Media Centre PC's?
Discussion
I'm thinking about a media pc. Not something I've really looked into before, so a few questions if you will.
My main reason was that I could rip all my DVD's onto a big hard drive and then put the DVD's else where so I can use the space they free up.
I have a mixture of standard DVD's and Blu Ray DVD's which will need to be ripped to a hard drive. For my sins, I have copied the odd DVD in the past and know what a pain the arse it can be finding software to get through the protection. Would this be a problem that I come up against, or is the protection only a problem if I planned to burn the ripped files to a DVD?
I also assume that having a Blu Ray compatible media centre would do away with the need for my Blu Ray player, and also as I'll be connecting the media centre to an home theatre setup, I'm guessing my Squeezebox would be pointless in the same room as the media centre also?
I'd want the media centre to be...;
very quiet,
able to play CD's, Blu Rays and normal DVD's,
able to store my current DVD collection,
able to play music,
easy to navigate through all stored on the hard drive, and also quick at doing it.
quick to turn on and get using,
I'd want all the above to be output in the best of picture and sound quality.
Am I looking at the right thing, or is life not that simple? Do I loose out having a media centre over over separate units at all?
I'd be happy to build one if I'd get quite a bit more bang for my buck. I've built and upgraded many computers before, but not for a few years.
My main reason was that I could rip all my DVD's onto a big hard drive and then put the DVD's else where so I can use the space they free up.
I have a mixture of standard DVD's and Blu Ray DVD's which will need to be ripped to a hard drive. For my sins, I have copied the odd DVD in the past and know what a pain the arse it can be finding software to get through the protection. Would this be a problem that I come up against, or is the protection only a problem if I planned to burn the ripped files to a DVD?
I also assume that having a Blu Ray compatible media centre would do away with the need for my Blu Ray player, and also as I'll be connecting the media centre to an home theatre setup, I'm guessing my Squeezebox would be pointless in the same room as the media centre also?
I'd want the media centre to be...;
very quiet,
able to play CD's, Blu Rays and normal DVD's,
able to store my current DVD collection,
able to play music,
easy to navigate through all stored on the hard drive, and also quick at doing it.
quick to turn on and get using,
I'd want all the above to be output in the best of picture and sound quality.
Am I looking at the right thing, or is life not that simple? Do I loose out having a media centre over over separate units at all?
I'd be happy to build one if I'd get quite a bit more bang for my buck. I've built and upgraded many computers before, but not for a few years.
I built one recently, using a Shuttle barebones chassis (SH55J2), i3 530 processor, dual tuner card and a BluRay drive. I accidentally bought too much RAM, so it has 8GB, but 4 would be sufficient. It is quiet (enough to be in the bedroom) and can take two hard drives. I just have a 500GB drive in mine because most media is stored on my server. Total cost was about £400, I think. I had to add a cheap (£30) ATI graphic card with HDMI becasue although the motherboard has HDMI, I found that despite the intel chipset beign supposedly good for BluRay, it wouldn't play BluRay discs properly.
Zod said:
I built one recently, using a Shuttle barebones chassis (SH55J2), i3 530 processor, dual tuner card and a BluRay drive. I accidentally bought too much RAM, so it has 8GB, but 4 would be sufficient. It is quiet (enough to be in the bedroom) and can take two hard drives. I just have a 500GB drive in mine because most media is stored on my server. Total cost was about £400, I think. I had to add a cheap (£30) ATI graphic card with HDMI becasue although the motherboard has HDMI, I found that despite the intel chipset beign supposedly good for BluRay, it wouldn't play BluRay discs properly.
I used to game a lot on my PC and as such had a top notch graphics card. You say you had a £30 card, is a brilliant graphics card not a great deal in a media PC, does it just need the right outputs?Also my current Blu Ray player just outputs through an HDMI lead, sound n all whether I play a music CD or a film with a video feed too. I'm guessing I could do the same from the media centre to the amp?
Gingerbread Man said:
Zod said:
I built one recently, using a Shuttle barebones chassis (SH55J2), i3 530 processor, dual tuner card and a BluRay drive. I accidentally bought too much RAM, so it has 8GB, but 4 would be sufficient. It is quiet (enough to be in the bedroom) and can take two hard drives. I just have a 500GB drive in mine because most media is stored on my server. Total cost was about £400, I think. I had to add a cheap (£30) ATI graphic card with HDMI becasue although the motherboard has HDMI, I found that despite the intel chipset being supposedly good for BluRay, it wouldn't play BluRay discs properly.
I used to game a lot on my PC and as such had a top notch graphics card. You say you had a £30 card, is a brilliant graphics card not a great deal in a media PC, does it just need the right outputs?Also my current Blu Ray player just outputs through an HDMI lead, sound n all whether I play a music CD or a film with a video feed too. I'm guessing I could do the same from the media centre to the amp?
I have a 480GTX in my gaming PC, but a £30 (fanless) card in this media centre. I have 8800GTXs, 7800 GTXs and several other powerful cards lying around, but they are DVI not HDMI, have fans and are just overkill for a media centre.
Zod said:
Gingerbread Man said:
Zod said:
I built one recently, using a Shuttle barebones chassis (SH55J2), i3 530 processor, dual tuner card and a BluRay drive. I accidentally bought too much RAM, so it has 8GB, but 4 would be sufficient. It is quiet (enough to be in the bedroom) and can take two hard drives. I just have a 500GB drive in mine because most media is stored on my server. Total cost was about £400, I think. I had to add a cheap (£30) ATI graphic card with HDMI becasue although the motherboard has HDMI, I found that despite the intel chipset being supposedly good for BluRay, it wouldn't play BluRay discs properly.
