media center software

[songokussm]

what are your suggestions on media center software-

what i want to do-
want dvds on my tv
have a 5.1 suround sound speaker system
remote control for pausing, playing, etc
able to record live tv and if possible record several channels and allow me to watch others.
my wii needs to work with it

this system will have no monitor, kb or mouse. just a tv and a remote.

is this possible? what kinda costs are we looking at? Operating system? and what hardware is required?

 

[The Boston Dangler]

not only is it possible, the forums are full of these.

 

[Zolty]

If you don't want HD then the system requirements are fairly slim, you can probably put it together for around $200-$500 dependent mainly on how much storage you want. For an OS there is a MythTV distribution which works right out of the box with hauppauge TV cards.

 

[songokussm]

so thats it? i build the system just like normal and toss in a hauppauge tv tuner?

 

[songokussm]

this project is becomming more expensive then what i was planning.
----
CPU: 58 (3200 boxed)
DDR:42 (512ddr400)
HD:91 (320gb)
TV Tuner: 96 (Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-150 MCE)
Video: 55 (x1300 for svideo out. i've read alot of nvidia cards have issues with video out.)
Speakers:62 (sexy little 5.1 set)
cords-
s-video:8
cat5e:13
---

curentlly about 425!!! WoW... am i missing something here?

 

[leglez]

Check the For Sale forums and look for used components and you can lower the price

 

[Lord Banshee]

The WinTV-PVR-150 will not be able to record and watch TV at the same time. You have to get a dual tuner model, much more expensive. But idea for you, this is what i do with my HTPC and the same card not the MCE one though i wanted the remote , i have a two way splitter from the wall with one going to my TV coaxial and the other to my PVR-150. So if i want to record some TV show with my HTPC i set it up and record, then i switch my TV from S-video to Cable/Antenna (coaxial input) and i watch whatever i like. It works pretty good.

I have a 6150 onboard GPU and it is ok, my 9800pro had better 2D quality but overall the difference isn't as big and the drivers for the 6150 are better IMO. But the x1300 will work great, i was going to get that model.

Software and i can't help to much i use GB-PVR (free) and it is ok.. But i still need to work on encoding/decoding and i still haven't had time to set my colors correctly... things look off. But overall i love the image quality i have right now, it is a lot better than normal coaxial to tv and better than my living from digital cable box... other than the off colors that is. But one thing to notice is tv is delayed about 1/4 sec with my HTPC, not sure why and it doesn't bother me but i was a funny moment turning on the HTPC and another TV in the house on the same channel.

anyway i hope to see more come of this thread ...

another site i like http://www.htpcnews.com/

 

[BehindEnemyLines]

I have the PVR-150MCE with BeyondTV 4.5. It works fine, but there's a 1/4sec delay between the tuner and an actual TV set. I think it's because we're watching a recorded version of the live broadcast. This is how I can pause live TV show, but it also introduces that 1/4 sec delay. If you switch to WinTV (crappy software), then video and audio should sync perfectly with your TV set.

I mainly use it with DScaler using DShow mode. Apparently DScaler doesn't work with the PVR-150 using overlay which has better video quality and lower cpu usage.

 

[songokussm]

the PVR-150MCE has duel inputs and a MCE remote!!. one cable and one (the name is escaping me). you know the yellow for video, red/white for audio. like what a ps2 has. so my thinking was using my digital box and having that plunged into the ps2 like plugs and then also having the coaxial be connected. analog for when its recording or i could just switch over to the tv's inputs. because my "100% digital sound and video' i get from comcast is worse then the analog i get (and OTA TV). Unless this isn't possible? ill go hop on and find the manual.

as for software this computer will need to be running windows. I like the look and feel of MCE, plus i also have ultimate vista which has it as well. The system itself will be doing some computational tasks and database compression. That translated means, i have close to 2TB of family movies and i am very tired of them being on one of 'my' systems. meaning it now gets to deal with them and i need to convert them from mpeg2 to h.264c or at the very least xvid. The system will be very quite, but not small which is fine by me.

if there is a software type solution that runs on windows, suggest it. ill look it up.

lastly, im trying to find one of those DVI=> component out adapters that actually works. any ideas?

 

[songokussm]

after some research, since there is not definitive answer i have to say that it looks like the card can only accept one line of data at a time. bot both. either colax or the ps2 type connectors.

ill be buying the 1062 version.

back to the original question what are some forms of software i can use that run through windows?