Media Center PC Questions:

Quentin_T

New Member
No, you provided a resonable amount of evidence. I highly respect that. :D

Do you think one of these cards would be better for "Ninja's" situation? Are the outputs true HDMI?

Well I went out and decided to guinea pig it with this mobo
Biostar TF7050-M2
According to some reviews it is a true HDMI port. Weather the board alone can display a 1360x768 and be able to play HD, I am not sure.

Gonna find out the difference in quality (TV has analog DB-15 input and HDMI) as soon as it gets here. Ordered it on 11/14, it shipped today. :mad:
 

mep916

Administrator
Staff member
Well I went out and decided to guinea pig it with this mobo
Biostar TF7050-M2
According to some reviews it is a true HDMI port. Weather the board alone can display a 1360x768 and be able to play HD, I am not sure.

Gonna find out the difference in quality (TV has analog DB-15 input and HDMI) as soon as it gets here. Ordered it on 11/14, it shipped today. :mad:

Right on. If we can prove that he will receive 1080i w/ a HDMI GPU, then I think that would be the best approach.
 

massahwahl

VIP Member
Wow I go away for thirty minutes and this debate sprouts up! Its amazing what you miss :D So for the money, what is the best option for a PSU? This pc is going to be strictly used for playing movies, no games or anything like that.
 

oscaryu1

VIP Member
Wow I go away for thirty minutes and this debate sprouts up! Its amazing what you miss :D So for the money, what is the best option for a PSU? This pc is going to be strictly used for playing movies, no games or anything like that.

Some people got BURNED :p

OCZ GameXStream 700W

Rosewill 550W SLi Certified

HIPRO 400W <- Yup. Low wattage... but I think it's outta stock on Newegg :(
 

Quentin_T

New Member
Wow, took me a few minutes to find this post, it got buried!

Here's some issues before I start:

1. Storing DVD's on a HTPC is just downright stupid. I'm sorry to say, but it is. :eek: You will need at least 2 TB to store 300 dvd's (unless you downsample them)

2. Connecting with HDMI is NOT needed. Not unless your playing HD Movies, and sitting 12 inches from the TV. If you do plan on storing HD movies refer to #1.


Ok, so I got my new components installed, my cheap mobo, processor and ram (also picked up a 320GB drive at BB for $60). It's very difficult to tell the difference between analog and HDMI even with a 720, or 1080 HD movie. Especially where your not staring at the TV from a foot or two away. And don't think that my TV sucks, it's a Brand new Aquos that looks gorgeous! When playing an HD movie through the analog connection it looks better than the broadcast HD.

Now, a dvd is probably gonna look like crap anyway, so why even bother with HDMI?

Honestly, you could find a PC on ebay, some real POS that can do everything you need it to do, you'll just need some big hard drives.

And if you plan on converting DVD's to Divx/Xvid, that's another story! Double CD Divx/Xvid look almost as good as DVD's and take up waaaaaaaaaay less space. But instead of ripping 300 dvd's your be encoding 300 dvd's, an even longer task!

After all that, I still think you should do this, if you really want to, there's just no need to go out and spend a lot of money for a brand new build that a 6 year old computer can do for you. It's like picking up a 802.11n router, when all your wireless cards are 802.11b!

My HTPC build cost me under 300! (of course I had the case, PSU, and HDD's)
I'm running ONBOARD video FFS!

Good luck with the build, and take my .02 with a grain of salt. :D
 

ride3k

New Member
1. Storing DVD's on a HTPC is just downright stupid. I'm sorry to say, but it is. :eek: You will need at least 2 TB to store 300 dvd's (unless you downsample them)

im pretty sure DVD's aren't 7gb big. Take an avg size of 4gb and you only need 1.2TB of space fyi, even if you take into account the 1GB on a hdd != a real GB of memory you have more than enough space

other than that, spending nice amounts of money on a HTPC is worth it, eventually you will be doing something other than just ripping/playing dvd's

other than that, agree wholeheartedly with your post
 

Quentin_T

New Member
im pretty sure DVD's aren't 7gb big. Take an avg size of 4gb and you only need 1.2TB of space fyi, even if you take into account the 1GB on a hdd != a real GB of memory you have more than enough space

other than that, spending nice amounts of money on a HTPC is worth it, eventually you will be doing something other than just ripping/playing dvd's

other than that, agree wholeheartedly with your post

The average size is 7 GB for most DVD's. It's rare to find a DVD that is around 4 GB. As an example, I grabbed 2 dvd's, 40 year old virgin and Mars attacks! 40 year old virgin is 7.79 GB, Mars Attacks! is 4.3 GB. Generally the older less popular movies will be right around 4gb, and the new dvd's tend to take up the whole DVD 8.5 GB.
 

spanky

New Member
If you use something like DVD shrink it will compress it without losing any noticable quality to files about 4.4 gb in size. I have 74
DVDs on my computer all like this and one left uncompressed at around 7 gb. My total movie folder size is 348 gb. So 300 movies at 4.4 gb avg is ~ 1320 gb of hdd space.
 

