carefully.

Here is my systems specs.

Core 2 duo 2ghz
2gig DDR2 667
3 X 320GB seagate HDD.
1 X 200GB Samsung HDD.
Nvidia 7600GS TV-out.
cheap Intel MOBO with onboard everything ;)
Hauppauge pvr 150, with blaster and remote.
uATX case, small and cheap one with 300W psu.
Samsung Multi DVD burner.


Works great I can now Schedule recordings from the web, record shows automatically, rip dvd's burn my media to disc, stream all media to and from the system. Automagically remove all adds from recordings (great for E-TV movies) Transcode recorded shows from MPEG2(the pvr150 uses a hardware mpeg2 encoder so system is idle while recording) to Xvid(Mpeg4) in the wee hours of the night when no one is watching TV. Fully integrated EPG ( electronic program guide.) Makes recording great. Pause, rewind and skipping of ads while watching live TV.

Its like the DStv PVR on steroids!
 
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ASS_SAZiN` said:
Works great I can now Schedule recordings from the web, record shows automatically, rip dvd's burn my media to disc, stream all media to and from the system. Automagically remove all adds from recordings (great for E-TV movies) Transcode recorded shows from MPEG2(the pvr150 uses a hardware mpeg2 encoder so system is idle while recording) to Xvid(Mpeg4) in the wee hours of the night when no one is watching TV. Fully integrated EPG ( electronic program guide.) Makes recording great. Pause, rewind and skipping of ads while watching live TV.

Its like the DStv PVR on steroids!
Click to expand...
What EPG are you using? I'll be installing mythbuntu on my HTPC does the standard myth guide support SA and is it free to subscribe?

I used the ZA mceguide for Vista MCE but the free service has ended though.
 
I couldn't believe it when i heard there are actually people paying for the guides! I would be pissed off by that and I think Multichoice would be too. But that's just, me I am probably missing the benefit of the pay to use service...

I use the latest build of TV_GRAB_ZA, TV_GRAB or XMLTV, is a collection perl scripts that grabs the info from various providers from around the world, ZA is the South African variant, it grabs data for dstv. It is very slow, I am in the process of coding my own application, still a few bugs to sort out but it is quick and works great, It takes about 3min to get all the info for all the channels for 14 days compared to the 30 odd mins for the xmltv.

In mythbuntu it really is simple, search for xmltv from synaptic, think it is named xmltv-lib or something install it, then go to the sourceforge page and DL the latest build, replace the ZA grabber from there with the one synaptic installed, this is because ubuntu repos are always lagging behind a release or two and Multichoice are in a habbit of changing their web site. Then in the Myth backend config select the South Africa XMLTV grabber. The initial setup is very tedious I had to manually enter all the channels by running mythfilldatabse --manual. and selecting and filling info for all channels, only had to do this once thou...
 
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ASS_SAZiN` said:
I couldn't believe it when i heard there are actually people paying for the guides! I would be pissed off by that and I think Multichoice would be too. But that's just, me I am probably missing the benefit of the pay to use service...

I use the latest build of TV_GRAB_ZA, TV_GRAB or XMLTV, is a collection perl scripts that grabs the info from various providers from around the world, ZA is the South African variant, it grabs data for dstv. It is very slow, I am in the process of coding my own application, still a few bugs to sort out but it is quick and works great, It takes about 3min to get all the info for all the channels for 14 days compared to the 30 odd mins for the xmltv.

In mythbuntu it really is simple, search for xmltv from synaptic, think it is named xmltv-lib or something install it, then go to the sourceforge page and DL the latest build, replace the ZA grabber from there with the one synaptic installed, this is because ubuntu repos are always lagging behind a release or two and Multichoice are in a habbit of changing their web site. Then in the Myth backend config select the South Africa XMLTV grabber. The initial setup is very tedious I had to manually enter all the channels by running mythfilldatabse --manual. and selecting and filling info for all channels, only had to do this once thou...
Click to expand...

Cool thanks, I'll look into this... can this be applied to Vista MCE as well?
 
d0b33 said:
Cool thanks, I'll look into this... can this be applied to Vista MCE as well?
Click to expand...

Yes as far as I know, there is a windows version, you obviously need perl for windows, and then I am unsure about the MCE format, but i think there are converters online. Saw a couple awhile back but didn't pay much attention to them, seeing as Im running Linux.
 
ASS_SAZiN` said:
Yes as far as I know, there is a windows version, you obviously need perl for windows, and then I am unsure about the MCE format, but i think there are converters online. Saw a couple awhile back but didn't pay much attention to them, seeing as Im running Linux.
Click to expand...

K, thanks.
 
That sounds like an intellegent suggestion greggpb but unfortunataly I am on a tight budget...

I have revised the hardware to:

Case:
This realy awsome one I forget the name of... R 2 000.00
Power Supply:
Included with Case R 0.00
Processor:
C2D 2.5 R 1 138.00
Motherboard:
Asus P5K-SE R 990.00
Memory:
1GB Kingston R 204.00
Hard Drive:
80GB WD Caviar R 353.00
Graphics Card:
nVidia 8400GS R 397.00
 
pierrehugo said:
That sounds like an intellegent suggestion greggpb but unfortunataly I am on a tight budget...

I have revised the hardware to:
Motherboard:
Asus P5K-SE R 990.00
Click to expand...

I don't recommend that motherboard personally, I have used it on my HTPC but it won't resume from sleep using a USB mouse or MCE remote, it depends on the power supply mostly but I got the P5Q and resume works now with my current power supply so I blame that board.
 
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ASS_SAZiN` said:
I use the latest build of TV_GRAB_ZA, TV_GRAB or XMLTV,
Click to expand...

Have you managed to get these to work with the latest dstv guides? I was using XMLTV but with the change to the dstv web, am struggling a bit.
 
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