Media Centre Advice

[wedge22]

Ok guys a friend of mine is giving me his old P3 HP pc, I believe it is 1Ghz. I intend to add up to 1Gb of ram and a reasonably good ATi Gfx card. I want to set this up as a media centre so that I can play music, listen to net radio and watch DVD's and Divx files, playing old game svia MAME would be cool too. I will not be connecting it to any cable TV source as we do not have cable. I would also like to be able to surf the web and check emails with it. It will be connected via Wi Fi to my main pc and the internet using 54Mbps. I just need some advice on what software to use for this as I really want to do it on the cheap and do not want to have to pay for *** MCE. My main PC has Vista Home on it right now. If you need anymore info let me know.

[tinners]

You could try Ubuntu with Myth TV
http://parker1.co.uk/mythtv_ubuntu.php
http://parker1.co.uk/mythtv_ubuntu2.php

or I personally like Mediaportal
http://www.team-mediaportal.com/

[wedge22]

So to run mediaportal I need Windows right?

[tinners]

yep, but not media center edition just xp (even home is OK)
Linux would be better on your system Im guessing though

[Max Tractor]

I had a play around with mediaportal and I was impressed, the weather feature was pretty cool, it also worked with windows mce remote no problems, had a little bother getting it to run on 2nd screen, but great software

[Andaho]

heheeehhe.... you need to edit your first post... saying the PC is 1MHz made me giggle

[James Thorburn]

If you want to run XP + Media Portal then may I suggest stripping the install down with NLite first.

Take out memory and CPU hogs such as the Luna GUI (leaving you with Windows 2000 style GUI, fine since the Media Portal will have its own GUI anyway) and System Restore.

[wedge22]

Thanks for the advice guys.
I will look into NLite although I have never used it before.

[forsaken991]

Nero 7 Premium reloaded also has media center software and xbox360 streaming built in. Might be worth considering if you dont like the open source alternatives.