Building a media-centre PC

[Witchfinder]

I've been thinking of putting a media-centre PC in my living room to connect up to the TV. I'm thinking of going for a dual core Athlon, 2GB RAM, 320 GB Hard disk, packed into the Antec Fusion mediacentre case. The motherboard will probably be the Abit AN-M2HD which has decent enough on-board video, DVI and HDMI outputs, 7.1 outputs and PCI-E slots. I know it fits the case because a colleague's friend has done it.

I was thinking of putting a HD-DVD ROM drive into the box, but I can't seem to find any at all! Everything seems to be Blu Ray. Is this really the only choice? I'd expected Sony to lose the format war as usual, but HD drives are nowhere to be found.

Also, I could do with a recommendation for a dual DVB card. I am looking at the Compro Videomate E700 - seems to be quite feature rich, but I've never heard of them.

[Road2Ruin]

Witchfinder said:

I've been thinking of putting a media-centre PC in my living room to connect up to the TV. I'm thinking of going for a dual core Athlon, 2GB RAM, 320 GB Hard disk, packed into the Antec Fusion mediacentre case. The motherboard will probably be the Abit AN-M2HD which has decent enough on-board video, DVI and HDMI outputs, 7.1 outputs and PCI-E slots. I know it fits the case because a colleague's friend has done it.

I was thinking of putting a HD-DVD ROM drive into the box, but I can't seem to find any at all! Everything seems to be Blu Ray. Is this really the only choice? I'd expected Sony to lose the format war as usual, but HD drives are nowhere to be found.

Also, I could do with a recommendation for a dual DVB card. I am looking at the Compro Videomate E700 - seems to be quite feature rich, but I've never heard of them.

I have a very similar system but chose to use a seperate video card and two hard disks, one for the operating system and programs and one for files and storage. Compro have been around a while but hauppauge are one of the main players and have a lot of choice. One suggestion regarding DVB card is to make sure it has a mpeg2 encoder built in to it and doesnt use software encoding as this eats up the processor.

With regards the HD DVD I never went down that route as one can always be added later when prices have dropped and the format wars come to some conclusion. The other problem of course is making sure all your items are HDCP enabled if you are intending to try and watch HD Movies. This means Operating system, graphics card, drive and monitor. Could be a bit of a minefield at the moment.

[Mikey G]

I'm currently building such a machine. But i have built mine around a much bigger HTPC case. Problem is to run full HD i think you need Vista to run DirectX10, all my components are Vista ready (apart from the case itself with touchscreen etc..) but i'm only running Windows MCE for now. I may need to upgrade my card again to run movies at full 1080p. Ive only managed to see the quality from downloaded trailers and its not too bad so far.

Like you say the only drives i could find are BluRay, but ive stuck to a simple DVD for now until the HD war settles down and the prices are more reasonable.

[clemens]

Witchfinder said:

I've been thinking of putting a media-centre PC in my living room to connect up to the TV. I'm thinking of going for a dual core Athlon, 2GB RAM, 320 GB Hard disk, packed into the Antec Fusion mediacentre case. The motherboard will probably be the Abit AN-M2HD which has decent enough on-board video, DVI and HDMI outputs, 7.1 outputs and PCI-E slots. I know it fits the case because a colleague's friend has done it.

I was thinking of putting a HD-DVD ROM drive into the box, but I can't seem to find any at all! Everything seems to be Blu Ray. Is this really the only choice? I'd expected Sony to lose the format war as usual, but HD drives are nowhere to be found.

Also, I could do with a recommendation for a dual DVB card. I am looking at the Compro Videomate E700 - seems to be quite feature rich, but I've never heard of them.

Top choice of a case there! I've got one myself for my Media Center PC, although my specs are a wee bit lower than yours. I will upgrade but everything works like a peach now so I'll leave it a year or so.

I would personally wait with regards to a format (Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD). I am planning a PS3, but that's mainly for GT5 when it's released!

