New XP Media Center - it rocks.
Discussion
So I have a lovely new eBox Media Center (Centre!) under my new plasma. Works an absolute charm. Shove a CD in - rips it in a few minutes - and its on the hard drive for later perusal. The terrestrial digital reception is excellent and it can record one whilst you watch another no problem. The image quality is stunning.
So I've been using it to peruse photos over the LAN from my main PC. Brilliant on the big screen.
If you've been thinking about a big screen in the lounge and connecting a PC to it my advice is DO IT!
If you've money to burn, though, I strongly advise looking into a HUSH PC. Twice the price of the Evesham eBox I have for the same functionality - but it has the advantage of being fan-hum free - which is the only real criticism I have of the eBox.
So I've been using it to peruse photos over the LAN from my main PC. Brilliant on the big screen.
If you've been thinking about a big screen in the lounge and connecting a PC to it my advice is DO IT!
If you've money to burn, though, I strongly advise looking into a HUSH PC. Twice the price of the Evesham eBox I have for the same functionality - but it has the advantage of being fan-hum free - which is the only real criticism I have of the eBox.
Which Hush did you go for? I got an E3 and it's the dogs...! Only issue I had was the supplied 400GB drive wasn't very quiet. 10 minutes later my trusty silent seagate was in it.
What res can you get with the plasma? I'm looking to go the LCD / Plasma route too but all the 1:1 pixel mapping / DVI stuff is doing my head in.
What res can you get with the plasma? I'm looking to go the LCD / Plasma route too but all the 1:1 pixel mapping / DVI stuff is doing my head in.
I didn't get a HUSH, Phil, I cheaped out...and I know I shouldn't have really. I would really like the quietness. The eBox is a bit loud. Absolutely fine with Music going or the TV blaring - and also fine if you put it into "Standy" when its utterly silent...Its more of a problem, though, when you want to sit in the lounge with the screen off, reading say whilst it records something - at that point anyone buying an eBox, like myself, will be wishing they'd spent the extra and got a Hush.
As to the pixels business - My 50" LG has a native resolution of 1380x768 (or thereabouts!)...although would you believe you can set its "native" resolution to a number of settings! So I set the TV to that, and also set the resolution of the Media Center desktop to the same thing. My video connection is via the VGA port. Bingo! Absolutely stunning picture quality and first class resolution when using the PC.
I am seriously chuffed at the moment - although I would recommend to anyone investigating Media Center to consider an ultra-quiet system (fan-free like HUSH if possible) despite the extra cost.
As to the pixels business - My 50" LG has a native resolution of 1380x768 (or thereabouts!)...although would you believe you can set its "native" resolution to a number of settings! So I set the TV to that, and also set the resolution of the Media Center desktop to the same thing. My video connection is via the VGA port. Bingo! Absolutely stunning picture quality and first class resolution when using the PC.
I am seriously chuffed at the moment - although I would recommend to anyone investigating Media Center to consider an ultra-quiet system (fan-free like HUSH if possible) despite the extra cost.
craigw said:
did you consider elonex artisan ?
I did towards the end - although I'd made my selection before reading the excellent article in this month's PC Pro - which has a full comparison of the available systems.
I think they liked the Hush best.
But not at the admittedly high price... I think the Artisan came out well, too...
Yeah the Hush is an arm and leg job. With the spec I went for it was the wrong side of £2K. I've had loads of solutions in the lounge in the battle to get the noise down. At one point I had a water cooled Shuttle (now THAT was a pain to build).
MCE 2005 is great though. The only down sides for me is that it doesn't support being in a domain, and the dual monitor support is, err, missing basically!
Dead chuffed going on holiday for 2 weeks and finding all the TopGear's etc sat on my harddisk when I got back. AND I sent a copy to a mate who missed one. Sky+? No thanks...
MCE 2005 is great though. The only down sides for me is that it doesn't support being in a domain, and the dual monitor support is, err, missing basically!
Dead chuffed going on holiday for 2 weeks and finding all the TopGear's etc sat on my harddisk when I got back. AND I sent a copy to a mate who missed one. Sky+? No thanks...
ThatPhilBrettGuy said:
Dead chuffed going on holiday for 2 weeks and finding all the TopGear's etc sat on my harddisk when I got back. AND I sent a copy to a mate who missed one. Sky+? No thanks...
Yes - that is a really excellent feature. Darnit - I have Sky+ as well at the moment. I would very seriously consider getting rid - and, in fact, may yet.
What's keeping my Sky subscription at the moment is Sky One which has all the US SciFi first - which is about the only TV we watch regularly (sad, I know)...and the promise of Sky HD.
