Building a Media Center PC? Interesting idea..

[plagiarist]

Requirements:

5.1 Audio control
DVD playback
Audio CD playback
Control of multiple televisions + audio (ie: being able to play something on the big tv + system, and also being able to play something on the solitary tv with built in speakers downstairs, possibly just the same thing)
Supports my Dish Network box
Records TV
Online music and streaming video
Wireless broadcast for a small radio (battery powered or plug powered) that can be taken around the house to hear the music.
Multiple video and audio inputs so I could also have a VCR hooked into the system, etc.
Oh, what the hell- let's have it pick up FM and AM radio too.

This will solve a LOT of problems for both me and my mom, who works in this house as a professional handweaver- a boring job that she prefers to have music or radio on for.

We have a nice receiver (old, tube type, gift from an audiophile uncle) with a nice pair of big speakers. She also has a large phonograph record collection (thus, a phonograph hooked into that receiver) and a 30" TV we got at Walmart. Hey, it works decent. When I'm richer I'm moving up to a 36"/4' lcd display.

Downstairs is where the satellite comes in, but we're moving everything upstairs so the satellite cable can probably be extended or brought in on that level instead. Basically it has to be able to record TV programs (I know the mediacenter PC won't be able to interface with the dish box- so I'm THINKING of having a very small flatscreen display (7" or so) with good clarity to serve as a navigational control for the satellite, letting you choose what it's playing. Then you just select 'satellite in' on the media center PC.

I'm a fan of Klipsch, and, bloated as it is, Audigy, because of all the pro inputs (meaning her musical instruments can be recorded at some time too.

Initial budget is hopefully under 1000 dollars, but can float up and down depending on what I'm ebaying on any given month.

What do you guys think?

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Except for the recording TV part, it seems like a nice receiver with dual zone would take care of most of that.

Add in a real DVD player and a Tivo box....

Online music and streaming video - any POS computer should be able to handle that. Do you have an old one lying around?

Wireless broadcast for small radio - I don't know really... would a cheap pair of wireless headphones get the job done?

I don't know if this is something at all that you'd want to do, but I think it would require less tweeking and such.

It just seems like a computer is not the best way to connect multiple devices... and a receiver is pretty much designed for that.

 

[plagiarist]

I have a real DVD player. No one in my family likes headphones.

Yeah, a receiver is designed to connect multiple devices. I like the idea of controlling it all through a remote and being able to select inputs at will. I could just use the existing receiver for some of the audio, (tape deck, radio, phono) and have a single selection on the media center for it.

Edit: Hey, sweet, it's you! I found out about Bose being crap through your signature.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Somebody has to fight their marketing department

A receiver can do video switching too.

In fact several models have dual remotes so you could have one in the main room and then a secondary remote in a different room with a remote repeater station. I haven't looked into getting remote signals to different floors, but I know it's possible.

For example, my old Harman Kardon AVR325 had dual zone. It could do 5.1 in one room and send stereo to a second room. I actually never used it but I know the capability was there. It only ran me about $350 for the HK also. That would leave you plenty of money to get a decent computer going and find a solution to the wireless radio problem.

I guess I just see a receiver as a cleaner option overall.

Is your mom pretty comfortable with computers? I don't really have a media center computer so I haven't used one to see how easy it would be to navigate around it. I'm thinking it might be more difficult to select a source and output on a computer than it would be to hit a couple buttons (or in my case a single button to turn on all appropriate devices and change settings) on a receiver remote to get things working.

Do you have a computer around that could play streaming video and internet music? It seems to me that those tasks would be the only ones that you'd need a computer to do vs a dedicated HT component.

I'm surprised someone hasn't come in here to say that's a terrible idea and give you a bunch of specs on a $1000 computer as an option for you.

Check out AVSforum. There are guys that have tons of experience in setting up stuff like this for themselves and clients.

What kind of speakers were you thinking here? I'm kind of confused on how this is all working.

Ok, so you have

TV downstairs that you want to be able to select different inputs on (which ones do you need on that TV?)
Sound is handled by the TV speakers?

Computer upstairs
Are you watching anything on the actual computer or is that just a source for music/video from the internet and whatever else gets allocated to the computer?
Sound is at the computer by a set of computer speakers, or is this the same audio as the TV has upstairs?

TV upstairs = main viewing area? You want all inputs available here for sure?
Audio is handled by what?

Existing receiver and 2 speakers... is this in a dedicated room or could these speakers be used as the start of a 5.1 system that you want? What kind of speakers are these?

Satellite input... I don't have satellite so I'm not too familiar with what it's compatable with as far as displays and possibly recording off it. Is this the source you wanted to record on your computer?

 

[plagiarist]

The media center pc is just like yours, just with more video doo-hickies than usual, and sometimes in a snazzy sideways case. Heh, my first out of date computers had those cases, and now they're the epitome of style. Imagine that. Often I see HTPC (home theatre PC aka media center pc) builds pricing at over 2k, but I bet I can nail 500 or 750 for just what I want, and adding on more lightly used parts later on.

