Linux Media Centre PC

BaronBuffoon

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Sound-wise.....
I am looking to purchase a set of 2.0 or 2.1 speakers for the cheap-ish Media Centre PC I am putting together.
I do not want to spend more than R800 on them.
I have been looking at the Creative Inspire 2500 and the Creative
I-trigue 3600, Altec Lansing VS4121 and Logitech Z4
I'll be sticking with the onboard audio on my Gigabyte G31MX-S2

TV Card: I'm looking at a Hauppage WinTV PVR150 or the Compro
X800 videomate. I know that the Hauppage card works well under Linux, but how does the Compro fare and how does it's image quality compare with that of the Hauppage card?

Graphics:I can get an ATI X800GTO dirt cheap.

Overall budget is around the R2000 mark.

Any recommendations?

thanks
 
First up I have never used an ATI card. But from my general browsing of linux forums it seems to me that there are prone to be greater problems with it than nVidia cards. The reason I even raise this is that for simple mythtv installs (I assume of course that you will be going the route of mythtv) it seems that the nVidia FX5200 is well favoured. I can certainly vouch that it does a pretty job. If only I had one with S-Video output :(
 
If you can force yourself back to Windows (I am normally trying to advise people to move away) then have a look at MediaPortal - it is an open source Windows product, but is brilliant in my view. Yes, you'll still need a license for your XP install, but it is just so easy to setup, and use.

Several of my fanatical linux pushing friends use it with great enjoyment! :D
 
I shall most linkely be using tvtime in Ubuntu Ultimate Edition...and a few extra bits and pieces to help with recording....I am trying to avoid having to tangle with MythTV.... ;)

As for Mediaportal...thank, I'll take a look, but I'm not too keen on shelling out extra dosh for an XP Home licence....

Thanks for help, guys. :)
 
MythTV might not always be a breeze to setup but once you get it running it is quite comprehensive.

Cheers
Slayer
 
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