Media PC

Graham · 12-01-2005 8:43pm

It's a 30" Thomson Selenium, it's a fantastic LCD and comes with almost every type of input you can think of. Off the type of my head:

Aerial
S-Video
Composite Video
2 x Scart
DVI
VGA

I saw the 27" version in Dixons last week for €999

secret_squirrel · 12-01-2005 11:58pm

Graham wrote:

Hi Cavman,

building the mce pc itself wasn't difficult at all. You need a PC with a compatible video card, TV Tuner, MCE remote control and of course Windows Media Centre 2005.

Also a software DVD player is essential - MCE wont work without one -it will tell you there is a tuner error - that cost me plenty of head scratching.

Ebay is a good source of all things MCE - it has the Haupauge 150MCE tv/fm tuner, WinMCE2005 and the MCE remote all for reasonable prices. Delivery to Ireland can sometime be a pain. Helps if you have a friend up north.

Graham wrote:

Getting an Electronic Program Guide (EPG) for NTL Digital is prooving a little trickier. Microsoft don't yet provide an EPG for Ireland, so you're left to try and cobble your own together. I managed to get this working for NTL analog but am struggling a little with NTL Digital.

I haven't worked on the EPG for a couple of weeks now but I do plan to have another go later this week, I'll let you know if I manage to get it working.

Graham I assume that is in place of NTL analog?? According to some research I did today WinMCE wont support both the analog input and the svideo/composite inputs in the same set up. Which means you cant get some channels from NTL analog and some from NTL digital its either one or the other. Which is a bit of a bummer for me since I was thinking of getting a skybox with a uk smartcard and sourcing the irish channels from my chorus analog.

Graham · 13-01-2005 12:08am

I don't think it's the DVD player that's essential, it's the software that comes with it, the MPEG decoding software if memory serves.

I started with NTL's analog service and had MCE and the EPG working nicely together (with TV schedules sourced from XMLTV).

I've since switched to NTL Digital and there seems to be some problems with some of the characters in the XML for the additional TV stations which are preventing a successful import into the MCE EPG.

I think all it's going to take is a process of ellimination to work out which station's data stream is at fault, find the dodgy characters and use a find & replace script to remove them.

You're correct about MCE, all the stations need to come from a single source. Or if you have 2 tuners they both need connecting to similar sources, e.g. 2 NTL Digital set top boxes. I'm sure you could have 2 MCE machines running side by side to run disparate TV sources but that would just be greedy

secret_squirrel · 13-01-2005 12:12am

You are using the latest version of smartguide right?? There have been a couple of version with fixes to remove dodgy characters from some of the xml fields.

Graham · 13-01-2005 12:32am

Yup, very latest versions of everything, including the latest version of smartguide which removes some of the dodgy characters and overlength fields which have caused problems in the past.

I have a hunch that it might be the channels with +1 in the channel name that are causing the problems so they'll be the first to go. If that doesn't work it's down to starting with 1 channel and adding the rest in 1 at a time.

If I get a working EPG for NTL digital I'll let you know.

statto · 21-01-2005 1:01pm

Having problems with setting up MCE 2005. Keep getting either Decoder error or Video Error messages when trying to view Live TV or DVD's. I have PowerDVD 5 and PVR-500 MCE twin tuner card with a 9800 PRO gfx card. I did a goggle and came across forums where this error was resolved by using WinDVD 6. So I downloaded the trail version but no joy. I have run the MCE 2005 diagnostic tool and pass on everything. I have uninstalled all the drivers and reinstalled them. I installed MCE 2005 on a spare disk in my PC and have it dual boot with XP pro, as I want to test everything out before building my new Media PC box. As this isn’t the final resting place of MCE 2005 I haven’t activated it yet. My next step is to format the drive and start again. Any help before I do this would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

40coats · 21-01-2005 3:08pm

Try sticking the nvidia trial codec on.
http://www.nvidia.com/object/dvd_decoder_1.00.67-trial.html

statto · 21-01-2005 11:54pm

Thanks 40coats. Used the nvdia decoder. Got a step further - decoder error gone - just getting a blank screen now but can hear audio. looks like a format and rebuid.

cheers

secret_squirrel · 22-01-2005 2:49am

well the mce500 pvr is known to have mce 2005 driver issues can you beg borrow or steal a 150, 250,350? If that is the case your probs might go away. I noticed on a coupla forum how disabling one of the tuners on the pvr500mce sorted things out but dont know the details.

statto · 25-01-2005 9:38am

Have tried various combinations of enabling/disabling the tuners. Then did a reformat and fresh install. Loaded various avi codecs and Nvidia dvd decoder before installing the tuners I tried to get the video or DVD to work on MCE but no joy. I think its time to put the media pc to rest and buy a dvd hdd recorder.

