Media PC

SouperComputer

@vibe 666

I think what they mean is that they are not going to write any software for the card. $hitty IMO, but anyway...... the drivers work on those OS.

give this a go:

http://mediaportal.sourceoforge.net

works for me even with a 5 year old capture card!

secret_squirrel

Wavey wrote:

secret squirrel,

I was looking at that gigabut 6600gt passive.
Couldnt find any reviews showing the temps under load. Any idea what these are like without a fan?

How do I know which cards can upscale to hdtv standard?

Thanks
Wavey

I think they run quite hot - Im not anticipating major gaming so Im not too worried - my case is also a full size ATX model so there's plenty of room for cooling too.

Nearest to a review is this : http://stores.tomshardware.com/rating_getprodrev.php/product_id=5731987/id_type=M//

Mixed on the need for extra cooling or not.

Im not sure about upscaling. Try the greenbutton.com I know nearly all the 6600 and 6800 cards do. With poss exception of 6800 according to a forum on the GB. Also mentioned was the X800 series.

stuey

ok newbie question, i want to build a media centre, i have ntl digital

now how do i go about recording a channel from the digital feed, lets say discovery channel is 701 on the ntl box, how does the MC record from that channel without me having to grab the remote and press in 701??

FrankGrimes

Hey Stuey,

The MCE remote has a receiver. you press 701 on the MCE remote then the receiver picks this up. the receiver actually also has an output port which you plug an IR emitter into. This is a little red light on the end of a cable basically.

You stick the little red light onto the front of your NTL set-top box (it has a sticky back). The remote receiver then translates the 701 it picked up from the MCE remote into a format the NTL stb wants and then sends this down the wire to the little red light which sends the instruction to the NTL stb which then changes the channel.

During setup you use your NTL remote to let MCE understand how to emulate it. The receiver actually has two IR emitters (supplied with remote) and output ports.

You will need two NTL stbs to watch one channel while you record another or watch two channels at once (If you plan on using the Xbox 360 or any other extender its likely you will have two people wanting to watch different channels in different rooms).

You will also need two TV tuners (Hauppage PVR 150s sound like a good bet), or a single TV tuner card with dual tuners (e.g. Happuage PVR 500MCE, but you need an extra AV cable set with this to run digital).

vibe666

righto, got it (sorta) working now.

turns out that the tv card won't do a thing without having power dvd installed first (which I didn't get with the card), because the specs of MCE say that any TV signal must be converted to MPEG2 before it is displayed on the screen, and since M$ didn't want to have to pay extra for their own MPEG2 encoder, a software DVD player must be installed on the PC first, before the signal can be displayed on screen.

sounds dumb to me, but I'm sure there's a reason for it somewhere.

so, I re-downloaded the guide etc. and I have 'some' channels, but they are all in the wrong order and some are blank altogether.

I can see that there's a way to do it manually, via the actual channel number, but I don't know what the proper channel numbers are for NTL analogue, and the channel scan function is still not working for me.

Can anyone tell me the correct channel numbers for NTL analogue or point me in the right direction?

thanks in advance.[align=right]13.16.137.10[/align]

Boden

Any suggestions for an off the shelp MCE machine? Alienware stuff worth going near?

Krusty_Clown

Hi Vibe666, yes, you absolutely need a DVD decoder for Media Center. There are a couple of options, including nVidia's PureVideo, CyberLink PowerDVD and WinDVD. Some of these are available for free trials.

Here's the URL to Microsoft's Windows XP Video Decoder Checkup Utility
Link

Not sure what you're looking for in terms of the correct channel numbers for NTL, but Here are their frequencies. You can change the sort order and remove the blanks by going to the settings, tuner menu (as far as I can recall.)

secret_squirrel

Boden wrote:

Any suggestions for an off the shelp MCE machine? Alienware stuff worth going near?

Hush PC, if you have the expensive tastes your preference for Alienware indicates, otherwise most major pc companies have a media pc in their range. It just depends what you want it to look like and where you are going to put it. Personally I went for 1 that looks like a hifi component to fit in with the rest of my stuff.

vibe666

Krusty_Clown wrote:

Hi Vibe666, yes, you absolutely need a DVD decoder for Media Center. There are a couple of options, including nVidia's PureVideo, CyberLink PowerDVD and WinDVD. Some of these are available for free trials.

the support guys gave me a download link and serial for PowerDVD5 which I've downloaded and now have working, thanks.

