Looking to build a cheap media center PC

[stardust]

Hey,

I want to build a cheap, but reliable home media center that can play DVD's and record live television. I'm thinking of spending $200-300 including the harddrive.

Can anyone suggest me a setup? Please list the price of the parts...

 

[stardust]

?? anyone ??

I have an old 550mhz P3 and an Asus P3B motherboard, with some PC133 memory I could use.. would that be sufficient? Would anyone suggest me a TV card? Case? Graphics card?

 

[LeadMagnet]

If I was you I would be watching the FatWallet Forum area for a Dell 4600 or SC400 to go on sale for about $299 and then add a sigmadesigns xcard TV card & MPEG encoder.

I know it exceeds your $200 but thats as close I think you can get, with new components. Your old system my be capable if you add the sigmadesigns xcard but you will have performance issues.

Good Luck

 

[coolred]

Yeah, recording live TV is probablly gonna cost you a bit more. I could be wrong, but I don't think that measly CPU will be able to keep up with a software encoder, so therefore you would need a hardware encoder card. You can probablly get one for under 100.00 bucks, A decent size hard drive will also cost you around 100.00 depending on how much space you need. It may be possible to do it with that machien and on that budget, but it would definately not be ideal.

 

[stardust]

Thanks for the replies..

Couldn't I just get a TV card from leadtek and a 80gig harddrive along with my old P3 computer? If they could make XBOX media centers I don't see how they couldn't make a computer version that spec..

I have 512mb PC133 memory and a decent audigy sound card.. i was wondering what other things I should include to make it act like a media center?

Any programs you guys can suggest?

 

[coolred]

Well number one, the Xbox has somewaht better specs then your rig, with maybe less memory. Sure if you want to play DVD's, you can get an ATI card, that shoudl help with DVD playback, hopefully your system can take it. But if you want to record live TV with a software card, again your computer may be able to do it, but you would not be able to do anythign else at all whiel its recording and then you still might get dropped frames, and software cards don't offer the highest picture quality.

 

[stardust]

Well the computer will solely serve as a media center so I don't need to keep using VHS tapes to tape my favorite shows. Can you suggest me a good video card/TV card combo that is most easy to use? Maybe something that has a media center application in itself like my Asus FX5900?

Is the Leadtek TV2000 Deluxe a good choice? As long as I get TV quality TV I'm fine