Tiny Tim wrote:
-= a q u a b u b b l e =- wrote:
Tiny Tim wrote:
- 250GB SATA HDD (haven't chosen model - any suggestions?)

Any reason for going SATA? At this point in time, there is no benefit
to SATA, especially if all you're doing is HTPC: the HDD activity is
not too intensive.

Well I chose SATA because the Shuttle supports it and it appears to
be the next "great thing" and for a 250GB drive the price difference
is only £7 on a figure of ~£100.

In which case, you can save yourself £7 ;o)

- 2*256MB PC3200 DDR400 ram (any reason not to simply get budget
Crucial/generic memory?)

I'd be tempted to go up to 1GB here. No reason not to get budget RAM:
high performance is not the issue with XP MCE, but the more memory
the better. With a HTPC, you don't want pauses as the OS swaps out to
disk.

I'd be surprised if there was any swapping, given the only
multi-tasking demands will be to record a TV programme while watching
or listening to something else. I do not intend to use the machine
for all its computing power - simply as a media/entertainment center.
My laptop, which has plenty of concurrent apps running, does not seem
to be unduly burdened by paging. I see many retail media center PCs
come with only 512MB.

This is true, and its only a preference thing; I find that 1GB of memory
with any XP-based OS works better and provides more flexibility (e.g.
registry tweaks to keep kernal from paging out to disk etc). From my
experience, even if you're not using your full memory allocation, Windows
can do strange things with its swapping.

- Hauppauge PVR-150-MCE TV card (to record from Sky satellite set
top box - no UHF TV required)

Is this available in the UK yet? Also consider the Black Gold DVB-T
or Nebula cards.

144 listed in stock at Savastore and the price is v.good too. I don't
see the Black Gold or Nebula listed on the HCL. I also don't want
DVB-T as I shall be using Sky as my TV source.

Sorry yes, I misread your original post about this... if you want the very
best input quality, have you considered the Sweetspot card, which has RGB
input?

http://www.pluggedin.tv/sweetspot/

It's not on the MCE2005 HCL yet, but I'm not aware of any problems with it.
However, you might want to check out the forums on http://www.tv-cards.com

- nVidia FX5200 128MB DVI video card (no brand chosen but anything
cheapish so long as it keeps MCE 2005 happy)

I'd go for an ATI 9600 non-pro 128MB. It has no fan and you can use
the VGA-out to feed your RGB-enabled SCART on your telly.
Alternatively, consider passively cooled versions of the 9600Pro or
9800Pro. Although another poster recommended the Matrox card, which
does have excellent TV-out, MCE2005 requires a VMR9 capable card
(i.e. DirectX9), which the Matrox isn't.

It seems I should definitely switch to ATI :-)

If you're anal about video quality like I am, then it's a good choice for
not too big an outlay.

Thanks for your feedback :-)

No probs... sorry I misread your original post!

-= a q u a b u b b l e =- wrote:
... have you considered the Sweetspot card, which has RGB input?

http://www.pluggedin.tv/sweetspot/

It's not on the MCE2005 HCL yet, but I'm not aware of any problems
with it. However, you might want to check out the forums on
http://www.tv-cards.com

Hmmm... it seems that it isn't compatible with MCE2005. Whether this is just
a driver issue or simply that it will _never_ be compatible is another
matter.

Tony Houghton wrote:
-= a q u a b u b b l e =- wrote:
Tiny Tim wrote:

- nVidia FX5200 128MB DVI video card (no brand chosen but anything
cheapish so long as it keeps MCE 2005 happy)

I'd go for an ATI 9600 non-pro 128MB. It has no fan and you can use
the VGA-out to feed your RGB-enabled SCART on your telly.
Alternatively, consider passively cooled versions of the 9600Pro or
9800Pro. Although another poster recommended the Matrox card, which
does have excellent TV-out, MCE2005 requires a VMR9 capable card
(i.e. DirectX9), which the Matrox isn't.

Ah, so that's why the graphics card requirements are so high (but why
no R9500/9600)?

Good question: they definitely work! Perhaps its some kind of deal between
ATI and MS to promote their latest cards? For a HTPC, you definitely don't
want a feckin huge fan on your graphics card and you aren't really likely to
be playing PC games through your telly either!