Not sure what you're looking for in terms of the correct channel numbers for NTL, but Here are their frequencies. You can change the sort order and remove the blanks by going to the settings, tuner menu (as far as I can recall.)

the tv tuner still won't let me scan for channels, but rollup2 seems to think it has them itself and has downloaded something, but it's all wrong. some channels are visible, but they aren't the channels they are supposed to be and I only have 4 differnet channels anyway.

I picked the right setup, of dublin analogue cable, and I have all the correct listings in the guide, but the channels just aren't correct when i flickthrough them, or when i browse to them from the guide.

within the settings it allows me to manually choose a channel (I'm assuming from 1-100 or so) that the signal for each station is found on to correct errors but I only have the frequencies for the channels, not the actual 'true' channel numbers as you would get them if your TV scanned through what was available and auto assigned channels based on frequency from there.

thanks again for any help.

secret_squirrel

[qcuote=vibe666] of dublin analogue cable,[/quote]

Try going back and choosing dublin digital cable. It doesnt effect your tuner choice and it gives you a bigger range of guide channels to choose from.

What I did in setting up mine was to get the channels in the right order, using the option in guide setup. Then hide the ones I didnt want. Then finally match the tuned in channels against the ones in the guide.

MCE tries to use Teletext to work out some of the channels and automatch them to the right guide page - sometimes it doesnt work.

vibe666

secret_squirrel wrote:

Try going back and choosing dublin digital cable. It doesnt effect your tuner choice and it gives you a bigger range of guide channels to choose from.

just did that this evening. found that I have all the needed channels, but in the wrong order and incorreclty labelled and not correct in the guide.

now, as you said, I need to try and get rid of the junk ones and get the good ones in the right order and correctly labelled.

anyone know the easiest way to do that?

also, is there an easy way of backing up these settings for the next time I re-install? come to think of it, maybe secret_squirrel could back up his, and email the settings to me? is that possible? assuming you'd be that way inclined of course, if you have it set up.

actually, if it's possible to make a backup of those settings, it might be a good idea to get them all backed up for various set ups, and maybe get them sticked for others to use.

just a thought, being as it doesn't look like I'm the only one having trouble with it.

EDIT: after some digging, I have discovered the folliowing:

... ALL CUSTOM CHANNEL LISTINGS ARE STORED IN ...

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\eHome\EPG\prefs\prefs.xml

I can't claim to have found this myself, it was posted at thegreenbutton.com by someone in the UK.

I'd be very grateful if someone could post up a copy of their correctly configured NTL analogue 'prefs.xml' file for me to test, to save me trawling through all those channels manually. maybe others could post their file from other services (NTL Digital, Sky Digital, Chorus etc.) up too, so that anyone else having the same problems can just use someone elses rather than having to struggle through it themselves.

anyway, thanks again in advance.
[align=right]13.16.137.10[/align]

FrankGrimes

I'm on NTL digital myself, but I'm pretty sure somebody posted the NTL analogue settings either in this thread, or another one called something like 'MCE Irish EPG' or something like that - it was started by 'graham' - pity the search function is disabled

Krusty_Clown

FrankGrimes wrote:

I'm on NTL digital myself, but I'm pretty sure somebody posted the NTL analogue settings either in this thread, or another one called something like 'MCE Irish EPG' or something like that - it was started by 'graham' - pity the search function is disabled

I think that may have been the tuningoverrides.xml file you're thinking of, which fortunately since rollup2 shouldn't be necessary any longer.

You can still search the boards, using google. This was the tuningoverrides thread:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=267408&page=3

secret_squirrel

Grr Vibe you made me sit in front of my MCE to remember how I did it.

Here's how I did it.

In Setting->TV ->Guide->

Choose Edit channels. You can switch get the TV picture to appear in the bottom left corner so you can check out each one.
Edit the name of each channel until your are happy with it.

Next Choose Add Listings to Channels - to associate each tuner channel to a guide channel. You might not be able to find them all. (I cant find eurosport for instance)

Next choose Change sort order to put the channels in the order you prefer.

Im not sure if its possible to add new guide channels (like eurosport) at all.

Will upload the xml file for Chorus Analog (Dublin) in a sec. [edit] how can I post an xml file on my webspace with out a browser interpreting it? Changing extension didnt work? Posted as with CODE tags then.- Welcome to scrollbar hell.

