RE: Serveral Pre Purchase TV Turner Questions
- From: Bill Davis <BillDavis@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 23 Jun 2008 12:25:04 -0700
Bob
1) Is there a URL to the optimum way to build a media center?
1) I don't know of any URL that provides the optimal way to build a media
center, but Microsoft has a lot of resources on its site to help ensure that
you buy Vista Certified products that are guarenteed to work with Vista Media
Center.
I have built three Media Centers for my home, its just like building a
regular PC. The things to look out for are fan noise and case tempurature.
2) Is there a URL of reviews of tuner cards and/or remotes to help choose
the best for Vista MCE?
2) Check the Microsoft site they have a list of all Vista Certified TV
tuners. Its a good place to start to begin you selection.
3) As I understand it, there are 3 ways to get digital TV - Over The Air
(OTA), cable, satellite (I am assuming, but don't really know, that both
cable and satellite are digital or available in digital, which is a separate
issue from HD) and IP (i.e. AT&T Uverse product). Does Media Center work
with all, or not? I heard/read somewhere that it does not work with
satellite...but to me, all of this would be a function of the TV Tuner, not
Media Center. Is it a function of the TV tuner card?
3) Media Center will work with cable/satellite/OTA broadcast. Typically you
need to get a kit that includes an IR blaster to work with cable/satellite
set top box. Media Center can be connected via the coax cable (RF), or
composite or S-Video if your tuner sports it.
4) On the TV Tuner cards themselves, I have gotten confused reading their
descriptions. I want a 2 source tuner card, with those sources being any
combination digital of OTA/cable/satellite so I have all bases covered (at
this point, I don’t see any reason to have analog TV capable TV Tuner…advise
if I am missing something). But TV tuners seem to come with one analog input
and one digital, which makes no sense to me (since analog is going away).
Please advise.
4) You probably need a dual tuner ATSC (Digtal/HD)/NTSC (Analog). The
analog tuner connector can be used to connect a cable or satelite set top box
to Media Center. So for some it still makes sense to get one with a anlog
tuner. You can always add additional tuner cards later. I have two seperate
tuners.
5) I understand in XP Media Center, an analog tuner was required. In vista
Media Center, there is no such requirement, they may all be digital (and even
HD).
5) That correct.
6) About connecting the Media Center to the TV… I have an HD Sharp Aqueous,
so I would want to connect the Video via HDMI and the sound via some digital
method to my AV receiver to pump 5.1 surround to the room. I had always
assumed I would use a DVI to HDMI cable for the video connection, but now see
that the TV tuner cards come with all types of connections (even HDMI). The
computer itself only has a VGA, but I could add a video card that has HDMI or
DVI or both. So, how do you get the video to HDMI and the Audio to the AV
Receiver to generate 5.1 surround? Do I need a DVI/HDMI video card or is it
all done through the TV Tuner card?
6) You pobably want to get a video card with HDMI (either ATI or NVidia),
the cards have hardware video decoding for DVD and Blu-Ray. Additional they
have HDCP support for watching HD content on your Aquos (currently you need
an external player to view Blu-Ray). I play more HD movies these days than
DVDs so hardware accelleration is important to me.
You could just take the output of the video card and connect it to the AV
reciever with out any problems.
7) Some TV tuners come with remotes, which seems like a good idea. Do you
get the best remote possible buy a pair like this, or is buying a standalone
remote better? What remove works the best?
7) Remotes are a matter of preference, I like the Logitec Harmony can be
quite expensive though. Probably any learning remote you like will work.
Hope this answers some of your questions, hopefully other will help with
things that I missed.
B.D.
"Bob Day" wrote:
.
I am putting together a high end media center using Vista Home Premium. I
am in tech support for a living, so it should be fairly straight forward, if
I can identify the best components. I live in the USA.
1) Is there a URL to the optimum way to build a media center?
2) Is there a URL of reviews of tuner cards and/or remotes to help choose
the best for Vista MCE?
3) As I understand it, there are 3 ways to get digital TV - Over The Air
(OTA), cable, satellite (I am assuming, but don't really know, that both
cable and satellite are digital or available in digital, which is a separate
issue from HD) and IP (i.e. AT&T Uverse product). Does Media Center work
with all, or not? I heard/read somewhere that it does not work with
satellite...but to me, all of this would be a function of the TV Tuner, not
Media Center. Is it a function of the TV tuner card?
4) On the TV Tuner cards themselves, I have gotten confused reading their
descriptions. I want a 2 source tuner card, with those sources being any
combination digital of OTA/cable/satellite so I have all bases covered (at
this point, I don’t see any reason to have analog TV capable TV Tuner…advise
if I am missing something). But TV tuners seem to come with one analog input
and one digital, which makes no sense to me (since analog is going away).
Please advise.
5) I understand in XP Media Center, an analog tuner was required. In vista
Media Center, there is no such requirement, they may all be digital (and even
HD).
6) About connecting the Media Center to the TV… I have an HD Sharp Aqueous,
so I would want to connect the Video via HDMI and the sound via some digital
method to my AV receiver to pump 5.1 surround to the room. I had always
assumed I would use a DVI to HDMI cable for the video connection, but now see
that the TV tuner cards come with all types of connections (even HDMI). The
computer itself only has a VGA, but I could add a video card that has HDMI or
DVI or both. So, how do you get the video to HDMI and the Audio to the AV
Receiver to generate 5.1 surround? Do I need a DVI/HDMI video card or is it
all done through the TV Tuner card?
7) Some TV tuners come with remotes, which seems like a good idea. Do you
get the best remote possible buy a pair like this, or is buying a standalone
remote better? What remove works the best?
Thanks
Bob
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- Serveral Pre Purchase TV Turner Questions
- From: Bob Day
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