Budget dvbs/analogue htpc. Is this enough?

Welcome Guest.

You haven't logged in yet. If you don't have an account you can register now.

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › Budget dvbs/analogue htpc. Is this enough?

Asmodeus

1015 posts

Uber Geek

#27576 31-Oct-2008 00:22

I have an old computer lying around doing nothing which I thought Id make into an htpc for the gf's bedroom. Will be going for dvb-s and analogue (all the FTA channels).

Pentium 4 3.0Ghz
Asus P4P800S SE mobo
1GB DDR400 PC3200 SDRAM
Nvidia Geforce FX5200 256MB video card
2 x 160GB 7200rpm ATA HDDs
Creative Soundblaster 5.1 soundcard
DVD/RW
350w psu

Is all I need to get now an HVR3000 card and a cheap htpc case?

Also, what would you suggest for a simple robust GUI? she would be watching/recording tv and dvds and would have a smallish avi movie library and music collection. Needs to be dead simple and hard to break lol

Cheers

Nety

2584 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#174772 31-Oct-2008 06:41

Providing you are not going to be trying to play any HD material that hardware should be fine.

Personally I think the media centre software that has the highest female acceptance factor is still Vista Media Centre. However I think mediaportal is getting close as well.

Media centre PC - Case Silverstone LC16M with 2 X 80mm AcoustiFan DustPROOF, MOBO Gigabyte MA785GT-UD3H, CPU AMD X2 240 under volted, RAM 4 Gig DDR3 1033, HDD 120Gig System/512Gig data, Tuners 2 X Hauppauge HVR-3000, 1 X HVR-2200, Video Palit GT 220, Sound Realtek 886A HD (onboard), Optical LiteOn DH-401S Blue-ray using TotalMedia Theatre Power Corsair VX Series, 450W ATX PSU OS Windows 7 x64

Asmodeus

1015 posts

Uber Geek

#174783 31-Oct-2008 08:17

Nety: Providing you are not going to be trying to play any HD material that hardware should be fine.

Personally I think the media centre software that has the highest female acceptance factor is still Vista Media Centre. However I think mediaportal is getting close as well.

Cheers. I agree about VMC, however, using vista would require a RAM upgrade would it not? Or could I get by with 1 GB of oldish RAM if only using VMC?

mcraenz

1140 posts

Uber Geek

#174787 31-Oct-2008 08:30

I know you said budget but, the hvr3000 doen't have a hardware mpeg2 encoder on the analog side and that's going to cause you real problems especially if you decide to go with MediaPortal, not sure how well VMC handles software encoding?

In any case software encoding is messy and nasty! I'd suggest getting separate cards. basic DVB-S and a PVR-150. It's only going to push cost out by about $100.

Help me build a better way of doing politics in Aotearoa New Zealand

political.nz

Nety

2584 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#174830 31-Oct-2008 11:21

Asmodeus:
Cheers. I agree about VMC, however, using vista would require a RAM upgrade would it not? Or could I get by with 1 GB of oldish RAM if only using VMC?

VMC will run with 1 Gig, you would get a good performace gain by adding a second gig but I think you will find it ok once it is up and running. Vista gives you a month before you have to activate it anyway just install without a key so see how it handles it.

mcraenz:
I know you said budget but, the hvr3000 doen't have a hardware mpeg2 encoder on the analog side and that's going to cause you real problems especially if you decide to go with MediaPortal, not sure how well VMC handles software encoding?

In any case software encoding is messy and nasty! I'd suggest getting separate cards. basic DVB-S and a PVR-150. It's only going to push cost out by about $100.

Yeah very true. Get yourself a PVR150 as well to do the analog stuff.

Asmodeus

1015 posts

Uber Geek

#174906 31-Oct-2008 16:04

OK thanks guys, didnt think about that. Will grab a Nova-s card and maybe the pvr-150.

Would this do instead?

http://www.qmb.co.nz/p.aspx?106461

It's half the price of the pvr-150 ($55 incl gst)

mcraenz

1140 posts

Uber Geek

#174957 31-Oct-2008 18:52

Not sure if it's supported under MediaPortal TVSeerver or not; may well work if it's using a common chipset however a PVR-150 is about the most common analog card out there, it's tried ant true.

Help me build a better way of doing politics in Aotearoa New Zealand

political.nz

News and reviews »

Gen Threat Report Reveals Rise in Crypto, Sextortion and Tech Support Scams
Posted 7-Aug-2025 13:09

Logitech G and McLaren Racing Sign New, Expanded Multi-Year Partnership
Posted 7-Aug-2025 13:00

A Third of New Zealanders Fall for Online Scams Says Trend Micro
Posted 7-Aug-2025 12:43

OPPO Releases Its Most Stylish and Compact Smartwatch Yet, the Watch X2 Mini.
Posted 7-Aug-2025 12:37

Epson Launches New High-End EH-LS9000B Home Theatre Laser Projector
Posted 7-Aug-2025 12:34

Air New Zealand Starts AI adoption with OpenAI
Posted 24-Jul-2025 16:00

eero Pro 7 Review
Posted 23-Jul-2025 12:07

BeeStation Plus Review
Posted 21-Jul-2025 14:21

eero Unveils New Wi-Fi 7 Products in New Zealand
Posted 21-Jul-2025 00:01

WiZ Introduces HDMI Sync Box and other Light Devices
Posted 20-Jul-2025 17:32

RedShield Enhances DDoS and Bot Attack Protection
Posted 20-Jul-2025 17:26

Seagate Ships 30TB Drives
Posted 17-Jul-2025 11:24

Oclean AirPump A10 Water Flosser Review
Posted 13-Jul-2025 11:05

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7: Raising the Bar for Smartphones
Posted 10-Jul-2025 02:01

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip7 Brings New Edge-To-Edge FlexWindow
Posted 10-Jul-2025 02:01

Geekzone Live »

Try automatic live updates from Geekzone directly in your browser, without refreshing the page, with Geekzone Live now.

Updates »

Are you subscribed to our RSS feed? You can download the latest headlines and summaries from our stories directly to your computer or smartphone by using a feed reader.

RSS feeds: Main feed; Forums feed

Site features: Geekzone BI dashboard; Geekzone Badges; Geekzone Status Page

Affiliate links: Samsung; AliExpress; Wise; Sharesies; GoodSync

Site Information: Subscribe to Geekzone; Privacy Statement; Forum Usage Guidelines (FUG); Advertising; Trademark and copyright