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General discussion

HTPC (Home Theater PC): How do you use it?

Aug 17, 2005 8:48AM PDT

What are the capabilities of such a beast? Why invest in one of these? I'm thinking about purchasing a DVD recorder with a built-in hard drive but I also spend A LOT of time on my PC (web surfing, e-mail, accessing company servers from home, etc.) and I'm thinking an HTPC might be a better way to go.

Here's my current set-up:

Westinghouse LTV-32w1 32" LCD
Yamaha HTR 5750
Yamaha NS-BP4500 Home Theater Speakers
Dish Network HD/DVR 942
Samsung HD850 DVD
Microsoft X-Box

Pros and cons of going with an HTPC anyone? Thanks in advance for any input.

Discussion is locked

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well...
Aug 17, 2005 3:35PM PDT

you would use it for normal PC tasks & then for anything multimedia that you can imagine. use it like a TIVO with a good mpeg capture card (hauppauge pvr150 is good). use it to back up dvds, even edit the dvds for content with a good video editing program (pinacle or vegas or something). a decent dvd reader/writer drive isn't too expensive. use it to play dvds that you've stored on your hard-drive (probably a massive RAID array would be ideal). use it to show slide shows & movie clips from the internet on your home theater system. basically... merge your entertainment unit with your computer, I'm doing it : )

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HTPC (Home Theater PC):
Aug 18, 2005 6:56AM PDT

This is a concept that is still being worked on.
I remember Zenith had speaker phone built in to a TV, so you could answer your phone throught your TV,IT BOMBED.
Why??? It disabled the TV sound and everone had to listen to the phone conversation.
HTPC will have the same draw back checking your e-mail!!!
So are there some up sides???
In my den where my PCs are I have one that has a ATI HDTV wonder card it it. This card has 2 tuners, one for analog and one for digital and comes PVR software. The analog tuner is hook to the RF output of my Dish 942, so I can watch dish. The digital tunner is hooked to my antenna so I can watch OTA HDTV.
On the other PC I do my web surfing.
As for a DVD recorder, getting a stand alone to use with your Dish 942 is a good idea, since the HD will fill up.
So I watch TV programs in the den on the PC and movies in the living room on my 32" . John

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heh....
Aug 18, 2005 8:08AM PDT

I of course will do video/audio switching at my receiver &/or at my display device, so that the computer isn't the only input device to my theater.

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So far I'm thinking...
Aug 18, 2005 10:16AM PDT

that I like the idea of going the HTPC route. So here are a few more questions...

I'd be using the HTR 5750 for switching signals to the PC, but more about the PC itself:
1)MPEG 4 versus MPEG2 capture card?
2)HDD and DVD recording/editing and how does HDCP flagging figure into this conversation?
3)Setting up a RAID array... level 0? level 3? How much total memory would you recommend at the end of the day?
4)How about the new lines of dual core processors from AMD and Intel, are they a good starting point for processing power?
5)Any other references for a good starting point in working this all out?

Thanks for the replies, and again for any additional thoughts.

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HDCP flagging figure into this conversation?
Aug 19, 2005 1:09AM PDT

It dosen't, This was thrown out by the courts at the end of May. The FCC got it's hand slapped by the courts. lol
Do you live by a major city that is broadcasting OTA HD??
If you do then consider the ATI HDTV wonder card.

RAID has two basic setups striped/ spand no redundacy, so 2 150gb drives will look like 1 300gb drive. If one drive
fails you lose the data one both drives.
Or mirriored with redundacy, 2 150gb drives looks like 1 150gb drive with the same data on both drives. For more info google raid.
I would only use a 64bit processor, dual core even better!! I personaly like AMD, others like Intel.
http://www.tomshardware.com/index.html
Read some reviews and decide for yourself.
512mb of ram min. What I do now is get AMD socket 939 MB, and use Dual DDR3200, got 1gb(two sticks 512) on sale. I like MSI and ASUS MB.
A good video card with 256mb. If you game ask some of the gamers what are the best cards. But if you do go with the ATI HDTV Wonder get a ATI video card.

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Looks like the start...
Aug 21, 2005 5:36AM PDT

of my shopping list. I do plan on adding an HD OTA antenna. Also, I'm more concerned with overall storage capacity, so I guess I'm going with the striped set-up, no redunancy. Thanks for the link and info. jcrobso, it's much appreciated!