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Alright... PVR Time!!!

foogy

foogy

New member
hey everybody, i got the itch to build a PVR/Mediacenter.

here is what id like to do.
have a piece of hardware where i can record tv and be able to burn dvds of the programs that i have recorded. also to be able to play any video/music/picture file i throw at it! i'll get the software for this after i build the thing (Windows Media Center Edition), or if you can think of a better piece of software let me know plz.

this is actually the very first pc that i will be building from the ground up. my budget will be $400, but that's because i already have a DVD burner and a 160GB hdd ready to be put in it. I'll upgrade the HDD later on though.

i could use some case ideas, cpu+mobo and capture card recommendations, and i'm gonna put atleast 1GB of ram in it and possibly more later on.

I'd like for this thing to be cheap, but still be a beast.

plz, if you have built or own a media center pc could you post your specs so i can get some ideas? thanks!
 
OP
foogy

foogy

New member
CPU: Athlon XP 2400+ Socket A (Socket 462) [$82.50 W/ MOBO]
MOBO: KT266A ATX
HDD: Seagate / 250GB / 7200rpm / 8MB / ATA-100 [$129.97/$69.97]
GPU: GIGABYTE GV-N52128DS Geforce FX5200 128MB DDR AGP 4X/8X [$39.50]
CAPTURE CARD: Hauppauge 1042 PCI Interface Win TV150 [$69]
MEMORY: 1024MB DDR PC-2100 266MHz 184PIN , 128X4 OEM BRAND [$62]
CASE: UNDECIDED
DVD DRIVE: NEC ND-3520A DVD+/-RW 16X Dual Layer Black [$38.99]

lemme know your thoughts on this setup plz...

as you see im low on money so i'm making this pretty cheap, but decent at the same time.

plz, could I get some HTPC Case recommendations? i can't seem to chose between any cases that i do find..



websites where im getting these items...
1GB PC2100 Ram
Geforce 5200
300gb HDD
NEC DVD Burner
Athlon XP 2400 + MOBO
 
Hexidecimal

Hexidecimal

Emutalk Bounty Hunter.
Seems like a good enough setup, my only suggestion is dont go with WMCE. It's a terrible system hog, I have similar specs here and it runs quite slow because of all the extra flashy things.

Overall a good setup, hell of a lot nice them my AMD750 Mhz 392 RAM system I use here to watch TV and play old games on my TV.

If you want something like media center, checkout GameEX or one of the other PVR suites like BeyondTV, SageTV or one of the others out there.
 
OP
foogy

foogy

New member
Do you think i could go lower on the cpu and ram hexidecimal? tryin to save a little bit of money so i can get it setup sooner.
 
Hexidecimal

Hexidecimal

Emutalk Bounty Hunter.
That should be plenty for your PVR. Theres only one reason really to use something like WMCE05, is if you plan to watch and record at the same time. With 2 tuners in WMCE05 you can watch and record simultaniously.
 
General Plot

General Plot

Britchie Crazy
OK, this is the kind of thread I've been waiting for. I have an AverMedia TV card that has MPEG2 encoding built into the card, and I want to use it for capturing DVD quality video. Since the app that came with it sucks, I'm looking for suggestions on apps that will allow me to capture in high quality MPEG2. Also, plugins (if the app needs them and plugin settings if so). Thanks for any input. As you'll note in my sig, my PC should be able to handle these kinds of captures.;)
 
OP
foogy

foogy

New member
generalplot said:
Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce FX 5200 BIOS flashed to FX 5500)
Click to expand...

what the hell is this? flashed to FX 5500?
what does it do? and how can i do it?

anyways, here is some software you can run on your mediacenter:
http://mediaportal.sourceforge.net/ runs on windows
http://www.gbpvr.com/ runs on windows
http://www.mythtv.org/ runs on linux

all of this crap is completely free, i dont plan on spending any extra cash on software for my mediacenter. i have a copy of WinXP Home layin around here and im just gonna use that with either gbpver or mediaportal....
 
General Plot

General Plot

Britchie Crazy
foogy said:
what the hell is this? flashed to FX 5500?
what does it do? and how can i do it?
Click to expand...
Flashing the gfx card bios allows it to be run at the specs of the new card it's being flashed as (for me this means a slightly higher GPU clock speed and video ram speed).;) If you're interested in this, here a link: http://www.mvktech.net/
One word of warning: overclocking too much or without some sort of extra cooling for your card CAN kill it. For me, my original speeds were 250 Mhz on GPU and 400 RAM speed. I now have it at a stable 325 GPU and 475 RAM.
By the way, thanks for the links, I'll try those out.:)
 
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