With regards to HD-DVD's you do have options. I have found SATA internal ones, but I highly recommend the Xbox 360 HD-DVD add-on drive. It's the cheapest option and works perfectly with Windows Vista. Basically, all you have to do is plug it in a spare USB 2.0 port, Windows will complain there are no drivers and then all you have to do is perform a Windows Update, et voila! One fully working HD-DVD drive.

Just to compare costs, an Xbox HD-DVD costs about £120. A SATA option will set you back around £500. When I get home from work, I'll post some pics of my setup.

[clemens]

Pics as promised!



Big pic: http://img3.freeimagehosting.net/image.php?3b0618a...



Big pic: http://img3.freeimagehosting.net/image.php?6b41997...

The setup is basic but it works perfectly and is even powerful enough to run HD DivX (720p), movies.

Athlon XP 3200+
512MB RAM
Antec Fusion Case
2x HVR-1300 (Dual TV Tuners)
GeForce FX 5200 with 128MB RAM

This is connected via a DVI to VGA lead to my 37" Sharp R2DE HD LCD.

For audio I use the built in sound (bought a Creative X-Fi, but there are no spare PCI slots), and this is connected to my Arcam Alpha amp and Kef speakers.

I'm looking to buy an Alphason LCD stand for the whole setup but it can wait until after Christmas. Until then, my Roksan CD is out of comission as I can't open the tray lid!

Btw....I'm seriously interested in that Abit mobo you mentioned. It looks fantastic, especially with the built in HDMI and HTCP encryption. This is the biggest problem I have since I can't connect up an HD from my DVI connector. I just get a messed up picture!

Apart from that, it works perfectly and I'm very pleased with it all.

[SS HSV]

I bought my Blu-Ray drive from www.ebay.us it cost £240 including shipping. There are loads of HD-DVD drives on there too for less than that.

Some times you get away without Customs costs and sometimes you don't it's a gamble

If you are building a media centre you should make it capable of playing 1080P because once you get the bug you will kick yourself for not doing it earlier.

For good media to play, buy Planet Eearth from the BBC - it shows you that 720* and 1080P are worlds apart

[Ranger 6]

I'm not as knowledageable or confident as you guys to build my own, tapping in to your understanding of what's needed - which off the shelf media PC would you buy?

Taking a high budget and low budget examples please?

[clemens]

Ranger 6 said:

I'm not as knowledageable or confident as you guys to build my own, tapping in to your understanding of what's needed - which off the shelf media PC would you buy?

Taking a high budget and low budget examples please?

On the cuff, I've no idea, but I think HP does some pretty sleek looking machines. I used to work there 6 months ago, and back then they launched what looked to me to be a rather tasty looking bit of kit.

With regards to 720 vs 1080, I personally couldn't tell the difference but then again I didn't spend much time watching. What I will say however is that all HD broadcasts are done in 720 and will never be higher. Why? Because of the bandwidth 1080 uses.

I only just bought my Sharp 37 R2DE TV in May this year and I certainly won't be replacing it for another 10 years or if it dies before that. The picture is superb....crystal clear and it was certainly the best 37" TV for the £1000 - £2000 budget I paid for it.

I'm just REALLY looking forward to my local cable provider releasing it's HD services in March next year. That's when I'll FINALLY get to see something out of my TV. It's just a shame I won't be able to get my Media Center PC to record in HD.....at least not with the hardware I'm running right now.

[dave_s13]

My setup is exactly the spec you state on the OP.

The Abit m/board is HDCP compliant so no issue there. I run mine off the on-board graphics via HDMI and get a very nice 1080i or 720p picture. The only thing I've oticed is when watching a HD movie (doesn't matter what format) is a very slight jerk when you get a fast moving panning shot., Like it misses the odd frmae. It's only just noticeable though and doesn't detract, but I would like to ger rid. I wonder if more RAM might solve it???? Or a beefier seperate graphics card???

