Building my first HTPC (2 Viewers)

[milhouse]

I saw that thread earlier, but noted that it said Blu-ray rip. What about a native BR disk (assuming that's what the BR drive is for).

I am still unsure of MP support for HD-DVD or BR using actual disks and actual drives (i.e. not circumventing protection which I am sure noone does...).

 

[pemberto]

Guys,
Many thanks for all your feedback. Now that I have had my original system spec ripped apart I am off to rethink my design. I will be back once I have done a bit more research. Still think quad core is a great option especially as its now so cheap.

Pemberto

 

[cheetah05]

<snip>

Does the Mac Mini have a good enough graphics card for Media Portal.

 

[eetaylog]

The Antec Fusion case is very nice and comes with a 430W power supply. its also very quiet, and the latest version comes with a built in IR receiver for media centre remote controls.

OS - USE XP! still far too many issues with vista, and its far too power hungry on the graphics front for my liking.
Memory - 1Gb Ram will be enough (i use Corsair DDR2)
Mobo - id get one with a PCIe slot, as pci express TV cards are far better than standard PCI.
TV card - Hauppauge novaT 500 does me just fine
Processor - Definately go dual core, but if you want to use Intel, id use a core 2duo as theyre a lot cooler than their predecessors. I run my system on an AMD X2 3400+, and its pretty quick.

hope this has confused you some more! ;-)

 

[Tomi]

How about low budget MP setup?

Sounds very familiar situation - I started to built my 1st Mediaportal setup few years ago. Fortunately I spent only about 500 euros for different components. I had Silverstone LC-13B case, Asus A7V880 mobo, 2 GHz AMD Sempron, 1 GB mem, Aerocool HT-102 cooler, Antec Phantom 350 W power supply, 300 GB SATA hdd, expensive "dual layer" noise insulation material, fans slowed down with Zalman fanmate 2s, Hauppauge Nova-t PCI, Microsoft MCE remote, etc.

Finally I just got enough when the case was running too hot and wasn't silent enough - I even broke the passive cooled power supply with inadequate case cooling and got to the point where I just didn't want to spend more money - but wanted to have a dead silent Mediaportal up&running.

One solution would have been a laptop or at least components from the mobile systems but I decided to go as cheap as possible and see the result.

I resuced the nova-t, remote & processor cooler from the previous setup I bought 2nd hand mATX motherboard, 1.4 GHz processor and 512 MB memory. I built a simple wooden hifi-case with "wind tunnels", one 120 mm fan and cheap noise insulation material. All the noisy parts (HDD, Processor cooler & power supply are deep inside the case. Now the processor temperature is around 45 deg celcius and the setup is almost inaudible daytimes. For this one I spent only about 150 euros and some quality time while building the case.

And my next case will be made out of concrete...

 

[milhouse]

Cheetah -
Sorry, didn't see your question a month ago regarding the Mac Mini video, and whether or not it's enough for MP.

I use all SD content right now (SD TV card, regular DVD), as I have just gotten a 1080p display, and haven't starting getting the HD components. But I've got the Mac Mini running at 1920 x 1080 hooked up to the display for live TV and DVD (streaming from ripped ISOs) and it's flawless.

I have downloaded and played some 1080p clips just to see how they look on the display. I think I am pushing the limits of the Mac, but even that is fine. Now if I was doing ffdshow post-processing, it might be another story...

Milhouse