Building a Media Centre PC/PVR

Building a Media Centre PC/PVR

I fancy having a go at building one of these but want to know the benefits (if any) first...

I dont have satellite dish just Freeview. Will I be able to access a load more channels & HD content through the internet?

I've looked at some of the millions of guides online to which software/hardware to use, has anyone built their own/have any recommendations?

mos has one, its rumoured to be in orbit over the planet of endor

i've been looking into it, freeview works best but u can also get DVB-C cards.

it's worth getting a nice quiet case, spend a bit of money on it, and make sure everything is super silent or it'll drive u around the bend. a graphics card with passive cooling too. also, make sure the case u get supports full size PCI cards if you're going to get one.

i know someone who's built one on this but it's pricey : http://www.silverstonetek.com/products/p_contents.php?pno=ml02&area=

and also someone who built a cheaper one on a bare bones unit like this : http://www.ebuyer.com/product/166673

but these look spot on, http://www.ebuyer.com/product/128368 , front loading CD Rom so if u wanted to swap this for a BluRay drive - that would be about £140 for a bluray front loader.

here's a couple more companies with inexpensive kit :
http://www.xcase.co.uk

small parts : http://www.mini-itx.com/

aye, he's had mythtv set up for years. looks like it works great but it's just a bit shit to look at lol

ive had a htpc for about 2 and a half year now, got a zalman hd160 case in black which looks a bit like an av unit. reason i got this one was it was big enough to fit a standard sized mainboard in and a geforce 8800gts and the like. i was running it on a 42 inch shap lcd but thats it the front room now and the pc is back in me room. im using a hauppauge hvr3000 satellite / dvbt tuner, u can use microsft media centre aswell to make it look canny clean and tidy. overall its a canny experience but it can be a reet pain sometimes. and i probs wouldnt buy a hauppauge product ever again, their support is gash. them blackgold tv cards are meant to be better

did u build one?

if anyone uses a htpc id recommend using media centre on windows 7, its sleak as fuck and is better than the old xp/vista medica centre in everyway. ive got freesat on it but also got skyplayer on it aswell so i get the sky subscription to show as channels. the dont come throught the dish but through the net. also aas a side that card i was using the hvr3000 is also letting me watch bbc hd itv1 hd and luxe hd where as before all i got was sound.. if anyone builds one id recommend either getting energy efficient parts of getting normal parts then underclocking them so you have the option to ram the speed up if need be.

in what situation would "cranking up the speed" be of sany use?

also how are you getting HD quality from the PC to the TV

i'm running a amd64 dual core small form factor media centre running Win7, using the DVI out to convert to HDMI cable, running audio seperately - just waiting for the freeviewHD TV card to arrive now. don't need a fancy video card, maybe 1 that supports SPDIF (and a matching soundcard) so the audio can go via the HDMI cable - but most people route it to a 5.1amp.

@Lee - you got Media Browser installed? slick as fuck http://www.mediabrowser.tv/gallery.html for all my tv shows in seasons, films, etc.

can you show what unit you are using for converting to hdmi

DVI-D output on the GFX card to HDMI On the TV, something like this. Doesn't carry audio.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/3M-HDMI-Male-...uting_CablesConnectors_RL?hash=item4148b3d00b

so how do u plan to carry audio? could you go PC>>SPDIF>>AV AMP??? isnt that the easiest? Or do you just want audio from the TV speakers? if so how are you going to convert to hdmi for sound

DVI-D doesn't carry audio - so if you're buying a graphics card, buy 1 with HDMI output onboard and a SPDIF connector (u can get these for about £20 quid). Also, the motherboard OR soundcard needs to support SPDIF - this then connects to the graphics card - then you can use an normal HDMI cable to carry the audio (make sure you have digital audio selected within windows)

OR (do like what i did)

get a similar cable as above to carry video and check your TV. Mine has a seperate audio input for the HDMI inputs so i can use either HDMI audio or seperate. i run a long 3.5 stereo jack > 2 * phono to carry my audio. Stereo from my TV speakers is enough for me as i don't have a 5.1 system

i am thinking of building and burying a media pc in a wall in the loft in the coming months... i am going to have cables coming down the walls hiden in tubes for usb and stuff... the thing i havent sorted out is controling the pc from the rest of the house i know i could shut down with a wireless kb/mouse but i want a switch in the wall that i can switch the pc on/off with. It can be done, wired direc to the mobo just i havent a clue how too

piece of piss. get some thin wire from maplins, splice it directly into the 'power' button wires (there's only 2). get an appropriate push button from maplins (single pole, single throw) job done.

I've become a total Media Centre convert in recent months. i'll post a video of how it looks with Win7 Media Centre and the Media Browser plugin. proper wank bank material.

these are meant to be great : http://www.xtreamer.net/

ill repost when i start building, going to get most of the stuff from computerOrbit

if it's in the loft, i wouldn't buy a fancy case or things that make it less noisey. u going to have lots of storage in it? or a seperate machine for storage?

i was either going to have : 1 * media centre (no hard disks in), 1 * 'main' PC (limited storage) and 1 server ( 2TB, http://freenas.org/ ) in the garage. NAS server always on, backed up, movies/photos/music on it, accessible by anything on the network but decieded it was overkill. in the end, got 1 * media PC (under telly, small form factor case) with 1.25TB storage and 1 * 'main' PC with 1TB hard disk in. Main PC downloads everything, keeps photos, music, home vids on but all movies (divx, tv rips, etc) get copied to the media centre, but photos, and everything on the Main PC streams to the media centre too. i just prefer the storage split that way