htpc

[golfball]

posted a request a while back about htpc for living room the target gave me a good steer about hardware to buy , but then i went cold on idea but ps3 is deffo getting binned now , sick of fan
is there a ebsite or forum where you casn get info , eg system builds/costs/software req etc
had a look myself , but dont like to miss out and have someone say, should have gone here or there ,
if anyone can point me in the right direction i would appreciate it ,
cheers:ok

[Dave Mak]

ebuyer.com
overclockers.com
aria.com

three supliers i use, tho aria delivery service is poo.

what are the functions you require from a htpc and i'll spec one up for you :ok

[golfball]

hi dave thanks for that,
its to replace the ps3 as a pvr ,
so
nice and quiet (not lik ps3)
decent looking case,
tv tuners ,
hd out
blueray drive,
and decent sound 5.1,
wireless,
not planning on playing games on it



think thats all bases covered,
i have seen something knocking around ccalled
dvbsviewer i think, which people seem
to rave about, saying its as good as sky+



cheers if you can spec it out for me

just the part numbers and i can search for prices etc to save you time,

thanks,
john

[thetarget]

also scan.com could be .oc..uk

[golfball]

thanks target,
i know you specced one out eearlier this year but things change so fast,
and this bloody ps3 has beaten me now:rolleyes2

[Dave Mak]

couple of things, whats your budget?

and would you consider one of these type's.
_http://www.ebuyer.com/product/225754

if your hdtv is on a stand rather than using a bracket attached to the back, these little things come with an attachment that allows it to fit into these unused holes, then connected via hdmi, then you could throw in a USB TV-card.

you would be without any sort of dvd drive, but as long as you fit one into another pc on your network, the drive could be shared, thus even less noise.

[golfball]

Hi dave ,
Had a look at that link , I was thinking of something
More on the lines of a pvr/htpc so I could watch
Record tv and play bluerays. ,
Budget between 350 / 450 ,
Cheers
John

[Dave Mak]

Had a look at that link , I was thinking of something
More on the lines of a pvr/htpc so I could watch
Record tv and play bluerays. ,

like i said, that would play and record tv with an added usb tv card.
and would also play bluray disks as long as you had a bluray player in another pc in the house.

anyways, no case or tv card included, but here's the guts to a nice system

[golfball]

cheers dave
sorry didnt mention that i didnt have another pc in house
just a laptop with no blueray,
thanks very much for the help,
will take a look !
:ok

[Dave Mak]

also, the motherboard is a micro-ATX board, so it will fit into a micro-ATX case, and everything is on board so should fit, the only issue you may have is getting hold of a Low profile TV Card, a usb one would solve this issue.

you may even want to consider getting a skystar HD instead of a tv card, this would give you access to freesat instead of freeview, better reception and the Hi-Def stuff, a decent tv card will cost about 45/55, a SS2 HD will cost 69:00

[golfball]

Hi save
Thanx for that (I thought the thread had died ) ,its got me thinking , is the skystsr card what people use to watch sat on tv ? what is the interface like , is it simple like playtv or is it a bit diddly? It's for in living room and Missus is only after easy pvr stuff ? Would a skystar replace my dreambox 800 ? Might get some cash back towards this htpc if it would replace my dreambox , will it do all the dreambox will do ? ; )

[Dave Mak]

people usually upgrage from a skystar to a dreambox so i wouldn't recomend ditching that just yet, but the skystar is fairly easy to use once its setup, and its not too hard to setup.
if the missus is ok on a pc then she shouldn't have too much trouble using it,

i was thinking more of fixed dish use on 28e rather than a motorised system but thats more than do-able.