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!

 

[Raduque]

Hooray double-post. But anyway, to answer your questions: htpcnews.com forums can probably answer your questions better then most. avsforum.com also has a good HTPC section. On to your questions.

The quality you'll get from your TV depends on the resolution and timings that it requires. If you have a 6x00 nVidia card, the latest drivers have a tab that lets you adjust custom timings and resolution to best fit your TV.

Some alternatives to MCE05 that run on XP are called SageTV, BeyondTV and Meedio(i think). MythTV runs on linux.

On TV cards, the Hauppage Wintv PVR150/500 seem to be the favorites for MCE, but I've read lots of good things about the ATI Theater550 chipset-based cards. I'm considering one of these myself. If you decide to go with MCE05, you'll definately need a card with hardware encoding of MPEG video, so the AIW cards are right out. I think you can use an AIW or other software encoder card with Sage, Myth and the others. The type of input you'll most likely use is the s-video from your STB (Dish box) to the capture card, and depending on your STB, you'll either use serial control or most likely an "IR Blaster" to change channels. You can't just hook the incoming signal from the sat dish to the coax tuner part and have it work; your computer doesn't know how to decode the sat signal.

Now, for displaying on the TV, you could connect both your monitor (on the VGA plug) and your TV (on the DVI) and clone or go with dual-display.

My personal reccomendation is to just go with a full-blown seperate computer used entirely for HTPC duties (Tivo/PVR, DVDs, etc). Good luck whichever you choose.

 

[Thyme]

GB-PVR Free Windows PVR software.

 

[Cyberslice]

I was searching around about hte different tv tuner cards on newegg and apparentley evga has a dual tuner tv card tahts has 32mb of sdr (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16815127001). What does the extra memory do as oppose to the 16mb in the ati cards(i think thats what the theatre550 has). Since i have Dish network as my saatillite provider, would http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16815116618 be a better choice? Thanks for the responses!

 

[Cyberslice]

Any other opinions/Suggestions?