I know zip about media center pc's. What I would like to do is build me a small footprint pc to hook up to my 47" LCD. I want to be able to play videos (legal ones of course)from the internet on my TV.
I started another thread about video cards in that section, then realized I had a lot more questions.
I have hooked up a laptop to my TV with HDMI cable and it worked pretty good, I have also use S-Video cable and sound cable.
Any good suggestions ?
Obviously I am not rich and need to do this as cost effiecient as possible.
Media Center PC questions
Get a quiet hard drive & the same for the power supply. If the entertainment center is enclosed, you're going to want to vent it.
If you haven't got anything yet, this is a great bare bones start to get you going:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 856110079R
It's even got a digital audio output for the sound if you're running surround sound.
If you haven't got anything yet, this is a great bare bones start to get you going:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 856110079R
It's even got a digital audio output for the sound if you're running surround sound.
A E2200 would make a nice chip in the setup previously posted
[align=center]<img src="http://www.statgfx.com/statgfx/folding/?&username=Billygoat(pcabusers)&border=0,255,0&label=255,0,0&header=0,0,255&stats=0,0,0&bgcolor=255,255,0&trans=no&template=fah_original&.jpg" alt="PCA Folding Rules!" />[/align]
normalicy wrote:Get a quiet hard drive & the same for the power supply. If the entertainment center is enclosed, you're going to want to vent it.
If you haven't got anything yet, this is a great bare bones start to get you going:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 856110079R
It's even got a digital audio output for the sound if you're running surround sound.
But it doesn't have HDMI. If I bought a HDMI video card for it, you think the small power supply can handle it?
I recommend a seperate video card one way or the other so that it can handle decoding processing & cleanup (I'm kind of an ATI fan there). If HDMI is all you need, there are plenty of older generation cards that will fit the bill fine for $20ish (heck, just saw a 7900gs on my local craigslist a few weeks ago for $20, took everything in me not to bite).But it doesn't have HDMI. If I bought a HDMI video card for it, you think the small power supply can handle it?
Shuttle is good though. Just kinda expensive.
-
FlyingPenguin
- Flightless Bird
- Posts: 33162
- Joined: Wed Nov 22, 2000 11:13 am
- Location: Central Florida
- Contact:
If you have an HDMI input then you probably have a DVI or a VGA input - most HDTVs do. You're better off using one of those instead. You won't get any overscan, and you usually do with HDMI.
They also sell DVI to HDMI interface cables if it has to be HDMI. I have two of them here because I was originally going to use HDMI but I had overscan issues. If the TV itself won't let you adjust for overscan, the video card generally won't. VGA works perfectly - fills the screen right to the borders like on a computer monitor.
My two MCE systems use VGA. Both of them use a cheap GeForce FX5200 AGP cards (the cards have a VGA and a DVI output and I use the VGA). They're Pentium 4 2.4GHz Shuttles with 1Gb running Media Center 2005. The Shuttles only have two slots (using 1 for video and 1 for the TV tuner) and I use the onboard sound. They work great. You don't need much horsepower for MCE 2005.
I have 350Gb hard drives on them and record everything at the highest quality. The two MCEs can see each other's store folders on the network so I can watch anything recorded on one MCE from the other one (except for HBO with uses content restriction to prevent that) and I can also play my DivX TV series, my MP3 collection and watch my photo as slide shows which are all stored on my file server. Rarely use the MCE's for browsing but they both have Firefox installed with NoScript. Mostly just for watching the occasional YouTube Video.
Be aware that some of the cheaper onboard video chips (like Intel's) are not supported in Media Center, although practically any modern add-on vid card should be.
They also sell DVI to HDMI interface cables if it has to be HDMI. I have two of them here because I was originally going to use HDMI but I had overscan issues. If the TV itself won't let you adjust for overscan, the video card generally won't. VGA works perfectly - fills the screen right to the borders like on a computer monitor.
My two MCE systems use VGA. Both of them use a cheap GeForce FX5200 AGP cards (the cards have a VGA and a DVI output and I use the VGA). They're Pentium 4 2.4GHz Shuttles with 1Gb running Media Center 2005. The Shuttles only have two slots (using 1 for video and 1 for the TV tuner) and I use the onboard sound. They work great. You don't need much horsepower for MCE 2005.
I have 350Gb hard drives on them and record everything at the highest quality. The two MCEs can see each other's store folders on the network so I can watch anything recorded on one MCE from the other one (except for HBO with uses content restriction to prevent that) and I can also play my DivX TV series, my MP3 collection and watch my photo as slide shows which are all stored on my file server. Rarely use the MCE's for browsing but they both have Firefox installed with NoScript. Mostly just for watching the occasional YouTube Video.
Be aware that some of the cheaper onboard video chips (like Intel's) are not supported in Media Center, although practically any modern add-on vid card should be.