I used to game a lot on my PC and as such had a top notch graphics card. You say you had a £30 card, is a brilliant graphics card not a great deal in a media PC, does it just need the right outputs?Also my current Blu Ray player just outputs through an HDMI lead, sound n all whether I play a music CD or a film with a video feed too. I'm guessing I could do the same from the media centre to the amp?
I have a 480GTX in my gaming PC, but a £30 (fanless) card in this media centre. I have 8800GTXs, 7800 GTXs and several other powerful cards lying around, but they are DVI not HDMI, have fans and are just overkill for a media centre.
I guess yours runs windows media centre? How long does yours take to boot up and get going, can you tell it to 'sleep' or similar like a normal computer?
I'd hate it if it took ages from being in an off state to start a DVD or music track playing. It'd really wind me up!
With Windows 7, it sleeps, so I never switch it off. It's up and running pretty quickly. Windows Media Center doesn't include bluray playback, but most bluray drives come with the software. It's pretty similar in loading time from sleep to my Denon BluRay transport in my home cinema system.
It's a shame windows can't play blu rays, I was hoping for an all in one program. Turn it on, windows media interface, do my thing, put back to sleep. I never really wanted to see a home screen or start bar as such. More sleek media unit as opposed to seeing it's computer underpinnings if this makes sense?
I'd hope I could rip DVDs and music on my main computer and transfer it across to the media centre via network.
I didn't really want to have to get a mouse or keyboard out for the media centre, I saw you could get a remote somewhere?
I'd hope I could rip DVDs and music on my main computer and transfer it across to the media centre via network.
I didn't really want to have to get a mouse or keyboard out for the media centre, I saw you could get a remote somewhere?
Gingerbread Man said:
Zod said:
PowerDVD came with my BluRay drive and it integrates into MediaCentre.
Ooo that sounds okay then.Just looked up the logitech Dinovo mini. Looks a good go between
Here it is
You used to be able to get an IR remote for the Shuttle PCs as I've got one somewhere. I don't know if they still do them though. It had a pad in the middle that you pushed in the direction you wanted the mouse to move in, plus top, bottom, left and right buttons like many DVD players have. I built a HTPC a few years ago, but found it was so flaky regarding updating any software (I was using it to watch and record FreeSat such as BBC HD) that I've all but given up on it. As a solution to the disc case issue I bought those disc wallet things and put the empty cases in the loft instead.
OldSkoolRS said:
You used to be able to get an IR remote for the Shuttle PCs as I've got one somewhere. I don't know if they still do them though. It had a pad in the middle that you pushed in the direction you wanted the mouse to move in, plus top, bottom, left and right buttons like many DVD players have. I built a HTPC a few years ago, but found it was so flaky regarding updating any software (I was using it to watch and record FreeSat such as BBC HD) that I've all but given up on it. As a solution to the disc case issue I bought those disc wallet things and put the empty cases in the loft instead.
I see that you can go the whole hog and use them to record and watch TV as you say, but I think I'm happy with using the TV's built in tuner for all of that.It's more a music and film server/ player for me.
I'll have a goggle for the shuttle remote. This idea seems more up my street than a separate mouse and keyboard. I'm not saying that there wouldn't be a wireless keyboard and remote hidden away as I'm sure that I would use have to use them to do something like change windows settings or when upgrading the unit, but I don't want to use them day in day out.
Does the Logitech Harmony work with media PC's? I'll get googling.
Plotloss said:
You can get various IR remotes but they need the USB IR interface.
So you can buy an IR remote with the interface and then use a Harmony with the USB IR reciever.
Zod, I've mailed you. Will sort tomorrow.
Did I read that Pronto had been discontinued...probably not and I'm dreaming things.So you can buy an IR remote with the interface and then use a Harmony with the USB IR reciever.
Zod, I've mailed you. Will sort tomorrow.
Gingerbread Man said:
Plotloss said:
You can get various IR remotes but they need the USB IR interface.
So you can buy an IR remote with the interface and then use a Harmony with the USB IR reciever.
Zod, I've mailed you. Will sort tomorrow.
Did I read that Pronto had been discontinued...probably not and I'm dreaming things.So you can buy an IR remote with the interface and then use a Harmony with the USB IR reciever.
Zod, I've mailed you. Will sort tomorrow.
Just to throw this into the mix.
If you are intending to rip and store on a separate machine then a PS3 is an option. Blu-ray/CD/DVD, music, video streaming and photos (plus gaming). Control via the PS3 controller or a Harmony(with an adapter).
On a side note, I used to use my ps3 for music but have gone back to the Squeezebox as it's easier and I don't need the TV on. SB is more wife friendly than trying to use the ps3 (which isn't hard).
If you are intending to rip and store on a separate machine then a PS3 is an option. Blu-ray/CD/DVD, music, video streaming and photos (plus gaming). Control via the PS3 controller or a Harmony(with an adapter).
On a side note, I used to use my ps3 for music but have gone back to the Squeezebox as it's easier and I don't need the TV on. SB is more wife friendly than trying to use the ps3 (which isn't hard).
Gassing Station | Home Cinema & Hi-Fi | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff