Is the BIOS for MCE anything special?

[WheresMyArtisan]

Hello all. Brilliant forum. I usually just lurk around, but I can't find the answer to this despite searching...

I already have an Artisan MCE PC. I'm after a second MCE machine for the bedroom (I know, very sad!). I was thinking of buying a compact desktop (e.g. Dell Optiplex small desktop), popping in a PCI Freeview card and adding a USB MCE remote receiver, before buying and installing MCE. This sounds like it will be much cheaper than buying an MCE machine (about half the price). I personally think that Dell Optiplex PCs are very small, quiet, brilliantly built and look pretty acceptable. And best of all, they're cheap.

My question is - will this work? I can't think why not, but the only thing that concerns me is whether MCE needs some kind of special BIOS? I was wondering how the PC knows that it needs to resume from standby to record a programme?

Many thanks.

[lisag]

You could just build another mce machine - need to do a bit of research to see what motherboards / tv cards work properly with resuming from s3 standby, many people on here have it working ok. Mine works properly in a shuttle sn41g2v2.

However, my main MCE pc is in the lounge and I have an xbox extender in the bedroom, have you considered that option?

lisa

[WheresMyArtisan]

Hello Lisa, thanks for your quick reply.

I did look at the extenders, but from reading about the *real* extenders, they're NTSC only, don't do widescreen, and won't play DVDs.

I did look at the XBox solution. I've never seen (or rather heard!) an XBox running, but I do know that my PS2 was far too noisy for a bedroom. Is an XBox noisy, and can it do widescreen?

I was thinking of getting a 19-20" widescreen monitor with as small a PC as I can get, linked via DVI. Ideally I'd like to get a monitor with some decent speakers built in (or even a TV/monitor). Dell do a nice 10W speaker bar that clips under their monitors. I doubt I could get authorisation from the other half to put a 5.1 speaker system in the bedroom! The PC itself may be tucked away somewhere or, ideally, inside a ventilated cupboard.

I've got a very nerdy setup ready for getting a second MCE PC. I have an old P3-800 in the loft that I've stuck a 400GB hard disk in. This stays on all the time, and the MCE machine moves its recordings to this server at 3am every morning. I've added the server's drive to the watched folders, so all the recordings are listed, regardless of where they are. The plan is that the second MCE machine will be setup the same, so they will both see the same set of recordings (after the overnight tidy-up, anyway).

So anyway, does anyone know whether any old PC can be mutated into an MCE system?

[WheresMyArtisan]

Lisa, just read your post properly.

Is S3 standby the key then? I'll have a read about. Does S3 mean that it has a timer to tell it when to switch on next, I wonder...

[lisag]

Hi,

Well S3 standby is the key to getting it to wake up and record and go back to sleep properly. You do need specific components to run MCE properly, well at least the right graphics card and tv card and codecs and drivers. Another copy of XP MCE edition would also be required I guess.

The xbox is not that noisy, if you can put it in a ventilated cupboard it won't be very noisy at all, mine is just under a big CRT in the bedroom and it is fine.

It will play DVD's from the disc but not if they are ripped to the hard drive, but you can switch to the free xbmc app to do that.

[CTID]

and if you have xbmc as the dashboard and boot MCE from that, you can trun the fan down to 10% it's normal speed. Not noticable with the telly on, but obvious when everything is silent.

[WheresMyArtisan]

Thanks for the replies.

I'll take a chance on buying the stuff to give this a go. I can always flog it as a desktop if it won't work.

I was going to buy a second copy of MCE. I haven't selected the TV card yet, but I'll find a decent low-profile PCI card from a brand that I've actually heard of.

I didn't realise that there was an issue with the brand of video card though. I've now found MS's "Designed for MCE" page. I'm amazed - I thought that if it worked with XP then it would be OK. What are the chances of a card based on another chipset working with MCE? Is this listing really all the cards that work? I will be more limited for choice, as I'll be looking for a low-profile AGP card with DVI. I'll start doing the homework now!

To be honest, I've lost track of how many video chipset companies there are these days. Are ATI and NVidia all that exists anyway?

[ACMErubberDuck]

What I am about to do is move my Artisan upstairs and buy an XBox 360 for the living room because it will connect to the MCE machine and allow me to stram live TV.

The fact that it will allow me to play games on the large LCD in the living room is just a bonus

[WheresMyArtisan]

The XBox 360 does sound like a really good media extender. Especially the price. I'm just not sure how quiet it would be, with such a powerful machine in such a small box. I used to use a PS2 as a DVD player, and the fan noise was terrible.

Having said that, computer companies these days are much more aware of fan noise, and most are now tackling it.

I could see a lot of people going for your solution rubberduck. In fact, it's much neater than the living room PC idea. Perhaps the PC will go back from the living room to the home office now!

Hmmm... indecision.

Think I'll still go for the recycled desktop idea - I fancy the challenge, and I'm not bothered about games.

[lisag]

The xbox 360 will only work as an extender for MCE, so to use it to playback media files you have to have MCE installed on another pc.

Also it will not support xvid / divx or ripped dvd's (vobs etc), which is why a modded xbox with Media Center extender and xbmc is much better.

lisa

[markxtc123]

Unless, of course, you haven't ripped any DVDs and just want to extend the basic functionality of MCE. In which case the 360 is the better option!

[lisag]

Originally Posted by markxtc123

Unless, of course, you haven't ripped any DVDs and just want to extend the basic functionality of MCE. In which case the 360 is the better option!

Well, yes fair enough... although a modded xbox and MCX kit will do the exact same job for less dosh.

[CTID]

what she says If all you want is a MCE extender why fork out on a 360? Plus you can have local content with xbmc.

[ACMErubberDuck]

Even though I am going for a 360 I would still have to agree with Lisa plus I think WheresMyArtisan wants the challenge of building a MCE from scratch.

Lisa does the modded XBox have any adjustment to the fan (noise) or is it just the supplied one?

[lisag]

Well, I haven't worked out how to adjust the fan speed, but CTID seems to know how to do it.