Media Centre PCs
Discussion
Looking at getting one of these to sit with the HD plasma, but not too sure which one. I've only started looking, but would like to get one just before xmas (my own pressy).
What would be the better prebuilt machines out there?
Not looking to play games on it so the graphics card doesn't need to be that high end, but will want to be watching HD stuff.
Also with Vista around the corner is there going to be a new version of MCE or is the current one going to be used for the next few years?
thanks
DJ
What would be the better prebuilt machines out there?
Not looking to play games on it so the graphics card doesn't need to be that high end, but will want to be watching HD stuff.
Also with Vista around the corner is there going to be a new version of MCE or is the current one going to be used for the next few years?
thanks
DJ
I don't know much about the pre-built stuff, as I build my own. mine forms the basis of an all in one system. Games Centre, Music Jukebox, Film Jukebox etc etc.
The only advice I would have is make sure its Quiet.. The biggest problem I have had with mine is getting the noise down to an acceptable level. So go for one that has the spec you need but also has as much passive (i.e. no fans) cooling as possible.
Things to think about are, expandability - You may wish to add a card into it in the future so one spare PCI/PCie slot may be good. Does it have Digital TV and multiple tuners, Multiple tuners allow record and watch features. Also does it have the ability to have a Top-Up TV card (if you need it)
But to answer the vista question, MCE is an Addition / mod to windows XP. Vista includes Media Centre as standard, but to be honest I prefer the look and feel of the XP version.
The only advice I would have is make sure its Quiet.. The biggest problem I have had with mine is getting the noise down to an acceptable level. So go for one that has the spec you need but also has as much passive (i.e. no fans) cooling as possible.
Things to think about are, expandability - You may wish to add a card into it in the future so one spare PCI/PCie slot may be good. Does it have Digital TV and multiple tuners, Multiple tuners allow record and watch features. Also does it have the ability to have a Top-Up TV card (if you need it)
But to answer the vista question, MCE is an Addition / mod to windows XP. Vista includes Media Centre as standard, but to be honest I prefer the look and feel of the XP version.
pebbledash said:
The only advice I would have is make sure its Quiet.. The biggest problem I have had with mine is getting the noise down to an acceptable level. So go for one that has the spec you need but also has as much passive (i.e. no fans) cooling as possible.
Listen to the man. He knows. Personally I am of the opinion that in the lounge you want something truly silent. A HUSH pc is something I will obtain in due course.
www.hushpc.de
They look nice and they don't have fans!
I bought a sodding ebox from Evesham. Box is fine. Bloody fan noise isn't. It will eventually be relocated to my study and used as a regular PC.
The functionality of a MCPC is, however, completely brilliant. Absolutely love it. I use it all the time to do "Slide Shows" and so on...
Edited to correct the URL
Edited by Don on Monday 6th November 12:04
What i would really like is a movie server (copying all my DVDs *ahem*) so i don't have to go through what DVDs i have to play one. Just a quick click for any moive.
If Vista already has MCE built in then i can wait for that. BTW the Hush systems are bloody expensive!!!
System that i configured comes to 3400 euros
If Vista already has MCE built in then i can wait for that. BTW the Hush systems are bloody expensive!!!
System that i configured comes to 3400 euros
Don said:
Listen to the man. He knows. Personally I am of the opinion that in the lounge you want something truly silent. A HUSH pc is something I will obtain in due course.
www.hushpc.de
They look nice and they don't have fans!
I bought a sodding ebox from Evesham. Box is fine. Bloody fan noise isn't. It will eventually be relocated to my study and used as a regular PC.
The functionality of a MCPC is, however, completely brilliant. Absolutely love it. I use it all the time to do "Slide Shows" and so on...
Edited to correct the URL
Er, why not replace the fan, Don? Or see if you can run it without it?www.hushpc.de
They look nice and they don't have fans!
I bought a sodding ebox from Evesham. Box is fine. Bloody fan noise isn't. It will eventually be relocated to my study and used as a regular PC.
The functionality of a MCPC is, however, completely brilliant. Absolutely love it. I use it all the time to do "Slide Shows" and so on...