---
“The Government of Spain will not applaud those who set the world on fire just because they show up with a bucket.” - Prime Minister of Spain, Pedro Sánchez
“The Government of Spain will not applaud those who set the world on fire just because they show up with a bucket.” - Prime Minister of Spain, Pedro Sánchez
ok, my TV has HDMI and VGA inputs. I am not downloading anything really high quality.
So you think VGA might be better for me?
Also, what is the importance of Media Center? What would I use in MCE that XP Pro does not have?
Sorry to be so ignorant to this , but, I've never delved into this part of pc function.
So you think VGA might be better for me?
Also, what is the importance of Media Center? What would I use in MCE that XP Pro does not have?
Sorry to be so ignorant to this , but, I've never delved into this part of pc function.
-
FlyingPenguin
- Flightless Bird
- Posts: 33162
- Joined: Wed Nov 22, 2000 11:13 am
- Location: Central Florida
- Contact:
VGA will look as good as HDMI - probably better since, as I said, HDMI seems to overscan on a lot of HDTVs (it does on mine). VGA will give you a stunning image in full color at the full resolution of the HDTV. You just need to know the resolution of your HDTV (sometimes VGA will detect it automatically, sometimes not just like a regular computer LCD) and set the Windows desktop resolution to match.
Some info on MCE 2005 here: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/medi ... fault.mspx
Media Center (MCE) is specifically designed to allow you to control it from a remote control. The GUI is designed with large fonts easily readable on a TV screen and all the menus can be navigated with a TV remote control compatible with MCE. I would recommend using the Microsoft MCE remote control as it works the best with MCE, and that's what I use:http://www.xpcgear.com/xpremote.html
It also has an IR emitter that gives MCE the ability to remotely control your cable box (if you have one).
You don't need a mouse or a keyboard on an MCE system. In my case both PCs have a wireless keyboard with an integrated trackball. Something like this: http://www.vidabox.com/store/index.php? ... ucts_id=10
I hardly ever use them except on the rare occasions when I browse the web on one of them or have to adjust settings in the OS. You can literally do everything from the remote once you setup the OS and configure it to run Media Center on bootup.
In my case I use my two MCE systems like Tivos not as computers. They're dedicated MCE systems. They have a TV tuner and I use the DVR in media center to watch TV with time shifting (so I can skip commercials) and to record TV shows to watch later.
You get access to a free TV guide that lets you, like a Tivo, just pick what show you want to record and it can record that one show, or the whole series. It knows what time it's on, and if the schedule changes. You can also search for TV shows and movies via title or keywords.
Some screen shots of MCE 2005 in action here: http://www.automatedhome.co.uk/mce2005/
I also use my MCEs to watch Divx TV recordings from my file server, listen to MP3s from my file server, and browse my photo collection from my server. There are some built in plugins in MCE also for news sites like MSNBC, NPR, etc.
Some info on MCE 2005 here: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/medi ... fault.mspx
Media Center (MCE) is specifically designed to allow you to control it from a remote control. The GUI is designed with large fonts easily readable on a TV screen and all the menus can be navigated with a TV remote control compatible with MCE. I would recommend using the Microsoft MCE remote control as it works the best with MCE, and that's what I use:http://www.xpcgear.com/xpremote.html
It also has an IR emitter that gives MCE the ability to remotely control your cable box (if you have one).
You don't need a mouse or a keyboard on an MCE system. In my case both PCs have a wireless keyboard with an integrated trackball. Something like this: http://www.vidabox.com/store/index.php? ... ucts_id=10
I hardly ever use them except on the rare occasions when I browse the web on one of them or have to adjust settings in the OS. You can literally do everything from the remote once you setup the OS and configure it to run Media Center on bootup.
In my case I use my two MCE systems like Tivos not as computers. They're dedicated MCE systems. They have a TV tuner and I use the DVR in media center to watch TV with time shifting (so I can skip commercials) and to record TV shows to watch later.
You get access to a free TV guide that lets you, like a Tivo, just pick what show you want to record and it can record that one show, or the whole series. It knows what time it's on, and if the schedule changes. You can also search for TV shows and movies via title or keywords.
Some screen shots of MCE 2005 in action here: http://www.automatedhome.co.uk/mce2005/
I also use my MCEs to watch Divx TV recordings from my file server, listen to MP3s from my file server, and browse my photo collection from my server. There are some built in plugins in MCE also for news sites like MSNBC, NPR, etc.
---
“The Government of Spain will not applaud those who set the world on fire just because they show up with a bucket.” - Prime Minister of Spain, Pedro Sánchez
“The Government of Spain will not applaud those who set the world on fire just because they show up with a bucket.” - Prime Minister of Spain, Pedro Sánchez