Looking at the file I would say if you could find a definitive listing of guide code nos you could manually add any available guide channel to this file.

<lineups schema_version="1.1" client_version="2.0" originalCreator="MCE 2.0" copyright="Copyright Microsoft Corp. All rights reserved." xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
  <lineup sources="4049697487">
    <sources>
      <s headend="8000003" headendname="Unmapped Digital Cable" supplierid="18" suppliername="BDS" supplierinfo="Powered by Zap2it" hnt="HEADEND_NETWORK_TYPE_LOCAL_ANALOG_CABLE" regiontuningcode="IE" currentversion="2599858054" id="0" language="en" schemaversion="18" unmapped="True" restricted="True">
        <copyright>&#169; 2004 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Terms of Service: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=8430
</copyright>
      </s>
      <s headend="" headendname="" supplierid="" suppliername="" supplierinfo="" hnt="HEADEND_NETWORK_TYPE_UNK" regiontuningcode="" currentversion="0" id="2119965222" language="" schemaversion="" unmapped="False" restricted="False">
        <copyright>
        </copyright>
      </s>
    </sources>
    <tuneRequests ct="0" />
    <presets ct="35">
      <p number="1">
        <s name="BBC1 Northern Ireland" call_sign="BBC ONE NI" affiliation="" id="1307" virtualchannelnumber="30" sourceId="0" />
        <s name="BBC1 NI" call_sign="BBC1 NI" affiliation="" id="17" virtualchannelnumber="0" sourceId="2119965222" />
      </p>
      <p number="2">
        <s name="BBC2 Northern Ireland" call_sign="BBC TWO" affiliation="" id="1320" virtualchannelnumber="48" sourceId="0" />
        <s name="BBC2 NI" call_sign="BBC2 NI" affiliation="" id="14" virtualchannelnumber="0" sourceId="2119965222" />
      </p>
      <p number="3">
        <s name="Ulster" call_sign="ITV1" affiliation="" id="2100" virtualchannelnumber="133" sourceId="0" />
        <s name="ULSTER TV" call_sign="ULSTER TV" affiliation="" id="15" virtualchannelnumber="0" sourceId="2119965222" />
      </p>
      <p number="4">
        <s name="Channel 4" call_sign="Channel 4" affiliation="" id="90" virtualchannelnumber="71" sourceId="0" />
        <s name="Unknown ( 56062 KHz)" call_sign="Unknown" affiliation="" id="2" virtualchannelnumber="0" sourceId="2119965222" />
      </p>
      <p number="5">
        <s name="Sky One" call_sign="Sky One" affiliation="" id="255" virtualchannelnumber="213" sourceId="0" />
        <s name="Unknown (264062 KHz)" call_sign="Unknown" affiliation="" id="23" virtualchannelnumber="0" sourceId="2119965222" />
      </p>
      <p number="6">
        <s name="MTV" call_sign="MTV" affiliation="" id="479" virtualchannelnumber="149" sourceId="0" />
        <s name="MTV UK" call_sign="Unknown" affiliation="" id="21" virtualchannelnumber="0" sourceId="2119965222" />
      </p>
      <p number="7">
        <s name="Sky News" call_sign="Sky News" affiliation="" id="93" virtualchannelnumber="212" sourceId="0" />
        <s name="SKY GOLD" call_sign="SKY GOLD" affiliation="" id="19" virtualchannelnumber="0" sourceId="2119965222" />
      </p>
      <p number="8">
        <s name="Unknown ( 72062 KHz)" call_sign="Unknown" affiliation="" id="4" virtualchannelnumber="0" sourceId="2119965222" />
      </p>
      <p number="9">
