Could really use some advice on HTPC options

[Oucher]

Hi all,

Am new here, and in the next month or so will be buying some gear to set things up for a HTPC. Currently doing a fair amount of research and some advice would be great.

Current gear I have lying around:
Gigabyte DXR+ Motherboard,
Athlon 2.4Ghz Thunderbird CPU,
ATI Radeon 9500 Pro,
SB Live 5.1 Card
1GB of RAM,
and an 80GB harddrive

I figured that this gear should provide me with a fairly solid starting point for a HTPC. I will be purchasing the following and am still working out brands

• Dual Tuners (Setup will be hooked onto a Grundig Widescreen CRT, so only focused on SD reception)
• Another Disk (Will get Seagate 300Bg disk (Fluid Spindle))
• Case
• A Universal Remote (replace my old Harmon Kardon Take Control unit)

The issues I am still unclear about are as follows:

• I will be getting an Xbox 360 along with the rest of the purchases. This being the case should I get a HTPC case and use that to run through to the TV from my Hifi rack? or should I use the extender functionality that the 360 possesses and get a less "attractive" case and put the HTPC outta the way. Bearing in mind that I will be displaying things through S-Video to a SD Widescreen CRT.
  
• I will be running a wireless connection from between my main PC (where my DSL connection sits) and the living room where the hifi gear is. My thoughts here are to get a wireless bridge to put in the Living room, and use a 10/1000 switch that I have spare to plug in both the Xbox 360 and the HTPC. This will give a 100Mbit link between both of these units, and sharing a 54Mbit? link back to the Main PC and to the Internet. Am open to suggestions here if anyone can think of other options.
  
• Any suggestions on a remote? I was thinking of either a Logitech Xbox 360 remote or a Harmony 880 unit. I will really only be running my HTPC, Xbox360, a H/K Receiver and the TV off it, so there isn't a lot of complexity there I don't think. I just want something that is simple to use for the wife and kids, but also is flexible in terms of what it can do.

Look forward to any comments or suggestions you guys might be able to provide.

[Oucher]

Oh,

Just another thing, if I make use of the Xbox360 as a media extender then how much significance does the video card and sound card make in the setup? or does everything get passed along to the 360 to deal with?

[TestLabMonkey]

my machine had a problem with media center and could not even watch TV (new PC on its way) but the xbox 360 displayed TV without any problems. from what i understand the xbox gets the raw tv signal and decodes it itself therefore the video card and sound card actually do not come into play in any way.

[vizman]

To answer your questions:

I will be getting an Xbox 360 along with the rest of the purchases. This being the case should I get a HTPC case and use that to run through to the TV from my Hifi rack? or should I use the extender functionality that the 360 possesses and get a less "attractive" case and put the HTPC outta the way. Bearing in mind that I will be displaying things through S-Video to a SD Widescreen CRT.

Your Xbox 360 should be ok for watching TV/playing back recorded TV but it does have other limitations as to playing other sorts of media. Best to look in the 360 forums on here for more info. Looking at your system specs, you might be better playing back all of your media from a local HTPC rather than remotely.

I will be running a wireless connection from between my main PC (where my DSL connection sits) and the living room where the hifi gear is. My thoughts here are to get a wireless bridge to put in the Living room, and use a 10/1000 switch that I have spare to plug in both the Xbox 360 and the HTPC. This will give a 100Mbit link between both of these units, and sharing a 54Mbit? link back to the Main PC and to the Internet. Am open to suggestions here if anyone can think of other options.

What you've suggested sounds ok. I've found running a wireless connection is fine for mp3's and xvids but struggled playing other media. If you can wire it then do it.

Any suggestions on a remote? I was thinking of either a Logitech Xbox 360 remote or a Harmony 880 unit. I will really only be running my HTPC, Xbox360, a H/K Receiver and the TV off it, so there isn't a lot of complexity there I don't think. I just want something that is simple to use for the wife and kids, but also is flexible in terms of what it can do.

The Harmony 880 remote is fantastic for controlling all of your AV equipment but I found it a bit cumbersome controlling MCE. I haven't used the Logitech Xbox 360 remote to comment but the good ol' Microsoft MCE Remote works a treat and has the WAF as well. You can program the MS MCE Remote to control the volume on your HK Amp.

