Htpc

[knivesuk]

Hello,

Thinking about making a HTPC that basically I will use for downloading and watching media. I'm trying to work out the cheapest solution that can play HD files, have a blu ray player and can handle playing them back. I just need a base unit really as I have a spare 19" mon, and also a 32" tv to plug it into.

Does anyone know any pre-built systems that I could use? Or any recommendation on the parts I could buy. Any opinions on if I started this system from a dell?

Thanks

Terry

[Flewis]

What OS will you be using because windows is going to add an extra £60 of you self build. Or you could use linux and mythTV which would be free.

[knivesuk]

I have a copy of windows xp pro from my old pc, so can re-use that

[menthel]

If its OEM you can't.

Grab a cheap outlet dell and then make sure you have 2 gb ram and a decent decoding gfx card, eg Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK and away you go!

[this_is_gav]

What OS will you be using because windows is going to add an extra £60 of you self build. Or you could use linux and mythTV which would be free.

Just for reference, I don't believe you can playback protected HD content in any Linux distro yet, unfortunately.

[SiM]

Just for reference, I don't believe you can playback protected HD content in any Linux distro yet, unfortunately.

do you know if it can you play back decrypted HD-DVDs? i.e if you dump the disc content on to a hard drive using windows and anydvd, will linux be able to play it? If so then I might stick linux on my htpc instead of xp

(sorry for the slight hijack - but it might be relevant to the OP too)

[knivesuk]

do you know if it can you play back decrypted HD-DVDs? i.e if you dump the disc content on to a hard drive using windows and anydvd, will linux be able to play it? If so then I might stick linux on my htpc instead of xp

(sorry for the slight hijack - but it might be relevant to the OP too)

keep the information going , its all useful!

[this_is_gav]

do you know if it can you play back decrypted HD-DVDs? i.e if you dump the disc content on to a hard drive using windows and anydvd, will linux be able to play it? If so then I might stick linux on my htpc instead of xp

(sorry for the slight hijack - but it might be relevant to the OP too)

No idea whatsoever. I'm fairly sure it would have be software decoded through the CPU though - doubt GPU hardware acceleration is supported from any manufacturer (though NV drivers are more likely to), which may be something else to consider.

[fredered]

I am fairly sure that I saw somewhere that it is possible to play bluray in linux but you had to copy to hard drive first. I have no idea how well it works or how hard it is to actually get working as I didn't read the thread in any depth but I geuss playing with search terms in google or possibly ubuntuforums and the like will help.