Ongoing My new HTPC - Some questions... (1 Viewer)

[Wonderm00n]

Hi there,

First of all, congrats to all the MediaPortal developers, as I find this aplication awesome!

This weekend I'll build my HTPC, based on the hardware I've got on my current PC, as I'm going to build a new one. I'm going to list the specifications and then ask some questions. Please note that I'm an HTPC newbie and this will be my very first project.

• CASE (AND REMOTE AND VFD): 3RSYSTEM MSTATION HT-1100 (http://www.3rsys.com/english/products/view.asp?navi=case&idx_num=48)
• MOTHERBOARD: ASUS P4-P800-E
• CPU: Intel P4 3.0
• RAM:4x512Mb (dual channel) = 2Gb
• VIDEO: GeForce 7300GT 512MB (Connected via VGA to a 37'' HD-Ready LG LCD)
• AUDIO: onBoard Realtek (Connected via optical SPDIF to a 6.1 Harman Kardon AVR-140 + 6.1 JBL Speakers)
• HDD1: 80Gb IDE (C: 40Gb for Windows + other stuff, D: 40Gb for MediaPortal)
• HDD2: 120Gb SATA I (All space dedicated to TV recording and timeshift)
• CAPTURE: Hauppauge WINTV-PVR-500MCE (dual tunner getting signal from Cable, not DVB)
• OPTICAL: LG 16x IDE DVD+/-RW

So here go my questions:

• Do you think this configuration will give me a smooth MediaCenter experience?
• From your experience, will HDD space be enough? And is it well divided? Please note that I don't plan to have any media (videos, pictures, music, ...) files on this machine. Everything will be read from a network share over ethernet on a huge storage space on my other PC.
• Will I loose any quality on TV as compared if the cable was directly connected to the TV?
• With this specs, do you guys think that I can later have a HD-DVD or BlueRay drive and have a smooth playback?
• If I have a DVB-S card configured in ProgDVB, is there anyway to "integrate" this with MediaPortal? Basicaly I wanted ProgDVB to control the card, but be able to watch the channels on MediaPortal...
• Ill I be able to have, later, configured directly on MediaPortal, one or more DVB-S/T/C capture cards, and switch from the analog channels to the DVB ones directly?

Thanks in advance and greetings from Portugal!

 

[Wonderm00n]

Hey... Anyone there? LOL

Sorry... But I'm going to build this from today and needed answers/help on the above questions?

Any kind soul around there?

Also one more question:
- I've got a ATI 9200 SE 128Mb graphic card that I was thinking of usinf instead of the 512Mb mentioned above... Wil this make a big difference? Will I loose image quality? I ask this becaus this 128Mb card has passive cooling and the other doesn't...

Thanks in advance,
Marco aka Wonderm00n

 

[jellybeard999]

[*]Do you think this configuration will give me a smooth MediaCenter experience?

Yes, it will be smooth


[*]From your experience, will HDD space be enough? And is it well divided? Please note that I don't plan to have any media (videos, pictures, music, ...) files on this machine. Everything will be read from a network share over ethernet on a huge storage space on my other PC.

Yes, if you dont plan to store much media on this pc


[*]Will I loose any quality on TV as compared if the cable was directly connected to the TV?

Shouldn't do


[*]With this specs, do you guys think that I can later have a HD-DVD or BlueRay drive and have a smooth playback?


No, you'll probably need a dual core chip to have smooth playback.

- I've got a ATI 9200 SE 128Mb graphic card that I was thinking of usinf instead of the 512Mb mentioned above... Wil this make a big difference? Will I loose image quality? I ask this becaus this 128Mb card has passive cooling and the other doesn't...

Either would be fine, but I'd keep the 7300GT, as you can take better advantage of the nVidia PureVideo decoder.


Sorry, I'm unable to help with the rest.

 

[Marcusb]

I would agree with JB999.

120g for recording is enough, but you'll only be able to store around 60hrs. (hehe, remember when four hour tapes were a new thing ;-) ).

The 7300 will probably give best results at the moment, but if you want HD in the future you'll definately be upgrading your gfx card at least.

I would say stick with what you have now then upgrade as needed. I get the impression you are using existing parts for the mobo, cpu, HDD, gfx etc?

Better to do it that way than to spend big now on something that will be much cheaper when you do finally need it.

 

[Wonderm00n]

jellybeard999, Marcusb,

Thank you for your kind replys!

Indeed I'm using existing parts, from my (until now) PC. Yesterday I bought new hardware for my "work" PC (Duo 2 Core E6550, 4Gb RAM DDR2, Geforce 8500GT 512Mb, 2x500Gb SATA 2 HDDs, etc...) and I'm using the (still ok) parts for the HTPC.

I'm going to follow your opinions, and stick with the 7300GT. If it gets noisy, then maybe I'll try to replace it with the 128Mb one... I can always go back

I'm going to start building it today, and all that remains unclear to me is the DVB-S/C/T stuff... Let's be real... I'm PRETTY SURE that a bunch of people here are using DVB-S or DVB-C, with MediaPortal, to see encrypted channels for free, and that's what I want to do for portuguese TVCABO stuff but I respect the MediaPortal policy and won't talk/ask about this anymore!

Greetings from sunny, shiny, happy, "really good place to live", Portugal!

 

[Wonderm00n]

I'm not going to use this thread to post anymore questions, as the HTPC is up and running...

I have other question though, here: https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/2_tv_ffdshow_problems-t28104.html