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Adivce on changing the way I use my TV
Here’s another one of my ‘lets radically change the way I use the computer’ thread 
Over the past few weeks I have been looking into ways that I can simplify my networking and hosting needs. Dan has been a great help in agreeing to host the family website/mail server (insert mental note to send him some cash).
I have moved the contents of my fileserver to my main PC but I am thinking about more drastic action. I am thinking about loosing the PC altogether, at least in a metaphorical sense.
I want to convert it to a HTPC. I don’t really use the computer for games and I seem to spend hours either browsing the internet or tweaking the OS. I would need to retain basic Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) functionality, but I could do that anywhere.
I installed RC1 of Vista on the fileserver last week and I am very impressed. It does everything with a few exceptions. Lack of printer support, No synch with my PDA, a few incompatible programs and my AIW9800 is detected as a 9800se. I am also experiencing intermittent slow downs which I am trying to get to the bottom of.
I have noticed that it comes with Media Centre which looks very similar to the xbox variant (XBMC).
I wonder if I can move the contents of the PC in to a HTPC case and then replace my TV with a nice LCD monitor. I know that there is a HTPC forum, but I have a few hardware and practicality questions first.
I assume once it is setup I will have full control over pausing, rewinding and recording live TV. I would like to be able to schedule advance recordings via an EPG. I would also like the PC to be able to change channels on the Sky box.
Because I use my xbox pretty much exclusively for XBMC I am well aware of media center’s capabilities. Are there any fundamental differences?
Assuming that I can do all of the above, I also wonder what the video output would be like on my LCD monitor? I would have thought that it would be excellent. Perhaps the question should be, 'what would my 'desktop' look like...' I would of course want to test everything on my trusty CRT before committing to purchase anything.
The next question is one of practicality. It sounds fairly messy having to power up the PC everytime I want to watch TV, although I guess that is what I am already doing as the Sky+ box runs on linux.
I have tried to stream video from the scart output on the skybox to the S-video input on the AIW9800. I can’t get media center to recognise the input. I am using vista with beta drivers so that may be the issue. I assume that as the sky box is doing the decoding any ‘input’ card will do. The sky+ box has dual tuners. Is there anyway to take advantage of this?
I quite like the thought of this, but I’m not sure how easy it would be to implement and the bottom line is that if it is going to be significantly more complicated than the current sky+ setup, then the wife probably wont go for it. If I can get it to work, then I will regain a spare room and about two feet of living room space.
I guess that i would need a new case and a monitor. Perhaps a wireless keyboard too.
The case would need to house 5 hard drives and one optical drive. I'm not into flashy inbuilt LCD screens and lights, but I does need to be as silent as possible whilst activley cooling the RAID array.
Any fellow MURCers use this sort of setup?
Any advice on software/hardware, or are you rolling your eyes at yet another ‘Paddy’ thread
Over the past few weeks I have been looking into ways that I can simplify my networking and hosting needs. Dan has been a great help in agreeing to host the family website/mail server (insert mental note to send him some cash).
I have moved the contents of my fileserver to my main PC but I am thinking about more drastic action
. I am thinking about loosing the PC altogether, at least in a metaphorical sense.I want to convert it to a HTPC. I don’t really use the computer for games and I seem to spend hours either browsing the internet or tweaking the OS. I would need to retain basic Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) functionality, but I could do that anywhere.
I installed RC1 of Vista on the fileserver last week and I am very impressed. It does everything with a few exceptions. Lack of printer support, No synch with my PDA, a few incompatible programs and my AIW9800 is detected as a 9800se. I am also experiencing intermittent slow downs which I am trying to get to the bottom of.
I have noticed that it comes with Media Centre which looks very similar to the xbox variant (XBMC).
I wonder if I can move the contents of the PC in to a HTPC case and then replace my TV with a nice LCD monitor. I know that there is a HTPC forum, but I have a few hardware and practicality questions first.
I assume once it is setup I will have full control over pausing, rewinding and recording live TV. I would like to be able to schedule advance recordings via an EPG. I would also like the PC to be able to change channels on the Sky box.
Because I use my xbox pretty much exclusively for XBMC I am well aware of media center’s capabilities. Are there any fundamental differences?
Assuming that I can do all of the above, I also wonder what the video output would be like on my LCD monitor? I would have thought that it would be excellent. Perhaps the question should be, 'what would my 'desktop' look like...' I would of course want to test everything on my trusty CRT before committing to purchase anything.
The next question is one of practicality. It sounds fairly messy having to power up the PC everytime I want to watch TV, although I guess that is what I am already doing as the Sky+ box runs on linux.
I have tried to stream video from the scart output on the skybox to the S-video input on the AIW9800. I can’t get media center to recognise the input. I am using vista with beta drivers so that may be the issue. I assume that as the sky box is doing the decoding any ‘input’ card will do. The sky+ box has dual tuners. Is there anyway to take advantage of this?
I quite like the thought of this, but I’m not sure how easy it would be to implement and the bottom line is that if it is going to be significantly more complicated than the current sky+ setup, then the wife probably wont go for it. If I can get it to work, then I will regain a spare room and about two feet of living room space.
I guess that i would need a new case and a monitor. Perhaps a wireless keyboard too.
The case would need to house 5 hard drives and one optical drive. I'm not into flashy inbuilt LCD screens and lights, but I does need to be as silent as possible whilst activley cooling the RAID array.
Any fellow MURCers use this sort of setup?
Any advice on software/hardware, or are you rolling your eyes at yet another ‘Paddy’ thread
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