First HTPC setup ... newbie !!!

Omarko · **7th April 2005, 12:42 PM**

Hello guys

its the first time I am here. I am planing to set up HTPC with the following HW. Let me know if it wil be sufficient:
P3-733Mhz
512 MB RAM
80GB HDD
Radeon 7000 with TV out
Provideo HW Mpeg2 TV tuner link http://www.provideo.com.tw/PV258_blackbird.htm
SBlive with Digital connection

All going into SONY amp through S-video and digital sound.

will this be sufficient to watch tv, Divx, Xvid movies, DVD movies with DTS sound and record TV and use time shift feature ? thank you for any input.

Sambooka · **7th April 2005, 01:04 PM**

Hi Omarko and welcome to the forums

The CPU in your system is of some concern as it doesn't meet the system requirements of the TV Tuner you have. Also, I have'nt heard of that tuner working in Australia but it does say MCE compliant so I assume BDA drivers are available?

Cheers

Sambooka

arkay · **7th April 2005, 01:25 PM**

It's reads hardware mpeg2 card so that most likely means its analog and shouldn't need much cpu?

The 733 is the bare minimum. I used to have a 733 for divx/dvd and tv watching (with a DVB card) and it worked well in WinXP using Zoomplayer etc.

Your results may vary trying to use MCE with that configuration. I wouldn't hold out for anything spectacular. If it works it'll be slow, but useable.

Cheers,
Arkay.

Omarko · **7th April 2005, 01:30 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sambooka

Hi Omarko and welcome to the forums

The CPU in your system is of some concern as it doesn't meet the system requirements of the TV Tuner you have. Also, I have'nt heard of that tuner working in Australia but it does say MCE compliant so I assume BDA drivers are available?

Cheers

Sambooka

What are BDA drivers? what does it stand for ? thank you

arkay · **7th April 2005, 01:40 PM**

BDA stands for "Broadcast Driver Arichitecture" and refers to the driver model that Microsoft have specified for Windows MCE tuner cards.

As far as I know this is only relevant to digitial cards in MCE. In order to have a Digital Card work under MCE it must come with a compliant BDA driver.

Analog may be different. Is the card you are refering to analog or digital?

Cheers,
Arkay.

Sambooka · **7th April 2005, 01:40 PM**

Hi again Omarko,

BDA stands for Broadcast Driver Architecture (or Anarchy as some like to call it

) and it is a requirement for cards to work within MCE.

Lots of info here if you're interested.

Cheers

Sambooka

Sambooka · **7th April 2005, 01:42 PM**

Damn arkay...we posted at the same minute that time. Either your slowing down or I'm speeding up

Cheers

Sambooka

arkay · **7th April 2005, 01:46 PM**

I'm slowing down, it's the weight of my signature

Cheers,
Arkay.

Omarko · **7th April 2005, 02:08 PM**

the TV tuner card is analogue as far as I know.

that brings aquestion to my mind, are there digital TV tuners with hardware mpeg2 encoder/decoder ?

if yes, where can I byu them here in AU? ta

arkay · **7th April 2005, 03:17 PM**

Analog cards come with hardware encoding abilities in order to encode the incoming analog signal to mpeg2 on the fly for playback/recording in the PC.

With digital the signal being received is already mpeg2 so no encoding is required. The tuner just passes the stream onto the machine and the cpu and video card (if you have a dxva card) decode the video for playback. Just as it would if you were watching a dvd from the dvd drive.

Similarly the stream can be stored to disk without any modification for recording abilities.

Cheers,
Arkay.

Omarko · **7th April 2005, 04:17 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by arkay

Analog cards come with hardware encoding abilities in order to encode the incoming analog signal to mpeg2 on the fly for playback/recording in the PC.

With digital the signal being received is already mpeg2 so no encoding is required. The tuner just passes the stream onto the machine and the cpu and video card (if you have a dxva card) decode the video for playback. Just as it would if you were watching a dvd from the dvd drive.

Similarly the stream can be stored to disk without any modification for recording abilities.

Cheers,
Arkay.

THANK you for such a clear reply. Now I understand it all clearly.

So how come do I still need fast CPU to store the mpeg2 stream using digital tuner if its only saving data? Or put it this way ... P3-733 with HW mpeg2 should be sweet recording the program but if using digital tuner and recording in mpeg2 I need 1.5Ghz or higher ... am I getting it right ?

also another question ... does this mean that I wasted my money getting HW tv tuner and I should have got a digital TV tuner instead ?

and last one... what is it that I am missing not having digital tuner in my HTPC and only using analogue HW mpeg2 Tv tuner.

arkay · **7th April 2005, 04:44 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Omarko

THANK you for such a clear reply. Now I understand it all clearly.

So how come do I still need fast CPU to store the mpeg2 stream using digital tuner if its only saving data? Or put it this way ... P3-733 with HW mpeg2 should be sweet recording the program but if using digital tuner and recording in mpeg2 I need 1.5Ghz or higher ... am I getting it right ?

also another question ... does this mean that I wasted my money getting HW tv tuner and I should have got a digital TV tuner instead ?

and last one... what is it that I am missing not having digital tuner in my HTPC and only using analogue HW mpeg2 Tv tuner.

All good valid questions.

1. With analog the mpeg encoding/decoding is being done by the capture card so a slower CPU is ok. If you use digital and the mpeg2 stream has to be decoded by the CPU (and the video DISPLAY card), then you need a much much faster CPU as the decoding is happening in software, not hardware.

2. No, it doesn't mean you wasted your money. Whether to go digital or not is a personal preferrence at this point. Analog broadcast will continue to at least 2008. Strictly speaking digital is not yet supported in MCE for Australia but it does work.

3. You're not really missing anything. Digital TV broadcasts exactly the same as Analog TV at the moment. The only real benefits are clarity of picture (unless your Analog signal is really good), and there are a couple of extra stations available on digital, ABC2 for example.

There are a lot of caveats around digital solutions at present.

- You can't mix analog and digital tuners in a single MCE machine in Australia.
- You can't use analog inputs on Digital cards in Australia (this is very important if you want to be able to get foxtel to your HTPC, you have to go analog).
- Digital in MCE in Australia currently only works for Standard Definition broadcasts, one day it will work for High Definition and there will be more reason to go Digital.

I went digital because I don't need foxtel and I wanted to be future proof.

Cheers,
Arkay.

Sambooka · **7th April 2005, 04:59 PM**

Omarko,

What kind of display(TV) do you have? If it's widescreen then I would definately say digital is for you.

Cheers

Sambooka