First HTPC Build - Help Needed (1 Viewer)

[iain.sheppar]

Hi Everyone,

I have just started to put together my first HTPC as i just became a dad and want something to watch at night when im feeding my son. I also have Austar at home and want to be able to record to it, listed below are the specs of the HTPC atm, all parts i got second for free so its an alright base pc I will upgrade to a SATA controller and 750Gb SATA II drive when money is available

SPECS

CPU - 2.6GHz P4 800mhz FSB
RAM - 1Gb DDR PC3200
HDD - 1 x 40Gb IDE 7200
- 1 x 120Gb IDE 7200
VIDEO - Nvidia GeForce FX5500 AGP (Output SVID to RCA)
AUDIO - Onboard AC97
OPTICAL - 16 x DVDROM

What i wanted to get peoples input on was the TV Tuner Card to use and Wireless KB / Remote. I was thinking of using a WinFast DTV2000 H as it has Digital TV, FM Radio and input to record austar (what sort of software would i need to record austar with?) Also i was going to get a windows media centre kb / remote package, would this work well with media portal?

Hope some can help me

Cheers

Iain

 

[charli181]

Hey I use just a keyboard to run MP. I do not have any remote control. The link below is a review of this keyboard. Using only Free To Air TV (2,7,9,10) I just use the numeric keys on the key board or the mini epg via enter key. Best thing about having key board is you never loose it as it will not slip down the back of the lounge or be hidden under a pillow.
Down side is that none of the short cut keys work on the top of the keyboard and if you are going to run SPDIF- not even the volume keys will work. The model I have did not come with the USB recharge kit but I think I have only changed the batteries once in a year, even after the numerous browsing and testing/reconfig of MP
Being RF the keyboard does not need to be pointed at the PC and will work through walls. I can even control MP from outside (listening to music).- Nerdy I know

This is only a personal preference though as many people love the remotes so they can control the TV unit as well but I can live with a second remote to turn the TV on. If you have a TV with VGA input, you will most likely find that the TV will go to standy by any ways when the PC is turned off, and will automatically turn on when the PC does. My Sony LCD does this but lost this function when I switched to HDMI input.

Any ways, just food for thought.......

http://www.xpmediacentre.com.au/techreviews/?p=87

 

[iain.sheppar]

charli181

thanks for that, i might just skip the media centre keyboard as its a bit wank...

Also does anyone have any light on my tv tuner problem?

Cheers

Iain

 

[mrkaras]

I use a DNTV! Live Dual Hybrid PCIe tuner card, its dual analogue and digital and seems very good, I have another PCI card and a USB tuner but the DNTV! Live Dual Hybrid PCIe seems to be much better as far as picking up the digital signal. I can't comment on the analogue part or the RCA inputs because I can't make media portal run them.

by the way, it is possible to make the multimedia buttons work on a keyboard through media portal (volume, stop pause etc). in the setup select remote then the general HID tab and check use general HID device, see the comment on the bottom of that page.

 

[FLY]

congrats on becomming a dad. I watch all kid videos with my daughter on MP, its so much fun.

for me remote is much easier than a wireless kb for watching tv, movies etc...

you can buy a usb uirt or make a winlirc type receiver and you can control all equipment with your tv or dvd remote with mce replacement plugin or get a microsoft mce remote/usb tranceiver combo (should be around $25 or less)

hope this helps.

 

[iain.sheppar]

Thanks mrkaras and fly

i will try that,

from what ive read i need to get a satellite card so i can watch my austar on media portal, i take it i then need to get a digital card to watch normal digital. The only question is with a satellite card i dont know how to plug it in as the austar box has 3 rca out plugs and the satellite cards only have a airel in.

cheers

iain

 

[mrkaras]

I think the satellite cards will replace your austar box, alternately you could keep your austar box and use and analogue input of another TV card (anything with an analogue component to it). I don't know if analogue TV works in mediaportal, it never has for me

 

[medaust]

You need to be careful about the quality of the analogue input of the TV card. I have an Avermedia card, while the digital TV part is very good, when I try to connect my VCR to it through the analogue input the video quality is really very bad. The analogue input is basically useless, I can not use it to capture at a reasonable quality. Maybe you can get a cheap analogue capture card just for Austar stuff.

 

[Marcusb]

as mrkaras has said, the best solution is to keep your austar box and feed the signal to the analog input of your tv card.
As medaust has pointed out, be careul here as most cheaper analog inputs are software encoding, which means that the CPU has to do all the DA conversions. Even on fast systems, this can cause issues. The Huappauage PVR series has hardware encoding and seems to work quite well. they're also not too expensive, even in Australia.

For the Digital card, I also recommend the digital now cards. They seem to have much stronger signal reception although they have software analog inputs, so they may not work too well with the austar box.
You'll probably have to accept the fact that you'll need to cards. one for digital tv and one to accept the Austar box and the analog channels.

Also, if you buy the MS remote for around AU$69 you will get two transmitter buds, which MP can use to control the austar box as well as the convenience of a good remote.

Hope this helps, as congrats on the extra addition (the son, not the new htpc)