Media Centre PC Query?
Discussion
We're having a fair bit of building work done on the house (kitchen/dining room open up and conservatory built) as such, my Dad's PC and desk has to go.
Initial thoughts were to get him a high end laptop, mainly to give him a 17" TFT, this would cost about £1k then also get a Plasma or LCD screen TV for the open plan area between the kitchen and dining room. Maybe with some kind of swivel facility to change the angle depending where you are sitting.
Today however I've had a slightly different idea.
Locate a media centre PC under the new double sided curved breakfast bar between the two rooms. Nice and small discreet quiet box, with a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse which can be pretty much hidden out of the way. Then use a 24.5" or maybe even 30" Dell TFT.
How feasible is it to run Media Center on the PC and use it as a TV? I've never used it before and my only experience of TV on a PC was with a Hauppauge TV card a few years ago, which was quite frankly rubbish. How easy is it to use? What's the picture quality like? Is it quick and easy to use, maybe via remote control?
Initial thoughts were to get him a high end laptop, mainly to give him a 17" TFT, this would cost about £1k then also get a Plasma or LCD screen TV for the open plan area between the kitchen and dining room. Maybe with some kind of swivel facility to change the angle depending where you are sitting.
Today however I've had a slightly different idea.
Locate a media centre PC under the new double sided curved breakfast bar between the two rooms. Nice and small discreet quiet box, with a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse which can be pretty much hidden out of the way. Then use a 24.5" or maybe even 30" Dell TFT.
How feasible is it to run Media Center on the PC and use it as a TV? I've never used it before and my only experience of TV on a PC was with a Hauppauge TV card a few years ago, which was quite frankly rubbish. How easy is it to use? What's the picture quality like? Is it quick and easy to use, maybe via remote control?
At a slight tangent to the original question, does anyone have a recommendation for a dual digital and analogue tuner card?
I currently have one of these: www.hauppauge.co.uk/pages/products/data_hvr1100.html
Its fine for digital, but we have low signal strength in our area so I need to use the analogue bit for receiving C4 and Five. Problem is that under Media Centre the analogue bit uses a software MPEG4 decoder. This absolutely hammers the CPU (ie 100% on a Intel P4 3.2ghz Prescott) and results in pixelation and sound sync problems.
Anyone using an hybrid tuner succesfully in Media Centre?
I currently have one of these: www.hauppauge.co.uk/pages/products/data_hvr1100.html
Its fine for digital, but we have low signal strength in our area so I need to use the analogue bit for receiving C4 and Five. Problem is that under Media Centre the analogue bit uses a software MPEG4 decoder. This absolutely hammers the CPU (ie 100% on a Intel P4 3.2ghz Prescott) and results in pixelation and sound sync problems.
Anyone using an hybrid tuner succesfully in Media Centre?
Right, we're going ahead with this 
Acer Aspire Idea 500 £810 www.digiuk.com/productdetail.asp?id=7348&s=0
Samsung 20" Widescreen £255 http://komplett.co.uk/k/ki.asp?sku=32
Wifi Mouse £15
TFT Mount £45.00 http://komplett.co.uk/k/ki.asp?sku=30
How does that look?
Acer Aspire Idea 500 £810 www.digiuk.com/productdetail.asp?id=7348&s=0
Samsung 20" Widescreen £255 http://komplett.co.uk/k/ki.asp?sku=32
Wifi Mouse £15
TFT Mount £45.00 http://komplett.co.uk/k/ki.asp?sku=30
How does that look?
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