New HTPC

tap28

Hi,
I hope someone can help me or point me in the right direction!

I'm looking to buy a HTPC, ideally off the shelf, but I don't even know if I can get all I'm looking for in one package.

What I require is:
Dual tuner with DVB-S & DVB-T, something like Pinnacle 7010ix Dual card. (have free satellite and DTT down stairs)
Blueray player
Then something like the WD TV or media centre?
Hard Drive
Internet connection.

Is it possible to buy something like this off the shelf or who would put something like this together?

Regards

Tap

Mr McBoatface

You could try adverts.ie for a pre-built 2nd hand unit : Boards member swampthing has really nice one for sale " http://www.adverts.ie/showproduct.php?product=191206&cat=124 " . It should work out cheaper than buying new but you'll have to do the maths on that. Warranties may not be guaranteed, you'll need to ask about that .

You could also post an advert in the computer hardware wanted section and let people come to you with offers.

From a retailer it will cost you more but you'll have peace of mind as far as warranty is concerned : Max Burns in tallaght builds units as far as I can remeber . " http://www.maxburns.ie/ "

Whatever you decided get you dimensions correct, no point in building or buying a HTPC to sit under your TV if it doesn't fit on the shelf !!

I've made loads myself , not much to it to be honest . Where are you located ?

tap28

Thanks for the reply, I live in Roscrea, Co Tipperary.

subway

its pretty simple

you just basically build a PC as normal, install your TV card, install windows 7 and thats it!
its not like it used to be in my day etc etc
doing that, you will be up and running in about 2 hours, plus the time it takes you to put the PC together.
if you have built a PC before you will be fine.

another options will be to buy a PC you like the look of and add a TV card to it, even simpler.

i reinstalled my windows 7 machine last week and it took little or no time to get it up and running. i then installed my add ons (media browser, core AVC, xmltv, MC studio) and that was that.

runcowboy

I'm looking to go for the Dell Zino HD. I've read a lot of the reviews and I'm encouraged. It can double up as a home computer as well.

One area that I see it lacking in is the connection of TV into it.

I see that on Dells US site that have an option for "Hauppauge Computer Win TV-HVR-950Q Hybrid Video Recorder" and that isn't on the cards in fair old ireland. I use NTL/UPC and I'd happily ditch them.

I'm wondering what the best/easiest way to get TV through the HTPC, particularly the Zino HD. I've read a lot of posts on boards.ie about it and nothing looks to be particularly easy. Is it the case of getting a free to air dish and decoder, then using a USB Win TV type product.

tap28

Thanks for the reply,

I have an old Dell Dimension DM051, pentium 4 cpu 3.00 ghz with 1 gb of ram. Running XP Media Centre Edition.

If I got the TV card and increased the ram, would this work?
Or is the machine to old to be of use?

Regards,

Tap

subway

XP wont support h264 for the irish channels.
you need vista with the TV pack or Windows 7 for that
im also not sure if it supports DVB-S

spec wise, you might get away with it, get a new grpahics card that supports CUDA/DXVA and that will offload the processing for bluray/mkv etc

for MPEG2 TV, MP3, DVD, JPEG playback (which is basically Media Centre) you will be fine, the more advanced stuf may put too much of a load on the system and you wont know 100% until you try.

i would defeinitely make the move to 7 if you can, XPMCE is just too outdated and limited

subway

runcowboy wrote: »

I'm looking to go for the Dell Zino HD. I've read a lot of the reviews and I'm encouraged. It can double up as a home computer as well.

One area that I see it lacking in is the connection of TV into it.

I see that on Dells US site that have an option for "Hauppauge Computer Win TV-HVR-950Q Hybrid Video Recorder" and that isn't on the cards in fair old ireland. I use NTL/UPC and I'd happily ditch them.

I'm wondering what the best/easiest way to get TV through the HTPC, particularly the Zino HD. I've read a lot of posts on boards.ie about it and nothing looks to be particularly easy. Is it the case of getting a free to air dish and decoder, then using a USB Win TV type product.

