Plans for first HTPC (i guess) system

[mxalpha]

This summer is my every 2 year upgrade cycle. I have a dual athlon 1800 and i am very happy with my system so i'm not going to be upgrading any components. My main goal this summer would be to "accessorize" my computer.

1. I currently have an old hauppauge wintv (like 3 or 4 years old) which i will be upgrading to the MC250 that i keep on hearing about.

2. I currently have a syncmaster 171b, and i am thinking of purchasing a second monitor. I am considering 19"-21". One of the biggest reasons for this decision to switch to dual monitor is the ability to have TV running on the second monitor. If i upgrade to Windows MCE, would i be able to have this dual monitor configuration whereas i have the Windows TV interface on one monitor and my regular windows running on the other?

3. I was looking at remotes for this setup, and i came across the philips remote. Does the philips remote work with other programs other than MCE, such as musicmatch jukebox or other media players. I would be very interested in having such a control on another computer and allow my parents to play music off it and having all the controls in front of them.

 

[CrimandEvil]

1. Cool, depending on how you want to watch TV you might want to get two tuner cards. ATI makes a good one called "E-Home Wonder" you can check it out at Newegg.

2. CRT right? or are you looking at LCDs? I'd rather get a nice TV (depending on budget) instead.

3.Yeah the remote will work like that but you'll need a program called Grider for some advance things.IE: the little green button is suppose to open up the MCE program but with grider you can assign it to open up any other program. You're going to need XP Pro but I'm sure your running that now with the Dual CPU box anyways.

 

[mxalpha]

1. Cool, depending on how you want to watch TV you might want to get two tuner cards. ATI makes a good one called "E-Home Wonder" you can check it out at Newegg.

2. CRT right? or are you looking at LCDs? I'd rather get a nice TV (depending on budget) instead.

3.Yeah the remote will work like that but you'll need a program called Grider for some advance things.IE: the little green button is suppose to open up the MCE program but with grider you can assign it to open up any other program. You're going to need XP Pro but I'm sure your running that now with the Dual CPU box anyways.

1. Would i be able to run two tv tuner cards? That would be awesome, i already have an old one currently installed and i supposed i would be able to use it. Has anyone tried running two TV tuner cards? The drivers would be an issue, i suppose.

2. I'm looking at LCDs. This system is in my bedroom and in a year, i will be going off to college and i would prefer to be able to use the whole system there. Space being a huge issue in college, i prefer lcds; that, and they look better

3. Where would i be able to download this grider? And, would i be able to control other multimedia applications other than MCE with this control?

Thx!

Edit: Looking at the media remote control, the Logitech DINovo seems like a very nice alternative. It has the lcd which can display whatever is currently playing.

 

[Zuht]

1. Would i be able to run two tv tuner cards? That would be awesome, i already have an old one currently installed and i supposed i would be able to use it. Has anyone tried running two TV tuner cards? The drivers would be an issue, i suppose.

Yes, this is useful for recording two shows at once, or recording one and watching another live. If you do this, I would recommend two hardware encoding cards (actually, MCE requires this kind of tuner) to keep unnecessary load off of your CPUs. The PVR-x50, ATI E-Home Wonder, and a number of others fall into this category. Drivers aren't often a big issue, though there are some good threads on the SageTV forums (www.sage.tv) about this issue.

3. Where would i be able to download this grider? And, would i be able to control other multimedia applications other than MCE with this control?

It's actually called Girder. Type "girder" in google and hit I Feel Lucky And yes, you absolutely can use it with other applications.

 

[CrimandEvil]

Heres a link and yes I had the name wrong
Girder is used to assign keyboard macros (like ALT + CTR or something like that) to buttons like on a remote. Very nice app for a HTPC. As a frontend I'm using Sage TV which is very good so I'd say when you get your card(s) download the free trail and give it a try! There are other options like GotTV PVR, myHTPC, Beyond TV...I think thats the better known list for Windows Apps.

I have two 250MCE cards up and running right now, one for recorded and the other for watching live TV...or just plain recording two shows .
Hell I just got done watching "Tru Callings" (little sister likes watching it) while recording "CSI". I'd say if your going to build an HTPC then definitely get two tuners. I'd would like to add another soon so I'm going to get the ATI E-Home so I can hookup my console game systems to it.