Suggestions for a MCE 05 system & hardware?

[tarquel]

Hi all

 

Just wondering if any of you good folk have made your own Media Center PC at all.

 

As I cant be bothered to rewrite the whole thing again, here's a quote from the topic i started over at MSFN:

 

I know this has been touched upon before, but can anyone suggest what they would recommend when building a new PVR MCE 05 PC? Can you submit a list of items you would use, etc. please

 

I'm thinking of making this for use as a replacement to having to use [VHS] tape recorders to record programs etc. - you know the drill I'm sure lol - with both a analogue and a digital recording / watching capability.

 

Ideally, I would like it to be able to record sky digital - I have a normal Sky Box if this could help here - and a RF analogue signal too. To be specific, UK broadcasts hehe

 

Also, the only output I'd have on this machine would be a normal 21" TV [Toshiba 21S23B2 - Sorry it isnt the best link in the world lol] and I'm wondering can you achive a "nice" picture on this?

 

I have a Hercules ATI A.I.W. Radeon 9800 SE [the one that you can software mod into a 9800 Pro hehe] if this will help with the system build

 

Pentium 4 or a Athon 64 [939] based system would be fine. I would say Pentium M but the cost of a 2G Pentium M is a little pricey I think.

 

Ideally, this needs to be a SFF type machine, etc.. as it's a lounge / main room type machine [and there's already enough computers in it hehe] so any help in this area could be well useful.

 

Many regards to those that can help out here - i'm just stuck regarding the digital / analogue tuners & proper output to the TV really.

 

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=60462

 

Any suggestions would be welcome, and as I'm pretty sure certain folk will start saying to use the linux one instead [lol I might try that too] so suggestions for a system that either OS will work on would be preferable

 

A tall order maybe, but not looking to spend more than £500 really [less is best lol]

 

Cheers guys

 

Nath

[Ric_]

I use MCE 2005.

 

My TV cards are Black Gold DVB-T cards (x2) and they're are just in a bog standard Compaq mini-tower (2.4GHz P4, 512MB RAM, 120GB HDD). It works really well and being able to watch one channel while recording another is great!

 

I decided to go with a standard box 'cos I got it particularly cheap. I have just upgraded my graphics to a Geforce 6600 'cos my FX5200 was rubbish for games. I don't have my machine linked to the TV at the moment but my Gigabyte graphics card (check my blog to see the huuuuuge heatsink) does have S-VIDEO and composite connections.

 

On the whole it works well and it hasn't crashed as much as I thought it might.

 

Check out http://shop.mediacomputers.co.uk/acatalog/Specials.html for your core components (i.e. the TV cards, remote - plus keyboard if the mood takes you - and the OS).

[Geoff]

Most linux based solutions in the PVR front centre around using MythTV.

 

http://www.mythtv.org

 

There is a dedicated site to the hardware combos people use with it.

 

http://pvrhw.goldfish.org/tiki-view_articles.php

 

If your interested, my Linux based PVR runs on a Hauppage PVR 350 Capture Card and a Matrox G400 Graphics card.

[Alex]

http://www.nebula-electronics.com/

 

Stuff Media centre.

 

PVR / Network multicasting / Web server for scheduling recordings.

 

Best of all, it's completely open - you can play back the recorded files on any PC.

[MkII]

Like the look of that Alex. "Web server for sheduling" *drools*

[tarquel]

Thanx for the replies so far - but just to point out.... dont get analog freeview here

 

How would i still feed the sky box with digital, while attaching the digital feed to the media center?

 

can it go into the media center then out to the sky box?

 

I live in a block of flats using a shared dish, and was told i cant have sky multiroom, as it wud split the signal [or use more signal channels - not sure on the term] and I'd have thought doing this is the same thing right?

 

or no? lol

 

N.

[ConTheITGuy]

You can't split the signal so to speak (or you can technically but not effectively). You would need a separate feed from the dish which involves a "multi-tunable" (for the want of a more accurate description) LNB. I'm guessing your dish already has this if it is being shared - but being that it is shared, all the signals are probably taken up - what an awkward situation

 

Sorry that my post was no help whatsoever!

 

Andy.

[tarquel]

ahhh so theres no point me doing this then?

 

*cries to himself*

 

"can it go into the media center then out to the sky box?" - not a option then?

 

N.

[Geoff]

If your on Sky, just get Sky+.

[tarquel]

i guess

 

just dont like being 'pwned' by sky

 

Or the additional subscription cost either

 

once the 12 months is up tho, i might go free-to-air digital and do the MCE idea then [tho how do i plug in the card you get from sky to view free-to-air digital ?]

 

Shame i dont understand enough about this.

 

I just wanted to record the soaps for my g/f so she dont have to go to the bedroom and watch them when she gets back from work lol [combo vhs/tv you see]

 

Cheers

N.

[Ric_]

You can get satellite receiver cards - I think that Hauppage makes one and there's a CLI module that takes up a second PCI slot (this is where the card goes) - or you can simply buy an analogue tuner. The feed from your Sky box then goes into the tuner and there is a pass-thru from the IR receiver too.

 

The other 'advatange' of analogue tuners is that they are MUCH cheaper - check that page I posted above.

[tarquel]

indeed - i have the Pace....er...*goes to check but not enough slack on cables to move the unit to see*

 

The System Details in the menu system say:

 

Model Number: 1.0.43

Version Number: 9F0A03

 

....lol decided to unplug it and have a look lol

 

Its a DS430N so the sticker on the bottom of it says

 

http://www.pacemicro.com/corporate/products/prodinfo.asp?PID=DS430N

 

Is there anything I can do there Ric with what you were saying?

 

Ta

[Ric_]

@tarquell: You can see the digital satellite offerings from Hauppage at http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/pages/prods_digital-s.html but you will need to check compatability with MCE, etc.

 

Also check out XPMCE and The Green Button for more info.