2 of these http://www.dvbshop.net/product_info.php/info/p58_Technotrend-S2-3600-HDTV-S2-USB-2-0---TT-Viewer.html
and 1 of these http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/3273849/Hauppauge-WinTV-Nova-TD-Dual-DVB-T-Tuner-With-Diversity-Model-1175/Product.html

and you will be up and running with quad tuners (no decoders needed) (2xdvb-s and 2x dvb-t)
(you will need a satellite dish and rooftop aerial)

Mr McBoatface

As is your Old PC spec's (maybe add extra gig of ram) should be OK for SD material , HD material I don't think it will cut it. As subway says if you get a graphic card that supports DXVA you might get away with it HD content. Most if not all of the DXVA supported cards are pci-e " http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=434121 " will do the job nicely. That card also has a HDMI output so video and I think 7.1 audio are supported.

XP-MCE doesn't support DVB-S natively . I don't think there is a need for window 7 , You can continue to use XP and use Mediaportal which does support both DVB-S and DVB-T and it's free. I use with it with StreamMP skin " http://forum.team-mediaportal.com/streamedmp-301/new-streamed-mp-v1-0-rc2-13-mar-2010-supports-mp-1-1-0-rc1-79351/ "

You can also get a 7 or 8 day RTE DTT , Freesat/Sky EPG (program guide) using this addon " http://forum.team-mediaportal.com/general-development-no-feature-request-here-48/sky-uk-uk-freesat-epg-43261/ " , no internet connection is needed it takes the EPG info from the DVB source. For RTE you'll need a h264 codec like this " http://www.divx.com/en/software/divx-plus/codec-pack "

Also with the MediaPortal RC1 release there was a problem with one of the dll files that for me caused black screens or snowy grainy images on My TV. A replacement dll file can be found here " http://forum.team-mediaportal.com/mediaportal-1-1-0-rc-1-496/playing-problems-rc1-tv-radio-avi-dxva-78501/ " download the core.zip file extract it to the media-portal program folder over-riding the original.

I recommend a clean install of XP and the install MP

SouperComputer

tap28 wrote: »

Thanks for the reply,

I have an old Dell Dimension DM051, pentium 4 cpu 3.00 ghz with 1 gb of ram. Running XP Media Centre Edition.

If I got the TV card and increased the ram, would this work?
Or is the machine to old to be of use?

I have a similar spec PC running Win7 handy enough. (Its a 3.0 @ 3.6 and 2GB of RAM). You could get away with 1GB RAM, but as subway said you'll need a graphics card that has CUDA/DXVA support if you want HD playback. My PC has an old 6800GT AGP that works well. You could pickup something like this or an ATI-HD offering on ebay cheap enough im sure.

tap28

Thanks for all the reply folks,

If I use my old pc I need/should do the following?
1) Replace my graphics cards, with something like http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=434121
Cost €31
2) Buy at least 1 more gig of Ram like http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=117212
Cost €18
3) Either update to Windows 7 or download MediaPortal
4)If I go with Mediaportal do a clean install of xp (what is a clean install?), download some more stuff but get EPG for freesat and DTT
5) Buy 2 of these http://www.dvbshop.net/product_info.php/info/p58_Technotrend-S2-3600-HDTV-S2-USB-2-0---TT-Viewer.html and One of these http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/3273849/Hauppauge-WinTV-Nova-TD-Dual-DVB-T-Tuner-With-Diversity-Model-1175/Product.html
Cost €230
6) Download http://www.divx.com/en/software/divx-plus/codec-pack

And away I go?

on a side note, I have WD HD live in the living room, could I use this in any way with 2 of these http://www.dvbshop.net/product_info....TT-Viewer.html
and 1 of these http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/327384...5/Product.html?

Thanks again for all the replys.

Regards,

Tap

tap28

For some reason it wont let me edit my last post.
Anyhow, my wife has an very new acer laptop with windows 7 and hdmi out on it, again as before if I buy 2 of http://www.dvbshop.net/product_info.php/info/p58_Technotrend-S2-3600-HDTV-S2-USB-2-0---TT-Viewer.html and one of http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/3273849/Hauppauge-WinTV-Nova-TD-Dual-DVB-T-Tuner-With-Diversity-Model-1175/Product.html would this do?

subway

sorry, those recommendations were for the other chap that hijacked the thread.

if you use a desktop pc, you dont need external usb cards, but if you the laptop you will.

runcowboy

Didn't mean to hijack. Just adding in the Dell Zino HD option. It looks like a nice bit of kit.

Thanks for the great advice about the decoder.

The big thing for me is to have the machine pretty silent but still powerful. I've never build a PC before, would you recommend a site to learn about building your own PC?