- Joined
- Dec 10, 2007
I would like to make an HTPC to do the following things:
-control everything with a remote control.
-play divx movies/tv shows from the harddrive as well as stream across the network.
-play music
-watch/record cable tv similar to Tivo (I have a cable box for hbo etc. if that matters)
This is what my home theater has:
-plain jane crt tv with coax/composit/s-video in (will likely upgrade to an hd tv within a year)
-5.1 low end surround system (no plans to upgrade... sounds good enough for me)
-dvd player
-cable through a cable box.
This is what I have for the PC:
-7900gt with dvi/vga, s-video, rgb, and composite out
-3300 athlon 64 (single core)
-1 gig ddr400
-vista ultimate 32bit
-windows xp pro
-dvd-r drive
-400 gig hd
-pci wirless g card
-matx mobo with onboard sound, 2 pci, 1 pcie 16x, 1 pcie 1x slots.
-450 watt psu and case.
I would like to spend as little as possible and use as much of my current stuff as I can. If possible I would also like to future proof for when I upgrade to an HD tv. Image quality is not all that important to me though. Regular DVDs look good enough for me and I wont be getting an HD DVD or blu ray player anytime soon. I also do not own any consoles and would not want to game on my HTPC (thats what my desktop is for).
For what I want to do, would it work to run vista and just buy a tv tuner card and media center remote and connect to my TV though my video card's s-video connector? How would that work with the cable box or with a new hd tv? If thats all I have to do, what tv card should I get (and what software should I run?, the simpler the better).
I'd greatly appreciate any advice since all the different stuff related to HTPCs is kinda overwhelming and I think a lot of it is geared toward stuff I dont really plan on doing.
-control everything with a remote control.
-play divx movies/tv shows from the harddrive as well as stream across the network.
-play music
-watch/record cable tv similar to Tivo (I have a cable box for hbo etc. if that matters)
This is what my home theater has:
-plain jane crt tv with coax/composit/s-video in (will likely upgrade to an hd tv within a year)
-5.1 low end surround system (no plans to upgrade... sounds good enough for me)
-dvd player
-cable through a cable box.
This is what I have for the PC:
-7900gt with dvi/vga, s-video, rgb, and composite out
-3300 athlon 64 (single core)
-1 gig ddr400
-vista ultimate 32bit
-windows xp pro
-dvd-r drive
-400 gig hd
-pci wirless g card
-matx mobo with onboard sound, 2 pci, 1 pcie 16x, 1 pcie 1x slots.
-450 watt psu and case.
I would like to spend as little as possible and use as much of my current stuff as I can. If possible I would also like to future proof for when I upgrade to an HD tv. Image quality is not all that important to me though. Regular DVDs look good enough for me and I wont be getting an HD DVD or blu ray player anytime soon. I also do not own any consoles and would not want to game on my HTPC (thats what my desktop is for).
For what I want to do, would it work to run vista and just buy a tv tuner card and media center remote and connect to my TV though my video card's s-video connector? How would that work with the cable box or with a new hd tv? If thats all I have to do, what tv card should I get (and what software should I run?, the simpler the better).
I'd greatly appreciate any advice since all the different stuff related to HTPCs is kinda overwhelming and I think a lot of it is geared toward stuff I dont really plan on doing.