They're classic stereo speakers, about the size of an exceptionally large toddler. Wired into the receiver. I'm figuring the receiver will become the recipient of the audio output, so from the start I can just use onboard output on the HTPC until I have a 5.1 system to need a card for. The only thing is I like the conveniance of choosing 'phonograph' on a screen instead of stepping to the receiver to select it, and if some things are going directly to the receiver, they'll be bypassing the PC, and unrecordable. When I think about it, I'll only need one input like that for the phonograph, because that's all there'd be.

The receiver is an older model, like I said it uses vacuum tubes and gives some really nice sound quality. No video.

My mom is comfortable with PCs, and the media center xp interface should make it really easy.

This'll drive half the forum nuts, I love the idea: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1678869,00.asp

If you haven't figured it out yet, my mom has a LOT of media in cassette and vinyl, so being compatible with it lets me phase it over to lossless WMA. Heck, she can record something to tape if she wants to, for whatever reason that would be. I love nearly useless but fun options.

I'd LOVE a radio tuner that fits in a 3.25" bay with a LCD display (basically exactly like a little car radio) for AM/FM which also interfaces with the PC so you can tune it from the bay manually AND via software. Of course, it's also a ridiculous concept, but I'm eccentric like that. It would be more useful for my tower, because I could reach over and tweak the knob. For the HTPC, an internal card is best. But I'm digressing.

Satellite has to be processed by the satellite box before becoming a TV signal. I figure that will take up one of the video inputs, and the VCR will take the other. Again, with capture, eventually the VCR will be phased away as files get recorded and saved. (assuming a hauppage card with dual input). You can navigate the satellite using it's remote, just seeing the results on the main display, so nix the other stuff I said about it.

Back in NY I had a tech buddy who did illegal modifications of satellite boxes, and he had some PCs he had built dish boxes into. It was actually tres cool and if I had the cash, I'd fedex my dish unit up to him and have a usable setup cooked up for me. But that's hassle, and I'm going to go with what works, and upgrade later if the bug bites me. Saves money, too.

Overall I imagine the whole system and all components being upstairs in the cozy living room we're creating, with a secondary output down to the downstairs where there will just be a 'terminal' with a RF remote and tv screen+speakers. There is a room directly below the room this will be that was going to be our living room, but now is occupied by several large pieces of wooden weaving equipment. A TV still suits it.

Right now the TV isn't anything fancy, so I don't think the video card needs to be too fancy beyond possibly supporting two simultaneous displays, and useful goodies. I see all kinds of debates on what's right for what big fancy home theatre display- I'll go through that when I get to it, and I also recognize that the quality might not be that great for web browsing. Big whoop.

Her computer can play streaming music and video. I just like the idea of having it all united with the HTPC. It's not like all of a sudden this will be the only PC capable of it- it'll just be able to record it, (hopefully) and broadcast it to other areas of the house. That'll just be handy. Yes, those parts could just be with her PC. I could get the remote broadcast thing and leave it on hers until the HTPC is done. There's also the wireless laptop option for whenever one of us has one, assuming I can set up the HTPC to stream media over the network. Lots of possibilities here.

I see a need for a big harddisk that gets joined by buddies eventually, because ripping DVDs, cds, cassettes, vhs, and phonograph (and of course putting them all back onto optical media if necessary) will take up a good amount of space. Also, it'll make it so you can open the media without needing to do anything with a phonograph or VCR. Similar principle with some of the internet content.


Here's some miscellaneous notes:

Internet browsing
Weather
emulators with PS2 controllers
Webcams around the house and yard
Phone etc (recording conversations with modemspy, serving as a massive speakerphone, or just throw a VOIP package on it)

Anyway, that's the end of my very long, rather rambling post. I'm quite sorry for subjecting you to it, but hopefully it was at least as interesting as I think it is.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

I know what a media center PC is, but I haven't used one as far as the interface goes. I know there are linux and windows based options and they vary a great deal so I don't know how easy any particular one is to set up and to use once it's ready.

internal radio + tape deck for the comptuer

That tape deck is $150???
For radio, I think you can get a TV tuner that does that.
Alternatively I remember their being a drivebay accessory you could get for a 5.25" bay that included a nifty looking graphic equalizer and a radio tuner. I think it was around $100 for it?

I would suggest instead of $250 on these parts to buy a receiver and use an existing tape deck. You could still record from your comptuer, just run from your receiver to a line-in on your soundcard.

One of the reasons I'm thinking a receiver would be a good investment now is that if you want a real sound system associated with this comptuer you're going to need one anyway.

If you have a receiver, then you can use separate components for several of these tasks rather than having your computer try to be a jack of all trades.

In my own system, I see that receiver as the central point and the computer as just a source for it.
You have your computer as the central point and that's fine too, but I like the receiver as a hub method more than my old method.

I used to have a hodge podge setup with my comptuer. I had a VCR and gaming system hooked up to my computer with a bunch of line-in line-out action, but it never seemed to be quite right as a final solution.

With a receiver based setup it seems like things just work and I don't have to worry about any "tricks" or specialty products to get things set up how I want them.

Things have really come a long way lately in HTPC development though, so maybe I'm behind the times

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

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