Home Theatre PC websites

[Samw]

I'm looking at some Home Theatre PCs, both barebones systems and custom built. I've looked at AOpen EA65, MSI Mega 865, Ahanix Divine, Shuttle, Cooler Master ACT-620, Asus DigiMatrix, Soltek, etc.

The PC will be hooked up to my TV to watch DVDs, to watch TV shows, and to record TV shows (digitally). I can then throw out my DVD player and VHS player. The PC will also run a webserver and a database.

The EA65 and Mega 865 seem overkill since they are designed to also be used without running Windows but since I'm running it as a webserver, it will be running Windows 24/7 so I don't really want to pay for that feature. But I like the LCD displays such as the one that comes with the EA65, Mega 865, and Ahanix VFD.

I want a remote control. Should I get the one that comes with the PC or use the one that comes with the TV Tuner card?

What's a good website for Home Theatre PC forums and reviews? I'm looking at htpcnews.com

[Buccaneer]

http://www.avsforum.com/

[LostMind]

Sam, thats something I have been looking into myself. Well, I have been contemplating it, I know its possible to do but I havent taken the time to figure out.

I just know the newer shuttles look really nice, come with high end components and wouldnt detract from my entertainment center. I have heard that a linux box is a better solution then the windows setups... but that info came from a hardcore linux friend of mine...

[DiscusZ]

I was also doing this for some time and finally took the plunge and built my own using a free package that you run under Linux called MythTV www.mythtv.org Now if your computer minded this is very simple


Check out some of pictures






Above is my actual PC with a Hauppauge 350 Tuner card (www.hauppauge.com), which I am using for video capture, and using its TV out port to hook into my TV.

The case works. I love it.. Now there are better ones out there but run about $300+ just for the case and no PS, this one was $160 with PS or so

There is also smaller cases that work good as well.

My backend server (where I record all shows, watch shows from etc) is a PIII 800 with 8 x 120 gig harddrives (in a Raid 5) I have about 500 gig alloted to my PVR setup. I can record over the network via NFS to this file server with no problems or hiccups. I even play stuff recorded to my main mythfrontend. Eventually I will have more MythFrontends (with capture cards) and they will all share the file server so you can be on any of them and still see all recorded shows. Also the more capture cards you have MythTV will know about them and schedual recordings so you can recard as many shows at once as you have capture cards, even do PIP.


I am getting a DVD burner for my main PC so I can record what I want to the DVD (as well as cut out all commercials) The MythTV also does commercial flagging ( now its not perfect) so when your watching you can adjust the start and end of a commercial and when you transcode, the commercials will be removed.


I could go on..


I am using a PII333 as the PVR350 card does encoding and decoding of the Mpeg stream on the card. If you were to use a TV Out video card you would need a faster machine as decoding will be done via software and encoding will be done on the capture board you are using.


I love this free PVR Software, it has so much potential. If anyone in Calgary wants help setting one up I will do it for frags <grin>

If you have questions drop me a private here.


Jim[/url]

[Samw]

Thanks guys. Nice setup DiscusZ. So far, I haven't looked at the software end as I'm still looking at the aesthetics of the case and lcd panel.

The SilverStone LC03-VFD seems to get high reviews and comes in a car-shiney black.

http://htpcnews.com/main.php?id=silverstone_lc03_1



The Gateway 901 is COOL!

http://htpcnews.com/main.php?id=gateway901_7



The Divine Series is NEAT!
http://www.ahanix.com/ctg_htc.html






The only thing I didn't like was that these are 16" deep. I would prefer something closer to 12".

Maybe this is what I want.
http://www.standsunique.com/strata.html



Lots of research ahead.

[robert]

Sam, this is similar to mine, with a bit less performance. Very small and quite.


http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...facture=SOLTEK

[Samw]

Originally Posted by robert

Sam, this is similar to mine, with a bit less performance. Very small and quite.


http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...facture=SOLTEK

yeah, I love the size of those cubes. Does anyone know if I can add a programmable VFD to that? If so, that's the way I'm going to go.

[Samw]

Sweet. I think I'm good to go. thanks for the tip Robert. The black one with the mirror front panel with the VFD Add-On might look alright. This just might work! I do prefer the lower and wider stereo-look but those cases are just too deep (16") for me.




http://www.hardwarezone.com/articles...=11&id=869&pg=

[Samw]

I've decided that the above SFF PCs are still too large and will be going with the smaller mini-itx boards. Maybe I'll wait for a nano-itx based PC like this. Pretty neat for a Windows or Linux PC.

http://www.mini-itx.com/news/nanode/

[StirCrazy]

double post