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Originally posted by: alevasseur14
I use Media Center and a Hauppauge HD2250 on the PC I built that I keep in my room. My roomie and I don't have a TV and my 24" monitor is plenty big for laying in bed and watching a movie or TV show. The remote works great and I really love the setup. I'm not sure how it'd work if we ever get cable but we don't have it now so it's irrelevant. If I can get the tuner to work with HD channels over digital cable, there's no way I'd ever go back to renting the DVR from Comcast!

I don't think Vista's MC supports ClearQAM. That's what would stop me from using it with cable, right? Will 7's MC fix that?
Click to expand...

Yes. Although you need a cable card solution for the scrambled channels. I just use the free unscrambled cable now, and if free cable isn't available, I use an antenna.

<--cheap bastard.
 
I had one I built a while back (AthlonXP 2500+ Barton, 1gb DDR, 40gb boot, 2x250 recorded TV storage, 320gb other media storage, 2xHauppage PVR150MCE, Radeon 9700Pro, XP MCE), but that one's now retired and has been replaced with a BRD capable machine. Athlon X2 4400+, 2gb DDR2, 500gb media storage, 120gb laptop SATA drive, LG BRD/HDDVD drive, Radeon HD2600Pro. Plays BRD and HDDVDs flawlessly on Win7+TotalMedia 3.
 
Originally posted by: alyarb
Originally posted by: CRXican
No one could ever explain a simple way to make the sound and video work so I never built one. It's a shame cause my PC is less than a foot from my TV (42" plasma).
Click to expand...

dude that is the flimsiest excuse i have ever heard or even conceived.
Click to expand...

oh and I already have a DVD player attached to the TV, it's easier just to put a disc in and press play

no crappy conversion or resolution issues
 
I had one in my old apartment, but since getting a multi-tuner DVR, I stopped seeing a need for it.

I'm actually in the middle of re-purposing it to give to my mom to upgrade her desktop.
 
Originally posted by: CRXican
Originally posted by: alyarb
Originally posted by: CRXican
No one could ever explain a simple way to make the sound and video work so I never built one. It's a shame cause my PC is less than a foot from my TV (42" plasma).
Click to expand...

dude that is the flimsiest excuse i have ever heard or even conceived.
Click to expand...

oh and I already have a DVD player attached to the TV, it's easier just to put a disc in and press play

no crappy conversion or resolution issues
Click to expand...

???
 
I built a $200 Vista Ultimate box. It plays all of my ripped content and other video files. I added a $70 Blu-Ray drive and now it plays BluRay.

It plays 1080p video files and Blu-Ray perfectly.
 
My main system (see sig) doubles as my "home theater" since I do not own a tv. The only thing I actually watch on tv is football; I have a Pinnacle USB OTA HD receiver for that.
 
I've used one as an HD DVR since I got an OTA tuner card 3 or 4 years ago.

Started as a Mobile Athlon 2600+, then as Socket 754 3800+, now it's an X2 3800+

Running Win 7. (7MC rocks)
 
I may or may not count. I have had an HTPC setup for about two years now. However, when I finally upgraded this past week to a respectable hardware setup, I have to take it apart again to RMA the processor. It is also still hooked up to a standard def television screen. See specs in sig.

I fail. 🙁
 
Originally posted by: CRXican
Originally posted by: alyarb
Originally posted by: CRXican
No one could ever explain a simple way to make the sound and video work so I never built one. It's a shame cause my PC is less than a foot from my TV (42" plasma).
Click to expand...

dude that is the flimsiest excuse i have ever heard or even conceived.
Click to expand...

oh and I already have a DVD player attached to the TV, it's easier just to put a disc in and press play

no crappy conversion or resolution issues
Click to expand...

well uh, i just use xp x64. no media center GUI whatsoever. just MPC-HC with the haali renderer and a 1200GB folder of my stuff. so i just double click on what i want. if you enjoy HDTV/bluray I think the htpc is the ideal media center. optical discs are for backing up and/or sharing
 
Originally posted by: Pliablemoose
Originally posted by: Safeway
Originally posted by: Pliablemoose
Originally posted by: Safeway
I have an HTPC, but I am ready to make a switch to something less shitty. I don't want to have to fumble with a keyboard and mouse. I don't want to have to boot up Windows. Grrr, HTPCs are so unrefined.
Click to expand...

Fail son.

Media Center has an option to boot directly into it, and you can control them with any programmable or dedicated remote.

Windows 7 version of Media Center is a very good DVR/front end. I got very tired of the other software quickly.
Click to expand...

I'll look into it again with Windows 7 Ultimate, once UT starts selling it for $30. I'd rather have a touchscreen control panel next to me to control the HTPC.

Other than that, I think I'd prefer a NetFlix/Hulu box and a TiVo.
Click to expand...

I have a Logitech Harmony 1000, not impressed with it at all. It looks cool as hell though. I prefer a Logitech with hardware buttons.
Click to expand...

