Need Advice on Media Center PC

[JMoore]

Basically, my friend is thinking of building a media center pc to hook up to his HDTV and Xbox 360 so he can record live tv, and maybe play some games on it (flight simulator). I suggested he just get a tivo, but he says a media center pc will be just as good if not better. My question is, though, how do media pcs run? How is the image qulaity if you are running through a tv card? Is there anything important that we need to make sure we get? Does the processor really matter that much, or the amt of ram? If you guys could answer some of those questions or give some input of your own id really appreciate it. thx.

 

[Howard]

The CPUs are responsible for video encoding and decoding (important if you play a lot of HD video) and also tend to be the bottlenecks in flight simulators, IIRC.

 

[Mikey]

Personally, I think a TIVO would be a better deal. A lifetime contract wtih them will end up costing much less then the computer itself, let alone the software.

 

[DaveSimmons]

If he has cable and he has or is thinking of getting HD TV, then the cable box DVR is only about $5 a month more than the regular HD cable box for Comcast and the other big one (forget the name, my brother has it).

My brother's is dual-tuner and records in HD.

 

[JMoore]

Originally posted by: j00bacca
Personally, I think a TIVO would be a better deal. A lifetime contract wtih them will end up costing much less then the computer itself, let alone the software.

I do as well, but he is dead set on this lol

Anyways, as for the CPU, would it be better to go for a AMD X2 3800 after the price cuts, or would a single core be fine?

 

[Slugbait]

Single core will be fine, especially if he only wants to play Flight Simulator or whatever. I don't think dual-core makes a difference for TV pause/playback (I've got a Northwood 3.06, it's perfect).

Just have a decent capture card, a videocard that will have the connections necessary for the HDTV set, at least a half-gig of RAM, and the biggest friggin' hard drive he can afford.

Note that onboard audio (depending on the chip) may not pass 5.1 audio via coax to the amp from within the MCE shell...he might have to run PowerDVD outside of MCE for surround sound to work. Or, just get a decent soundcard.

The benefits of an MCE machine is also email, web surfing, IM...stuff that TIVO can't do.

 

[secretanchitman]

any p4 w/ HT or an amd athlon64 would be good enough for his needs.

i would get at least a 6600GT class or higher card (capable of ViVo if possible) and a dedicated HDTV or just TV card.

some mobos can pass 5.1/7.1 through its jacks, but some dont. you could always get a cheap audigy 2 ZS or an x-fi to be on the safe side.

300GB IDE and SATA drives are less than 100 bucks from maxtor, seagate, and western digital. you guys should throw a couple of them in there for lots of space.

i dont know if MCE can record tv even though i have it installed but have no tv tuner card.

 

[Slugbait]

Originally posted by: secretanchitman
i dont know if MCE can record tv even though i have it installed but have no tv tuner card.

One of the primary functions of MCE is to record TV.

 

[secretanchitman]

Originally posted by: Slugbait

Originally posted by: secretanchitman
i dont know if MCE can record tv even though i have it installed but have no tv tuner card.

One of the primary functions of MCE is to record TV.

oh really? thanks for that. ill have to look into it...

for you!

 

[Raduque]

Originally posted by: Slugbait

Note that onboard audio (depending on the chip) may not pass 5.1 audio via coax to the amp from within the MCE shell...he might have to run PowerDVD outside of MCE for surround sound to work. Or, just get a decent soundcard.

Onboard audio will pass Dolby Digital/DTS on DVDs in MCE, as long as the mobo has the correct output (optical or COAX). If your friend needs more features, or his onboard audio doesn't have digital out, any cheap soundcard with digital out will work fine. For surround sound in games, WMVHD and other stuff, a soundcardd like the X-Mystique or X-Plosion is needed, it does real-time Dolby Digital or DTS encoding of non-DD/DTS surround formats.

I also second the biggest HD he can afford. I have a 320GB in my HTPC and it's starting to get full, I need a pair of 500GB drives =( I also reccomend a gig of ram and at least a 2GHz CPU if he's going to be doing HD video. Also, most flight sims are CPU-bound, with all the physics calcs going on. A DX9-level vidcard is at the very least required for MCE to work correctly, when I used a GF4Ti4600, I had no end of issues that dissapeared when I switched to a fx5200. At the very least, his vidcard needs DVI or a breakout cable with Component out.

MCE boxes can be finicky to get running, but once they are, they're well worth the trouble. I don't know how I'd watch TV without mine. :thumbsup:

 

[JMoore]

Thanks for the replies so far.... Two more quick questions, though.

1.)When you record TV to your HD is that CPU extensive?
2.)When you playback video from your hd to your tv is that CPU extensive?

Or is it really only CPU extensive when you decide to change the format/quality of the recording?

 

[Raduque]

HD video is that CPU intensive. I can play back most HD clips fine on my 2.26GHz Pent-M laptop, but my desktop (1.8ghz semp64) and my HTPC (1.83AXP) can't play it back smooth. Normal video (SD recordings, xvid/divx, mpegs) aren't really that CPU intensive till you start filtering them with something like FFDSHOW.

 

[Slugbait]

Originally posted by: Raduque

Originally posted by: Slugbait

Note that onboard audio (depending on the chip) may not pass 5.1 audio via coax to the amp from within the MCE shell...he might have to run PowerDVD outside of MCE for surround sound to work. Or, just get a decent soundcard.

Onboard audio will pass Dolby Digital/DTS on DVDs in MCE, as long as the mobo has the correct output (optical or COAX).

Please note that YMMV...there are a couple of posts at thegreenbutton specifically griping about how people cannot get it to work in MCE, primarily because of the audio chipset. If you get a SoundMAX (which is on too many Asus boards, among others), you might get it to work in MCE...there are several different solutions that worked for a few of the 85 replies in this thread. None worked for me, tho'...I must play my DVDs outside of MCE shell for 5.1 surround. Good luck.