How would you make a home theater...

**The_Other_One** · 04-03-2006, 06:09 AM

A little background first. For ages, I've wanted to make a PVR of my own, but never have due to lack of time and having no real need for it. What can I say, I'm super cheap

Even so, I still like to look around at hardware and thing what I would use to make such a system. However, recently, I began to think what the best option would actually be.

So, how would you make your home theater. I don't care for specfic brands and models of anything. Basically, I'm wondering if you guys would build a computer to play your files back and record, or just rely on other devices(DVD players, Tivo's, etc etc)

This probably won't matter much in the near future because with HD-TVs, you could use use DVI/VGA inputs and not worry about quality loss. However, with your averate TV today, a DVD-Player has MUCH better quality than a computer using TV-Out to play a DVD. Among this, other things like upgrades. With a computer, you could just throw in a Blu Ray drive, assuming it's not all that old. As for stand alone hardware, you'd have to toss your DVD player and upgrade to the new device... But then again, with a computer, you might have more maintences and a harder time controling it(if you just want a remote)

Any comments? Have fun if you guys want to build some machine or whatever. It's not really what I'm looking for, but it might be neat to know what everyone's perfect PVR is

**apj101** · 04-03-2006, 10:18 AM

Hi the_other_one
I set up my home theater about 6-9 months ago now. Its just a simple cheapish box based around a celeron D 335.
I invested a little extra cash to buy a decent heatsink (Zalman flower) and silent psu (Antec phantom 350W fanless) so i can run the box passive(expect for 1 x Vantec SF12025L stealth 120mm fan <- very quite). I downclocked a little to drop the vcore.

My dvd drive is a external iomega (cant recall the model), but the fact that it's external means i can run the box well behind the tv cabinate and still have the drive near the front.

I use MCE 05 with the MS remote, i find it to have the best interface, and can easily be built on

I wasted some cash getting a digital tuner card only to find out that the signal in my area wasnt good enough for it and i had to go and pick up an analogue card. But to be honest i never watch the tv, i encode all my dvds onto the HDD so i dont really use the dvd drive much either.

I also find that MCE allows you to build plugins quite easily with a bit of vbscript, and javascript you can pull together great interfaces for loads of stuff (you need to download the mce development pack from online).

cell4me · 04-03-2006, 03:35 PM

I mainly use my dvd player and tivo from sattelite dish for my video, I have an onkyo TX-NR901 and the realy nice feature is I can access all my mp3files on my computer through this reciever with my chad remote control!

**The_Other_One** · 04-03-2006, 06:41 PM

*nods* sounds cool, both setups. I was about to get a sempron from the place I worked at, but decided to just save my money as usual.

See, what got me thinking was how well my DVD-REcorder works, and the discovery of this little device...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817121008

Just so many options instead of having a whole computer there... Just stuff to think about...

holyjunk · 04-04-2006, 02:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The_Other_One

*nods* sounds cool, both setups. I was about to get a sempron from the place I worked at, but decided to just save my money as usual.

See, what got me thinking was how well my DVD-REcorder works, and the discovery of this little device...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817121008

Just so many options instead of having a whole computer there... Just stuff to think about...

dont mean to sound like a noob but what does that all do?

Burgon · 04-07-2006, 10:45 PM

51" Plazma TV with Dolby pro logic 7.1!

04-03-2006, 06:09 AM	#1 (permalink)
The_Other_One Super Moderator Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Lexington, NC Age: 23 Posts: 12,307	How would you make a home theater... A little background first. For ages, I've wanted to make a PVR of my own, but never have due to lack of time and having no real need for it. What can I say, I'm super cheap Even so, I still like to look around at hardware and thing what I would use to make such a system. However, recently, I began to think what the best option would actually be. So, how would you make your home theater. I don't care for specfic brands and models of anything. Basically, I'm wondering if you guys would build a computer to play your files back and record, or just rely on other devices(DVD players, Tivo's, etc etc) This probably won't matter much in the near future because with HD-TVs, you could use use DVI/VGA inputs and not worry about quality loss. However, with your averate TV today, a DVD-Player has MUCH better quality than a computer using TV-Out to play a DVD. Among this, other things like upgrades. With a computer, you could just throw in a Blu Ray drive, assuming it's not all that old. As for stand alone hardware, you'd have to toss your DVD player and upgrade to the new device... But then again, with a computer, you might have more maintences and a harder time controling it(if you just want a remote) Any comments? Have fun if you guys want to build some machine or whatever. It's not really what I'm looking for, but it might be neat to know what everyone's perfect PVR is __________________ Urban De-Development * Athlon X2 4200 \| 2048M RAM \| 160G HD \| 7600GT * C2D T5250 \| 2048M RAM \| 160G HD \| Intel x3100 * G4 1.33GHz \| 512M RAM \| 40G HD \| Radeon 9200

04-03-2006, 06:41 PM	#4 (permalink)
The_Other_One Super Moderator Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Lexington, NC Age: 23 Posts: 12,307	nods sounds cool, both setups. I was about to get a sempron from the place I worked at, but decided to just save my money as usual. See, what got me thinking was how well my DVD-REcorder works, and the discovery of this little device... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817121008 Just so many options instead of having a whole computer there... Just stuff to think about... __________________ Urban De-Development * Athlon X2 4200 \| 2048M RAM \| 160G HD \| 7600GT * C2D T5250 \| 2048M RAM \| 160G HD \| Intel x3100 * G4 1.33GHz \| 512M RAM \| 40G HD \| Radeon 9200

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04-03-2006, 10:18 AM	#2 (permalink)
apj101 Administrator Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: London Age: 26 Posts: 9,050	Hi the_other_one I set up my home theater about 6-9 months ago now. Its just a simple cheapish box based around a celeron D 335. I invested a little extra cash to buy a decent heatsink (Zalman flower) and silent psu (Antec phantom 350W fanless) so i can run the box passive(expect for 1 x Vantec SF12025L stealth 120mm fan <- very quite). I downclocked a little to drop the vcore. My dvd drive is a external iomega (cant recall the model), but the fact that it's external means i can run the box well behind the tv cabinate and still have the drive near the front. I use MCE 05 with the MS remote, i find it to have the best interface, and can easily be built on I wasted some cash getting a digital tuner card only to find out that the signal in my area wasnt good enough for it and i had to go and pick up an analogue card. But to be honest i never watch the tv, i encode all my dvds onto the HDD so i dont really use the dvd drive much either. I also find that MCE allows you to build plugins quite easily with a bit of vbscript, and javascript you can pull together great interfaces for loads of stuff (you need to download the mce development pack from online).

04-03-2006, 03:35 PM	#3 (permalink)
cell4me banned Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 1,486	I mainly use my dvd player and tivo from sattelite dish for my video, I have an onkyo TX-NR901 and the realy nice feature is I can access all my mp3files on my computer through this reciever with my chad remote control!

04-07-2006, 10:45 PM	#6 (permalink)
Burgon Platinum Member Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Czech republic Age: 15 Posts: 500	51" Plazma TV with Dolby pro logic 7.1!