Still - XPMC2005 does everything Sky+ does and more. Is "open" and has no subscription costs. That's the best part of £500 a year saved if one dumps Sky. Tempting. Except I want HD.
So that'll be £600 a year on Sky...
Damn! They spotted me coming...
GregE240 said:
So why don't you just download via Bit Torrent all the US stuff you want, and bin Sky?
Is this really a viable option, though? My broadband is on 512mpbs and I can't get an upgrade at the moment. Last time I downloaded a "show" (some very sad fan-fiction stuff) it took three days! Then there's the ethical questions? Are there *legal* US download sites that I can *buy* shows from?
Don said:Hmmm, sorry Don, thought as the multimedia guru you'd at least have 2 Meg, soz chap.....
So why don't you just download via Bit Torrent all the US stuff you want, and bin Sky?
Then there's the ethical questions? Are there *legal* US download sites that I can *buy* shows from?
Well, you still could. Ethical, schmethical. I've downloaded the odd tv series or two, but I see it as a try before you buy.
I-Tunes (US) does have shows you can download, UK has only got some pop videos on it, AFAIK.
Greg
shadytree said:
Makes Interesting reading this thread. How long until we can get a hard drive big enough and cheap enough to store ALL your music and DVD collection on, with room to expand?
In my case big enough for 700 Cd's and 600 DVD's ? Would definitely save on space
Not done DVD's yet, but CD's do compress quite nicely. I've got around 100 CD's done so far at 320kbps in MP3 and the amount of space taken is tiny.
At one point I was considering a NAS device (Network Attached Storage) but I probably wont bother now. I also have a 160GB drive just for TV recording, but even at the highest quality that's a lot of telly...
Podie said:
Makes Interesting reading this thread. How long until we can get a hard drive big enough and cheap enough to store ALL your music and DVD collection on, with room to expand?
In my case big enough for 700 Cd's and 600 DVD's ? Would definitely save on space
Not done DVD's yet, but CD's do compress quite nicely. I've got around 100 CD's done so far at 320kbps in MP3 and the amount of space taken is tiny.
At one point I was considering a NAS device (Network Attached Storage) but I probably wont bother now. I also have a 160GB drive just for TV recording, but even at the highest quality that's a lot of telly...
What tool are you compressing your CD's with ?
shadytree said:
Makes Interesting reading this thread. How long until we can get a hard drive big enough and cheap enough to store ALL your music and DVD collection on, with room to expand?
In my case big enough for 700 Cd's and 600 DVD's ? Would definitely save on space
I'm going to "digitise" my entire CD collection (at about 50MB per CD in MP3) and listen to them directly off the "Media Center". That should still leave a couple of hundred Gig for TV shows!
With the right software I should also be able to "rip" DVDs onto the hard drive too. Storage requirements being what they are, though, I don't think I'll do that so often.
shadytree said:
Makes Interesting reading this thread. How long until we can get a hard drive big enough and cheap enough to store ALL your music and DVD collection on, with room to expand?
In my case big enough for 700 Cd's and 600 DVD's ? Would definitely save on space
Not done DVD's yet, but CD's do compress quite nicely. I've got around 100 CD's done so far at 320kbps in MP3 and the amount of space taken is tiny.
At one point I was considering a NAS device (Network Attached Storage) but I probably wont bother now. I also have a 160GB drive just for TV recording, but even at the highest quality that's a lot of telly...
What tool are you compressing your CD's with ?
I've used MEdia Centre to do it... basically a nice front end for Media Player 10... you select your preferences there and Media Centre rips it, with a nice interface.
I selected MP3 as I'll probably go the iPod route in the future, so went for the highest quality setting... although my Pioneer head unit supports MP3 and WMA...
Podie said:
Makes Interesting reading this thread. How long until we can get a hard drive big enough and cheap enough to store ALL your music and DVD collection on, with room to expand?
In my case big enough for 700 Cd's and 600 DVD's ? Would definitely save on space
Not done DVD's yet, but CD's do compress quite nicely. I've got around 100 CD's done so far at 320kbps in MP3 and the amount of space taken is tiny.
At one point I was considering a NAS device (Network Attached Storage) but I probably wont bother now. I also have a 160GB drive just for TV recording, but even at the highest quality that's a lot of telly...
What tool are you compressing your CD's with ?
I've used MEdia Centre to do it... basically a nice front end for Media Player 10... you select your preferences there and Media Centre rips it, with a nice interface.
I selected MP3 as I'll probably go the iPod route in the future, so went for the highest quality setting... although my Pioneer head unit supports MP3 and WMA...
So what size does that compress a single CD (say 70mins) to ?
) which including the artwork thumbnail comes to 180MB (@ 320kbps MP3) Gassing Station | Photography & Video | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff