what spec goes in a htpc

[maxio098ui]

my mom wants a htpc. but what has to go into it?

my mom is loking for a 500$ pricetag including close to everything except remote, keyboard, monitor and that. just what is in the case it has to be able to do analoge and digital tv also id like to be able to record and is it possible for a htpc to do the monitor resolution of a 22" widescreen?
sorry about the bad post but im tired.

[LandShark]

what exactly you/she want from a HTPC?? record TV shows? SD? HD? record & watch at the same time? what else?

[maxio098ui]

no hd cause we dont ave a hdtv but we are considering a good big monitor instead, only if we get the htpc ofcourse.
i guess the pc has to be able to display the highest posible res for the monitor.
it whould be nice to record and watch at the same time but it isnt mandatory

[LandShark]

watch and record at once, you'll need two tuner (and two set top box too!). just remember one box, one tuner, one channel at a time!

if no HD content, then any modern CPU will be fine. and a cheap 300GB hard drive will have enough space for you for awhile too.

what do you mean by monitor? a PC monitor? you know most large size PC monitor are able to do (or get close) to full HD resolution! (full HD res = 1920x1080 resolution) and depends on your area, you can get free off the air HD channels with a HD tuner and a antenna too! (but that will put more requirement on CPU & hard drive space tho! more $$!)

[maxio098ui]

what if later in life bluray players get cheaper and drives to and id want to put one in the htpc what whould i need ? and yes a pc monitor but probaly a 22" monitor widescreen

[LandShark]

what if later in life bluray players get cheaper and drives to and id want to put one in the htpc what whould i need ? and yes a pc monitor but probaly a 22" monitor widescreen
then i would recommend you wait for the ATI HD2400 video card. it does full hardware accelerated H.264/VC-1/etc. decoding, consume <30W (less heat!), and cost $100 or less! with that, down the road, you'll just need to buy a blueray/HD DVD drive and the player software.

for more future proof (at least somewhat), I would recommend to get a low end dual core CPU. you can have a nice low end/low heat dual core CPU for slightly over $100 (be it AMD or Intel).

I forgot what 22" monitor's res is, but I think it's something like 1440x1024?! well, with that res, it's close to full HD res and would still give you some nice picture w/ HD materials.

[smokie mcpott]

I forgot what 22" monitor's res is, but I think it's something like 1440x1024?! well, with that res, it's close to full HD res and would still give you some nice picture w/ HD materials.

1680 x 1050

[Xenocide]

watch and record at once, you'll need two tuner (and two set top box too!). just remember one box, one tuner, one channel at a time!

if no HD content, then any modern CPU will be fine. and a cheap 300GB hard drive will have enough space for you for awhile too.

what do you mean by monitor? a PC monitor? you know most large size PC monitor are able to do (or get close) to full HD resolution! (full HD res = 1920x1080 resolution) and depends on your area, you can get free off the air HD channels with a HD tuner and a antenna too! (but that will put more requirement on CPU & hard drive space tho! more $$!)

two set top boxes? WTF? Mythtv, i have two SD tuners and im about to add a third HD tuner...why would i need two boxes unless i want to watch two shows at once.

[nd4spdbh2]

it really depends. Like my htpc was fine till i got into the realm of ffdshow and upscaling dvds to look a **** load better on my 62inch dlp.... when i started doing tons of post processing on a 3x larger dvd movie i needed some cpu powa.... a c2d e4300 fit the bill perfect.


On that note there are the new intel E2XXX series out. you can grab a 1.6ghz core 2 duo (they are ocing about to 2.8-3ghz on stock volts) but i highly doubt you would need to oc it but at ewiz a retail E2140 (1.6ghz 800mhz fsb 1mb chache) is like 86 bucks
http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=E2140BOX

its definetly a good deal. then you can get a cheaper mobo... Asus P5B or something of the sort. then a nicer gfx like a 7600gt and a tv tuner or 2. and some hds (seagate perpindicular 250gb hd is like 70 bucks)

[.:DuD3:.]

it really depends. Like my htpc was fine till i got into the realm of ffdshow and upscaling dvds to look a **** load better on my 62inch dlp.... when i started doing tons of post processing on a 3x larger dvd movie i needed some cpu powa.... a c2d e4300 fit the bill perfect.


On that note there are the new intel E2XXX series out. you can grab a 1.6ghz core 2 duo (they are ocing about to 2.8-3ghz on stock volts) but i highly doubt you would need to oc it but at ewiz a retail E2140 (1.6ghz 800mhz fsb 1mb chache) is like 86 bucks
http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=E2140BOX

its definetly a good deal. then you can get a cheaper mobo... Asus P5B or something of the sort. then a nicer gfx like a 7600gt and a tv tuner or 2. and some hds (seagate perpindicular 250gb hd is like 70 bucks)
So there are pci cards that can upscale dvds? Is it anything comparative to hd quality?

[nd4spdbh2]

So there are pci cards that can upscale dvds? Is it anything comparative to hd quality?


no... there is software that can do it but it requires a good cpu... i have my htpc to take the raw video. Run it through ffdshow (with 3x upscale, and many "image cleaning" filters then use Media Player Classic with the use of nvidias purevideo decoders to output the video... the quality is unmatched... but we are talking 65% cpu usage on a E4300 which is quite a bit.

[smokie mcpott]

/tapping foot impatiently

still waiting on that tutorial on ffdshow.....

/end foottapping

[nd4spdbh2]

/tapping foot impatiently

still waiting on that tutorial on ffdshow.....

/end foottapping


o wow... i todally forgot bout that... $h|T lol... i might get round to it soon... its been kinda busy lately.

/start of excuses

setting up servers for friends, doing a 110cc motor swap in my cousins 50. as well as rebuilding my entire motor for my 50 (blew up the transmission in it... doing a dougnut at wide open throttle in first on a 50 thats perfectly tuned with a loose chain that falls off and stops the motor instantly ...) we are talking the whole transmission, clutch, pistion / crank / cylinder, head / cam / rockers, then the whole cam chain... what a pita. then put on top of that the last 2 weeks of my highschool life, finals are next week, then graduation... i just havnt got the time lol...

/end of excuses

:beer:

[LandShark]

/tapping foot impatiently

still waiting on that tutorial on ffdshow.....

/end foottapping
lol.... someone is slacking obviously.... :rolleyes: :D