Thanks guys for all your help and advice.

40coats · 26-01-2005 5:43pm

try this to see if your decoder is being recognised as MCE compatable.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=DE1491AC-0AB6-4990-943D-627E6ADE9FCB&displaylang=en
If it is it may be worth taking of all decoders and then installing the nvidia one before any others, this has been known to fix similar issues.

statto · 26-01-2005 6:14pm

Have tried a clean install with just the nvidia decoder - will try the decoder checker on your link.

Cheers

secret_squirrel · 27-01-2005 9:00pm

Have you tried searching thegreenbuttom.com forums? There are a coupla threads on there about PVR500 MCE isses.

It may just be a case of waiting until the drivers stabilise.

statto · 28-01-2005 11:41am

Success! Found a link on thegreenbutton the pointed to my ATI GFX card drivers. Went to ati.com and downloaded ATI MCE drivers for my card. Hey Presto! MCE works. Next step is to get the EPG working. One question can you fine-tune the TV stations in MCE. I great quality using Dsclar but it's a bit poor in MCE - I think that it might need fine-tuning.

Thanks for all you help.

Cheers

40coats · 28-01-2005 2:48pm

No, you can't fine tune in MCE as is, but if you're planning on using the smartguide epg discussed in this thread you have to input the frequencies manually so this will allow you to get the best possible reception. When Ireland becomes an official MCE country the built in tuning experience will become a lot better.

statto · 01-02-2005 10:11am

Thanks Guys for all your with my Media PC project. Finally got the Smartguide EPG working. Way to complicated, took me hours on Friday night to set it up, then had to re do it on Saturday as MCE lost the settings - still not sure how I managed to get it to work as I was getting lot of errors. Thankfully had an EPG plug-in working for SageTV so was able to reuse some of that configuration which saved me lots of time.

However, not very happy with the quality - lots of interference on Channel 4 and E4 (have read somewhere that ‘noise’ from the PSU can cause this!). Picture quality is good but not great – get better results with Dscaler. The DVD controls are poor – no slider to control playback (like you get in other PC DVD players) also no fast forward or rewind when playing AVI or Dvix videos from the HD.

The real problem is when I hook the PC up to the TV – the results are just poor. Love the EPG and the pausing of live TV but don’t think I can put up with the poor reception of the TV signal. DVD playback quality is good but my el-cheapo Sharp DVD player is much better. Naively, I thought, that I could just load up the software, connect the hardware and would end up with something quite similar to my existing setup – quality TV and DVD play pack with the addition of EPG, PVR and Video jukebox. However, as always, the reality never lives up to the expatiation.

So for the future – the Media PC will go on hold until the LCD TV shows up (maybe next year if the price drops). Until then a lot more research and tweaking to be done (having read avsfourm.com that seems to half the fun for some people). For now I will use my tuner card as a capture card to transfer all my VHS tapes to DVD.

Cheers and thanks for the help and advice.

daveg · 04-02-2005 11:51am

I'm thinking of trying to setup a media center PC using my current setup.

P4 2.8
Abit BE7
768MB DDR Ram
DVDRW drive
160GB drive
9700 pro
XP pro (will upgrade to Media Center 2005)

Would the above be sufficient if I add a tuner card and Media Centre?

Is the Haupauge 150MCE tv/fm tuner the best all tuner card to get? I presume this can work in tandum with my 9700 pro?

Does Media Center work with sky? Will the EPG on media center work or will I have to use another third party software?

Can you browse the web from media center - viewing on your PC?

Thanks.

