Cheap HTPC Setup

[xanis]

For a while I've wanted to build a cheap and reliable HTPC that I could use to record TV and store my DVDs and music. In this project I also want to be able to stream the media throughout my house to my laptop and TVs. The key in this whole things is cheap. I'm not looking to spend a lot of money on this thing, I just want something inexpensive that will get the job done without too much hassle. So without further ado, I give you current list of the parts for my planned HTPC:

Motherboard: ASRock 775VM800
Processor: Intel Celeron D 336 Prescott
Memory: 1GB (2x512) G.Skill DDR400
Hard Drive: (2) Seagate Barracuda 300GB

I have a case and a power supply and will be using an old 5200 for the video card.

 

[Zepper]

Why Celeron D when Sock-A or Socket 754 Athlon/Sempron beats it in the performance/price=value equation?

.bh.

 

[trueimage]

I have been thinking about this too.

but I didn't ever think of an intel processor OR anything but value ram.

why? i'm not going to overclock, and I want as little heat as possible.

Although I do want to be able to play raw hdtv video which looks like it will require 2.8ghz and 512mb ram for 720p (although I don't know if that means 2.8ghz intel and 2800+ amd chip or actually 2.8ghz for amd as well) I don't know what video to get for hardware decoding on the card either.

Anyway, mine would look like:
sempron64 or venice undervolted as much as possible
cheap board that would fit
value ram, probably 1gb at least
decent sized hd with ok speed.
video with hw decoding help, otherwise cheap stuff

my problem would be the case/power supply, what are you using, and does anyone know something really really cheap that looks ok?

I guess you could always stream from your main pc and save on the hdd size and get something cheaper and cooler.

I really wanted to build a mythtv box, but my satellite isn't compatible, hopefully they come out with a box with firewire out or something

 

[TerryMathews]

Having been around the block a few times, let me give a little sage advice on the subject.

First off, you either need to pick a program to run and a capture card to go with it, or the other way around. Personally, I recommend the Hauppauge PVR-250, as it gives great capture quality, is rock solid stable and well understood, and gives you a nice selection of PVR programs to choose from (MCE 2005, BeyondTV, SageTV, GBPVR). There is also a PVR-150, but it's fairly new and I don't really know much about it.

For a graphics card, you almost certainly want an nVidia graphics card, something from the 5000 or 6000 series. If you're seriously going to be doing a lot with raw HDTV (where are you even going to get it???), the 6600 has acceleration for both MPEG2 and WMV9. If you're just concerned with MPEG2 acceleration, any 5000 or 6000 series card will work; as long as your just running a PVR, a 5200 will work just fine.

Something else you need to think about... Sound output. Are you going to just connect the PVR up to your TVs speakers? Surround sound? If you're going the surround sound route, you want to pick a motherboard or sound card that has a digital out port of some sort, whether its coaxial or optical. DD5.1 encoding isn't really important (and can cause problems), unless you plan on doing non-PVR stuff on that box IE gaming. One thing to keep in mind is that your computer won't put out the proper stereo vs. Pro Logic detector signals on the digital line like a DVD player will, so you'll have to set the mode manually (or just leave it in Pro Logic...)

SageTV and BeyondTV both have free trials. GBPVR is free. I personally prefer SageTV, it's much more scalable and supports clients a la Media Center Extender. Give them all a try and see what you like.

 

[RossMAN]

TerryMathews,

Thank you for your sage advice, bookmarked 🙂

If you're reading this, have you tried SageTV v4?

 

[TerryMathews]

Originally posted by: RossMAN
TerryMathews,

Thank you for your sage advice, bookmarked 🙂

If you're reading this, have you tried SageTV v4?

Not yet, I'm still running on 2.2.6 or whatever the last stable version was prior to v3.

I'm going to do a reinstall and change a few things before the new season of BSG starts Jan 6.

As I understand it, the only difference between v4 and v3 is that Sage now comes with the Studio, which lets you make your own configurations. It's like theming, but there's more to it. You're able to actually program in new functionality through the Studio.