Challenge!! - MCE 2005 on a budget (as a media server) - dig out your old laptops!!

[mark.carline]

Challenge!! - MCE 2005 on a budget (as a media server) - dig out your old laptops!!

I am considering trying to get a hold of a cheap laptop on eBay that I can use as a Media server in my loft. I would prefer a laptop as it keeps the noise/power usage down (24x7 usage).

I am not interested in playing back any media directly on the laptop (and so poor graphics card or cracked LCD screen is a possibility) but would like it to "extend" to one XBOX 360 (or even two at a push).

The kind of spec I am thinking about is:
- 1Gb celeron
- 30Gb Hard drive (maybe no hard drive if booting from external USB2 is possible).
- 256Mb ram
- A few USB 2.0 ports

I am then going to connect this to:
- 250Gb USB 2.0 hard drive for my media and
- Hauppauge DEC 2000 T Freeview (maybe even two of these).

I only want to use USB Freeview adapters as this brings the CPU usage down a bit (i.e. we don't need to use CPU to capture analogue input). Once installed (and forgotten about) in my loft I can then manage it remotely via terminal services.

Can anyone comment on the lowest spec laptop that will be able to do the job but not too high so to keep the costs down?

Anyone else tried doing this that can post their specs / costs?

Thanks

Mark.Carline@BTInternet.com

[WheresMyArtisan]

My server's a P3-800 tower. Cost me £45 from Ebay. Then I added a PCI ATA-RAID card and two 500GB drives. All neat, all in one box.

No monitor, keyboard or mouse. If I ever need to mess with it, I just use XP's inbuilt remote desktop. It just has a mains lead, network and USB for the printer - it's also a print server.

I've gone a different route, in that the server's XP, and my three MCE PCs are the clients. The MCE PCs share their Recorded TV folder, and the server runs a bit of software that looks round them all every 5 minutes and collects any new recordings that are there. Each MCE PC has the server's TV drive set up as a Watched Folder.

I know my route is a bit upside-down, but I wasn't very impressed with the extenders that were around at the time I bought, for various reasons.

It all works, and it's bird-proof

[richjthorpe]

Mark,

How are you going to use the Freeview adapter in MCE if it's hooked up to the server in the loft ? I thought MCE needed local tuners for it to work ?

WheresMyArtisan,

Sounds like a decent system you've got there. Something I want to try and do.

Richie.

[mark.carline]

Originally Posted by WheresMyArtisan

My server's a P3-800 tower.

Cool - Not sure if a P3 800 laptop would be the same spec as a P3 800 standard PC but its a good starting point. Why didnt you just put a PCI freeview card in the P3 800 and run MCE instead !?

Originally Posted by WheresMyArtisan

It all works, and it's bird-proof

Nice one - Interesting that I am starting to hear alot more comments like this - I recently heard "it passes the wife test"

[mark.carline]

Originally Posted by richjthorpe

How are you going to use the Freeview adapter in MCE if it's hooked up to the server in the loft ? I thought MCE needed local tuners for it to work ?

I have all my TV ariel leads, adsl router, cat5 cabinet etc in the loft.

Just to recap, I would like to use the laptop as a kind of 24x7 "server" with all the media / recorded TV on there and then I can access it (music / recorded TV / Live TV) via the 360.

[WheresMyArtisan]

Originally Posted by mark.carline

Cool - Not sure if a P3 800 laptop would be the same spec as a P3 800 standard PC but its a good starting point. Why didnt you just put a PCI freeview card in the P3 800 and run MCE instead !?

Coz then I'd need an extender to watch it. And they were all lacking for various reasons when I looked:

Old XBox: fan noise, no DVI, can't play DVDs from server, 4:3 only.
New XBox: fan noise, expense, can't play DVDs from server.
Extenders: No monitor output at all (!) NTSC 4:3 only.

