build my own media center?

April 28, 2007 12:09 PM

I'm building a media center PC for my living room and I'm trying to plan out the hardware/software I'll need. So I have several questions.

I currently have an HDTV LCD TV in the LR, with a comcast HD/DVR box, audio goes through an AV receiver out to 5.1 speakers. I've also got a Lite-On DVD recorder/player in the LR. I have an XP box in the kitchen with wifi, and a laptop with XP media center.

Here's details:

1. Want to play my music files (currently on a kitchen PC) in either the LR or the kitchen, independently. I use iTunes and I like the interface. Can I just use another instance of iTunes in the LR, sourcing the same files through ethernet?
2. Same deal with digital photos, but I like Picasa for that. View only, not edit. The whole premise of this LR PC is view only, actually.
3. want to store my video files (avi, divx, mpeg) so I can save them in the kitchen but view them in the LR. Assuming this is just a matter of saving to a network share?
4. want to use the LR PC as a DVR. Software recommendations for that? Would like to record 2 shows at once while watching a third.
5. want to use comcast as programming source. Do I swap the HD/DVR box for a vanilla hd box, and go out from there into a PC tuner card? Minimum requirements for the card, please, given my DVR requirements and the HD requirement. What's the optimal connection between the cable box and the tuner card? Currently I run hdmi from the cable box to the TV. What's the optimal connection between the tuner card and the TV?
6. What are minimum requirements for the video card?
7. Planning on 1 GB of RAM. enough? (it's not DDR, it's whatever the previous gen is called.)
8. To control the whole thing -- Windows Media Center 2005? It's got to be some flavor of windows.
9. Remote control -- what hardware do I need there? Recommendations? Don't want a wireless keyboard, would just program everything into my current universal remote. Does the IR receiver usually plug into USB, serial port, what?
10. Planning on using a soundblaster live card (no frills) out to A/V receiver. Sufficient?

Any answers addressing any of the above much appreciated, or links to same.

posted by stupidsexyFlanders to computers & internet (4 comments total)

Not a lot of experience with this, but as far as I know, if you want to use a Cable CARD to watch HD cable and view it through your media center, you have to go with Vista's media center (which has been getting great reviews).
posted by awesomebrad at 12:18 PM on April 28, 2007

Hmm, except for the Video recording bit, have you considered hacking an AppleTV? 300$ and quiet.
posted by blenderfish at 12:27 PM on April 28, 2007

A great resource for building media pc's is the Home Theatre PC Forums. Someone there can answer almost any question you might have.
posted by justkevin at 12:44 PM on April 28, 2007

Windows Media Center takes care of 1-4 built in. No need for any extra software (except codecs) and you can just use windows file sharing to grab stuff off other computers. I'm currently using Media Center 2005--I tried to upgrade to Vista but had motherboard driver issues. Vista Media Center is nicer in many ways that XP, but Vista is still new enough that some hardware is not yet supported--and there is some indication that some hardware will never be supported (you said that your RAM was pre-DDR, so this could be a problem for you). A gig of RAM is plenty.

Vista requires a pretty beefy video card. Media Center 2005 will run fine on some older cards. You want to go above and beyond than the minimum supported if you plan on doing HD content (and you need a pretty new, fast processor too). Last time I looked, the only way that HDTV is supported on a media center computer at this point is OTA, so you best you can do between the cable box and the PC is S-video. The only HD content I watch on the media center PC is stuff I've gotten from bittorrent. The cablecard, assuming they ever agree to let it out into the wild, should be cool, but AFAIK it isn't available anywhere at the moment and when (if) it comes out, it will only be supported on Vista.

A plain old soundblaster is fine, but if you want Dolby out to a receiver you need to find a card with outputs that matches up with the inputs on your stereo. As far as as an infared receiver for the remote, Microsoft has one designed for media center that you can get about anywhere that is actually pretty well done. It's USB.

The best advice I can give is when you are buying components, look for quiet/silent ones. I didn't do this at first and ended up buying a bunch of new stuff when it turned out fans/etc. were too loud. You can't go wrong with the products available at PC Alchemy but sometimes you can find better prices on stuff they carry at the usual places.

I've been messing around with Media Center PCs for about three years, so if you have any other questions, my email is in the profile.
posted by jtfowl0 at 1:58 PM on April 28, 2007