Media Centre Home PC - Help Guys

[TheCake]

Guys and Gals,

I've got a whole load of TopGear episodes, random Movies, films (all of which I own), mp3's, pictures etc all stored on a 300GB external hard drive.

I'd like this to be all stored on an always-on media centre thing where I can quickly flick over to it and watch a program or something.

Whats the best way to achieve this? Obviously I'll need a machine of sorts to run this on, i'm hoping to get something reasonably small and reliable like a shuttle.

Should I use something like Windows Media Centre or is there something with a similar interface?

It would be great if this machine could interface with my TV and AMP/DVD player etc.....

I'm sure you're aware of what I'm trying to achieve so I'll stop going on now.

Ta.

 

[Gareth]

I'd like to know this too!

 

[Nik]

I've been using XP Media Centre for a few months now, with plans like you to build a box to plug into the TV. I really like it, easy to flick through your music collection, photos, watch downloaded vids etc, and my main purpose for it which was as a PVR to record TV progs. With the MCE remote everything is very quick and easy to use too.

At the moment I'm trying to decide wether to build a new small form factor machine to sit under the TV to run this stuff, or probably cheaper is to just buy an X-Box 360 which works as a MCE Extender, so gives you all the same interface and features but using the hardware from the PC which I have upstairs already running all this over the LAN.

 

[McBunny]

mac mini end of story

unless your going to want it for watching tv

 

[biojo]

basically alls u need is a pc from about 1.2gig upwards, with a grfx card with tv out, a tv card if u wanna record tv, and a remote

if yer doing the mce way then u`ll need the hardware that they use so
grfx card
tv card
mce remote.

ive got a similar setup but, i did mine on cheap

1 pc is set up to play divx music vids , dvds , and other is set up mainly for digital tv, but both are linked to same 21" tv through a scart socket.

 

[TheCake]

I've been using XP Media Centre for a few months now, with plans like you to build a box to plug into the TV. I really like it, easy to flick through your music collection, photos, watch downloaded vids etc, and my main purpose for it which was as a PVR to record TV progs. With the MCE remote everything is very quick and easy to use too.

At the moment I'm trying to decide wether to build a new small form factor machine to sit under the TV to run this stuff, or probably cheaper is to just buy an X-Box 360 which works as a MCE Extender, so gives you all the same interface and features but using the hardware from the PC which I have upstairs already running all this over the LAN.

So could I achieve what I want using a 360 Nik? Problem is I have like 150Gb of stuff to watch/play through the TV and I doubt that the 360 has this sized hard drive.

 

[McBunny]

the 360 streams the content it doesnt store it so the pc needs to be on aswell as the 360 not sure how it handles hd stuff tho :s

 

[Rasclart]

The 360 handles HD stuff fine fellas

I would suggest the MCE way but like Mcbunny said the Mac MIni does rock. Comes IR ready with a remote and awesome interface. Only problem is the lack of formats it will play!!!

 

[McBunny]

the format one isnt a problem there are other front ends or you could just put mce on the mini

 

[biojo]

the format one isnt a problem there are other front ends or you could just put mce on the mini

put windows on a mac machine , i know they use intel now but i still thought doing this was alot of hassle

 

[Daz]

I'm looking forward to WWDC (August 8th I think?) as Apple are supposed to be demo'ing Leopard for the first time - hoping they have some big Front Row changes..

 

[MikeDX]

Si, you are a gayboy. You could have just asked me on msn

 

[TheCake]

I know but thats far too easy

 

[Rasclart]

put windows on a mac machine , i know they use intel now but i still thought doing this was alot of hassle

LOL nope its piece of a Piss I am dual booting XP Pro and OSX on my Mac Mini.

Download a small program from Apple (Bootcamp) it even kindly makes a driver disk for you. Then tell it to prep a partition, shove your Windows XP disk in and then reboot. Install Windows as normal and drivers thats it.

When booting hold the ALT key to choose which one to boot. And it runs PERFECTLY I havent come across one bug so far!

 

[Rasclart]

I'm looking forward to WWDC (August 8th I think?) as Apple are supposed to be demo'ing Leopard for the first time - hoping they have some big Front Row changes..

Yeah I cant wait for Leopard

 

[McBunny]

Yeah I cant wait for Leopard

fingers crossed for merom in the mini too but it wont hapen just yet i dont think

 

[Rasclart]

LOL I wouldnt hold your breath

Have been reading about upgrading the Intel chip in the Mini. But a decent speed Intel chip is £££££££££££££££

I have stuck 2 1GB mem sticks in mine as it ran like a dog with 512mb!

 

[Daz]

Merom, blah.

I just bought my MBP.. and it's fine. All this Merom is hyped to hell.. it'll be old by January again!

I just went in and bought this.. and it's WAY overpowered for what I use it for now.. so I have plenty to mess with

 

[Daz]

LOL I wouldnt hold your breath

Have been reading about upgrading the Intel chip in the Mini. But a decent speed Intel chip is £££££££££££££££

I have stuck 2 1GB mem sticks in mine as it ran like a dog with 512mb!

Yea, Tiger needs 1GB to be sensible.. altho, it ran absolutly fine on my Mini G4 (1.25Ghz) with 512MB..

On the other hand, my MBP is absolutly rapid compared.. but not really fair comparison :rasp:

2Ghz, 1GB RAM and I got the 100GB 7200rpm drive too, which helps

 

[sn00p]

Yea, Tiger needs 1GB to be sensible.. altho, it ran absolutly fine on my Mini G4 (1.25Ghz) with 512MB..

On the other hand, my MBP is absolutly rapid compared.. but not really fair comparison :rasp:

2Ghz, 1GB RAM and I got the 100GB 7200rpm drive too, which helps

Yep, runs fine on my PowerMac G4 733 (with no L3 cache either!).

The core-duo mac mini which we have kicking around is very rapid.

Edit: I've got a feeling that my 733 only has 256Mb of RAM as well, maybe 512.

 

[Daz]

Yea, the Intel Mac's are amazing.