Ongoing n00b question - looking for your thoughts (1 Viewer)

[mapatton]

Hello all. My 1st post here and looking for your thoughts.
Some background

I have been building PCs for 8+ years and feel quite comfortable with it.
I have a spare 450MHz based box running XP Pro
I have about 300 CDs that are kept in a separate room from the main system.
I already have a decent AV receiver, DVD player, HD STB and plasma. It is all controlled through a Pronto 7000.

With the decreasing cost of HD storage, I am thinking of building a HTPC to perform as a virtual jukebox. Basically rip every CD to the drive in a lossless manner, and connect it to the rest of the system.

In reading what I have so far, it seems all are using TV cards as well for tuners, etc, but so far, that really doesn;t interest me until there is a card that can truly address HDCP.

Curious about thoughts on this "self limited" concept. Also, the less upgrades I could perform to the 450MHZ box, the better. No need for me to "display it" as it can hide inside the speaker area.

Also, I see that SP2 is a requirement for Media Portal. How hard is this requirement? I as as SP2 still has a significant conflict with FrontPage 2000, so I am SP1.

 

[fossks]

SP1 works too

Although I cannot answer all your questions and provide advice, I can confirm that MP does run on XP SP1, as that is what I have on my HTPC.

 

[jawbroken]

I think that it does run on SP1 and will probably be allright for music, but some things (like DVB cards in particular, I believe) really require SP2. You could always install MediaPortal and see.

 

[mapatton]

Many thanks. Currently I was thinking of waiting for v2 on the 18th.