Need help figuring out a media center PC solution.

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Deleted member 12930

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So my fiancee and I just bought our first home! I have a plan in my head for a media center PC that I'd like to run by your guys.

We'll have TV in 3 rooms, the family room, the bedroom, and the office. I want each TV to have DVR capabilities that records video to a file server, instead of locally. Obviously I would than want to access those videos from the file server. One thing I'd also like to have a while down the road is the ability to control my home from each TV, such as the ability to turn on/off lights, sprinklers, etc. I know that functionality is still in it's infancy, but I know that some of it is already possible (such as controlling lights).

I know this is possible - I just don't know the best way to go about finding out what I need. From my limited knowledge on the subject, it basically seems like I just need a media center PC for each TV. Or is there actually a set-top box I can get to do this with? Like a slingbox?

Thanks for the help!
 
I'm not sure about the home automation stuff so I can't offer any suggestions there. However in regards to the DVR capability:

Having a full HTPC at each TV and storing everything on a central server would involve a lot of network traffic. It would work, certainly, but it could be done easier.

Instead of having each system be responsible for recording and having the server just for storage, have you considered giving the server multiple tuners to do all of the recording? Then you could have smaller, quieter front-end type systems connected to each TV for playback of the recordings.

The front end boxes could be as basic as, say, a 780G motherboard, low power Athlon X2 and a hard drive to store the OS and media software. It could be put in a smaller case and would be very quiet.
 
Could you go into a little bit more detail with that? How would I actually control the recording? And all the cables? It seems like with that solution I'd have multiple coax runs going back and forth from room to room.

Correct?

Also, the network traffic I'm not concerned with. I'll be running the network cable myself, and will setup a gigabit network to handle the load.

One thing I did realize though is that it's really unrealistic to handle recording from 3 different sources. I really don't need to do that - instead I can just use one station for DVR capabilities, than build lightweight front-end boxes for playback of recorded shows.
 
http://www.embeddedautomation.com/

it has a plugin for MCE and will work with extenders...


what i would do:
1 Server running Vista 64bit Ultimate w/ 4-8gb RAM and a budget C2D or X2 5000 BE
then add an extender on each TV (i would use an Xbox 360 as an extender)

I have use Beyondtv for a while with BTlink and such and i can say that MCE (vista) is really nice and the plugins are awesome.



the xbox360 is a great extender and i know you can use mcontrol to do home automation from each extender or PC.


go look over at thegreenbutton.com for more info and avsforum.com (sp?)

PS: my fiance and I just got our appartment and i have the HTPC in the living room w/ vista ultimate hooked up to my 32" LCD and then i have an xbox360 in the bedroom as an extender hooked up to my 22" Acer and it works great, I love the netflix streaming DVD plugin and the DVD library.


just my suggestion from my own experience
 
SERVER: Windows Home Server
(if you have more than 2 PCs and are responsible for fixing/maintaining them, you should use WHS)
MEDIA CENTER PC
XBOX360 or DLink/Linksys Extenders

The main Media Center PC controls everything. Recordings/Video/Music/etc are stored on the Server for anywhere access. Extenders all connect up to the main Media Center to setup recordings, watch Live TV, watch recorded TV, etc.

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1252288
http://www.sh1ft3r.com/gear/htpc/
http://www.sh1ft3r.com/gear/server/
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/mediacenter/default.mspx


As far as parts for your server, run an old AMD or P3 box. Nothing fancy needed there. Spend your money on a solid HTPC build.
 
NickTheNut said:
Could you go into a little bit more detail with that? How would I actually control the recording? And all the cables? It seems like with that solution I'd have multiple coax runs going back and forth from room to room.
Click to expand...

Ah, no. You'd have your server in a room somewhere with, say, two dual-tuner cards in it. One coax cable goes to that box, connect it to a splitter and plug it in to the tuner cards (so four total from a splitter). All of your recording is handled by that machine and it does nothing else.

You have that server on your network with all of the media directories shared. The front-end boxes just have to be connected to the network so they can access it. They don't have anything to do with the recording, just the playback.

NickTheNut said:
One thing I did realize though is that it's really unrealistic to handle recording from 3 different sources. I really don't need to do that - instead I can just use one station for DVR capabilities, than build lightweight front-end boxes for playback of recorded shows.
Click to expand...

This is pretty much what I suggested. Your "one station for DVR" is what I'm calling a server off in a room somewhere and then have a lightweight front-end box at each TV.

You could run SageTV on the server and the SageTV client version software (I think they're calling it Placeshifter now) on each front-end box; this would allow you to set recordings from the front-end boxes and basically you'd never have to touch the server once you got it set up.
 
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