Hello, I am new to the DVR scene and need some recommendations. (1 Viewer)

[dotrat1989]

Hello,

I am looking into making my own DVR to mainly stream HD video to my living room. I would also like to take advantage of media portals abilities to record videos. Here is what I am looking at for my HTPC:


LITE-ON Black SATA Blu-ray DVD-ROM Drive Model DH-4O1S-11 - OEM

Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

GIGABYTE GA-MA78GM-S2H AM2+/AM2 AMD 780G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

LINKSYS WMP54GS 32-bit PCI Interface Wireless-G Adapter with SpeedBooster - Retail

G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-
8500CL5D-2GBPK - Retail

AMD Athlon X2 4050e 2.1GHz Socket AM2 45W Dual-Core Processor Model ADH4050DOBOX - Retail

Antec Aluminum Veris Fusion Black 430 Micro ATX Media Center / HTPC Case with IR receiver - Retail


I am confused on weither or not the on board graphics (ATi HD 3200) or the CPU(AMD Athlon X2 4050e) is overkill... I just want to play 1080p movies while having it be cost efficient. I guess the real question is which handles video decoding; which I am not sure of. Any ideas on how to cheapen up my rig a little bit while still being able to decode 1080p movies perfectly?

Can I use my HTPC as a cable box with comcast? Like connect the coax cable directly into the HTPC and have my cable through media portal?

My final question is streaming HD videoes on my busy network connection going to be laggy? I tried to stream video to my sisters laptop and got mixed results. The standard def videoes worked perfectly while the HD videoes were pretty laggy.... I know this is probably subjective but what could be the problem? What can I do to optimize it more?

As you can see I have alot of research to do. If I find any answers to my questions I will add them to this post.

EDIT: Just found this guide which seems perfect for my situation,

https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/...s-61/htpc-build-antec-fusion-430-black-37888/

though I am still fuzzy on the media sharing bit.

EDIT 2: I found that Comcast is suppose to use the OpenCable systems,

http://www.videohelp.com/forum/archive/how-to-get-comcast-digital-cable-on-my-pc-t228840.html

so what does that mean for my HTPC with media portal?

 

[rekenaar]

Hi

I will leave most of your questions for someone else to answer, but I just wanted to mention that your hard drive will not last long if you plan to use it for recordings. Multiply it by 5 or 10 and you might me happy for a few months.

As for the wireless lan - I know there are many factors that influence the signal, but I replaced my wireless lan with a gigabit wired lan after only a week.

regards

 

[dotrat1989]

Hi

I will leave most of your questions for someone else to answer, but I just wanted to mention that your hard drive will not last long if you plan to use it for recordings. Multiply it by 5 or 10 and you might me happy for a few months.

As for the wireless lan - I know there are many factors that influence the signal, but I replaced my wireless lan with a gigabit wired lan after only a week.

regards

Yeah I was thinking the same thing about the hard drive. For about $50 more I get about 8x the storage. I updated the hard drive to match the change. I also added the Blue-ray drive with the reasonable price of $120.