HTPC Build

[elbryyan]

I want to use this for OTA digital TV that I receive with my antenna in the attic. Right now I don't have cable or satelite. I am currently using a Pinnacle HDTV Pro stick on my desktop PC using GB-PVR and it works great. My budget is around $400 and I am looking for a spec that can play the OTA HD signals to my TV and act as a DVR as well and play DVD movies as well.

This build would force me to use the Pinnacle pro stick as the tuner or I would have to switch out the video card for something like the HVR-1600.

Antec New Solution Series NSK2400 Mini Tower Case (Silver)
DFI RS482 INFINITY Socket 939 ATI Radeon Xpress 200 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
Corsair VS1GBKIT400 1GB Kit DDR400 PC3200 CAS2.5 Value Select Memory
Gigabyte GV-NX73G256D-RH Geforce 7300GS 256MB DDR2 PCI-E 16x Video Card w/DVI, TV-Out
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Processor (Venice) Socket 939

What I have:
180 GB HD
Pinnacle HDTV Pro Stick
DVD Drive

Any comments or suggestions? Thanks.

[stefan]

You don't have a power supply listed, but maybe that comes with the case?

[-Oz-]

that case does have a power supply.

The motherboard has two PCI slots and PCI express so I don't see why you'd have to sacrifice your video card for a tuner card. You have enough slots from what I can see.

My other recommendation; come up with some way to use a remote control with it.

[brfish]

that case does have a power supply.

The motherboard has two PCI slots and PCI express so I don't see why you'd have to sacrifice your video card for a tuner card. You have enough slots from what I can see.

My other recommendation; come up with some way to use a remote control with it.

With the PCI-e x1 slot between the PCI and PCI-e x16 you can use both PCI slots and fit that Gigabyte Video card in there, even with the big honking heatsink :p

[elbryyan]

Here is a beefier setup that I found that may work as well.

Asus M2NPV-VM GeForce 6150/nForce 430 Sempron/Athlon 64(FX)(X2) SktAM2 DDR2 M-ATX Motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+(65W) Windsor 2.0GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM2 Processor
Antec New Solution Series NSK2400 Mini Tower Case (Silver) Retail
Corsair VS1GBKIT667D2 1GB Kit DDR2-667 PC2-5300 Value Select Memory Retail
Asus EN7300LE/HTD/128M GeForce 7300 LE PCI Express 128MB DDR2 Video Card w/TV-Out Retail

For this one I would need to use my Pinnacle USB ProStick for tuning. My main concern here is if the video card can handle the HD content. As stated before I will only be using over the air digital stations via antenna.

I would like to later update to the vbox catseye 164e dual digital tuner so that I can watch another station if I am recording. Also may upgrade the sound card if there are any good suggestions for those as well.

If I buy one of the MS MCE remotes, how well does that work with GB-PVR?
[ATTACHMENT NOT FOUND]
I can currently use the mini-remote that came with my Pinnecle USB tuner.

[pastro]

A friend of mine uses the MCE remote with GBPVR and he has no issues. However, there was a driver (name escapes me) that is included in MCE and not XP for the USB interface. The remote didn't come with the driver but he managed to find it somewhere and it worked out ok with XP.

[pastro]

Oh yeah one other thing, I think you want to get the MCE remote with the 4 colored buttons on the bottom. GBPVR uses those buttons.