Understanding a Media Center PC - Graphic & Displays
  Tom's Guide Forums » Graphic & Displays » TV/Video Cards » Understanding a Media Center PC
 




Word :   Username :  
 
Bottom
Author
 Thread : Understanding a Media Center PC
 
More Information

Hi,
I've got a scenario that I'm trying to understand if a Media Center PC would solve... All of my PCs really just sit there for work/games/mp3s etc... and I don't do any TV stuff with them or have them integrated with my home theater.

But, we have a playroom for our kids and we have a small TV in there hooked up to the cable that homeruns back to the satellite receiver in another room. (our remotes use UHF to control the TVs off of the satellite since the satellite receivers are in a central room - ie, not where the TVs are at).

But, what I want to do is get the computer and TV that I have in the playroom and integrate the two of them.

So, basically, I'd have a PC running the TV as well as acting as a PC ...

Does what I describe make sense and if getting rid of the TV - am I on track with the way I'm thinking?

I was thinking I could get a nice LCD coupled with a SFF box and hook it up to my satellite/cable and all would be good. Would that assumption be correct or will I have a lot of issues since my receiver is in a completely different room and won't be able to connect directly to it?

Would the UHF remote cause difficulties?

Anyway, not that clear on all these video/TV cards and how it all works but trying to figure it out.

I read some other posts and in general, it sounds like I have it somewhat understood -- and I could use this PC to distribute 'media' to other parts of the house as I have my entire house networked in most every room and all comes back to a main gig-e switch etc.

TIA

Related Product

Register or log in to remove.

More Information

Nobody?

I guess one question that I'm asking and getting to the point is -- what type of card would you recommend for something to control TV-Satellite + ability to do PVR/DVR type of stuff?

thx.

More Information

Here's a video from Kevin Rose that shows you how to build a PVR, they also recommend the capture cards and open source software to run it:
<A HREF="http://www.systm.org/" target="_new">http://www.systm.org/</A>

<b><font color=blue>Athlon64 3200+ Winchester/MSI Neo4 Platinum SLI/MSI 6800 Ultra/1 GB Kingston HyperX (Dual Channel)/74GB WD Raptor/600Watt Enermax Noisetaker/ Dual Mitsubishi 21 Inch Monitors</b></font color=blue>

More Information

Here's a video from Kevin Rose that shows you how to build a PVR, they also recommend the capture cards and open source software to run it: (Video 2)
<A HREF="http://www.systm.org/" target="_new">http://www.systm.org/</A>

<b><font color=blue>Athlon64 3200+ Winchester/MSI Neo4 Platinum SLI/MSI 6800 Ultra/1 GB Kingston HyperX (Dual Channel)/74GB WD Raptor/600Watt Enermax Noisetaker/ Dual Mitsubishi 21 Inch Monitors</b></font color=blue>

More Information

thank ya!


  Tom's Guide Forums » Graphic & Displays » TV/Video Cards » Understanding a Media Center PC

Go to:
 

Google ads