I'll make this brief. I have a spare computer that would easily be able be converted into a media center (for retrieving video/mp3/photo's etc of the network. The only thing I have no clue to is what medium do I need to get the info off my media center (server) to my TV. I don't have any of the new audio/video inputs, only composit audio and video. I've been looking at the Hauppauge Media MVP for only a hundred dollars it seems like a winner but will it play all the .avi files that I have? The most I can spend to get this completed is $200 and I will have Win XP Media Center Edition 2005 installed on the media center computer (the computer right next to my tv) and recording/watching tv is not required. I mainly just want to get files off of my computer. Any feedback on how to get this accomplished would be greatly appriciated!

Thanks!!

Brief and clear as mud! What is it you are trying to do and what is you problem? Is it that you don't know how to go about getting TV output from HTPC or is it that your HTPC isn't fast enough for good playback and you are looking at some hardware decoding solution to work around it?

The MVP is an MPEG1/2 stream only playback device and limited to about 7.5 Mb/s streams - Hauppauges server software can transcode and stream non MPEG1/2 content, but you need a pretty fast host CPU on the serving PC to do it. The server can be located anywhere - the MVP is effectively a set top box which takes MPEG 1/2 streams over ethernet using Hauppauges proprietary protocol and plays them back. XP MC edition is not required. The MVP features are pretty limited and the sound quality isn't fantastic out of the box, although there is a reasonably developed hardware and firmware hacking scene for the MVP - it runs Linux on an embedded PowerPC CPU (rather similar to the first generation TiVo).

Are you really suggesting you would run ethernet between a server PC "right next to my tv" to the MVP, presumably also next to the TV to achieve content playback?

After I posted I noticed I wouldn't need an additional server for the Hauppauge mvp. I just want to stream video/mp3/photos from my computer to my tv and only have composite audio and video. I have a slew of avi's i'd like to play and only have $200 to do this. I have an add'l pc like I mentioned earlier and I don't necessarily need to be able to watch tv and dvr off the computer, the focus is just the music/video and photos. I do like the interface of MCE windows and wouldn't mind using a computer (setup next to my tv)to accesss my main computer (server) in a different room.
I just need info on what my options are, basically what would I need to get audio and video from my computer(next to my tv) onto my tv? I realize i'd need to buy a remote to use Windows MCE. Here is the info of my main computer with all the media on it, this will act as my server:

AMD 64 3200+
pc 3200 2x512 Geil Ram (1gb)
120 gb maxtor hd
Audigy LS sound card
nvidia 5200 video card 256 mb ram

Here is the info on my secondary computer which will be used to access the server to retrieve the files:

Celeron 2.7ghz
768mb Crucial Ram
10 GB HD
16 mb All in wonder pro video card (i've tried getting this hooked up to the tv but had no luck, not sure if the drivers and such are just too old)
Onboard sound

Hope this clears things up, my needs are quite basic with DVR and watching tv not necessary. But if I have to buy a few things that allow me to use this option i'm all for it.

I can't figure out what you want to do. What do you mean "retrieving video/mp3/photo"?

As I understand it, you have a TV with only composite inputs and want to be able to watch videos and photos on this TV.

This spare computer, what would it do? How can it "retrieve"?

Then, you say the other computer will be running Windows Media Center Edition and will be "right next to the TV". Will the second computer be connected to a computer monitor as well as the TV?

Which computer will be the server? the "spare" computer or the WMCE computer?

You "mainly want to get files off of my computer" - get files off which computer? When you say "get files off", do you mean stream video and audio to some other computer or to the WMCE computer to the TV?