        <s name="Cartoon Network" call_sign="Cartoon Network" affiliation="" id="157644" virtualchannelnumber="67" sourceId="0" />
        <s name="Unknown (256000 KHz)" call_sign="Unknown" affiliation="" id="22" virtualchannelnumber="0" sourceId="2119965222" />
      </p>
      <p number="10">
        <s name="E4" call_sign="E4" affiliation="" id="750978" virtualchannelnumber="97" sourceId="0" />
        <s name="Unknown (208062 KHz)" call_sign="Unknown" affiliation="" id="16" virtualchannelnumber="0" sourceId="2119965222" />
      </p>
      <p number="11">
        <s name="RTE1" call_sign="RTE ONE" affiliation="" id="751696" virtualchannelnumber="189" sourceId="0" />
        <s name="RTE1" call_sign="RTE1" affiliation="" id="12" virtualchannelnumber="1" sourceId="2119965222" />
      </p>
      <p number="12">
        <s name="RTE2" call_sign="RTE TWO" affiliation="" id="751697" virtualchannelnumber="191" sourceId="0" />
        <s name="RTE2" call_sign="RTE2" affiliation="" id="3" virtualchannelnumber="2" sourceId="2119965222" />
      </p>
      <p number="13">
        <s name="TV Three" call_sign="TV Three" affiliation="" id="628844" virtualchannelnumber="246" sourceId="0" />
        <s name="TV3" call_sign="TV3" affiliation="" id="18" virtualchannelnumber="3" sourceId="2119965222" />
      </p>
      <p number="14">
        <s name="TG4" call_sign="TG4" affiliation="" id="421060" virtualchannelnumber="230" sourceId="0" />
        <s name="Teilifis na Gaeilge" call_sign="Teilifis na Gaei" affiliation="" id="13" virtualchannelnumber="0" sourceId="2119965222" />
      </p>
      <p number="15">
        <s name="TV5" call_sign="TV5" affiliation="" id="751017" virtualchannelnumber="250" sourceId="0" />
        <s name="TV5" call_sign="TV5" affiliation="" id="43" virtualchannelnumber="0" sourceId="2119965222" />
      </p>
      <p number="16">
        <s name="RTE1" call_sign="RTE1" affiliation="" id="11" blocked="1" virtualchannelnumber="1" sourceId="2119965222" />
      </p>
      <p number="17">
        <s name="Unknown (360000 KHz)" call_sign="Unknown" affiliation="" id="35" blocked="1" virtualchannelnumber="0" sourceId="2119965222" />
      </p>
      <p number="18">
        <s name="Unknown (376062 KHz)" call_sign="Unknown" affiliation="" id="37" blocked="1" virtualchannelnumber="0" sourceId="2119965222" />
      </p>
      <p number="19">
        <s name="Unknown (408062 KHz)" call_sign="Unknown" affiliation="" id="41" blocked="1" virtualchannelnumber="0" sourceId="2119965222" />
      </p>
      <p number="20">
        <s name="Unknown (416062 KHz)" call_sign="Unknown" affiliation="" id="42" blocked="1" virtualchannelnumber="0" sourceId="2119965222" />
      </p>
      <p number="21">
        <s name="Unknown (432062 KHz)" call_sign="Unknown" affiliation="" id="44" blocked="1" virtualchannelnumber="0" sourceId="2119965222" />
      </p>
      <p number="22">
        <s name="Unknown (456000 KHz)" call_sign="Unknown" affiliation="" id="47" blocked="1" virtualchannelnumber="0" sourceId="2119965222" />
      </p>
      <p number="30" />
      <p number="48" />
      <p number="67" />
      <p number="71" />
      <p number="97" />
      <p number="133" />
      <p number="149" />
      <p number="189" />
      <p number="191" />
      <p number="212" />
      <p number="213" />
      <p number="230" />
      <p number="246" />
    </presets>
  </lineup>
</lineups>

