My DIY Media Center

[mista_c]

PaulDeen - this looks interesting, I'm considering building one of these also. Did you end up using the same motherboard and CPU per your first post?

Also, I'd like to be able to stream H264/MKV files from my networked PC to the Media Centre. Can you elaborate a little on this? I've done some initial research but can't seem to find anywhere that confirms this is possible.

[PaulDeen]

Originally Posted by mista_c

PaulDeen - this looks interesting, I'm considering building one of these also. Did you end up using the same motherboard and CPU per your first post?

Also, I'd like to be able to stream H264/MKV files from my networked PC to the Media Centre. Can you elaborate a little on this? I've done some initial research but can't seem to find anywhere that confirms this is possible.

The Spec i end with was as posted. (Stick with vista 32 or XP 32bit, 64bit has too many problems)

H264/MKV/X264 all play over the network in 720P and 1080P (just watched a 8gig Harry Potter 720P Blueray rip and a 20gig 1080P Blueray Transformers rip and both was fine.

Getting support for these files types in media center was a little tricky. Basicly you need to install FFShow the Jan release and add the MKV extentions to the vista registry. So vista knows MKV X264 etc is a video file and shows them in the folders and knows to use Media Player to play them. The great thing is some nice people have created a clickable reg file to do all this for you in one click so you dont end up wrecking your registry file. This website and these posts helped alot Webby Here

I also love the Mymovies addon which finds all your movie files and adds dvd covers.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

[mista_c]

Thanks for confirming, this seems to be exactly what I would like my new setup to be able to do. Based on what you've done, I've put together the following spec:

Antec Fusion Black HTPC Case 430HE Watt PSU £118
Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 S775 2.2GHz 800FSB £75
Hitachi Deskstar P7K500 250GB S300 £42
Gigabyte S775 nForce 630I MATX DDR2 Audio Lan £50
Basic DVD Writer £20
2x MDT 1024MB DDR2-800 CL5 M924-800-16 £38
Hauppauge WinTV Nova-T 500 Dual digital DVB-T PCI TV Tuner card (inc remote) £50
TOTAL £393

I just need to save up for it now I already have the s/w, but is there anything else essential needed? I expect a half decent CPU cooler will be needed but am not sure if I've forgotten anything.

[PaulDeen]

The CPU fan get with the intel chip is pretty good noise wise.

Thats a good spec, i didnt have the TV card but instead had the BlueRay/HDDVD player.

[Freetochat]

This thread is good for me as I am researching this project for myself. I was going to add a tv card, but I understand that it is not possible to link SKY. Has anyone managed to do this?

[Azzin]

Originally Posted by Freetochat

This thread is good for me as I am researching this project for myself. I was going to add a tv card, but I understand that it is not possible to link SKY. Has anyone managed to do this?

http://www.avforums.com/forums/computer-systems/

Welcome to the site.