Questions about Building a Media Center PC

[Cyberslice]

Ok, so i have considered using my computer as a DVR/"TiVO" and want to see shows on my tv. Now i realize there is a difference between a tv tuner card and a platform that turns your computer into a media center pc (such as Windows Media Center Edition). First, i wanna know how the quality of doing this would be on a 62" Samsung DLP-Based HDTV with a PC connector and a DVI connector. My TV is about 1 year old and is similar model HL-R6168W found here http://product.samsung.com/cgi-bin/nabc...=HLR6168WX%2fXAA&selTab=Specifications. I use Dish Network as my satillite provider. Next, i would like to know if there is alternative to purchasing Windows MCE 2005 because i have been told of other reccomended programs, such as Showshifter and myth tv, that run on XP. Last, what would be a rccomended TV Tuner card? Would an all-in-wonder card work properley or are dual coaxial inputs important . Would i want to use the tv as my monitor if i could split the signal (one for recording and one for watching)? My sound system right now is really good, Logitech 5300-e's on a Audigy 2 card. Last, what tv would give me the best quality if i wanted to buy a new one (DLP, LCD, PLASMA, MONITOR)? THANKS FOR ALL THE HELP!

 

[supagold]

The quality would be OK, but keep in mind that you're taking a SD MPEG2 stream, outputting it over some kind of analog pathway, then reencoding it to MPEG2. I use MCE to record my satelite feed, and it looks about as good as the straight video signal. I've tried a few different software package, and I like MCE the best, but I believe showshifter has a free trial, so check it out for yourself. You might also want to check out Beyond TV, and Sage TV - I'm pretty sure they both have free trials also. MythTV is a linux package. Well, the best single tuner card are the ATI Theater 550 based cards. You can pick up the Sapphire or Visontek versions of the card for around $70. I would stay away from the All-in-Wonder cards; the quality isn't so hot, and people seem to have a lot of compatibility issues with them down the road. A good resource for new TVs (heck AV equipment in general, including PC-based PVRs) is avsforum.com.

One last note, but if you're mainly interested in the "TIVO" features, as opposed to mp3 playback, photo slideshows, watching divx movies, etc, you might consider just getting the TIVO package offered by your satelite provider. In addition to being able to get dual tuners, you also get a direct stream copy of the programs. This means that you don't lose quality from the reencoding process, and you don't lose your dolby digital streams on the movie channels. In my living room, I use my directivo for watching TV, and my MCE box for everything else. I've got one of the logitech harmony remotes that handles all the switching for me, so I just tell it "Watch TV" to go to the directivo, and "Watch Movies" to go to My Movies on my MCE machine. Good luck.