Home Theater PC

g4m3rof1337

g4m3rof1337

Active Member
Since I am adding a 32'' HD LCD to my room. I had the idea of adding a HTPC.

What exactly do they do?


Like what makes it 'different' ?


Any information would be great.

And also, can I get my psp or another remote that can control all of this?



Thanks
 
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A HTPC is basically the same thing as a desktop computer, except they usually run Windows XP MCE or Vista, have lots of hard drive space, and have a special HTPC case.
 
If you installed mediaportal on your current computer, set it to "START MEDIAPORTAL IN FULL SCREEN MODE"

and also

"START MEDIAPORTAL WHEN WINDOWS STARTS"

your current PC would magically be transformed into a "MCPC"

Volume of the fans/total system volume is one thing to consider when building a MCPC from the ground up, but honestly, iv'e got a P4 3.6 prescott with the stock cooler, and even that doesn't bother me while i'm watching movies/tv on my computer. So loudness is obviously what YOU personally can tolerate.

And you don't even need that much hard drive space. Tigerdirect has dual tuner cards for under $150 that have built in hardware mpeg-4 compression. So you can timeshift with teenie, tiny mpeg-4 files instead of huge mpeg-2.
 
HTPC's are usually cheap computers with expensive special htpc cases, lots of harddrive space, a capture card and probably a decent sound card. Also they should be relatively quiet.

What do you mean be "route two computers?"
 
I mean tv's. Lol.

Edited it.

So...
Decent Mobo.
Lots of HDD space.
Capture card and sound card.
HTPC case
Good cooling.


Will there be any programs that I install on it to record shows how like tivo does it and others to do other cool things?


Thanks
 
Can someone throw together an estimate build with an estimate price?

Links will help, but aren't needed.


I just need it to link to two tv's, record all the shows I want it to, and maybe the ones it thinks Ill like, and work with a 360 with being HD and all.


Thanks
 
Just get a hand-me down freebee computer, or a $100 or $200 computer on craigslist, toss in a nice mpeg2/4 capture card, and a fanless video card.

I mean think about it, if you get a 1/2 modern video card, it has onboard hardware video decompression for mpeg2, mpeg 4, even h264 (HD) and all but the cheapest capture cards have onboard mpeg2 compression AT LEAST (the one i mentioned earlier at tigeridirect is like $139, and has onboard mpeg4 compression and DUAL TUNERS!

So the cpu really does nothing but control the hard drive. You could make even an old PII work just fine for a HTPC.

You could put something together for $200 or $300 max.

There's all kinds of HTPC programs. For windows alone there's Windows media center, mediaportal, tvedia, firefly, pinnacle media center, and a few others.

and there's even more free ones for linux.

a remote is $30 at tigerdirect (i had no luck finding them at newegg in the past) And when i was at compusa earlier today, they were BLOWING out 500GB maxtors for $79 out the door.
 
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I designed this for our house:

ABit Fatal1ty (Socket 775, ATI 690G chipset)
Intel Core 2 Duo E4400
1GB Corsair Value RAM (PC4200)
500GB Western Digital HDD
Antec NSK2400 case (Has PSU)
Sony DVD-RAM drive.

Came to about £350 so it should be less for you.
 
Alright.

Now what do I need to make it route to two tv's.


And have like two accounts and two separate hdd's.

And have me on my tv log on and watch my recorded shows. And go on the family tv and log on a separate account with separate shows.

Do I need two tv capture cards?

Thanks
 
I need a HTPC to hook to two TV’s.
I need it to run fast. And hook up to my xbox 360 with no problems and play the 360 in HD and the movies and tv shows in HD to.
Do I need a certain type of speakers for my HTPC to play audio from a movie or a console?
I want to get as many extra features on it as possible.

What do I need for a set of wireless home theatre headphones to be compatible with the HTPC?

If I get a set of wireless headphones for my TV, will it interfere with my wireless router?



I typed all of that in MS word.
It might be a bit choppy but I was just typing so I wouldn't forget it later.


Thanks
 
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