Building a Media Center all in one box
- From: PäraÐ/§ë £o§t <NOSPAMparadiselost_@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 25 Aug 2005 09:56:54 -0600
I've been lurking for a bit now and found a few threads regarding
building your own media center but most seem to deal with counties
other then the US. So I figured I'd spew my idea/plan here and see if
anyone can help me out. Thanks in advance to anyone who does reply.
You can jump to the SNIP if you want to avoid some of my spew.
I own an incrediable amount of pre recorded vhs. A few months ago I
decided that rather then keep everything I had taking up tons of house
space I'd try encoding it and keeping it on a computer. I'm still in
the middle of that project because I have to capture then re encode
into Divx which I found to be a very nice format for both size and
quality. (I am keeping the vhs, but now boxed up and stuffed in the
garage as I encode)
In the midst of this I started thinking well why not also install a
dvd player and see if I can find a case that is built horizontally
(like an old desktop) plus some of the newer cases come in a variety
of sizes and shapes.
Then I received a newsletter from winxpnews discussing their new media
center PC. I'd heard of XP media center but I had always figured it
was just a version of XP that featured better media cataloging or
something. This email discribed it and I was amazed to learn it's
potential. I also own a Tivo and that's probably the only reason I
watch TV prior to tivo I never bothered.
SO I started looking around for information. Unfortunately Microsoft's
site is lacking badly, they are very, um pushy, about purchasing a pre
built. The only pre built PCs (laugh) I've ever owned were an atari
400 and 800 and I still tinkered with them swapping ram cards to up
the ram in the 800.
Basically my original plan has turned into a monster that information
on the proper equipment has been hard to come by. I want to build a
box with Media Center that has the room for my vhs (check, have 4
250gb drives in the box I'm using now) can replace my dvd player,
tivo, and theatre.
The theater replacement is the latest addition, I figured why have a
seperate console when PCs have featured 5.1 and 7.1 for a while now.
SNIP-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
So onto my ever growing list of questions.
First can anyone that has used both tivo and media center comment on a
comparison? Tivo is fairly idiot proof and features a very nice search
ability. The search is what I am mostly concerned with. I've come to
understand that media center has the same type of service as tivo but
it's currently free (I assume that will change once media center
becomes more used). But is it's programing downloads as extensive as
tivo? Tivo's search by keyword or title generally reach at least 1
sometimes as far as 3 or 4 weeks. Is media centers as good or better?
any discussion on this would be appreciated.
Does anyone currently use a PC (or media center pc) as their DVD
player? Is it comparable? I never bothered getting a dvd player for my
PC because I never saw the point until more software was available or
I got a dvd burner. I think it'd be kind nice because not only can I
watch the normal movie but I could access the dvd rom content.
Dual tuners. I'm not so concerned with recording two at one but being
able to watch live tv while recording would be nice. I saw and saved
the list of xpmc approved cards posted here but I haven't checked them
out yet. Are any dual tuner or will I simply need 2 cards to utilize
this?
I think the box i'm currently running is an AMD 1.5 ghz with 512 ram.
For the playback of my collection it's been fine but i'm concerned
with it's power for encoding on the fly and in particular dual
recording. Should I bump up the proc and ram to say 2.5 or 3ghz and
say 1gb ram?
My theater replacement. On my use pc I have 2 speakers + subwoofer.
I'm currently using the on board sound because I simply didn't see a
reason to continue using my sblive gold anymore. I play games and
music with my pc and most of it sounds great, though I have a few
operas that are done with enhanced audio for surround sound.
Since I'm unfamilar with 5.1 or 7.1 sound I'm gonna sound like a newb
here but bear with me if possible. Will a 5.1 system be a worthy
replacement for my current theater (which is a faily cheap one). Will
dvds utilize it? My encodes are from vhs so I encode using just stereo
sound I tried a few different formats when I was encoding but frankly
noticed no difference other then size. Frankly I never noticed a
difference when playing them on my vcr through the theater. DVD yes,
vhs no, course my vcr while one of the best years ago is only Hi-Fi
stereo.
Based on what little I know my sb live gold is fine as the sound card
then I buy the 5.1 speaker set up and plug it in and I assume the
speaker outputs are via the sub? Or for true surround sound do I need
a specific sound card (all I've ever seen have the single headphone
plug output (2.5mm ?) or a digital ouput which I assume a decent 5.1
will accomodate. If i'm way off here any suggestions would be
appreciated.
Lastly, (that I can remember on a half cup of coffee) I've found a
media center remote. I cannot find any info on the MS site (shoot me
if you type in one query and do) though it appears to be a Microsoft
product. All i've seen have a little roundish dealy that receives the
signal. Does microsoft make one with a receiver that is say made to
fit in a 5 1/2 inch bay? I figure I can adapt the standard one to do
that if I need to but i figured that an offical product that fits into
the bay would be available. The box I'm looking at has 2 bays, so I
figure 1 for the dvd and 1 for the infared receiver. Minor rant I
cannot believe the price jump on essentially desktop cases. Just a
short time ago I remember you couldn't give away a desktop case, now
that they are used for "media centers" they are insane in price.
I'm sure someone might jump in with why not just purchase a pre made.
3 reasons. First I'm fairly poor. I can do this a step at a time as I
have cash. Second, It will do what I want, storage of my collection,
dvd player, theater, and tivo, instead of trying to find one that
suits my purpose, not to mention the only one I saw that comes with a
TB of drive space was $2700. And lastly because I've basically always
built my own PCs and call it pride or ego or whatever, I enjoy doing
it.
Thanks for any help people can give me and I'm sure as I progress (and
wake up) I'll find more questions to ask.
.
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