Im in the planning process of building a HTPC, and I have a few questions. First off I want to tell you what I plan to do with this. Im just looking to play movies from my network to my 42in LCD. I dont need it to do ANYTHING else...for now. Now for the questions. Should I use Windows media player, or Itunes? How powerfull of a PC do I need? What video card should I get to get the best picture on the LCD? I think thats it for now. Thanks Marty
Hey Marty, Are you planning to do Hi-Def stuff? If not you can get away with a pretty entry level machine. Any inexpensive dual core would do. At least a 1GB of ram with XP MC2005, 2GB if you’re going with Vista Home Premium or Ultimate. An Nvidia 8400GS for the video "it looks good up to 1080i" anything after that they get choppy & you can use the component out for video & the audio out from the pc for sound. I would also invest in a GB network if you don't have one already. Especially if there is other computer users in the house whom use the same network or your going to get into hi-def it helps stream all that data. "Should I use Windows media player, or Itunes?" For watching the Movies? I would say Neither... I would recommend in investing in PowerDVD or something along the lines of a player with a built in DVD/Blu Ray decoder. You can use the Media Center interface with the PowerDVD decoder to watch them. Or if your movies are converted to Quicktime apple has Media Center add on built into it's player. WMA files for Windows media player would already be built in since it's a Microsoft format. So entry level/Mid Range Antec Fusion Black 430 Case Intel Core 2 Duo E4600 2.4GHz Intel DG33TL Media Board Micro ATX EVGA 8400GS 512MB Video 2GB DDR2 Kingston 667MHz RAM Kit Western Digital 250GB SATA II HDD Lite On DVD/RW Xp MCE 2005 OEM Or Vista HP OEM TV Tuner if needed I priced it out online around $850 High End SilverStone’s Crown CW03 Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz Intel X48 Chipset EVGA Nvidia 9600GT 2GB Of Corsair DDR3 1600MHz 2x 500GB Western Digital Pioneer BluRay/DVD RW Drive Same OS’s TV tuner if needed $1600 & UP As far as graphics is concerned most of the 8, 9 Series Nvidia cards "Except the 8800GTX & 8800Ultra" will off load the work of HD content or The ATI 2600 Series & up will do HD content off load as well. Hope this helps... As you can see I was board at work but since I do this for a living I firgured it would be work related
I would say use tversity to stream your rips to your htpc, as far as front end either use mythtv which is linux or mediaportal which is a front end on windows
