shonkster

I'd like to build a Media centre to hook up to my TV etc....
I've been doing a bit of googling and having found that much, does it go by some other name?

Maybe what I want doesn't exist or can't be done.... If I can get a prebuilt that can do what I want then I would look at getting that too....

Anyway, I want to have an HDMI out at least (1080P), plus RCA in.
I want to have a hard drive, wireless network card and a Blueray player/burner.
I want to have it run like a PVR so that I can record from other devices, ie Pay Tv, Free to Air etc
I want to be able to play AVI (DIVX) etc on it, thats the reason for the wireless network card, so I can copy things to this computer and play them on the TV without having to hook up my laptop etc...

Am I being too ambitious or is there something out there that can do all this??
I've seen a lot of media centres that have plenty of outputs but they don't seem to have any inputs for video etc (other than USB/memory sticks etc)

Thanks

ssrattus

HTPC is what you want to google.

It is a project with a steep learning curve.

I'd recommend you look at starting with a Windows MCE 2005 system and a MCE remote control. It will get you up and running playing DVDs, AVI's and if you have the correct DVB-T some PVR capabilities with a fairly good "wife approval factor"

Once you get the feel of it you can change your front end to something like Media Portal.

Windows Vista (Ultimate?) has a slightly more advanced media centre in built, but you then get DRM problems.

The PVR side is the hardest to get well integrated, mine isn't really, I use the app that came with my card (Avermedia) and it's not the best. Whatever way you go research which TV (DBV-T) card works with your front end/server. Windows MCE doesn't allow video (S or composite) recording even if the card can, so you can only record foxtel via it's UHF TV output.

Some links:
Missing Remote
ExtremeMhz.com-Extreme Guide: Build the Perfect HTPC
ProjectHTPC - HTPC Software Advice
Home Theater Computers - AVS Forum
XP Media Center 2005 - Discussion & Support - Australian Media Center Community
MediaPortal Forum

intelliGEORGE

Media centre is a PC with specific software i.e. Windows Media Centre

What you want can be acheived by building a regular PC with the following;

GPU with HDMI out - Plenty on the market.
PC Bluray burner 4x - Sony makes em (approx 50GB burn in 45min)
Decent Mobo, CPU & RAM
Decent Video Capture card
Pretty much build the PC to your needs and then house it all in a Case that will look good on your AV rack.

E.G

covert

I wanted a decent media center and gave up looking for a one of the shelf. I ended up building my own.

MythTV running from Ubuntu.
2 x sat cards - Can record multiple channels of same transponder.
1 x USB DVB-T dongle - again records multiple channels of same transponder.
500GB HD. Needs at least 1TB imho.
DVI/HDMI output. 1080P not a problem.

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