Greg

[Oucher]

Hi Greg,

Thanks for your response

Your Xbox 360 should be ok for watching TV/playing back recorded TV but it does have other limitations as to playing other sorts of media. Best to look in the 360 forums on here for more info. Looking at your system specs, you might be better playing back all of your media from a local HTPC rather than remotely.

I have looked at the 360 forum and they seem to have very good comments about it as an extender. I understand there are the limitations with it running DivXs but have also seen that people have had good experiences with the transcoder. I guess the main reason for thinking about using the 360 was that the HTPC would basically would be taking more load off the PC in regards to video and sound and putting that load onto the 360. So you think these specs should not have any problems with load anyway (thats good to know )

Another reason I was thinking about this was cost, since I am getting the 360 anyway, I thought it would be a cheaper alternative to get a regular case than a HTPC one, even though the HT case looks heaps better .

What you've suggested sounds ok. I've found running a wireless connection is fine for mp3's and xvids but struggled playing other media. If you can wire it then do it.

I guess the wireless link will really be hooking the HTPC and 360 back to my main pc and the Internet, and there will not be much on the main PC that will be streamed across the link if anything... all the mp3s and xvids will be on the HTPC which will be ona 100Mb switched link to the 360.

Which other media were you referring to which struggles BTW ??(am new to wireless here)

The Harmony 880 remote is fantastic for controlling all of your AV equipment but I found it a bit cumbersome controlling MCE. I haven't used the Logitech Xbox 360 remote to comment but the good ol' Microsoft MCE Remote works a treat and has the WAF as well. You can program the MS MCE Remote to control the volume on your HK Amp.

Ahhh ok interesting, I wasn't aware that the MS MCE remote was a learning remote, I figured it would only handle MCE. I guess one thing that I was thinking about for the HK amp which I hoped the logitechs could deal with was that my HK seems to have a seperate code for turning on and off (different button on the receiver remote also, which is a little odd) normally power switches seem to be toggles.

[vizman]

Originally Posted by Oucher

Hi Greg,

Thanks for your response

Your Xbox 360 should be ok for watching TV/playing back recorded TV but it does have other limitations as to playing other sorts of media. Best to look in the 360 forums on here for more info. Looking at your system specs, you might be better playing back all of your media from a local HTPC rather than remotely.

I have looked at the 360 forum and they seem to have very good comments about it as an extender. I understand there are the limitations with it running DivXs but have also seen that people have had good experiences with the transcoder. I guess the main reason for thinking about using the 360 was that the HTPC would basically would be taking more load off the PC in regards to video and sound and putting that load onto the 360. So you think these specs should not have any problems with load anyway (thats good to know )

Another reason I was thinking about this was cost, since I am getting the 360 anyway, I thought it would be a cheaper alternative to get a regular case than a HTPC one, even though the HT case looks heaps better .

What you've suggested sounds ok. I've found running a wireless connection is fine for mp3's and xvids but struggled playing other media. If you can wire it then do it.

I guess the wireless link will really be hooking the HTPC and 360 back to my main pc and the Internet, and there will not be much on the main PC that will be streamed across the link if anything... all the mp3s and xvids will be on the HTPC which will be ona 100Mb switched link to the 360.

Which other media were you referring to which struggles BTW ??(am new to wireless here)

The Harmony 880 remote is fantastic for controlling all of your AV equipment but I found it a bit cumbersome controlling MCE. I haven't used the Logitech Xbox 360 remote to comment but the good ol' Microsoft MCE Remote works a treat and has the WAF as well. You can program the MS MCE Remote to control the volume on your HK Amp.

Ahhh ok interesting, I wasn't aware that the MS MCE remote was a learning remote, I figured it would only handle MCE. I guess one thing that I was thinking about for the HK amp which I hoped the logitechs could deal with was that my HK seems to have a seperate code for turning on and off (different button on the receiver remote also, which is a little odd) normally power switches seem to be toggles.

802.11a, b or g won't be able to stream dvd's (and in most cases MPEG2) wirelessly but the upcoming 802.11n should be able to. The MS MCE remote is programmable but is limited with the number of buttons it has.

I would like to know if anyone has had any success streaming MPEG2.

Greg

[MitchellO]

Yeah you can only reprogram the Volume +/- and TV power buttons. I really wish a few more buttons could be reprogramed, would be perfect then

The Microsoft MCE Remote is great.