40coats · 04-02-2005 12:42pm

Here's a list of compatable components:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/mediacenter/partners/dfw/partnerlisting.mspx
Looks like you'll be fine to me. Media Center will work with Sky, you'll get an IR blaster with your MCE remote. Again Irish EPG doesn't exist yet so you'll have to either use a hacked one or wait for the official release. As for browsing, you can do anything that you can do on a XP home box.

daveg · 04-02-2005 12:48pm

Thanks for the reply 40coats. So would you recommend the Haupauge 150MCE tv/fm tuner or maybe the 250? Or something completely different?

40coats · 04-02-2005 3:42pm

Well I use a 250 and am very happy with it.

secret_squirrel · 05-02-2005 4:33pm

daveg wrote:

Thanks for the reply 40coats. So would you recommend the Haupauge 150MCE tv/fm tuner or maybe the 250? Or something completely different?

I have 2x PVR250's but I dont think there is much percentage in them over the 150MCE's. Make sure you get the 150MCE edition rather than the normal retail one. They have loads on Ebay.

Two things I will say about your proposed system - it will be fairly noisey for a Media Center PC - expecially with that 9700 in there. Also you will have to do a fresh install of MCE2005 - it wont just upgrade over XPpro.

soSolid · 09-02-2005 12:33pm

40coats wrote:

I built a box and run Media Center 2005 and love it. Only thing it doesn't do that I'd like is PVR stuff as NTL don't have a guide setup for it. I can still record stuff by date and time obviously and pause live tv, but I like the idea of telling it to scan for particular shows and record them all.

You can get fully integrated EPG from XPMCE on NTL Dublin. For analogue, rerun the TV setup, tell it you're in the U.K., on "Cable or Digital Cable", and give it a Belfast post code BT61 7QZ (don't just give it any code), and when it asks what type of service, select Cable line-up for the UK. This will download all EPG data for about 245 channels (everything from Adult Channel to Zee TV, except for TV3 and TNaG). Then it will scan the analogue service to see what channels it finds. Once that's done, you need to assign Guide listings to each channel, i.e. tell it that BBC1 is to be associated with the EPG data for "BBC1 Northern Ireland", and so on for the rest of your channels. If you have a dual-tuner card (or two single-tuner cards), you can watch-one-record-another (or record two at the same time).

If you're an NTL digital person, do the same as above except tell it you have a set top box. Also the MCPC doesn't scan for channels. You have to match the three-digit ntl channel number to the Guide data in a similar fashion to the above.

Anyway, the point is that you can get full guide/EPG data from XPMCE without having to resort to any third-party XML based solutions.

Happy channel surfing!

40coats · 09-02-2005 1:43pm

Are you about this Solid? I tried this before I heard of the smartguide alternative and scanning never picked up all channels and those it did find weren't great reception wise. How long ago did you do this?

soSolid · 10-02-2005 10:41am

40coats wrote:

Are you about this Solid? I tried this before I heard of the smartguide alternative and scanning never picked up all channels and those it did find weren't great reception wise. How long ago did you do this?

Since Christmas. The only time consuming part is that the channel scan finds the off-air channels also, and you may end up with two or three "guesses" at the correct broadcast frequency. You have to manually decide which "guess" looks best, and disable the others from you channel list. The best way to see which guess is most accurate is to check the teletext, as if the frequency is even slightly off, the text will be cr@p. You only have to do this once, at initial setup, so I think it's worth the effort to end up with the native MCE EPG, which is far better than the NTL digital EPG.

There is a file in the C:\Windows\ehome folder called MCETuningOverrides.xml which does what is says, and overrides any frequencies for known cable/satellite systems with manual frequencies. I messed around with it and it worked fairly well. You still need to set up your guide as being in the U.K. and change one of the <TuningSpaces> entries to look like

<AnalogTVTuningSpace Id="44" UniqueName="Irish Cable" ...

The "44" overrides the known frequencies for the UK and only scans for the specific frequencies in the file. This file only applies to analogue cable/off-air and not digital STBs.

