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General Question about an HTPC

Hacp

Hacp

Lifer
So after getting some cash recently, I have decided that I want to build an HTPC. But I have NO idea how to build one, or what you need to do it! I have read online guides, but they don't go into much detail. I have a few genearl questions that I would like to have asked.

1) Video Card.
Is thing that connects the anolog signal to the TV the only thing you need? Can you tape Cable TV shows using only that connection? Thanks.

2) Recording
Besides WMCE, what programs are there that help in recording TV shows? Are there software applications preferably less than 50 dollars, that can update the TV schedules and record them before hand like TiVO? What format is the show generally recorded in?

3) HD space.
How much space does for example one 30 minute episode take?

I don't really care that much about Anolog versus Digital, as I'm not a sucker for quality much. Thanks for helping me! I'm pretty sure that a Basic PC would run in an HTPC pretty well. I'm thinking socket 754 with a Sempron/512MB of ram/ 2x 250GB hard drives.
 
Originally posted by: Hacp
So after getting some cash recently, I have decided that I want to build an HTPC. But I have NO idea how to build one, or what you need to do it! I have read online guides, but they don't go into much detail. I have a few genearl questions that I would like to have asked.

1) Video Card.
Is thing that connects the anolog signal to the TV the only thing you need? Can you tape Cable TV shows using only that connection? Thanks.

2) Recording
Besides WMCE, what programs are there that help in recording TV shows? Are there software applications preferably less than 50 dollars, that can update the TV schedules and record them before hand like TiVO? What format is the show generally recorded in?

3) HD space.
How much space does for example one 30 minute episode take?

I don't really care that much about Anolog versus Digital, as I'm not a sucker for quality much. Thanks for helping me! I'm pretty sure that a Basic PC would run in an HTPC pretty well. I'm thinking socket 754 with a Sempron/512MB of ram/ 2x 250GB hard drives.
Click to expand...


1. Sounds like you are talking about TV out, that will only let you display the computer sceen on the TV, it doesnt' go back the other direction. What you need is a TV tuner card, or you could get an ATI AIW video card which has the tuner built in to the video card.

2. Most TV tuners will come with all the software you need. ATI's AIW cards come with their multimedia center, and like TIVO you can schedule recordings, and you can also pause live TV. It also comes with a program called Guide+ that gives the TV listings, you just have to download an update once a week, it doesn't do it automaticly.

3. As for what format it records in, they usualy give you the option to choose that yourself. I have an ATI AIW, and the software allows me to record using ATI's on type(ATI VCR), AVI, or MPEG, and there are differant quality settings as well. With the settings I use, a 30m show takes up about 1.3Gb of space, but it all depends on your settings.

From the sounds of it an ATI AIW card would work good for you. I've had mine for 3 years now. If you plan on doing any Video encoding to put shows on to DVD at some point, you would want a more powerful proccessor and more ram, unless you don't mind waiting.
 
First. You really don't need Media Center Edition for HTPC unless you want the remote that comes with it. 🙂 Windows XP works just fine.

I would recommend a stand-alone tuner card rather than a video card with built-in tuner because then you won't be tied to your video card for TV recording and the ATi All-In-Wonder cards still use the old Theater 200 chip. You'll be better off getting a separate tuner that does its work with hardware.

The ATi Theater 550 Pro cards are probably the best cards out now for standard definition TV recording but the Hauppauge cards are also good.

There are several internet-based program guides that are free-of-charge. TitanTV comes to mind.

I have High Definition satellite, so I use BeyondTV 4 since it allows me to use the video in on my Theater 550 Pro to watch/record programming from my satellite receiver.

If you are going to be using a cable box ( or satellite receiver ) with your setup, you will need to get an IR Blaster to change channels on the cable box using the PC's remote.

This is a good place to go for HTPC bundles.

http://www.pcalchemy.com/

Here is a decent deal from the SnapStream store.

http://store.snapstream.com/btv-pvr150.html

http://store.snapstream.com/btvandpvr500.html
 
Originally posted by: stevty2889
Originally posted by: Hacp
So after getting some cash recently, I have decided that I want to build an HTPC. But I have NO idea how to build one, or what you need to do it! I have read online guides, but they don't go into much detail. I have a few genearl questions that I would like to have asked.

1) Video Card.
Is thing that connects the anolog signal to the TV the only thing you need? Can you tape Cable TV shows using only that connection? Thanks.

2) Recording
Besides WMCE, what programs are there that help in recording TV shows? Are there software applications preferably less than 50 dollars, that can update the TV schedules and record them before hand like TiVO? What format is the show generally recorded in?

3) HD space.
How much space does for example one 30 minute episode take?

I don't really care that much about Anolog versus Digital, as I'm not a sucker for quality much. Thanks for helping me! I'm pretty sure that a Basic PC would run in an HTPC pretty well. I'm thinking socket 754 with a Sempron/512MB of ram/ 2x 250GB hard drives.
Click to expand...


1. Sounds like you are talking about TV out, that will only let you display the computer sceen on the TV, it doesnt' go back the other direction. What you need is a TV tuner card, or you could get an ATI AIW video card which has the tuner built in to the video card.

2. Most TV tuners will come with all the software you need. ATI's AIW cards come with their multimedia center, and like TIVO you can schedule recordings, and you can also pause live TV. It also comes with a program called Guide+ that gives the TV listings, you just have to download an update once a week, it doesn't do it automaticly.

3. As for what format it records in, they usualy give you the option to choose that yourself. I have an ATI AIW, and the software allows me to record using ATI's on type(ATI VCR), AVI, or MPEG, and there are differant quality settings as well. With the settings I use, a 30m show takes up about 1.3Gb of space, but it all depends on your settings.

From the sounds of it an ATI AIW card would work good for you. I've had mine for 3 years now. If you plan on doing any Video encoding to put shows on to DVD at some point, you would want a more powerful proccessor and more ram, unless you don't mind waiting.
Click to expand...


WOW that answered ALOT of my questions. So a 30 minute program really requires 1.3 GB os space? How high is your quality? What if you just want to make it regular anolog TV quality? Would 300MB of space for a 30minute spot sound reasonable?

Also, is the ATI software easy to use? Does it have any quirks? Yes it looks like I'm going to be buying an ATI card, probably the cheap saphire theather 550 card. If ATI provides the software, and it isn't that bad to use, it looks like I'll only be spending 70 bucks on my upgrade instead of the projected 200 🙂. Thanks for your info!
 
30m in 300mb of space? It can probably be done, but the quality will be pretty poor. The software isn't bad at all, I have had some bugs, but I always have with ATI anything. Update to the most recent drivers and software and everything should work good. I've been using ATI TV tuners for quite a while, including my 5 year old TV wonder VE.
 
If you buy the right video hardware, you hardly need anything in terms of processing power. I've got a good htpc running on a 1ghz c3 cpu. Skip the ATi AIWs, get a good pvr card, either the Hauppauge WinTV PVR-150, or one with the ATi theater chips. I'd rather get the Hauppauge myself, as it has more connectors. And I just record in standard dvd video quality, 720x480 mpeg2, 1gb+ per 30min, so if I wanted I could just burn it onto a video dvd without any effort.
 
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