Edited to correct the URL
Edited by Don on Monday 6th November 12:04
Do it yourself! Serioulsy, PC's nowadays are so easy to put together and if you buy from somewhere like www.scan.co.uk you can ask about the components matching. There are even a number of websites dedicated to building HTPC's. You could get a top spec machine for around £650-£700 inv VAT & Del. As mentioned before things to avoid are fans and if you gotta have them get bigger and slower but many mid-range graphics cards and motherboards now come with passice cooling so its just the sodding CPU and case to worry about. If you opt for a cool AMD cpu then its a doddle (albiet slower). HDTV output will be limited at the moment as the cost of a player is extorsionate and the only other way is through sky which you cant get a PC card for (I belive). Anyway this is the future of home viewing and can be upgraded when needed. If building your own make sure you get a nice looking desktop case such as a Thermaltake tenor or one from Silverstone.
road2ruin said:
Do it yourself! Serioulsy, PC's nowadays are so easy to put together and if you buy from somewhere like www.scan.co.uk you can ask about the components matching. There are even a number of websites dedicated to building HTPC's. You could get a top spec machine for around £650-£700 inv VAT & Del. As mentioned before things to avoid are fans and if you gotta have them get bigger and slower but many mid-range graphics cards and motherboards now come with passice cooling so its just the sodding CPU and case to worry about. If you opt for a cool AMD cpu then its a doddle (albiet slower). HDTV output will be limited at the moment as the cost of a player is extorsionate and the only other way is through sky which you cant get a PC card for (I belive). Anyway this is the future of home viewing and can be upgraded when needed. If building your own make sure you get a nice looking desktop case such as a Thermaltake tenor or one from Silverstone.
Only gripe that i have with putting together my own PC is actully putting it together. I used to do it in the past and i used to like it, now i think that i'm getting a bit lazy and can't be arsed with testing bits if it won't boot first time.
Although if i can save my self around a grand might be worth rolling up my sleeves and getting my hands dirty again
Podie said:
pebbledash said:
But to answer the vista question, MCE is an Addition / mod to windows XP. Vista includes Media Centre as standard, but to be honest I prefer the look and feel of the XP version.
Not all version of Vista include an MCE component.
True, But from my beta testing this is limited to the Homne version, and it does not have Aero or the Remote control from my understanding, so avoid Vista Home.
_deano said:
Only gripe that i have with putting together my own PC is actully putting it together. I used to do it in the past and i used to like it, now i think that i'm getting a bit lazy and can't be arsed with testing bits if it won't boot first time.
Although if i can save my self around a grand might be worth rolling up my sleeves and getting my hands dirty again
From my experience with my Media Centre, building the PC was the easy bit. Installing MCE was not to bad, and, if you buy components that are all MCE certified, get the Microsoft Remote and MCE bundle (or better still a HTPC case with it in) and you have a HDTV with either VGA or DVI inputs then you will have no problems (or at least few that are not easily solved)
As I said my biggest problem was the noise, went through 3 power supplies trying to find one that was quiet enough, had to change the case fans twice for the same reason, and had to switch to AMD Athlon 64 to get the heat down (and reduce fan counts)
Ended up with a passive graphics card, motherboard with passive chipset cooling (the smallest fans are the noisiest) PSU with 120mm Quiet fan, 80mm inlet + two 60mm Quiet exhaust Fans in the case (all running at 7 volts to reduce noise further, rubber mounted hard drive and CD..
Now have a nice quiet machine that is VERY capable.
Also one other note, don't go to the extreme of having a nice quiet PC with slow (preferably no fans) then stick it in one of these nice TV cabinets with a solid back and/or glass doors
they still need airflow, either by fans or convection. This was the hardest thing to explain to the other half, she could no understand why it did not like being in the cabinet If you wish to go down the self build route, PM me I have a list I can dig out for you which is almost a step by step guide to setting up MCE I wrote for a friend some time back, and there are others on the net to be had.
If you can get a copy of MCE, you can always nock up a cheap PC and have a play, it does not have to be flash, just enough to run windows, this way you can see if 1 you like it and 2 you feel confident after sending loads on HTPC hardware you will succeed.
MCE is OEM only, but if you by a hard disk, processor you can usually get it at the same time, or by the MS remote and MCE bundle.
Don’t forget there are other alternatives to MCE, some are windows based and some are Linux based. In my experience the Linux solutions can give a slightly slicker (I'm not saying MCE is not slick as it most defiantly is) more "consumer like" look and feel, things like you never see it displaying starting windows the auto logon screen etc. (some of these can be removed from MCE but never completely so)
Some to look at are :- (in no specific order, and are all windows ones)
iMedian (its part of the Soundgraph iMon package
GB PVR www.gbpvr.com/
Media Portal www.team-mediaportal.com/
Edited to Add.
If you are not familiar with Unix/Linux then stick with the windows ones unless you,
1) Get a Linux based HTPC that installs direct of the CD and configures itself, and never plan fiddling or adding features.
OR
2) Plan on drinking MASIVE amounts of coffee, and calling you new HTPC all the names under the sun whilst getting deeper and deeper into the bowels of linux config files, trying to get some simple thing to work as it should.
I had a play with the Linux ones and got a system running reasonably quickly and reliably it looked slick and did everything I wanted, until I had it pointed out to me that if it was in the lounge it would be 'nice' if it ran PC games and MS Office D'oh.