Originally Posted by mark.carline

Nice one - Interesting that I am starting to hear alot more comments like this - I recently heard "it passes the wife test"

Techy girlies do exist, but they're a bit thin on the ground. She irons well though (usually while I'm doing something equally useful, I must add!).

[WheresMyArtisan]

Why a laptop? You don't need a screen or keyboard. I would guess that a PCI card will use less CPU activity than a USB one. It also means that you can get everything into one box, instead of having a pile of USB bits.

I would guess that USB freeview > USB hard drive will take quite a lot of CPU activity. You may get jitters, especially if using multiple tuners (I'd assume you would want to).

You will probably get USB1 with this kind of machine spec. My old P3 is.

Try copying some big files over USB, while looking at CPU activity. This gives the CPU a fair workout on my laptop. Much better off with IDE or SATA.

[mark.carline]

Originally Posted by WheresMyArtisan

Coz then I'd need an extender to watch it.

I already have an XBOX360 and I understand your comments about the fan noise but to be honest this is somthing that will be addressed in the long term. Look at the mini PS2 devices now and imagine the XBOX 360 in a year or so. They are already in discussions about making a 360 CPU with a smaller die so this will bring power usage down alot.

Hopefully we will also be seeing smaller and cheaper media centre extenders at the end of this year anyway.

The future does look very cool - I really think that most homes will end up with one media centre PC and then a number of extenders (one for each room) for silent playback of your media.

[WheresMyArtisan]

I agree, extenders are the way to go.

I just want a fanless one that can connect to a DVI monitor and display at the monitor's native resolution, with digital sound output.

The media extenders that they did make (think they were HP) were very poor. The whole point of MCE is that you don't need a TV, but you could only plug them into a TV, not a monitor.

As soon as someone makes one that's up to the job, I'll flog most of my PCs and do exactly what you're doing. Until then (perhaps more than a year) I'll stick with my upside-down system!

An XBox 360 is massive overkill for streaming video. I'm not bothered about games. If you're getting value out of it as a games machine then it's an excellent solution, as the MCE extender is basically free.

[mark.carline]

Originally Posted by WheresMyArtisan

(perhaps more than a year)

My gut feeling - 6 to 12 months at the most !

[richjthorpe]

Mark,

How are you going to view the TV guide to record ? Can you view TV Guides through XBoxs or will you run remote desktop ?

Richie.

[mark.carline]

Originally Posted by richjthorpe

Mark,

How are you going to view the TV guide to record ? Can you view TV Guides through XBoxs or will you run remote desktop ?

Richie.

One of three ways:

1) Via the XBOX 360 extender - My TV - Guide
2) Remote desktop to the laptop and use mce interface
3) Connect to the laptop via Internet Explorer & WebGuide (this works via my current system over the internet)

[CTID]

I don't know about the 360, but with an old xbox and extender loaded what you see is basically identical to the MCE PC. You get the guide, can add/delete recorded programmes, setup recordings. You can't access the internet though to look up information on films etc.

Fan noise is the biggest pain. In XBMC you can reduce the fan to almost silent but as soon as MCE fires up the fan goes back to 100%. I have it set to 720p and use a 19in monitor with a x2vga box connected. The monitor has stereo speakers built in and I also have wireless headphones for late at night.

I do like the way you can shut down the xbox by remote as well, so I don't have to get out of bed to turn it off. I also use the xbox to play games so for me it is the perfect solution but not to everyones taste.

[richjthorpe]

Originally Posted by mark.carline

3) Connect to the laptop via Internet Explorer & WebGuide (this works via my current system over the internet)

Sounds interesting, any links on this ?

[m1ket]

i did this until recently, i have my media centre pc in a cubboard with two tuner cards, my xbxo 360 accessed it using wireless and it looks exacltly the same as using it on the media centre itself you can watch live tv, recorded tv, whatever you like

http://asciiexpress.com/webguide/ excellent app use it a lot

i actually made a donation for this app to the author as help solved a problem i was having with conflicting recordings in less than 4 hours and emailed me a new release