Home Theater PC

[Kdar]

So I againg thinking to build home theater PC.

I probobly will use Mozart ThermalTake.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811133168

What kind of Hardware do I am look at to build a good home theater comp...
I mean how fast the CPU and other stuff should be.. etc..

 

[turtile]

I would get good onboard video like the MSI board I suggested to you in your other post.

It has almost every connection you'll ever need. Get a cheap CPU like the 3000+ and get a TV tuner that has hardware encoding to keep the load off the CPU.

Get a nice big hard drive for video storage and a DVD Burner.

 

[The General]

it depends on what OS you're going to use


for Genuine Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 (lol) you might need more hardware than is necessary.


for linux/mythtv would could get away with a sempron 2200+, 256mb ram and a geforce 4 mx4000

 

[Kdar]

I used Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 before.......
and I dint really liked colors and such....

That MythTV looks pretty good... is there any other distros like this?

 

[harry18]

what do you do with a htpc, i geuss hook it up to a big monitor or tv, why cant you just use a dvd player?

 

[æArchOAngelæ]

i guess your question is whats so different about an htpc? well i have one and it is great, i can watch live tv and pause it record with he touch of a button and even provides a tv guide on screen it shows a selection of all the movies playing on tv right now and ones coming up you can program it to record a whole series even if it is on different channels or times. i can listen to music view my pics and lisen to radio (through my tv tuner) i have all the x-men cartoons all the series and episodes, its great. i have windows media center 2005 but its not good if you use it as a desktop too it uses memory like a true beast, like after i visit 10 webpages and check my mail, ill get that virtual memory low windows error. even with 1 gig

 

[harry18]

i see, so you have a tv card in it, but isnt it a pain in the *** to have to wait for it to boot, just to watch tv, and when my pc had a tv card the quality was crap, and it went jerky sometimes, was that cos it was a naff tv card, or does haveing a decent graphics card and lots of ram help?

other than that i see your point, pausing, having a big hdd and recodring just like that

 

[The General]

why would you turn it off? leave it on all the time. no reason to turn a computer off unless you make a hardware change or compile/install a new kernel


the quality is excellent.

you only need lots of ram if you're using windows
mythtv only needs like 256mb, but i recommend at least 512 - 1gb


kdar - there is knoppmyth, its very nice and is what i use on my mythtv box. you should check it out, there are very detailed instructions on how to set it up with a hauppauge wintv pvr-150. plus the distro comes with mythtv so its very simple and requires no installation or compiling mythtv

 

[harry18]

on that note, (dont mean to go so off topic) everyone seems to leave the PC on, how much doews that cost, i mean if youve got a 500w psu, thats like haveing 8 light boulbs on 24/7?

 

[updawg]

do you know it only costs 6 cents to power a lightbulb for an entire day.. thats a rough estimate

"The electric company bills its customer by the kilowatt-hour. When you turn on something that consumes 1,000 watts for one hour, it consumes 1 kilowatt-hour. Or if you turn on something that consumes 100 watts for 10 hours, it consumes 1 kilowatt-hour.The rate you pay for a kilowatt-hour varies depending on where you live."