Stephen Neal wrote:
Overscan in the menus is the major problem to beat at the moment. I've got
a 1024 x 576 mode running - but the MCE 2005 menus are too
close to the edges of Overscan for this to be fantastic. I've tried
a 960x540 mode - but this drops the picture quality a bit too much
(so the 1:1 mapping between input and output DVB and DVD must be
paying off even if de-interlacing and re-interlacing is taking place)

If you're using a DVB-T tuner, have you tried a non-widescreen ratio: this
might fit better? (You can then set the "zoom" in the menu)

How bad is the overscan; is it on all the edges? Have you tried tweaking
your TV set?

questions... questions... :o)

-= a q u a b u b b l e =- wrote:
Stephen Neal wrote:
If you're using a DVB-T tuner, have you tried a non-widescreen ratio:
this might fit better? (You can then set the "zoom" in the menu)

Just seen your other post... you can ignore this question! :o)

On Wed, 24 Nov 2004 15:30:11 -0000, "Tiny Tim"
wrote:

I have now definitely decided to build my own Media Center PC as I can't
find anything available off the shelf in the UK that meets my needs and
budget. I would appreciate any comments on my proposed spec in case I have
made a boo-boo

- Shuttle XPC SN95G5
- AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Socket 939
- 250GB SATA HDD (haven't chosen model - any suggestions?)
- 2*256MB PC3200 DDR400 ram (any reason not to simply get budget
Crucial/generic memory?)
- NEC 3500A 16X D/L DVD+-RW
- Hauppauge PVR-150-MCE TV card (to record from Sky satellite set top box -
no UHF TV required)
- nVidia FX5200 128MB DVI video card (no brand chosen but anything cheapish
so long as it keeps MCE 2005 happy)
- MCE 2005 remote control
- Win XP MCE 2005 OEM

Seems this activity is the flavour of the month. I've just started
investigating building a media centre machine as well (my first home
build box), and am planning to use Win XP MCE too. My spec is similar
to yours, as follows:

Shuttle XPC ST62K - this is the very quiet one. Very important in a
living room based machine, to my mind. It also has an integrated ATI
RADEON 9100 based 2D/3D graphics controller, saving the cost, space
and heat of a separate card
2 * 256 RAM - considered going to 1GB, but not sure it's worth it.
AMD Athlon XP2200 - no need for any more raw power, imo
Disk - any old IDE drive, up to 160Gb (which will give 80 hours of
video - more than enough, I think)
Hauppauge PVR-350 - except I've just realised this doesn't support MCE
(or vice versa). Hardware support for MCE is a pain I could do
without right now.

The bit I'm vague about at the moment is all the stuff around
connecting it to the TV. I just want this box to sit with the other
home cinema kit, and not use a separate monitor (what's the longest a
monitor cable can be, anyway?). My TV is a 3 year old Sony Triniton
KV-32FX60D. According to the book of words, it accepts "Normal
audio/video and RGB" on Scart 1, and "Normal audio/video and s-video"
on Scart 2 and 3. So, what feed will I actually take out of the PC,
and what cable will I use? Will I need one of these modded cables with
a couple of capacitors in it? Is the fact that the TV runs at 100 Hz
a factor too?


--
This sig under construction

The sections for MCE users are the same, but for XP users there is a whole
stream of extra features/software with the 250 that I do not require.

Ahh.... Im all clear now

Thanks so much for that info!!

Question tho.... can one run the 150 card on a system with XP Pro
only? No MCE?

I don't have MCE os yet..... but thought maybe i could find a card
that would run on plain ole XP pro for now and go to MCE later. Can
that be done?

"-= a q u a b u b b l e =-" wrote in
message ...
Stephen Neal wrote:
Overscan in the menus is the major problem to beat at the moment. I've
got a 1024 x 576 mode running - but the MCE 2005 menus are too
close to the edges of Overscan for this to be fantastic. I've tried
a 960x540 mode - but this drops the picture quality a bit too much
(so the 1:1 mapping between input and output DVB and DVD must be
paying off even if de-interlacing and re-interlacing is taking place)

If you're using a DVB-T tuner, have you tried a non-widescreen ratio: this
might fit better? (You can then set the "zoom" in the menu)

Yep - initially tried a Windows resolution closer to 4:3 - but then you have
to keep fiddling with the aspect ratio options on your TV to get 4:3 stuff
the right shape!