Anyone an idea? Basic spec is:-

ABIT Mboard AN-M2HD
AMD Athlon dual core 5000+
2gb RAM
500gb sata HDD (2 partitions - 100g for OS and crap rest for data)
Silverstone case....looks dull but it don't really matter

Edited by dave_s13 on Wednesday 17th October 20:27

[Ranger 6]

clemens said:

On the cuff, I've no idea, but I think HP does some pretty sleek looking machines. I used to work there 6 months ago, and back then they launched what looked to me to be a rather tasty looking bit of kit.

Thanks

[Witchfinder]

clemens said:

Btw....I'm seriously interested in that Abit mobo you mentioned. It looks fantastic, especially with the built in HDMI and HTCP encryption. This is the biggest problem I have since I can't connect up an HD from my DVI connector. I just get a messed up picture!

From all accounts, it's a cracking board. I don't think I'd even use the HDMI port though - my 50" Panny plasma (1080i) has a wierd native resolution, so I'd probably be best just setting it up with a DVI or VGA cable at the native resolution.

Edited by Witchfinder on Thursday 18th October 12:12

[clemens]

Witchfinder said:

clemens said:

Btw....I'm seriously interested in that Abit mobo you mentioned. It looks fantastic, especially with the built in HDMI and HTCP encryption. This is the biggest problem I have since I can't connect up an HD from my DVI connector. I just get a messed up picture!

From all accounts, it's a cracking board. I don't think I'd even use the HDMI port though - my 50" Panny plasma (1080i) has a wierd native resolution, so I'd probably be best just setting it up with a DVI or VGA cable at the native resolution.

Edited by Witchfinder on Thursday 18th October 12:12

Yeah, I found this too. In fact I managed to get my hands on a DVI card that would accept the DVI to HMDI cable I bought but was unable to use in my media pc.

The resolution was all odd and didn't look right. The only positive thing is there were no scan lines as you'd get from an analogue signal from the DVI to VGA cable I'm using now.

I run a 1368x768 resolution, but with the HDMI input, it only wanted to hit either 720p or 1080i. Both of which looked odd.

[furtive]

I've build one too. My spec:

Silverstone ML02/MXR Media PC Case
ABit Motherboard
4800 Dual core CPU
Low profile cooler
2GB RAM
500GB HDD
Slot loading DVDRW
Accuratus Toughball
Vista Home premium 32bit
BlackGold Single hybrid tuner
Pair of homeplugs

Got it all from http://www.mediapc.tv

Edited by furtive on Thursday 18th October 13:57

[Witchfinder]

Dredging up an old thread I know! I've decided on the spec I'm going to go for:

Antec Fusion Silver MediaCentre MicroATX Case with 430W PSU mATX - £115.09
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64Bit 1Pk OEM (DVD) - £65.79
Abit AN-M2HD, NF630a, S AM2, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 800, SATA II, SATA RAID, uATX, HDMI, HDCP - £50.44
Compro VideoMate E700 PCI-E Dual DVBT Tv Card - £56.27
AMD AM2 Athlon 64 4400+ Windsor Core, Dual Core 2.3GHz, 2x 512KB Cache, Energy Eff'' Retail - £51.92
400 GB Western Digital WD4000AAJS Caviar SE, SATA II, 7200 rpm, 8MB Cache, 8.9 ms - £53.10
Samsung SH-S203N/BEBN 20x DVD±R, 12x DVD±DL, DVD+RW x8/-RW x6, SATA,Lightscribe, Black, OEM inc Nero - £17.41
2GB (2x1GB) Corsair TwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC2-6400 (800), 240 Pins, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 5-5-5-12 - £34.83

Unfortunately this puts me about £50 over budget, and I've not even added a keyboard/controller or wireless network card to that yet. Anyone got any suggestions for alternative products? My first though is to replace the Antec Fusion with something cheaper, but it looks so nice, and is apparently a very quiet case.