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Building a Media Center PC

A

ApocalypZ

Limp Gawd
Joined
Apr 27, 2003
Messages
176
I am currently in the process of planing out a media center pc for the summer.

I am kinda lost in this field of media center pc.

Uses : TV, DVD, Record TV, Games (cs, vc, nfsu etc), Music, Wireless Internet Browsing.

Here is the list of stuff i would be buying :

http://secure.newegg.com/app/WishHistoryReview.asp?position=HISTORY&submit=VIEW&ID=596812

What do you think? Will it run well? How well do wireless keyboard / mouse sets work (refer the one on that list)?

My budget is very large, so im kind of open to a lot of ideas right now. The only thing i will not be buying to replace stuff now is the tv. Current tv is a 36" Sony Trinitron or something, its over 5 years old. As for the cable connection, would it work going directly from my motorola comcast cable box?

Also, should i purchase Windows XP Media Center Edition? Someone mentioned something about it having a remote?
 
yeh all the media center have a remote, i dont know how your going to be building it and having a custom remote for it. i would buy a media center pc from sony.
 
tv would use cable box remote, sound would use audigy 2 remote. its that simple. i was just wondering if anyone knew about that remote, maybe it could put everything in one?
 
apparently, the media center pc's generally suck (from what ive read)

What you have seems to be nice. However, if you already have a nice theatre setup (speackers, reciever), you could just run this into that.

Also, the AIW has gemstar, which is from what ive read a blessing for tivo functions. However, another possibility (for improved performance) would be to go with a regular card and get a seperate tv tuner, like the Hauppage 250 which has a hardware Mpeg2 encoder.

Also, if you have an HDTV or a tv with component, go to ati's site and order one of those adapter kits (unless theycome with the aiw).
 
look into getting myHTPC, its a really good home theater pc program, it's free, and highly customizable. I use it, and it works very well with my ATI AIW remote. I have the aiw 9800 pro. I haven't set up tv/tv recording on myHTPC, but it is possible, and looks to have a sleek interface. I have also heard that windows media center edition sucks.
 
another thing, I connect to a sony trinitron with s-video, and the image is ok, but not excellent. I wish i had a hidef tv with dvi input.... *drool*

as for the svideo, its hard to read any text on the screen, unless it's enlarged greatly. myHTPC looks great though, i can easily read and navigate through the menus with my ati remote.
 
I'd have to second the Hauppage PVR-250 over the AIW. Its suppost to a better capture.
 
When you get a good TV get a DVI card and use DVI out.
 
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