Let me know how you get on and I'll try and help if I can.

soSolid · 11-02-2005 10:27am

daveg wrote:

XP pro (will upgrade to Media Center 2005)

daveg,

You can't upgrade to MCE 2005 as it is a different product (although based on) XP Pro. You'll need to either buy a pre-built MC PC (from HP, Dell or the like), buy the OEM XP MCE cds, or have an MSDN subscription. The installation checks for some mandatory hardware like an IR receiver for the remote, and the install won't continue without it.

secret_squirrel · 11-02-2005 7:24pm

soSolid wrote:

mandatory hardware like an IR receiver for the remote

Actually it doesnt - it will behave like a normal XP pro installation until you try to start Media Center. Even then you can run it without the remote reciever. I ran mine using keyboard and mouse until my reciever turned up.

However - I would recommend starting off with the full spec of the pc you are aiming for.

ie - 1 or more MCE compatible tuner cards. (eg Hauppage PVR 150MCE)
Software MPEG 2 DVD decoder (Nvidia dVD decoder or similar)
Quiet/Fanless MB and GFX cards.

soSolid · 15-02-2005 10:21am

secret_squirrel wrote:

Actually it doesnt - it will behave like a normal XP pro installation until you try to start Media Center. Even then you can run it without the remote reciever. I ran mine using keyboard and mouse until my reciever turned up.

mea culpa, it's not the OS install that looks for the remote, but the media centre setup which starts when you reboot after the main install.

secret_squirrel wrote:

However - I would recommend starting off with the full spec of the pc you are aiming for.

ie - 1 or more MCE compatible tuner cards. (eg Hauppage PVR 150MCE)
Software MPEG 2 DVD decoder (Nvidia dVD decoder or similar)
Quiet/Fanless MB and GFX cards.

You could also try the PVR 500MCE dual-tuner and save yourself a slot.

40coats · 15-02-2005 4:15pm

The recievcer is only mandatory if you use a set top box and therefore need an ir blaster to switch channels. Also from my experience I'd stay away from the pvr500, been playing with them in work and they're a bit hit and miss at the moment.

secret_squirrel · 15-02-2005 8:01pm

soSolid wrote:

mea culpa, it's not the OS install that looks for the remote, but the media centre setup which starts when you reboot after the main install.

Err sorry to keep contradicting you

- but my media center was completely set up without the remote reciever and I was never prompted.

Graham · 24-02-2005 1:14am

ok, I promised I'd report back if I ever got the EPG working for NTL Digital, so here it is:

It's working!

Full EPG for all but 3 of the NTL Digital Channels, courtesy of quickguide. Happy days.

40coats · 24-02-2005 6:22pm

I eventually got around to trying Solids method (going in as a UK machine with a home made overide table). Worked a treat and the searching and filtering works way better. Ta very much.

RunDMC · 28-02-2005 9:26am

I'm looking at buying one of the Silverstone SST cases from Komplett.ie. Has anyone used one before?

R

gline · 10-03-2005 4:53pm

Graham wrote:

Intel Celeron 2.8
1024MB Ram
Shuttle SFF Case
Hapuuape WinTV PVR350
37GB 10,000 RPM SATA HDD
300GB 7,200 RPM SATA HDD
DVD +/-R DVD Writer
802.11G USB Wireless Network Adapter
Windows Media Centre 2005
Windows Media Centre 2005 Remote Control
30" Thomson LCD Display
Yamaha Surround Sound

Can:
Watch/Pause/Rewind Live TV
Record TV (including scheduled recordings and record all episodes of this series)
Play DVD's
Play CD's
Play MP3's
Burn DVD's (video based DVD's created from recorded TV may require re-encoding to play on a normal DVD player)
Burn CD's
Create/Watch Photo Albums
Play streaming media (audio/video)
Play internet radio
Schedule recordings from any PC in the house via a web interface (still deciding whether to set this up for access from any internet connection).

Can't:
Make coffee (although there's a few very neat power adapters that may eventually let me turn on the kettle via the MCE remote control,hmmmmm).
Record from TV into plain MPEG format (requires an extra step to move from the microsoft specific encoding).

40Coats,
I've used the hack from the greenbutton to get our EPG working:

Webguide 2 How-To

Let's do SmartGuide on MCE2005

Thanks for the heads-up on the other hacks, although I must admit I don't have many DVD's to rip, yet.

Just a quick question , i dont know wether it has been answered, but where did you get the Windows Media Centre 2005 Remote Control??? Is it a specific remote and adapter for media centre 2005????

