New mce build: tv card wanted and other info

stevejazzx

Hi,

Almost finished building my mce rig on a very tight budget

pentium 4 2.8ghz northwood - 30 euro from adverts
sony dvd rw - 20 euro from adverts
gigabyte slient 7600gs - 70 euro from adverts
1 gig corsair xtreme pc 3200/400mhz - 60 euro from adverts

bought a mobo and zalman 8000 from ocuk for 80 euro

need case and tv card now
I'm thinking of this for case, is 350/w psu enough. I ran my rig through the wattage calculator and it's coming out around 300? That seems low to me.

I have no idea on tv card! totally out of the loop on them so recomendations appreciated.


Also could someone explain to me about resolutions? Bit confused here?
Like for example my new tvs Resolution will be - 1366 x 768 which is fairly standard for lcd, right?
Does this mean that any media with lower resolution will be really pixellated when strected? Like dvd for example is 720×576 so how does that all work? And what about regualr cable tv resoultuion wise coming in through a tv card?

Ok well that's it, advice aprreciated.
]
Thanks


Steve

maceocc2

I use the Hauppaugge 150 MCE, Its good quality and cheap enough for what your getting, you could go a bit better and get the 500 MCE but thats just for people with two seperate decoded TV signals and is essentially just a double 150MCE.

As regards the Power supply, it should be alright but maybe get a 400watt just incase, everything else seems fine, just remember theres a lot more setting up involved with a HTPC than a normal PC, but you'll be fine.

stevejazzx

Cheers Maceo..looking at that card now

anyone know about resolutions and how that all works or can point to a good articale online about it?

cheers]

steve

8T8

The case & it's PSU 350W will do but know that the PSU inside it is a custom size one it cannot use off the shelf ATX power supplies should it ever fail on you or want to put something more powerful in it.

1366 x 768 is the resolution of almost all 720p capable HDTV's however 1366x768 is not a computer resolution which is why over VGA it will comes up as 1360x768 as the max resolution.

This results desktop text looking a little off it varies really from person to person some mind it some don't anyway for those that want everything perfect you must do what's called 1:1 pixel mapping which is a custom resolution you force of 1366x768, this can only be done over DVI or HDMI in your graphics card control panel. {This doesn't really affect media centre UI usage}

Playing any media will be upscaled to the resolution used in media centre & it works pretty well though obviously content with a poor resolution will only be magnified in the details.

A middle ground is to use the 1280x720 resolution instead best thing to do is try it and see.

For TV content it will comes in at the resolution it was broadcast as e.g anything over scart or composite is 720x576 in resolution.

Component, DVI, HDMI & VGA all support high resolutions well with a 720p display that usually means 1280x720 is the max resolution for HDTV content.

stevejazzx

Hye thanks 8t8 - that really clears a lot of things up in my mind.

So i get it more or less now I can use 1280 res which is close or force 1:1 mapping?

I was planning on using a vga connector to connect tv and gpu? Is this wise, this would only give me the 1280 option correct?

I want to watch everything and record through media center so is this just a matter of plugging the tv cable into a tv tuner card on the pc and setting it all up through meadia center?

Is it possible for me to use 1:1 pixel mapping if my tv doesn't have a dvi out?

Oh yeah does ntl work the same as cable tv? Man sorry for all the questions!

8T8

Using VGA will let you use 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x720 & 1360x768

You cant use the true resolution of 1366x768 with VGA only digital connections can force the custom resolution but that doesn't matter that much if this is a media centre system as you wont be reading small text.

Yes it is just a matter of plugging everything in and setting it up.

As for NTL I cannot say as I'm not really familiar with their service it does work with Windows Media Centre perhaps someone else can fill in the details.

stevejazzx

8t8 thanks again you're a gentleman

off i go

btw I've decided on the antec fusion (painful price!) and the aver media mce card!

thanks again

steve