HDTV Media Center for under a grand?
We recently posted a story on building the ultimate home theater personal computer
(HTPC) and I got to thinking about the many folks that don't have a
Windows Media Center Edition PC. It wasn't that long ago when we polled you on your Xbox 360 plans and a good portion of you said that you don't have a WMCE PC.
I'm sure we've got plenty of tech-savvy readers, but I'm guessing that
a good portion of you aren't into building a WMCE machine from the
ground up.So what do you say we "mash-up" a WMCE machine with HDTV capability? By "mash-up", I mean let's get the base system off the shelf and add a few components to provide high-definition television. The time seems right since we have the big Xbox 360 launch tomorrow, no? You're not really buying a 360 for gaming, you're getting it for the HDTV and Media Center Extender capability, right??? (Just nod your heads; we know the truth.)
Whatever your reason is, it's time for us to take the WMCE plunge here at HD Beat. Just to make it really interesting, we're aiming to do this for under $1,000 so you can spend your dough on a nice HDTV set to go with that and your 360. Once we're up and and running we'll marry the WMCE and a 360 as well (if we can get our hands on one!) Sound like a plan? Watch for updates throughout the week on our "HD Beat WMCE project on a budget"!
First up will be the system we bought as our base for $650. Stay tuned!
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Steve Arnott @ Nov 21st 2005 12:51PM
Excellent idea. I've been planning to build a WMCE PC for ages, but keep stalling because of the HD thing. If you really can do this for under $1,000 (=1,000 at the usual America/UK conversion rate) then I'll be making one next year.
Buzzcut @ Nov 21st 2005 1:46PM
Just going on newegg.com, I think that I could build a passable HDTV MCE box for $800 or so. Set your sights a little lower!
The hard part is getting the HDTV tuner card. It seems like everytime I go on newegg, there are different cards available (and not available, like some get pulled from the market. Like the HDTV Wonder?).
At $800, I wasn't skimping on the HD, either. 250 GB minimum.
Matt @ Nov 21st 2005 2:30PM
The problem with HDTV tuner cards is hardware encoding. I don't think anyone has come up with a HDTV tuner that supports hardware encoding on the card. This means you'd have to have a fairly beefy system to the encoding.
Also, the other problem is the current ATSC tuners only suport over the air signal tuning. Any encrypted singals (read: cable, satellite)sources have to be run through a set top box that supports a video out. I think this is done now, but its a hack.
Ian @ Nov 21st 2005 3:03PM
Just make sure it has a QAM tuner like the one offered by Fusion.
Josh @ Nov 22nd 2005 8:54AM
"The problem with HDTV tuner cards is hardware encoding. I don't think anyone has come up with a HDTV tuner that supports hardware encoding on the card. This means you'd have to have a fairly beefy system to the encoding."
There is NO encoding involved with an HD capture card! Why? The HD stream is already MPEG2 encoded. So all the HD capture card does is capture the video, and the PC writes it to the hard drive. That's it. Recording HD takes maybe 4% of my CPU.
I have no doubt that you could build a Media PC for under $1000. I've done it.
AMD Athlon 64 3000+ $140
MSI K8N Neo Platinum $95
NVidia 6600GT video card $140
1GB RAM $90
2 160GB hard drives $60 ($30 each on Black Friday)
HDTV Wonder $100 (CompUSA right now)
BenQ 1640 DVD Writer $40
Windows XP Media Center Edition $115
Some case with a 400W power supply $80
That is $860. I used the Kram drivers so I didn't need an SD capture card. And, actually, I already had a power supply and case for it from a previous computer project. I've since added another 250GB hard drive for $90, and I plan on adding another 500GB soon, which should work out to around $120. So, over 1TB for $120 + $90 + $60 = $270 using 5 hard drives. ;)