Windows Media Center 2005 Software (1 Viewer)

[Chris]

Honestly, you can find the Samsung burners so damn cheap, you're better off doing that. The reason is because that way, MCE will give you the option to archive the shows off onto DVD, and handle it for you.. much easier then transporting the stuff over your home network to another PC to burn...

However, if you're just recording with no intent of burning stuff off (or if that's a rare happening) and want a cheap, but very good drive, then they are out there.

Some of the best performers:

Sony DDU1613/B2s
Asus DVD-E616P2S

Note: The MSI & AOpen drives are, in comparison to most, noisy, and not as smooth. For a writer, though, several are out there that stay quiet in both performance, with a lot of people praising the LiteOn on the "cheap but good" end

 

[Donald Shrum]

Well, i have been using my HTPC with MC for about 5 months now. I just rebuilt the box last night. I bought a Ahanix Devin 5 case with an Asus MB with a P4 3.6 and 1GB of ram. For video i bought the gforce 6800GT PCI-e and its awesome. I use it mainly for Music but since i bought my projector, i find myself using it for net browsing as well. I am using a Plector DVD-R and honestly, comparing it to my DVD player, it doesnt compare to my Arcam. Reguardless, im having fun with it. Has anyone figured out how to store DVDs on the HD ?

Donald

 

[Steve F M]

DVDShrink will aid you in archiving your home movies to your hard drive.

 

[Chris]

Very nice system Went all out! If you've got the 6600GT, you have (IMHO) the best card out there for HTPC. Unbelievable output for video. And you can improve on it with PureVision.. (http://www.nvidia.com/page/purevideo.html ) You have to really be running a 6600GT (which in this purpose, is better then a 6800/GT/Ultra) and the newest NVDVD decoder. But you'll thank yourself repeatedly. The output is sensational, in fact, the more you play with it, the more it breathes life into your entire collection. I have -never- seen some discs look as good as they do in this combination; I'm going to try some tonight @ 1080p (Progressive, yes) off of a projector to see the output.. but on my set, just at 1080i, it's unbelievable.

 

[Steve F M]

Not to go off topic,but what is everyone's experience with Tigerdirect.com and rebates. They have a heck of a deal on a CPU and Motherboard combo, but whats my chances of getting the rebate?

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...265&CatId=1619

 

[Steve F M]

If i'm reading this rebate correctly I can purchase a AMD 64 3400+ processor anywhere and get $100 off. anyone ever seen this before?

http://www.onrebate.com/OfferDetails.aspx?rebid=312

 

[Dave_Olds]

I would trust Tiger Direct.....Very leery of the Onrebate site - but hey, if you are gonna get a 3400 anyways - worth a shot....I dont think a 3400 is necessary for HTPC...

BUT, with the Tiger Direct system - I cant imagine purchasing ANY motherboard with AGP at this juncture - PCI express is the only way to go...I hate saying a technology is dead but Video card Mfgs are not releasing AGP versions of their high end cards - IMO, that speaks volumes about the future of video card technology. Whats even more amazing is that PCI-e cards are CHEAPER than AGP cards.


Dave

 

[Parker Clack]

Chris:

Once you get your "black book" of hacks for the HTPC you can archive it here if you want. If you put something together in HTML or .php sent it my way and I will put it up on the server and then create a link to it from the forum. Or if you have it on a server somewhere already let me know and I will link to it like I do for Rick with RixGraphics.

Parker

 

[Chris]

OK. I'll shoot you some pictures too. We've put a lot of the work to the test and we've done four complex installs doing things that normally people don't think about, ie:

A home with 4 MCE2005s powering 3 plasmas, 1 HDTV sharing HDTV programming and jukebox DVDs..

2 MCE2005s connected managing a NILES home distribution system

Wireless connectivity to patio LCD HDTVs..

I'm going to take some pictures, and internally, the guide is out in our offices.. so far, following it, I admit, it's done me very well.. we did our first major integration install locally and now can't really keep up with the install rate that people want

 

[Christo Ramo]

Wow, there is lots of great info for mce here, I just placed an order for it right now. Question is, I need a video card. I want to be like the others and capture the video, play my backed up dvd's, play regualar stream from my directv on the television. I want to do both hdtv (which I don't have a box for yet) and digital directv and I guess analog too.

I have been looking at the happauge 250 card - do you have any ideas about this card? Will I have to use this card in conjunction with my current video card, or will it replace it?

My current pc config is:
3.0 P4
1gb ram
Ati Radeon 9600 PRO 256MB DDR

Any ideas?