vibe666

okay, I've blocked the channels I don't want, but the channels I do want are now scattered around the 240 odd channels with snow on them, and I really don't want to spend hours moving each one individually to get them all at the top of my list because that will take forever.

Is there a way for me to remove the channels I don't want completely, so they no longer show up at all?

or even a way to manually choose which number to put each good channel on rather than the one click move one space way that MCE wants you to re-order your channels?

ALso, I can't see where to re-assign channels to the guide, I've looked right through the guide options and the TV settings, but I can't find it, only the option to scan again which will wipe everything out.

Is it relatively easy to edit the xml file itself?

aaarrrrggghhh!

secret_squirrel

Well taking my xml file as an example - I would guess the <p number> tag indicates the program no - therefore one you have them named you can fairly easily edit your own prefs.xml to assign the nos. Remember to back it up first though.

Presumably if you keep the tuninng info from yours you could also assign the guide channels in the same way....


Anyone else willing to post their prefs.xml file for comparison?

FrankGrimes

There's 226 posts in this thread - can it not be made a sticky (particularly since the search feature is disabled)?

karltimber

Just loaded MCE with rollup2 on my setup last night.

It found 14 channels in total -but no RTE1

I edit the listings and the guide - for particular channels.
Am still missing rte1 though.

Can I edit the freq etc from Squirrels Dublin Chorus XML file.
I am on Chorus in Navan -would they be the same.

thx

secret_squirrel

No harm in trying. Its on atleast 2 freqs here in dublin

karltimber

I read Squirrels post wrong

This xml list is for the guide codes for each channel.

My problem is actuall tuning in RTE1
When mce scans -it cannot find rte1.

anyone know how to fix manually ???

I will use the guide also squirrel -THx

SouperComputer

didnt get a response for my other thread, so I guess I better post here!

Hopefully one or some of you can help me with this one.

Basically I have a job in a house with MCE. They live in the mountains and have the following:

Antenna stations, boosted and I think frequencies changed.
Some FTA sat (remapped to an RF signal thru the house).
Sky Digital.

Has anyone got some ideas as to how I can get all of these working smoothly with EPG on all the stations? Ive tried a few things but at this stage my head is just going around in circles!

secret_squirrel

SouperComputer wrote:

Antenna stations, boosted and I think frequencies changed.
Some FTA sat (remapped to an RF signal thru the house).
Sky Digital.

Good lord! Well only a custom solution is going to give you all that. Infact I think you will have to choose between the analog and digital channels since Im pretty sure that you cant have both at the same time with MCE, even though the Analog stations come through the tv cards tuner and the digital through the tv cards video in.

For the analog Your only solution is to build a custom guide using one of the solutions that people without native guide support do, and like we had to beforerollup 2. This thread has all the details you need.

The easiest option is just to set up Sky through the video in and use the MCE guide.

Im not sure you will be ever able to make them both co-exist. afaik MCE only supports 1 type of TV input per installation. So you can have 2 tv cards but they both need to be recieving the same type of signal. ie 2x Analog or 2xVideo in to digi cable/sky or 2x HD or 2x Digital Terestrial.

SouperComputer

At the MCE machine I basically have 1 coax RF cable with those stations and then the Sky decoder.

Not sure exactly what TV tuner card is in it from memeory, but is is a dualie, albeit a limited one as it only has one physical RF input, the other has a dedicated Svideo\Composite input.

TBH ive been reading about not being able to use Sky\RF at the same time, but I thought I was reading EVERYTHING wrong! Im really pi$$ED off with that. Thats a farce for a piece of equipment costing over 1K. Maybe MythTV will do this for me, any idea Khannie?

I feared that id have to hack the EPG alright, ill have to find out exactly what channels they have first I guess.

Thanks for your help SS

Wavey

Any of you guys that have an ntl stp hooked up to a htpc, what is ur picture quality like?

I tried using a scart-composite adaptor but the picture is poor. Fuzzy and a little snowy on some channels.

I also tried scart-svid on the same adaptor but get a B&W picture.
I have read that i need an scart to svid signal convertor to solve this.

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=30782&doy=4m12

Have any of you used one of these?

Chatting a guy in Maplins today and tried to convince me that the adaptor was the same as the convertor. Then tried to sell me an 80yoyo Monster cable.

So at the moment im stumped.

Any advice?

dalk

Wavey wrote:

I also tried scart-svid on the same adaptor but get a B&W picture.

Sounds like you are gfx cards outputing in NTSC rather than PAL. Check you graphics cards settings and you should get colour once you switch to PAL.

I use s-video. Picture quality is acceptable.

mikewebb

Hi, first post so please go easy on me

I have an NTL set top box (Samsung model) and am looking to integrate this into a MCE2005 PVR. My PC will be fne to run it and I have a Geforce 6800GT with TV-out.

Sorry but I have a few questions which have been confusing me, despite reading this whole thread:

1. Looking at a Hauppauge PVR-150, 250 or 350. Is is right that I wont need the remote with this (ie the MCE versions of the card) as MCE comes with a remote andblaster to control the NTL set top box? Does it actually work with the Samsung NTL box?

2. Can the samsung be easily hooked up to the TV card?

3. How do I connect the NTL box to the TV card? Do I just get a scart to S-Video lead, and are these provided with the TV cards?

4. How do I connect the PC display to the TV? And how do I connect the sound to the TV from the PC?

5. Is there an EPG available that can be easily configured and used with my setup?

6. If it all works can I watch one show whilst recording another?


sorry for the barrage of questions, just a bit confused at the moment.

