Laptop as HTPC? (1 Viewer)

[jay_galway]

Hi I currently have a Dell XPS M170 with 2 gig RAM, Nvidia go GTX7800 card and I am contemplating using this for my HTPC.

I have 2 problems

1. I want to do TV recording and playback, and I dont have a TV card.
2. I want to be able to output DTS and 5.1 surroundquality sound.

Now the Laptop only has 1 slot for a pc card upgrade, so possibly a 5.1/DTS sound card. But I will still be faced with the TV card issue.

It doesnt have firewire either, so maybe someone knows of a decent TV recording card that is usb?

Or do you think I should scrap the idea altogether and build a rig?

 

[Efros]

Or you could switch for a USB sound card and a PCI TV card

 

[maho]

USB TV tuner

I bought an Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-USB2.0 tuner. It plugs into the USB2 port and has hardware MPEG2 encoding, which is very nice. It also comes with a remote if you don't have one already. It works beautifully in Mediaportal.

link: http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/products/data_pvrusb2.html

Downside is that it is a seperate unit you need to have standing. But since it has the IR eye build in, you can put you laptop in a drawer, and just have line of sight to the tuner

Good luck!

 

[jay_galway]

Great news thanks, that bascially sorts out my problems, on thing now is getting a PCMCIA sound card for my laptop that supports DTS out etc.

Any recommendations? I have seen this : 'Creative-Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Notebook PCMCIA Sound Card'

I presume it will be sufficient being from Creative-Labs?