Planning on building a new HTPC with MediaPortal (1 Viewer)

[agent123]

Hey everyone,

I'm planning on building a brand new HTPC (Windows 7) with MediaPortal as its frontend. I'll mainly be using it to watch movies and TV shows already on my hard drive, but will also use it for live TV as well. The parts I am considering are:

CPU: AMD Athlon II X2 235E Dual Core Energy Efficient Processor AM3 2.7GHZ
HDD: 1 x Seagate Momentus 7200.4 250GB 2.5IN (for the OS) and 2 x Western Digital WD20EARS Caviar Green 2TB (for storage)
Memory: Mushkin Silverline Frostbyte PC2-6400 4GB 2X2GB DDR2-800
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-MA785GM-US2H AMD785G mATX AM2+ PCI-E DDR2
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 5450 650MHZ 512MB 1.0GHZ DDR2 w/Low Profile Bracket
TV Card: ASUS My Cinema PHC3-150 Combo TV Tuner Card PCI ATSC QAM NTSC MPEG2
HTPC Case: Silverstone Grandia GD05B Black HTPC mATX Desktop Case
Power Supply: Nexus RX-5300 Tranquility 530W Quiet Modular Power Supply
Bluray Drive: Liteon IHOS104 4X BLU-RAY Reader BD-ROM Drive SATA

I've tried setting up MediaPortal on my desktop computer and it works perfectly. The one thing I couldn't test was the live TV functionality because my desktop doesn't have a tuner. My main concern before purchasing all of these parts is whether the TV tuner is compatible with MediaPortal. Does anyone have any experience with it? Or, does anyone have any recommended TV tuners?

I'd be grateful for any insight. Thanks!

 

[Spragleknas]

Setup looks niuce. Considering going for a 5450 myself, but I believe I'll get DDR3-version, because it got twice the bandwidth (not sure if it makes a difference, but it doesn't hurt. Might even be a bit cooler). Here (in Norway) a PowerColor DDR3 is about to arrive next week, which is even cheaper than most DDR2 models.

Hopefully someone can comment on your TV-card.

 

[VdR]

I ever possible I would separate the TV/Media server and MP client h/w.

I just have so much less trouble since I did that. The TV/Media server is rock solid and if ever there is a problem with the client it doesn't influence recording. Client h/w is not expensive. Also to limit noise there where you enjoy MP this is a good thing. And of course you are immediately ready to add more clients.

My five cents worth.

VdR

 

[agent123]

Thanks for the replies, Spragleknas and VdR. So how does separating the TV server and client work? I'm assuming the TV tuner goes in the server, right? Will each client be able to watch a different channel, or is it limited to one channel?

 

[VdR]

Yes the tuner(s) go into the server.

The server runs the MP TV-Server and the clients run MP including the TV plugin.

The clients together can simultaneously watch as many channels as your server can tune into (depending on your tuner setup).

You are planning for some serious storage, the server can be a combined TV/Media server.

My server is 'headless', it is tucked away in a storage room and I only access it through remote desktop. See my signature.

VdR

 

[agent123]

Ah, I see. That's something I never considered, and I'll have to look into it. Thanks.