help w/ media center pc

[stereo666]

hi i'm getting a new tv and want to build a computer to go w/ it.

what i want to computer to do is store all my music and movies.

basically replace my cd player, dvd player and audio pre amp. it would ideally connect to tv and audio amp dirrectly. (can replace cable box and change channels on pc?) i use a 2 channel audio set up w/ a sub woofer. i have dish network.

can you get a remote to controle the pc and all it's functions?

whats a good operating system?

how would this all hook up?

any requirments on video cards?

am i forgetting anything?

thanks for the help

[matt_21484]

I don't think there is a PCI card that will allow you to control your dish boxes. You could add a capture card and output the signal from the sat box to the PC and record things that way, but you would be changing the channel at the sat box and recording what is on the sat box. In my opinion you would be better off getting a DVR from dish network.
Hope that clears things up on that front.
As far as the media center, it's pretty easy to throw a box together that will hold music/movies/pictures. Using Windows Media Center in vista would be fairly straightforward. There are other options out there like TVersity as well.

I've been debating a system like yours and so far, my setup looks something like this:

Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811280010
PSU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817151056
Mobo
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131336
CPU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115041
HDD
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148337

4GB RAM
64bit Vista
Lite-On DVD R/RW drive
and a keyboard/mouse of your choosing.

This is a fairly high end build, but the basics are all there, I chose an onboard video card, which probably won't work now that I think about it, b/c you will need a VGA slot for the 7" monitor. the above machine will play regular DVD's and output your music to your stereo. If you wanted to add blue ray playback, you'll need a compatible blue ray player and most likely a higher end video card that has dual DVI output (also DHCP compliant). Also for high def stuff, you probably won't get all the lossless surround sound decoding (dolby trueHD, DTS MasterHD, etc)

-I believe the case I mentioned has an IR port for a remote control. With this type of system you would be better off getting a true universal remote like a Harmony and spend some time programming it to do exactly what you want it to do, which will be very time consuming.
-On the other end some HTPC cases will come with basic remotes that work.
-Like I said that is a very basic and rough idea of a build, you need to answer some questions like budget, amd vs intel, quad vs dual core, gaming vs media playback only, etc.

Let me know if you are still interested and I can help piece together a more complete build.



or you can buy an xbox360/ps3....

[minsonngo]

You need a good TV tuner also.

Something along these lines...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16815116015

[mattaggie]

there is no remote control that can control your PC as far as I know, though you can get a Windows Media Center remote to control windows media center. The best way to control a home theater PC is with a wireless keyboard/mouse. I have this model and love it. It uses RF frequency for greater distance and has a built in trackball mouse
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16823166079

In terms of watching TV, I would not go through the PC to do that, especially if you have HD. If you wanted to watch tv in a window while doing computer stuff, the hauppage video card mentioned about will be fine.

The build mentioned above is nice, but overkill to simply store and play movies. You could built a very sufficient one for $1000.

Hard drive: up to you to determine how big to get. Just get an SATA 3.0.
CPU: a high end dual core
Motherboard: You can get them now that have on-board DVI or HDMI outputs and optical audio out.
RAM: compatible with motherboard you pic, at least 2GB if you go with Vista.
case/psu: I have this one and am happy with it, though it isnt as small as you may want.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129034