Graham · 10-03-2005 5:19pm

Got mine on eBay with the MCE software.

It's apparently a Microsoft branded Philips remote and as far as I know it is specific to media centre. Makes a fair difference to the use of media centre though, I'd definately recommend it.

spartacus93 · 10-03-2005 8:06pm

Overclockers.co.uk have em too by the way.

secret_squirrel · 10-03-2005 10:08pm

If you are mad like me you can also upgrade to a harmony remote that controls MCE and the rest of your electronics...

gline · 10-03-2005 11:52pm

kul thanks

40coats · 11-03-2005 12:20pm

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2005/mar05/03-10MediaCenterWorldwidePR.asp

Ireland official launch later this year.

spartacus93 · 11-03-2005 3:51pm

Thanks for the link 40coats. One less thing for me to worry about when I finally take the plunge. Now if only my NTL digital STB had more outputs instead of a single Scart!!

TCP/IP · 11-03-2005 4:34pm

i am going to build a media centre PC over the coming days. I use Sky Digital as my main tv source and it only has two scart outputs on it, what way can i connect it to the media centre. Has anybody else out there set it up using Sky Digital

Thanks,
TCP/IP

spartacus93 · 11-03-2005 8:14pm

You would have to use the video in on your graphics card, I think. I'm in the same boat with my NTL Digital. As far as I know its still possible but a bit trickier.

secret_squirrel · 11-03-2005 9:54pm

40coats wrote:

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2005/mar05/03-10MediaCenterWorldwidePR.asp

Ireland official launch later this year.

WOOHOO no more guide bodgery

spartacus93 wrote:

You would have to use the video in on your graphics card, I think. I'm in the same boat with my NTL Digital. As far as I know its still possible but a bit trickier.

Im pretty sure you would have to use the Video-In on the TV card - not the video card.

spartacus93 · 11-03-2005 10:18pm

secret_squirrel wrote:

WOOHOO no more guide bodgery

Im pretty sure you would have to use the Video-In on the TV card - not the video card.

Eh ya id take his word for it!! Ill go back into my box!

TCP/IP · 12-03-2005 1:19am

thanks lads any pictures of the cases you usingand were u got them

Graham · 12-03-2005 1:48am

Purchased from IT Direct on Parliament St, Dublin

Rew · 12-03-2005 1:53am

This thread should rellay be stickified, its full of very hand links and info. Ill be referenceing it a bit when I have some cash to spare...

TCP/IP · 12-03-2005 3:10am

This is the case I have chosen along with the other parts what do you guys think? All comments welcome

Going to be using Windows Media Centre 2005

Hauppauge WinTV PVR 150MCE OEM w/o Remote (Compatible Window XP

Media Centre O/S ONLY)

Microsoft Windows Media Center HARDWARE Kit (Remote/Receiver) OEM

SilverStone "LASCALA" LC04S-A (Silver) Aluminum Desktop case

MSI K7N2 Delta2 Platinum - nForce 2, ATX, DDDR400, Gbit Lan, USB 2.0, 1394, 6Ch Audio, SATA, Raid

AMD *Retail* Athlon XP 3200+ *400 FSB* Barton (2.20GHz) with AMD Heat Sink Fan 3Yr

2X 512Mb PC3200 (PC400) DDR Memory (Dane-Elec/Elixir) Retail

200Gb Western Digital WD2000JD Caviar SE (7200rpm,8MB) - SATA
3XS Meridian Hard Disk Cooler Aluminum

NEC ND-3520A Silver x 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer DVD-Writer, OEM UK
Nvidia 256MB XFX GeForce FX5500 AGP 8x DDR TV+DVI

gline · 12-03-2005 3:14am

TCP/IP wrote:

2X 512Mb PC3200 (PC400) DDR Memory (Dane-Elec/Elixir) Retail

Had a bad experience with elixer memory, basically it had errors on it in memtest though i bought it brand new. Dont know wether it was a problem with the manufacturer or reseller??

TCP/IP · 12-03-2005 3:25am

Yeah i would prefer Dane-Elec used it before and no probs

Graham · 12-03-2005 4:07pm

Have a look at these cases before you buy yours, I wish I had

http://www.quietpc.com/uk/htpc.php

Media PC

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