Hullloo there - I've just spent the best part of what feels like about 3 years wading through all the info I can find on HTPC's, linux, hardware requirements etc etc While there's a LOT of great info out there (and here on GZ of course) I'm also encountering a lot of conflicting info, particularly on hardware requirements.
Here's what I'm up to: I currently have a Panasonic HDMI (1080i) capable Plasma, but no HD source. I would like to move to UHF freeview sometime soon, and the latest news on Prime means that might be sooner rather than later. I also would like to move to blu-ray. The more I've thought about this the more it seems to make sense to combine the two projects and build myself a dedicated HTPC. Cooool. Built plenty of PC's from bits in the past, mainly experimenting with the concept of silence.
I am leaning toward a linux system if I can, simply because it's free, and it's what I already use for my home PC and file server so it's what I know.
Requirements will be:
Some sort of internal blu-ray jobby
Dual DVB-T tuner - not overly worried about analog as I already have a standalone DVD recorder to make do until Prime gets sorted
HDMI out for video (straight to TV)
Digital audio out (either coax or optical - to run into my HT amp)
HDD - already have a couple of sata HDD's lying around somewhere
Power supply already sorted
Case sorted (will either build my own again or integrate the whole thing into my AV cabinet)
Must be spookily quiet - so low power use etc is a must. This is why I've been thinking as low spec as I can, although price comes into it of course.
Use:
We watch a bit of TV, not a great deal. Watch a lot of movies curtesy of Fatso. Very rarely record TV, and it would be even more rare for me to want to watch something and record something else. I guess ideally the system should be able to handle it though. No downloaded content (on this unit) so no other dodgy formats required. No music (I love my squeezebox....)
So questions - I'm not just here to free load a buying list. I'm just keen to hear from those with experience what the real base lines are I should be looking at for main board, memory, cpu and tuner.
- I know onboard versus card GPU is a potato/potato thing, but what is the real requirement for watching one stream and recording another? Some say a quad core nuclear reactor is the only way to go...others not....
- What is the base requirement for watching blu-ray and recording an HD stream?
- Are the Hauppauge cards really the only ones to consider? I assume hardware decoding will help with keeping the cpu requirement down. (keep linux in mind).
All thoughts, ideas, opinions and abuse welcome. Basically I need a basic system to watch and record TV, watch discs, and to sit quietly in the back of the room not being noticed by wifey. Cheap is good, quiet is better.
Anybody still reading? ;) I'll shut up now.....