HTPC Questions

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KemoSabi

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Hi all,

Ok so I'm about to build a HTPC. And from what i've read on sites like THG etc. I am pretty certain of what I want, but im still uncertain, which bothers me.

So here is the question, to the chaps who actually own one, or who have seen them in action.

My Setup:
I currently have a 2.8ghz Athlon, 2 gigs Ram, GF6800GT just standing around in my house. "Ok fine my Wife is using it" but its standing around IMO.
However its AGP....

I also have a 32" HDMI LCD Tv. Awesome little guy. I love him to death.

And an Xbox 360 plugged into it.

A Yamaha Hi Fi system plugged onto the system with surround sound- the Hi-Fi is pretty old unfortunately, about 6 years now. So I am thinking about Going SB + Logitech Speakers added onto the HTPC to act as a Hi-Fi.

My Quest:

Setting up a HTPC for the Setup I have.

I dont know if it would be feasible to use the "old" system I have and simply buy a nice Case + AGP-TV Tuner card. Anyone have experience with this?

Or if I should get an entirely new system. If i get a new system im looking at something like this
Gigabyte GA-MA69G-S3H | 2 Gigs Ram | 2 X 250gig Hdd's | a Nice case im still thinking over, something like http://www.thermaltake.com/xaserCase/Mozart/mozart_vc4001sns.htm this | nice PCI-E TV Tuner.

However this is costly. and if I could use the old system it would be perfect. (plug it into a new case and voila.)

Now the main reason for this is PVR capabilities and the fact that normal TV antenna into an LCD is ok, but it COULD be so much better. I would like the normal TV to be encoded into MPEG 2 and hopefully have ab etter image output from Antenna. Dvd's and such are ok, but could do with a bit of a spruse up, while the XBOX has no issues.

Anyone have any advice regarding HTPC's and my predicament?
 
Hi, your old setup would work perfectly, just add a PCI TV tuner card like the Hauppauge PVR150 (single channel) or PVR500 (dual channel) and make sure you slap on enough HDD space. To make it look pretty in the living room you could rebuild everything into a nice HTPC-style case. You don't mention your PVR software of choice, but either way you'll need a remote... the Microsoft one works great if your system is Win based.
 
Well, I am thinking of buying Windows Vista, just for that system. I see Home Deluxe is pretty reasonably priced now. and Seeing as it includes Windows Media Centre, it might not be a bad idea.

Where do you get the Windows Remote?

And these Hauppauge cards are normal PCI based? As in the Motherboard on that PC is sitll an AGP motherboard.

*I'm looking at getting the LC20M from Silverstone as a case. I see This comes with Media Software and a Remote. So I might not buy Vista if it proves usefull.

** Would the MPGE 2 Decoding prove to be of better quality on the HDMI LCD tv, than a normal Antenna? or wont I really see a difference?
 
Last edited:
Well, if you're thinking of Vista then I'm out of my depth... I've been running MCE for the past 2 (?) years now on a Sempron 2400 with 1 Gb RAM on an ASUS A7v600x mobo with 8x AGP slot and old 128 Mb FX5200. See, nothing fancy required to be in PVR heaven :)

TV tuners cards are PCI:
http://www.sybaritic.co.za/store/product_info.php?cPath=137&products_id=7847
http://www.sybaritic.co.za/store/product_info.php?cPath=137&products_id=7848

MS remote:
http://www.sybaritic.co.za/store/product_info.php?cPath=110_308&products_id=7896
 
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