anyone run a HTPC

Justin Meisse

I've been thinking of cutting cable and building a HTPC, anyone here run one that can share some tips/experiences?

I basically want to pick up over the air HD and record a few shows, watch HULU and be able to purchase & watch a few shows off of iTunes (specifically Mythbusters). I'd like it all to be as easy to use as a Tivo, I don't want to make my girlfriend's life harder.

haiddasalami

You can usually build a HTPC if you have a spare PC sitting around. Doesnt require much, just a decent graphics card and processor to handle HD.

Justin Meisse

well, I plan on building a new one because I want to go mini-AT so it fits under the tv and doesn't look out of place. The money saved from cutting cable will easily justify the cost of a new system.

EarthQuake

I've got an old system i converted to an HTPC, its a athlon 64 3000+ single core, 2 gigs of ram and 7600GS(passive cooling so no noise). The worst thing about it is the old single core cpu, it just cant handle HD video seemingly no matter what video card i run in it, so dual core is a must.

I built a $350 HTPC for the father in law a few months ago, with the goal being the cheapest possible system that could do the job (mostly hulu, netflix streams and dvd watching, nothing fancy).

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116074
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146599
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130234
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136098
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811108092
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127454

I was a little worried about the CPU here, but it is butter smooth in everything it does. If you're gonna go with a bluray drive and a DVR system, i would get a bit nicer cpu, you shouldn't have to break the bank on it tho. I opted not to go with any DVR hardware for either system because it just seem like a bit of a hassle, even the most expensive DVD stuff seems to have lots of people complaining about them, that said check Hauppauge stuff out, and make sure you get a DVR card that can record while you're watching a different stream(and that both streams are digital). One of the shity things with this is you will not be able to get any encoded channels, so you'll be stuck with your basic cable package even if you pay for more premium stuff, from my understanding.

Anyway, i dont even have cable tv(hulu and netflix are enough for me) so it wasn't an issue, and the father in law didn't really care either.

[Edit] As far as over the air goes, i didn't have any luck with that, just can't get decent reception where i live, that was actually the orig. plan for me to get over the air and DVR it. So just make sure you can get a really good signal before you go down that road, as i've seen a lot of people complain that they get worse single through the DVR kits.

Also yeah, we cut out cable TV a while ago and just stick with Hulu an netflix, its generally great, we end up watching a lot less shity tv because "its the only thing on". You watch what you want when you want it.

Another concern is KEYBOARD! I got this keyboard + mousenib combo thing, that would be really good except that the signal cuts out ever 0.5 seconds at 8 feet from the TV. Its IR so you need a direct line of sight too, its such a shame, it would be a perfect keyboard if not for the shity reception, oh well we use it anyway and curse its name everyday. This is the one(you can find it cheap on ebay): http://www.engadget.com/2005/07/12/microsofts-remote-keyboard-for-windows-xp-media-center-edition/

I would look into bluetooth keyboards? Its a must that the keyboard has a mouse type device built into it.

Justin Meisse

EQ: groovy. How computer savvy is your father in law? What's he think of the interface?
My tv is 1080i so I'm not worried about blueray, I tried it out on my ps3 and there's no noticeable difference between a bluray and an upscaled dvd on my tv.

EarthQuake

He runs an Ebay bizz so he's very computer savy. He's just using the standard windows stuff, his HTPC is actually right next to his office computer(so he can watch hulu etc while working) and he just has a second wired keyboard and mouse to use it.

I've got windows xp MCE on mine, which is pretty much the same as i dont really use the MCE part of it, tho you can use that with your DVR stuff i think. What i would really like is a nice "Ten foot UI" for itunes, and windows in general. Maybe vista/win7 have better options for HTPCS?

haiddasalami

Win 7 Media Center rocks.....