How bad is the overscan; is it on all the edges? Have you tried tweaking
your TV set?

Overscan on the TV has been tweaked to be roughly right and centred
horizontally and vertically using a testcard recorded as a menu on a VideoCD
and replayed using a DVD player. Am now sorting how to source this from the
PC to re-tweak my TV.

However I've designed my own Powerstrip horizontal line timings (which have
got rid of the slight jitter I was seeing, and now have timings much closer
to the real PAL spec) Just got to fiddle with the vertical field timings
now.

However comparing the active video from a Sky receiver and my PC the picture
is pretty much the same width, and height, but a bit lower on my PC (the
vertical timing being wrong I guess).

This implies to me that the actual video timing coming out of the PC is OK -
just that Windows is so wedded to the idea of putting stuff all the way to
the edge of active that it is annoying. (If only they had an option of
winding the top/bottom/left/right bits of the desktop into a virtual window
within the desktop we'd be fine) I'm happy with overscan of video - it is
designed for this - and much nicer than black edges on everything. Even
Media Center's menus are a bit marginal though - if only they followed
broadcast safe area rules!!!

Steve

"-= a q u a b u b b l e =-" wrote in
message ...
-= a q u a b u b b l e =- wrote:
... have you considered the Sweetspot card, which has RGB input?

http://www.pluggedin.tv/sweetspot/

It's not on the MCE2005 HCL yet, but I'm not aware of any problems
with it. However, you might want to check out the forums on
http://www.tv-cards.com

Hmmm... it seems that it isn't compatible with MCE2005. Whether this is
just a driver issue or simply that it will _never_ be compatible is
another matter.

The Sweetspot has no on-board MPEG2 encoding - after all it is mainly aimed
at feeding dScaler type installations (where extra encoding is the last
thing you'd want!) - but I think this means that unless someone can do
something fiendish in software (which would require a lot of CPU effort) to
implement real-time MPEG2 compression of the Sweetspot's output - it isn't
going to be MCE compatible any time soon. Pity really.

Steve

"Champ" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 24 Nov 2004 15:30:11 -0000, "Tiny Tim"
wrote:

[snip]

Hauppauge PVR-350 - except I've just realised this doesn't support MCE
(or vice versa). Hardware support for MCE is a pain I could do
without right now.

Have a look at www.shspvr.com - they have MCE compatible drivers for most of
the Win PVR range - I got my PVR USB2 working - and others report that the
250 and 350 are working fine in MCE with the drivers from that site.

As I say - I don't have a 350 - but I believe it is supported by MCE (and
you don't need a specific MCE badged model - though this might be cheaper if
it comes with less software and/or no remote control etc.)


The bit I'm vague about at the moment is all the stuff around
connecting it to the TV. I just want this box to sit with the other
home cinema kit, and not use a separate monitor (what's the longest a
monitor cable can be, anyway?). My TV is a 3 year old Sony Triniton
KV-32FX60D. According to the book of words, it accepts "Normal
audio/video and RGB" on Scart 1, and "Normal audio/video and s-video"
on Scart 2 and 3. So, what feed will I actually take out of the PC,
and what cable will I use? Will I need one of these modded cables with
a couple of capacitors in it? Is the fact that the TV runs at 100 Hz
a factor too?

You can feed your TV via a TV output from a video card - which will be
s-video or composite and scaled. This is the easiest solution (especially
if the Shuttle has on-board TV out support). The quality won't be as good
as the RGB feed from a set top box - but might be perfectly acceptable to
you.

I didn't like mine - so have built a VGA to SCART cable (it only has a 75
Ohm resistor for RGB switching purposes, no capacitors or any other
components) that allows my ATI Radeon card to drive my Sony 28FX20 (pretty
much the 50Hz version of your telly) via the RGB SCART. This is a bit more
involved, and requires some custom video timing stuff using an application
called Powerstrip. However IMHO the quality is streets ahead of the S-video
output of the same video card. It is helpful if you have a second PC when
doing this though - as you can then use an application called VNC to
remotely control your "TV PC" - so that you can still use it when the video
output is unusable! I don't know if on-board Radeon 9100 gfx stuff supports
this - I think it might.

Finally you could buy a VGA to Composite/S-video scan converter box - which
you plug into the VGA output of your PC and which generates a TV-friendly
S-video or composite feed - but these are quite expensive and not great
quality.

Steve