Building a HDMI Equipped Media Box

ve

Right I have plans to kit out my living room with a 40" LCD Full HD (1080p) and 5.1 audio setup as soon as the January sales start. However what I want to do before then is build my own media box. I have a few questions before I continue looking at components, that I hope you will be able to answer for me...

Motherboard
When building a media box, should I typically be looking at (Mini/Micro ATX), or ITX Mobo/case form factors?
I definately want HDMI out, because I plan on installing a BluRay drive, as well as using the box to play other HD media. I plan on connecting this to a wired network (although may make wireless in future). So I am looking at this motherboard: Asus M2A-VM HDMI
One thing I notice about a lot of these HDMI equipped mobos is that they come with an Integrated ATI Radeon X1250. Would this be powerful enough to be hopping around the place and demanding HD processing. I don't really plan on playing games with this box, but it would be great if I could get a board that could do HDMI and also gave me a PCI Ex. 16x socket to add a 8800 GTX.

As for RAM, How much RAM would I need to have a responsive HD setup (with and without the gaming capability)?
Going to take a shot at something 1GB (no gaming), 2GB (min, gaming).

As for the processor, I see some people throwing bloody semperon processors in to their media rigs. Is this good enough? Again I know if I want to play games, it is going to seriously impact the spec, but if I just want to leave this as a media box for now, is a lower end CPU going to get the job done?

Another thing that is important to me is noise coming from the power supply fans. I don't really want to get in to water cooling just yet. I have 6month old 400W ATX NorthQ fan lying around, that was fairly quiet, compared to other power supplies I have used, would that do? What ballpark power requirements would I need, and are there any really good noise reduced power supplies out there.

As for disk drives. I came across a Pioneer BluRay (ROM) / (DVD/CD) Writer , which I though was reasonably priced. Also if I threw in a 1TB disk too that would do. However I am again concerned about noise levels, are there any extra quiet BluRay / Hard Disk drives out there?

Operating System
I'm really not sure which way to go with this. I believe my options are, Linux (MythTV) or Vista (versions that come with media centre). Which would be better for what I plan on doing. I like the idea of Linux (MythTV) because I can customize it more, however I don't want to run in to bloody driver issues or anything like that. As for Vista, I haven't seen the new media centre (I have been told it's nice), and at least that way I'm guaranteed a more less troublesome installation, at the expense of no further UI customizations.

I also definitely want to be able to control the box using a remote. I literally want a box that will not have anything connected to it other than, HDMI cable, Ethernet cable, Power cable. If I wanted to be able to record TV, is there any way I can interface a scart from my digital receiver to the media box and record content (I know scart isn't the best, but my digital box does not offer anything better).

Listen I realize that I have asked quite a lot in the above, so any advice you can give me I really appreciate. Thank you.

PogMoThoin

Why not instal ubuntu on a ps3, much cheaper option, very quiet & already has bluetooth, wi-fi, blu-ray & hdmi out.........problems solved

ve

Yes that would be an option, but I'd be afraid I'd end up bricking a PS3. I know you can get a 60GB PS3 for 499 now (+ 2 games), but tbh I think I'd be able to build a box with a decent spec for not much more, and at the end of the day still call it a PC and not a console. I like the idea of being able to connect up a wireless keyboard and mouse to surf the web if I want. Modding a console will restrict me later on. Building my own box I could use vista one day and linux the next, depending on what I want. You know yourself with these kind of things, you're always going to adding/modding, etc.

subway

theres a whole forum for the htpc over here > http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=643

have a look at this thread >
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055158899

and have a read back, the hdmi issue has come up a lot recently

PogMoThoin

ve wrote: »

I know you can get a 60GB PS3 for 499 now (+ 2 games), but tbh I think I'd be able to build a box with a decent spec for not much more

:rolleyes: Not with blu-ray, wi-fi, bluetooth, Hdmi etc

Tbh don't think i'd take the risk myself, but it is worth considering as a cheap option

witnessmenow

There is no risk linux on the ps3 (ts easy, i've done it, and im a dope!)but it doesn't suit you for your needs really.

Blu-ray : It will play blurays perfectly through its own operating system, i doubt its supported in linux(the drive may well work, put linux has only access to a fraction of the ps3 graphics card i really doubt playback will be smooth, even regular avi playback isnt as good as it should be)

HD content: Its own os only plays mp4s, linux will play other things but same as above with the graphic card thing.

Record TV: theres no video input on it.