So what I ended up with was slightly off track from the original media centre, but it is a media centre, but to boot it has a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, game pads and is everything to everyone. Well it is until it stops working or there is a dispute over who wants to do what (I guess it beats the usual who wants to watch what
) Edited by pebbledash on Monday 6th November 16:47
GregE240 said:
Don said:
Listen to the man. He knows. Personally I am of the opinion that in the lounge you want something truly silent. A HUSH pc is something I will obtain in due course.
www.hushpc.de
They look nice and they don't have fans!
I bought a sodding ebox from Evesham. Box is fine. Bloody fan noise isn't. It will eventually be relocated to my study and used as a regular PC.
The functionality of a MCPC is, however, completely brilliant. Absolutely love it. I use it all the time to do "Slide Shows" and so on...
Edited to correct the URL
Er, why not replace the fan, Don? Or see if you can run it without it?www.hushpc.de
They look nice and they don't have fans!
I bought a sodding ebox from Evesham. Box is fine. Bloody fan noise isn't. It will eventually be relocated to my study and used as a regular PC.
The functionality of a MCPC is, however, completely brilliant. Absolutely love it. I use it all the time to do "Slide Shows" and so on...
Edited to correct the URL
Edited by Don on Monday 6th November 12:04
Yes I intend to, Greg. Currently waiting on the warranty to run out. But I'm not expecting miracles. I'm planning on going fanless on my next one - in due course.
Thanks for that Pebbledash, very informative. The last time i tried to play around with unix et all was RedHat 7 and i hated it. So i will be staying with MCE.
I know i have a version of MCE lying around and a SFF PC so i will give it a go this weekend, should be a laugh.
thanks again
DJ
I know i have a version of MCE lying around and a SFF PC so i will give it a go this weekend, should be a laugh.
thanks again
DJ
www.clevertec.co.uk/chctmintro.htm
Top notch boxes, highly recommended, built by hand, not some massive automated process.
Top notch boxes, highly recommended, built by hand, not some massive automated process.
pebbledash said:
2) Plan on drinking MASIVE amounts of coffee, and calling you new HTPC all the names under the sun whilst getting deeper and deeper into the bowels of linux config files, trying to get some simple thing to work as it should.
Ahh, someone who's tried to get MythTV working properly. Welcome to the club.
Plotloss said:
www.clevertec.co.uk/chctmintro.htm
Top notch boxes, highly recommended, built by hand, not some massive automated process.
Top notch boxes, highly recommended, built by hand, not some massive automated process.
But with a hefty price tag me thinks
Like the 5000 though
out of interest how user friendly are these things once they are up and running?
I'm moving house soon and looking at getting new kit to go with a 42" plasma i've already got.
I was originally looking at something like the Sonos system with a NAS in the loft holding mp3s' etc.
But these media centre systems have caught my eye.
Are they as easy to use as say a DVD + HD recorder ?
I'm moving house soon and looking at getting new kit to go with a 42" plasma i've already got.
I was originally looking at something like the Sonos system with a NAS in the loft holding mp3s' etc.
But these media centre systems have caught my eye.
Are they as easy to use as say a DVD + HD recorder ?
_deano said:
Plotloss said:
www.clevertec.co.uk/chctmintro.htm
Top notch boxes, highly recommended, built by hand, not some massive automated process.
Top notch boxes, highly recommended, built by hand, not some massive automated process.
But with a hefty price tag me thinks
Like the 5000 though
More reasonable than you would think, especially with a PH discount...
che6mw said:
out of interest how user friendly are these things once they are up and running?
I'm moving house soon and looking at getting new kit to go with a 42" plasma i've already got.
I was originally looking at something like the Sonos system with a NAS in the loft holding mp3s' etc.
But these media centre systems have caught my eye.
Are they as easy to use as say a DVD + HD recorder ?
I'm moving house soon and looking at getting new kit to go with a 42" plasma i've already got.
I was originally looking at something like the Sonos system with a NAS in the loft holding mp3s' etc.
But these media centre systems have caught my eye.
Are they as easy to use as say a DVD + HD recorder ?
They are very simple to use once set up, They are a lot less in the 'Geek Teritory' than when I started playing with them a couple of years ago. If you my components that are MCE certified, and don't go mad trying all those little extras. (you can do them I have, be be prepeared to dig arround in windows and the registry etc) then they are almost out of the box and running, I recon if I had to build one now, I could easily build the box and get it to a finished state in a day or less.
The Nas Idea is exactly what i am doing now, Filled up the 300GB drive in the media center already, so am building a storage server, with a terabyte or 2 of space
should keep me happy for a while, and I can share the contents between media centers and also PC etc. Have GB Lan to the media center and PC, and WiFi for everything else This is quite a good site sorce of info www.thegreenbutton.com
Edited by pebbledash on Tuesday 7th November 08:50
Edited by pebbledash on Tuesday 7th November 11:33
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