Looking to build a Media Center TV

[MikeyPutsOut]

If you don't get it by now, I want to build a PC that can do pretty much all that was stated. I'm not looking for something that is so unbelievablly good that it will kill my wallet. But I wanted something decent, or above decent.

The first and only thing I researched was my video card. The AIW looks like the perfect choice. I was concerned, though, about the recording quality, and of course the playback quality. Any onjections to using this card as a TiVO0like recorder? Or would it be best to get a good video card AND a good TV tuner?

Any other suggestions into building this PC would be greatly appreciated. I'm a novice (at best) in building PCs and hardware knowledge, so please help me out. Thanks guys!

 

[Wahsapa]

mini-itx+hauppauge=HTPC

may i suggest a Epia MII 12000 and a Hauppauge 350 in a casetronic travla 137. you could also drop a radeon 9000 in it if you want a little more graphics power, or any pci geforce. or you could get a matx board and put in whatever.

http://mini-itx.com/
<br>[url]http://epiacenter.com/
[/url]<br>http://www.htpcnews.com/

 

[jtusa]

I'm using a P4 2.53G with 512MB and an ATI AIW 8500. Works great for playing everything from DVDs to ROMs to MP3s...I don't record video directly onto it since I have a ReplayTV. Your recorded video quality is going to be more dependent on how you're hooking up your source to the PC(coax, s-video, component, composite, etc.).

 

[NeoV]

I would stay away from the AIW cards

I like Wahsapa's hardware list - I'd add SageTV software to that list!

 

[MikeyPutsOut]

Thanks guys. I'm looking at the mini-itx site right now.

Bump for more comments.

 

[JavaMomma]

I use a Hauppauge PVR-250 &amp; a Geforce5200FX /w TV out. You might want to get a pair of PVR-250s so you can record multiple shows at a time, get Picture-in-Picture support or record + view another show at the same time.

Check out BeyondTV, SageTV for Windows or for Linux check out MythTV.

Nforce2 motherboards with SoundStorm audio are also good.

 

[Wahsapa]

i saw this in the hot deals forum and i thought of this thread, its a pretty good deal

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...0&amp;threadid=1385163

 

[ChefJoe]

I'm sporting a Abit IS-10 / P4 2.8C / 512 mb Corsair / Radeon 9200 / PVR-250 in an Antec Aria ... running beyondTV / Snapstream 3.4 . Make your optical drive a nice 8x burner... record to mpg2, edit out commercials with mpg2vcr, burn with Ulead DVD Movie Factory for a nice (generic) menu...