I was referring to a 15" ot 17" custom panel.

http://www.raftertales.com/wp-...ater-seats-leather.jpg
 
my old HTPC http://i86.photobucket.com/alb...efiend420/IM000882.jpg

xp2000, 2gb ddr, geforce 7400gt(i think)

now i have a dedicated file server and a popcorn hour...just finished the server a couple days ago

shameless pic whoring

http://i86.photobucket.com/alb.../quakefiend420/1-1.jpg
http://i86.photobucket.com/alb...17/quakefiend420/2.jpg

i finally built a non ghetto computer!

EDIT: specs on that one are an amd 4450e, 2gb ddr2, 74gb 15K scsi boot drive, 39320a controller, 6 1TB drives, 1 500GB, 1 400GB running WHS

EDIT2: forgot to mention, i use a popcorn hour for all my media purposes now
 
i use an htpc case, but it's just for playback - no recording. i use foobar and mpc (vlc if needed) because i haven't seen a media interface i 100% liked.

silverstone lc-20m
asus p5n-d
q9300
2x passive-cooled gigabyte 9600gt
 
Some day you'll be married and have a couch, a chair, rugs, end tables, and a plain old TV. Then you'll look back and say "Man...I wasted a lot of money back then".
 
Originally posted by: Fritzo
Some day you'll be married and have a couch, a chair, rugs, end tables, and a plain old TV. Then you'll look back and say "Man...I wasted a lot of money back then".
Click to expand...

LOL, married 2X, it's over-rated.

First wife rant during divorce: "You have all those toys!!!!"

Me: "And I'll have more after you're gone!!!"

Sure I don't get laid as often as I did when married, but I don't have to look at my $ being spent on fracking shoes, either.

I mean seriously, who in the hell would choose a pair of shoes over a 1.5T 7200 rpm HD?
 
Originally posted by: Fritzo
Some day you'll be married and have a couch, a chair, rugs, end tables, and a plain old TV. Then you'll look back and say "Man...I wasted a lot of money back then".
Click to expand...

I'm hope I am never that boring.
 
i have an htpc, and i have it extended to my ps3/360, as well as hard drive sharing for all of my family's computers.

htpc has:

intel xeon (c2d based) 3060 2.4Ghz @ 3.6Ghz
asus p5w dh deluxe mobo
2x2GB of ddr2-1000 ram
evga geforce 8800GTS 320MB
lg super-blu blu-ray/hd-dvd reader
microsoft wireless entertainment keyboard/mouse 8000 set (it sucks)
500GB sata hd for boot
1TB sata hd for pictures/ripped dvds/music
1.5TB sata hd for HD stuff
sony vpl-vw-100 1080p projector (oldie, but a goodie)

usually have xp pro on it, but now i have windows 7 RC installed.
 
Originally posted by: Fritzo
Some day you'll be married and have a couch, a chair, rugs, end tables, and a plain old TV. Then you'll look back and say "Man...I wasted a lot of money back then".
Click to expand...

My wife loves watching stuff on our Xbox. It'll be great when we have kids - I can put the children's shows on the media server so they won't be able to scratch the discs, and they won't need to watch live TV with commercials.

She also loves that our large collection of DVDs is in boxes instead of on shelves in the family room.
 
Originally posted by: mugs
Originally posted by: Fritzo
Some day you'll be married and have a couch, a chair, rugs, end tables, and a plain old TV. Then you'll look back and say "Man...I wasted a lot of money back then".
Click to expand...

My wife loves watching stuff on our Xbox. It'll be great when we have kids - I can put the children's shows on the media server so they won't be able to scratch the discs, and they won't need to watch live TV with commercials.

She also loves that our large collection of DVDs is in boxes instead of on shelves in the family room.
Click to expand...

I have to call shens, she's obviously not a woman.

:laugh:
 
Kinda. I have my gaming rig hooked up to my 50" plasma. There is no TV card in it but I use Hulu. I'll eventually build a htpc though.
I need to get a bluetooth mouse and keyboard. RF range isn't cutting it. But I like trackball mice.
 
using a spare mainboard (Abit IP35-e) that i repaired, I decided to upgrade my desktop and make a secondary rig. I will either sell it locally or use it as a HTPC to drive a LCD TV that I may buy in the future.

Rig1:
Q9550 (12MB L2)
MSI P35 Neo2 F/R (P35 Platinum)
ASUS arctic square hs/f
Sapphire HD4890 vapor-x 1GB
8GB (4x2gb) OCZ platinum pc2-8500 (rated ddr1110/5-5-5-15 @ 1.8v)
80gb x25-m gen1
samsung dvdrw
onboard audio
wireless b/g/n
PC Power & Cooling 750W
Lian Li PC-E8L case

Rig2 (HTPC):
E6420 (4MB L2) 2.13 @ 3.4
Abit IP35-e
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro
Visiontek HD3870 512MB
Hauppage HVR-1250 PCIe
4GB (4x1gb) Corsair XMS2 pc2-5400 (rated ddr675/4-4-4-12 @ 1.9v)
Samsung F1 HD753LJ (x2) (RAID1) (750GB mirrored)
samsung dvdrw
x-fi xtrememusic
wireless b/g
rosewill 550w psu
apevia x-dreamer case abused since 2002
 
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