2005-11-07, 11:53 PM
Hello,
I just found GBPVR recently and thought I'd build myself up a dedicated PVR system.
Currently I have an old 450mhz system running as a music server and tied into my home theater system. I wrote some remote control software and it works pretty slick. That's about all it currently is though - a digital music player.
I thought I'd make the leap and further integrate -- so, I'm planning on replacing that 450mhz machine with a 3ghz, 533 FSB Intel based box with a 200gb drive dedicated to video, music, and image storage and a half gig of ram. This PC will not have a monitor and probably won't have a keyb or mouse for that matter -- will be managed via Remote Desktop.
I have an old school tube TV that I probably won't replace for a while. It has composite and S-video in's.
I would like to be able to play DVDs, MP3 music, internet music, (fm tuner would be cool too), watch my analog cable, and do the PVR thing with this system.
First question, I'd like to only buy a TV / en/decoder card once - I think I'd like it to have as much hardware encoding/decoding as available as to keep system resources as free as possible. What's the recommended card in this dept? I've been looking at the PVR-350 so far.
I've read some are having problems with the PVR-350 cards locking up when using the composite out function -- have any of these problems been had by those using Intel chipset based MB's? I'll be using an ASUS P4PE.
Next, in the past, I had been considering upgrading my sound card to an M-Audio 2496 card (with RCA ins and outs). Will I still want to go this route, or will I be able to send MP3 and internet based music out the RCA jacks on the TV card to the receiver/amp? If so, will they offer reasonable quality?
Any other caveats I should be aware of? I'm looking to build a very slick, well integrated, and easy to use/operate system that even my wife will enjoy taking advantage of.
What would some of you that have a good bit of experience do if you were building up a system like this, with those goals in mind?
I just found GBPVR recently and thought I'd build myself up a dedicated PVR system.
Currently I have an old 450mhz system running as a music server and tied into my home theater system. I wrote some remote control software and it works pretty slick. That's about all it currently is though - a digital music player.
I thought I'd make the leap and further integrate -- so, I'm planning on replacing that 450mhz machine with a 3ghz, 533 FSB Intel based box with a 200gb drive dedicated to video, music, and image storage and a half gig of ram. This PC will not have a monitor and probably won't have a keyb or mouse for that matter -- will be managed via Remote Desktop.
I have an old school tube TV that I probably won't replace for a while. It has composite and S-video in's.
I would like to be able to play DVDs, MP3 music, internet music, (fm tuner would be cool too), watch my analog cable, and do the PVR thing with this system.
First question, I'd like to only buy a TV / en/decoder card once - I think I'd like it to have as much hardware encoding/decoding as available as to keep system resources as free as possible. What's the recommended card in this dept? I've been looking at the PVR-350 so far.
I've read some are having problems with the PVR-350 cards locking up when using the composite out function -- have any of these problems been had by those using Intel chipset based MB's? I'll be using an ASUS P4PE.
Next, in the past, I had been considering upgrading my sound card to an M-Audio 2496 card (with RCA ins and outs). Will I still want to go this route, or will I be able to send MP3 and internet based music out the RCA jacks on the TV card to the receiver/amp? If so, will they offer reasonable quality?
Any other caveats I should be aware of? I'm looking to build a very slick, well integrated, and easy to use/operate system that even my wife will enjoy taking advantage of.
What would some of you that have a good bit of experience do if you were building up a system like this, with those goals in mind?