Media Center Advice

[dshepsman]

Hi everyone,

just wanted a few opinions/advice as i stupidly said i'd put together a PC (from existing parts) so my parents can watch Blu-Rays, iplayer, and maybe watch a few movies from my PC (non HD, just avi files), etc etc on their HD plasma in the lounge.

so, i already have a P4 HT 2.8Ghz chip/mobo/2gb ram/200gb hdd/xp MCE and an xfx 6600GT AGP card, and thinking of putting it into a old MSI Shuttle (cant remember the exact model, but its the one that could be used as a hi-fi (dont laugh, i was young and foolish)

anyway, i suppose what i really need to know is:

if i put a BD drive in there, will the gpu be able to output in 1080p (via hdmi or regular pc vga connection) to the TV?
If not, is there an AGP gpu that can?
if it is capable, will the hardware be reasonable enough to play BD without struggling?

im really hoping all i need to buy is a BD drive, but something is telling me this may not be the case....

looking forward to the repsonses

[edp33]

To play HD content you usually need a dedicated HD card/onboard solution that offloads all the processing from the CPU or a fast processor, I believe 2.5ghz+ is usually required.

As your cpu is one of the slower single cores, I don't know if it would be quick enough. I would recommend replacing the 6600GT and getting a cheap £30-40 card designed for HD, something like ATI 3xxx/4xxx series. You can get ATI 3650/3850 with AGP from Scan I imagine others would be available.

[dshepsman]

thats what i thought.

i suppose £40ish for a new gpu can be justified - if the rest of the setup works.
and they wont be watching too many blu rays at the mo, so i may take a punt on the card

[s_kinton]

Definitely upgrade the gfx card to offload the HD playback, the AMD 3xxx series would be best I believe.

Have a look at TunerFree MCE which integrates all the UK on demand services into media centre i.e. iplayer, 4OD, ITV etc. Very good program.

For blu-ray playback look at the Arcsoft TotalMedia Theatre software which integrates directly into media centre or PowerDVD version 9.

AnyDVD HD is also a must to remove any messing about with HDCP, BD+ and region locking.

I also recommend MediaBrowser to catalogue any recorded movies, TV series or DVDs stored on your HDD. Looks great with the coverflow theme.

[vicar]

I would go for Arcsoft instead of any product from cyberlink(powerDVD).

[scaryjim]

if i put a BD drive in there, will the gpu be able to output in 1080p (via hdmi or regular pc vga connection) to the TV?

Does the TV support 1080p? Just 'cause it says "HD" doesn't mean it does 1080p I'll assume, however, that you've done your homework and it does.

Personally, I'd get a HD4350 - they have the lastest generation HD decoding hardware and can be picked up for less than £30: like this Sapphire one at ebuyer which has native HDMI.

[Infinite]

Does the TV support 1080p? Just 'cause it says "HD" doesn't mean it does 1080p I'll assume, however, that you've done your homework and it does.

Personally, I'd get a HD4350 - they have the lastest generation HD decoding hardware and can be picked up for less than £30: like this Sapphire one at ebuyer which has native HDMI.

He need AGP.

[dshepsman]

Does the TV support 1080p? Just 'cause it says "HD" doesn't mean it does 1080p I'll assume, however, that you've done your homework and it does.

oh, believe me, it does support 1080p - wouldnt let my dad get anything less
(panasonics FTW )

may be time to troll the hexus selling/wanted area for an AGP card....

[Infinite]

Maybe spend £100 to get a new mobo with intergrated graphics, CPU and RAM?

[Funkstar]

Not sure about integrated nvidia, but the integrated ATI chipsets still have issues with HD decoding. You have to have the right combination of driver, OS and the video rendering the app uses. There are loads of threads about this and 780G chipsets on the MediaPortal forums.

Oh, and how about a look at MediaPortal dshepsman

http://www.team-mediaportal.com

I like it, others don't. It's by no means perfect, but it is more flexible than MCE and has some excellent features, especially with all the plugins and skins available for it.

[scaryjim]

He need AGP.

Doh: Reading, I'm doing it wrong

Probably better off getting a new build with integrated graphics then: a decent AGP graphics card is gonna be hella expensive... You can pick up a 780G mobo, Athlon X2 7750BE and 2GB DDR2 for ~ £140...

[dshepsman]

BUMP

ok, putting the blu ray on hold for a bit.. just want to get the iplayer working.
tunerfree mce is only vista, not XP (not that ive tried yet...)
anything like it for xp?

[Maccer101]

Try ebay for a 2nd hand AGP that £40 may turn into £20

[MrChimpy]

Definitely upgrade the gfx card to offload the HD playback, the AMD 3xxx series would be best I believe.

Have a look at TunerFree MCE which integrates all the UK on demand services into media centre i.e. iplayer, 4OD, ITV etc. Very good program.

For blu-ray playback look at the Arcsoft TotalMedia Theatre software which integrates directly into media centre or PowerDVD version 9.

AnyDVD HD is also a must to remove any messing about with HDCP, BD+ and region locking.

I also recommend MediaBrowser to catalogue any recorded movies, TV series or DVDs stored on your HDD. Looks great with the coverflow theme.

Very useful post there - I didn't know about TotalMedia. I'm fed up of having to use separate app for Blu-Ray. Thanks.