Re: Media Center / Home Theater PC

The ATI DCT with a CableCARD sounds like the way to go.  Not a "clean" DVR solution like renting their DVR for $20 per month, but a way to time shift.  The cablecard is around $5 per month.  When I think of how much I fork over to Verizon each month for a 5 cell phone family plan, home POTS, business POTS, TV, and business internet, it's a small fortune.

Would the ATI DCT conflict with EVGA/Nvidia graphics?  I know you can't intermix with 2 or more graphics cards.

I think I have to go the ATI route too. I was so looking forward to the DirecTV HDPC-20 tuner but they have suspended the development of the HDPC-20 tuner project that was designed to integrate DirecTV service into Windows Media Center.

I dont understand, the Media Center interface is so cool and it could be the best if only we could get some good content into it with ease.

Chuck Shumar (HSL):

Would the ATI DCT conflict with EVGA/Nvidia graphics?  I know you can't intermix with 2 or more graphics cards.

The ATI DCT is not a video card, just a tuner.  It has source inputs only.  Your video output from your computer to your TV is via the graphics card outputs.  No conflicts to worry about.  If you're using an extender then you don't even need a graphics card.  The data is sent raw over the network, then scaled/rendered by the extenders graphics engine and then output to your TV.

Thanks, for the feedback.

I was thinking of using a E8400 but woud a quad core be better?  Also, would the Blu-ray drive in the computer play as well as a dedicated Blu-ray player?

I would get the quad core but I am a big fan of dual-core systems. I think that there is a very clear and substantial benefit for all computer/media center users when there are two CPUs waiting to service requests, instead of just one traditionally.

If nothing else, it lets you gracefully terminate an application that has gone haywire, consuming all available CPU time. It's like having a backup CPU in reserve, waiting to jump in and assist as necessary. But for most software, you hit a point of diminishing returns very rapidly after two cores. I have read test reports where going from 2 to 4 cores actually decreased performance but I think that with Windows 7 and newer technologies more and more application will make use of multiple / quoad cores.

I heard of the decreased performance with the quad cores.  There's not many programs that are multi-threaded to take advantage of the other CPUs.  BTW, do you know how to overclock?

Chuck Shumar (HSL):

Also, would the Blu-ray drive in the computer play as well as a dedicated Blu-ray player?

Can't answer to that because I've only used BR in the PS3.  But one thing to remember, Media Center does not play BRs natively.  I believe you can buy an application to play them and it will launch from WMC but with play outside of the MC environment.  I don't know what the BR compabilities of Win7 are at this time.

Thanks FirstSalvo for your insights =)

I am pretty much in the same boat planning on building a dedicated Windows 7 Media Center box and this discussion here yielded some excellent and somewhat disappointing information...

Top of my head,  I would like:

• CPU and PSU fan(s) < 30 dBA or even better fan-less
• Noise isolating chassis i.e. Antec
• Chassis featuring front facing eSATA port
• Broadcom 1000Mbps Ethernet
• TPM Bios, VM hardware assisted support
• Windows 7 x64, 8GB minimum
• PCI-Express HDMI graphics card (preferably no fan w. 512MB)
• USB 3.0 (if in 2010)
• Good size SSD (would be streaming content from WHS and don't want noise nor heat)
• Possibly a Blue-Ray (SATA) burner - if these became affordable but I am no optical media fan. I think the blue-ray codec is the *good thing* and the actual blue-ray media is based on dated technologies.

The fundamental problem and most important thing, as stated by FirstSalvo would be the HD content acquisition from live sources (sat/cable/OTA). I would like to think that with the future release of Windows 7 + a newer Media Center codebase; content providers would actively engage in standardized managed solutions to make Media Center consumption a breeze.

Given this cloud of uncertainty it might be best not to commit to anything substantial but look on ebay for deals like it has been suggested.

Internal DCT

External DCT

Engadget HD has a great article about: Is the future of Windows Media Center with Windows Home Server?
Read this makes me very anxious and I am very optimistic about Vail

I am planning on building a dedicated Windows 7 Media Center PC. My Sat. receiver is a SonicView 4000 and I am trying to find a tuner?

Does anyone know a Media Center Tuner/Capture card that has Component input? I do not want to run it through any COAX.

Thanks for any guidance

You could just use Clear QAM if your cable provider supports it. In my case I only get 16 HD channels using this method. Half of the stations I watch are in that list. It's standard definition with some HD mixed in. You could also connect a set-top box to the tuner if you want all the 'digital' channels. The set-top boxes have the cable-card device/chip built-in, so it is not required in the PC's tuner.

EDIT: Oops, didn't notice the second page..

Hello Everyone,

I just switched to digital cable and I am using a Tivo HD box with a multi-stream cable card which works really well. The problem is that TIVO or my cable provider has started to lock down the box and it is no longer possible to transfer TIVO recorded HD or copyrighted programs out of the TIVO onto my PC's or bedroom TV. The only channel that I found which I can record on TIVO and transfer to my desktop or another TIVO is the NASA channel. That sucks!!!

I think Media Center would fit the bill but how should I go about it so that I can view HD TV and premium channels? I have found the ACE LMS 250 which looks like it would work or not?

http://www.acedigitalhome.com/images/LMS250.pdf

Hi Liptonic,

Please take a look at http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2009/sep09/09-09MSWinMCCEDIAPR.mspx 

Most notably, reading between the lines -- it will be possible for anyone to install a CableCARD and use it in a Windows 7 PC. The OEM only requirement is history.

This sounds great