HTPC (Home Theater PC) [Archive]

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zxao

01-07-2008, 10:20 PM

Any of you guys running home theater pcs?
I think the whole thing is best kept secret in home entertainment.
I've gotta pretty sweet htpc running mediaportal (http://www.team-mediaportal.com/)and I cant even remember life before it.

Anyone here utilizing their pc in the living room?
Or anyone want to know how amazing it is???

wideawakewesley

01-07-2008, 11:06 PM

Yup I have a nice little black shuttle sized HTPC running Windows XP, hooked up to my 32" Toshiba LCD via VGA. All operated by a wireless keyboard with built in touchpad.

kevincollateral

01-07-2008, 11:11 PM

i had one set up almost 2 years ago..before i got satelite with a dvr. i mainly used mine as a pvr...so i didnt really need it after that.

now with my dvr and my 360 streaming all my goodies im set.

berrex

01-07-2008, 11:14 PM

I was considering building one for my dad this Christmas since he's a huge TV junkie, but with all the hardware it turned out to be too expensive for my budget. But now that I know what it entails and what can be done with it, I really want one for myself now.

kevincollateral

01-07-2008, 11:18 PM

berrex

01-07-2008, 11:24 PM

whats your price range? you can build a great one for pretty cheap..if you dont mind using stolen software :D

Hah, actually I was going to use MythTV + Ubuntu, which would be free. I planned out the hardware costs and it came to something like $200, mostly because the only hardware I really have right now is an AMD Athlon XP 2000+, a motherboard, and a gig of RAM, and I would opt for the hardware encoding route. That really isn't a bad price considering there would be absolutely no limitations to what I can do with the content I recorded and there would be no monthly subscriptions. But right now that $200 is better spent on textbooks for this quarter than on entertainment. Or my dad's entertainment, as was the case this time. I just can't afford it at the moment. :(

tokenuser

01-07-2008, 11:58 PM

Hah, actually I was going to use MythTV + Ubuntu, which would be free. I planned out the hardware costs and it came to something like $200, mostly because the only hardware I really have right now is an AMD Athlon XP 2000+, a motherboard, and a gig of RAM, and I would opt for the hardware encoding route. That really isn't a bad price considering there would be absolutely no limitations to what I can do with the content I recorded and there would be no monthly subscriptions. But right now that $200 is better spent on textbooks for this quarter than on entertainment. Or my dad's entertainment, as was the case this time. I just can't afford it at the moment. :(Shuttle are announcing a sub $200 linux box at CES ... suddenly doable?

kevincollateral

01-08-2008, 01:28 AM

Hah, actually I was going to use MythTV + Ubuntu, which would be free.

good way to go. have you also check out linux mce?

if you havent..here you go. check out the demo video.
http://linuxmce.com/

another free option.

berrex

01-08-2008, 01:43 AM

I'll check out MCE. More options is always a good thing. If I can get a solution working for under $200, preferably $100 to $150, then it would definitely be a viable option in the near future. I still have to buy books first though. :P

kevincollateral

01-08-2008, 01:44 AM

rekr

01-08-2008, 02:05 AM

Yep been running one for a long time...used myHTPC as a front end before it turned into Meedio now I'm running that....actually waiting on parts now to upgrade it so it can better handle HD .mkvs

berrex

01-08-2008, 02:18 AM

nah..books are for suckers.

Haha, so are F's!

Actually the thing that irks me most is that out of all the books I get each quarter (and I only buy used from the required lists, and still average $200-$300 per quarter), I only end up using maybe two or three of them, and typically it's only for one assignment where I'd be totally screwed if I didn't have that book. As an economics major, that rubs me the wrong way. It's just a bad investment!

Meedio eh? Cool, I should look into that as well.

johnnysix

01-08-2008, 04:44 AM

I have multiple hacked Xbox's in my rooms running Xbox Media Center. It's priceless. It'll play pretty much any non-HD media you through at it and there are some really nice interfaces for it. You can pick up pre-owned xboxes for absolute bargain prices now, add in a softmod, stick it on a network and your in business. It won't handle HD though, I use my 360 and PS3 to play HD content.

tamtamg

01-08-2008, 04:48 AM

i have a htpc(doubles as my gaming rig) hooked up to 37in lcd. only complaint is vista mce doesn't support QAM. do you guys know any software that does?

thelastknowngod

01-08-2008, 05:06 AM

good way to go. have you also check out linux mce?

if you havent..here you go. check out the demo video.
http://linuxmce.com/

another free option.

i am running linux mce right now and it is the best system i have ever used. myth works ok by itself but mce gives you a perfect menu system and navigation. it is insane how many options it gives you. im probably going to be getting some zwave home automation stuff soon to tie into it.

tnvwboy

01-08-2008, 12:26 PM

I built one a few years back that worked well for me. I had a 32in Gateway monitor (800x600). VGA was the only input so the HTPC was pretty much the only option. It was fine for me, but when I got married my wife hated how complicated it was and that it took minutes to power up just to watch TV.

The good thing is that I was able to trade that rig for a 42in plasma and the HD PVR from my cable company. I miss being able to do some PC related things on my TV but I still think I came out on the good end of the deal.:cool:

deegraww

01-08-2008, 01:16 PM

I've got one hooked up to my Sony Vega 55 inch LCD TV. I built it to store all my DVD's and CD's it's got 1.3TB's of storage. And it's running XP Pro. I haven't used it in a while but at one point I had it running through the surround sound system that the TV is hooked up to and the Video card that I have in it came with a remote that now seems to no longer work. I need to find better burning software for my DVD's because the file size is still to big. Also I would like to set it up so the DVR function of the Video card works but I just haven't had the time to get someone to help me with it.

zxao

01-08-2008, 04:56 PM

My first experience with this type of stuff was a modded xbox running xbmc and i LOVED it!
I don't have a 360 but i think it's pretty awesome that MS has given the ability to stream divx/xvid.

Yeah i didn't have any money to spend on building my first htpc a few years back but i realized i had enough spare parts lying around that i didn't have to buy anything. Since then I've upgraded pretty much everything and have a system that i LOVE.
I tried EVERY media center type application and OS that i could find. I Eventually found MP and fell in love with it. The community is really awesome too. A lot of smart people. And TONS of plugins!
Geeze I'm starting to sound like I'm getting paid for this.

Anyway. Have you guys heard of Geexbox? (http://geexbox.org/en/index.html)
It's pretty sweet. Its a Linux distro that you live boot into and its like a really slim, no-frills type of media center OS.
Whats pretty cool about it is that it plays just about every type of video format out there. HD stuff too.
It's nice to had in your glove box in case your at a friends house and want to play a video you brought but don't want to mess around on his pc installing codecs and tinkering with windows, or whatever OS hes running..

satori

01-08-2008, 05:58 PM

I'm using a regular PC as a media server and piping it through my PS3 which then allows me to stream wirelessly to my PSP or directly onto my TV.

toxy

01-09-2008, 05:43 AM

If only i could get my pc to work with DirectTV... can only control it via the remote and their set top box.. but not via my pc =(

one day perhaps....

kevincollateral

01-10-2008, 03:57 PM

http://www.entertainer-project.com/index.php

anyone tried this new linux mce project? im just curious..still in development stages.

oratsarotobek

01-10-2008, 09:17 PM

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