FrankGrimes

mikewebb wrote:

Hi, first post so please go easy on me

I have an NTL set top box (Samsung model) and am looking to integrate this into a MCE2005 PVR. My PC will be fne to run it and I have a Geforce 6800GT with TV-out.

Sorry but I have a few questions which have been confusing me, despite reading this whole thread:

1. Looking at a Hauppauge PVR-150, 250 or 350. Is is right that I wont need the remote with this (ie the MCE versions of the card) as MCE comes with a remote andblaster to control the NTL set top box? Does it actually work with the Samsung NTL box?

2. Can the samsung be easily hooked up to the TV card?

3. How do I connect the NTL box to the TV card? Do I just get a scart to S-Video lead, and are these provided with the TV cards?

4. How do I connect the PC display to the TV? And how do I connect the sound to the TV from the PC?

5. Is there an EPG available that can be easily configured and used with my setup?

6. If it all works can I watch one show whilst recording another?


sorry for the barrage of questions, just a bit confused at the moment.

Buy the MCE remote - this will work with any of the tuners you mentioned. There are some NTL stb's that do not use the RC6 infrared standard and so a 'Redeye' IR Translator is required. I believe the old big blue samsung boxes require the translator but I could be wrong - maybe someone here or on http://www.avforums.com can give a definitive answer. If NTL won't give you a newer box (which do not require the translator) the redeye should do the job.

Depending on the gfx card you may or may not get away with a scart to s-video adaptor to connect output of stb to input of tv tuner card. I get a flicker when I do this. i bought a maplin converter mentioned above, wouldnt work, I updated gfx drivers, it worked for 10 minutes then stopped working and I havent had time to try it again, though picture was very good IMO for those 10 minutes. I am now using scart to composite adaptor for connecting STB to tv tuner and find it perfectly acceptable, though edges not the sharpest in close-ups. When I get time I'll get the converter working.

Connecting gfx card out to Tv in depends on the gfx card, go with the best your tv and gfx card will allow from this list: 1. DVI, 2.VGA, 3.Component, 4.S-video, 5.Composite, 6.RCA - not sure if thats 100% right though.

There is an official EPG available if you have Rollup2 installed. Its fine but missing some channels I think so look in this thread and you'll find details of how to setup an alternative if you're not happy with the official one.

If you want to record one channel while watching another, you will need two tuner cards, or a dual tuner (e.g. PVR 500 MCE - excellent, but you will need to buy an AV Cable Set to allow the second input), and you will also need a second NTL stb.

mikewebb

Thanks for the reply.

So it looks like I'm not going to be able to do what I want without a 2nd NTL box. Have I got that right?

My TV is pretty basic and only has 1 scart input plus 3 other connectors (red, white and yellow). Can you please tell me wnat these are called.

FrankGrimes

Hi Mike - yep you will need a second NTL stb (€50 installation, €5 a month).

The red and white connectors are audio and the yellow one is composite (video).

You can connect the composite out of gfx card to composite in of tv. Or you can connect the dvi/vga/s-video out of gfx card to scart input of tv via a suitable adaptor, which would give a better picture than composite.

ice27

Hi All,

I want to set up a media centre and connect it to my new Dell LCD TV.
I am a complete non-techie and need your help big time:) . The below is what i currently have up and running.

1) Sky Digital
2) Wireless Broadband

I want to connect the media PC to the new LCD and use it as a DVD recorder and for pausing live TV and recording Tv etc. ALso to use this as the main storage center for all my MP3 music and media files, and for browsing the web.(are the wireless keyboards and mouse good, what is their range etc?) Can i put a wireless USB dongle into the media center and also access these files from my laptop and ther desktop computer that I have upstairs. I guess I can as I already have a wireless network between my laptop and PC upstairs. You could say just use the PC upsatirs as a media centre but it is like a bloody washing machine the noise that comes from it!

I need it to be extremely quiet as I dont think I could put up with the noise of a PC in my living room, therfore what options are available to me bearing in mind this would be a set up for a complet and utter novice, while at the same time I want to have a poerful machine that will have all features and last for a few years to come!

Cheers!

P.S I have been reading all threads and know it is not as easy as just plugging in Skybox to computer etc etc , but how difficult actually is it?

Is there any step by step guide for dummies like me! Is it true to say that Sky digital complicates matters further!