Quentin_T

New Member
1. Storing DVD's on a HTPC is just downright stupid. I'm sorry to say, but it is. :eek: You will need at least 2 TB to store 300 dvd's (unless you downsample them)

theresthatguy said:
If you use something like DVD shrink it will compress it without losing any noticable quality to files about 4.4 gb in size. I have 74
DVDs on my computer all like this and one left uncompressed at around 7 gb. My total movie folder size is 348 gb. So 300 movies at 4.4 gb avg is ~ 1320 gb of hdd space.

Yeah, what he said! :p

Btw, you definatley notice a loss in quality unless you rip the extras. Especially on a 2+ hour long movie (as long as your running a 720p or higher anyway)
 

massahwahl

VIP Member
Yeah, what he said! :p

Btw, you definatley notice a loss in quality unless you rip the extras. Especially on a 2+ hour long movie (as long as your running a 720p or higher anyway)

300 is an estimate, If he reaches the point where he filled up a terabyte, we would add another HDD no big deal.
 

Quentin_T

New Member
300 is an estimate, If he reaches the point where he filled up a terabyte, we would add another HDD no big deal.

I know, I know, I guess I'm too cheap to be willing to pay for HDD space for Movies I already have, sitting on a bookshelf 10 feet away!

So that's my problem with it! I guess I could have just said that from the beginning.
 

tlarkin

VIP Member
Here is what I would recommend and the reasons.

1) Scrap windows, Myth TV all the way. Plus with Linux you don't have to worry too much about exploits, viruses, malware etc.

2) VLC will play any thing with no codec needed, it will even play ISO files like you asked about earlier.

3) You don't need a heavy duty gaming graphics card, you could get a TV tuner card that already has true HDMI support.

4) This will also allow you to record live TV, and Myth TV has an option to automaticallly edit out commercials.

5) All the software is free

6) added features, has web browser interface so you can surf the web, has a MAME front end so you can play all your favorite arcade and console roms on your HD TV, is highly scriptible and customizable, works with just about any cable service, you can program your DVR from over the internet - say you are at work and read about a show and know you are going to miss it, remote in over the internet to your computer and add it to be recorded. The only other service that offers remote control is uverse from ATT to my knowledge.

www.mythtv.org
 

massahwahl

VIP Member
Here is what I would recommend and the reasons.

1) Scrap windows, Myth TV all the way. Plus with Linux you don't have to worry too much about exploits, viruses, malware etc.

2) VLC will play any thing with no codec needed, it will even play ISO files like you asked about earlier.

3) You don't need a heavy duty gaming graphics card, you could get a TV tuner card that already has true HDMI support.

4) This will also allow you to record live TV, and Myth TV has an option to automaticallly edit out commercials.

5) All the software is free

6) added features, has web browser interface so you can surf the web, has a MAME front end so you can play all your favorite arcade and console roms on your HD TV, is highly scriptible and customizable, works with just about any cable service, you can program your DVR from over the internet - say you are at work and read about a show and know you are going to miss it, remote in over the internet to your computer and add it to be recorded. The only other service that offers remote control is uverse from ATT to my knowledge.

www.mythtv.org

VLC plays Iso's? I so didnt know that but that answers an ongoing concern! Also, is myth tv a version of linux or a program FOR linux? Dont need capability to record tv as he has a HD Tivo. Also, what card do you recommend?
 

tlarkin

VIP Member
VLC plays Iso's? I so didnt know that but that answers an ongoing concern! Also, is myth tv a version of linux or a program FOR linux?

A program for Linux. However I do believe there are precompiled versions of a Linux OS that come with Myth TV already installed. I would google it, but check out their site I linked last post first. Look at all the features and screen shots. Also check out the hardware compatibility list. If the hardware you are set on running isn't supported you will have to either go with windows, or look at the supported hardware.

Check out their wiki!
 

massahwahl

VIP Member
A program for Linux. However I do believe there are precompiled versions of a Linux OS that come with Myth TV already installed. I would google it, but check out their site I linked last post first. Look at all the features and screen shots. Also check out the hardware compatibility list. If the hardware you are set on running isn't supported you will have to either go with windows, or look at the supported hardware.

Check out their wiki!

Is mythTV just for recording tv? If so I could just do linux with VLC and be done with it. :/
 

massahwahl

VIP Member
I like Ubuntu Studio a lot, so I am probably going to go with that. but from what you can see, will everything i chose be compatible?
 

tlarkin

VIP Member
I like Ubuntu Studio a lot, so I am probably going to go with that. but from what you can see, will everything i chose be compatible?

I have no idea their wiki has a full compatibility page, I would look at that. You can navigate there from their main page. If its newer hardware I don't see why it won't be supported. The TV tuner card choices may be a bit slimmer but I would say the more quality ones would be supported.
 

massahwahl

VIP Member
I have no idea their wiki has a full compatibility page, I would look at that. You can navigate there from their main page. If its newer hardware I don't see why it won't be supported. The TV tuner card choices may be a bit slimmer but I would say the more quality ones would be supported.

Well again, I have no use for a capture card, only a video card. Whats would be a good vdeo card with HDMI out considering this is for strictly video?
 
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