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Build a Homemade Media Center PC
DigitalDame2 writes "PC Magazine's Loyd Case explains how to build a Media Center PC of your own, how to choose the parts for a custom project, and tips for the Motherboard." I imagine you guys might have some other opinions on what parts and tools to use for the task...
I've had a lot of luck running MythTV on inexpensive hardware I had lying around the house. There's no reason to spend buckets of cash like the one mentioned in the article if all you need is a simple PVR.
Last month, I built my own PVR. Here's my cost:
- ECS motherboard + Pentium 4CPU combo from Fry's: $110
- 512MB (2 x 256MB) of Kingston RAM: $50
- Zalman CPU fan (stock is just too noisy): $45
- Antec TruePower 2.0 380W power supply: $60
- GeforceFX 5200 (no fan == so silent): $40
- MS media center remote: $35 (yes, you really need this)
Items reused: OS, mouse & keyboard (for initial setup, then don't need them anymore), dual-tuner Tv tuner card, and PC case. Total cost for me was $340. If I had to buy the items I reused, then I could have very easily stayed under $500.The machine is hidden behind my TV stand (I have a CRT 30" HDTV Sony Tv, 16:9 aspect ratio), is almost completely silent, and delivers a nice, crisp, HD signal to my TV (DVI port of my graphics card plugs in to the HDMI port of my TV). I keep it on all the time, and manage it via VNC. It has been running for almost a month with no hiccups, and I saved $1700 in the process.
Well, the better way to do this is to use turner cards that do onboard video compression instead of using the CPU. That way you can make almost any computer work. http://www.snapstream.com/Community/articles/pvs_s ervice/ ...and you can then add tons of tuners that will record all at once without really taxing a modest system...
http://www.snapstream.com/Community/Articles/medus a/default.asp
MythTV sucks if you've ever had the chance of using Media Center.
I can say this because I've used both, and ended up going back to the Microsoft solution, of which MythTV makes it look good!
My setup: dvb-t card (nova-t), geforce4 w/tv out, athlon xp 2700, lots of storage etc.
Mythtv, took eternity to setup, had to manually give it the frequencies so it could find the channels. When setup, guide data took a while using xmltv, and following guide after guide to set it up. Even once setup, its nowhere near as complete or stable as Media Center using dvb-t. Getting to this point took hours.
With Media Center, its very simple to get all working without having to go to such great lengths or following guide after guide to get something done. So long as your hardware is somewhat recent and has BDA drivers, and you install rollup update 2, things are smooth for myself.
MythTV has some serious issues. Tuning into an encrypted channel crashes it. Yes I know its the mpeg codec's problem but surely MythTV can check the channel beforehand! Media center can cope with that.
The GUI hasnt got anything on Media Centers, even with custom designs.
Then there's those little things like droping a DVD full of xvid's into the system - Media Center will ask to copy it to the system and watch it.
You have to exit the TV section entirely to goto something else - Media center can do picture in picture no problem regardless of what your watching.
It can also record the stream to the hard drive in the format it came, mpeg2, without an issue with dvb-t. MythTV couldnt do this, nor could it provide a good quality recorded stream without having to use the CPU under dvb-t.
There are other things, but I can tell you now, from my own experience that dvb-t under MythTV just isnt ready for primetime. Finally, why bother spending lots of hours configuring and time tweaking it later when Media Center does it nicely first time around?
Oh wait, this is slashdot...