PVR/Jukebox PC, a few questions (1 Viewer)

[Brian E]

Hey gang,

I asked this over on AVS, but never got any answers. Hopefully someone here can help. A few days ago I was given some pretty decent computer parts. As I already have a very good PC I was thinking of turning these into a HTPC of sorts.

First what I got...
Shuttle SN41G2
512MB PC2700 RAM
WD 120GB HD (7,200/8MB cache)
Athlon XP 2800+
Sony DRU510A (DVD + - RW)

What I'd like to accomplish...
Music "Jukebox" (using WMP9 or ?)
PVR (can this work as well as a set top box?)
Maybe casual game play
What else????


Now in poking around I think what I need is a card like the Win-TV PVR-250 to accomplish this. Do I need anything else? Can the PVR-250 act as a capture card from a VCR to transfer home videos to DVD? I'm thinking I'll use Windows XP, is there a compelling reason to look at Linux? I have no projector or HDTV. I know most people who use a HTPC do & I may have one someday but not for at least 6 months. Is there anything I need to consider if I want to future proof a little so when the time for an HDTV comes I'll be ready?

I've found lots of great info searching around the forums, but I want to make sure I cover my bases & don't end up having to totally rework this thing after I get it setup. As far as general computer knowledge I'd say I'm at expert level. Specific to HTPC stuff my knowledge is pretty limited.

Anything I forgot?


Thanks in advance

 

[John_Bonner]

Brian,

I recently upgraded my system to make it a HTPC. For PVR I use an application called SageTV. You can find lots of positive comments about it in AVS's Home Theater Computers section. In fact here's a thread on using a Shuttle as a PVR:

Shuttle PVR

And another:

Shuttle HTPC

You can buy SageTV plus the Hauppauge WIN-TV 250 for $165.

SageTV

SageTV works great. There are also other packages like Snapstream & myHTPC (which is free but is Linux based). The 250 capture card can also be used in transferring VHS and camcorder footage.

I have no projector or HDTV

What do you plan on connecting the HTPC to? If you try connecting it to a non-HDTV television thru S-Video you'll probably be dissappointed with the results.

p.s. I also just purchased the same model Shuttle and plan to put it together this weekend. It won't be used as a HTPC though just as a much needed second PC for my son.

 

[Brian E]

What do you plan on connecting the HTPC to? If you try connecting it to a non-HDTV television thru S-Video you'll probably be dissappointed with the results.

Thanks for the info John.

I'm planning to connect it to my 10 year old TV for right now. This TV's so bad it doesn't even have S-Video just Composite. I wasn't really planning to use it for watching video through a lot. More as something to record shows to that I could then burn to DVD & watch through my set top player. I figure composite should work fine to display windows for navigation & using WMP9 and stuff. This is a "for now" situation. The earliest I'll be getting a new TV is around February or March. The thing is that when I do get a new TV it'd be nice to be able to plug this thing in and be more or less ready to go with it. I don't want to rework it entirely in a few months. That's why I thought I'd ask you guys. I tried the FAQ at AVS, but a lot of the links weren't working last time I checked.

Is there a card that does the same thing as the PVR-250, but also has an HD tuner? This thing only has one PCI slot & 1 AGP slot. Anyway, I'm off to read the threads you posted John.

 

[John_Bonner]

Is there a card that does the same thing as the PVR-250, but also has an HD tuner?

Take a look at the MyHD MDP-120 card MyHD, however it depends on your HiDef source. If you are using an antenna to get HD channels over the air then you can use this card. If you get HD from your cable company, it don't think a card exists that can recieve the HDTV signal that cable boxes output.

 

[Joe Ku]

If you are going to rip all your CDs with WMP9 be sure to turn off the DRM option, by default windows applies DRM to all the tracks you rip, which isn't a big deal until your harddrive messes up or you want to copy them all over to a different machine and discover the files won't work anymore.