MC + Lg 42" plasma with low res???

G1OSE

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hi all

I have a few questions

Firstly has anyone hooked a media centre pc up to a 42" plasma with low res over DVI i have the lg px11 which has a low res of something like 850x480 and want to know what desktop icon text is like on it? when i hooked my laptop to it it looked fuzzy and hard to read

also what apart from the MC software makes a media center different from a normal pc with media centre software loaded on to it are there extra bits installed on them?

can you buy senders or something similar so you can use it on say the main telly and a screen in a different room?

how would i connect my sky+ to it what vidoe inputs does it have?

Thanks for the help!
 
G1OSE,

I have a MCE pc connected to the an LG panel over VGA and the desktop is ok at 800x600 - bit small at 1024x768. MCE does look nice and crisp.

The graphics and capture cards must be MCE compliant, you'll want the remote/usb ir receiver as well.

The new Xbox 360 will have the MCE extender with it so this make for a dam good excuse to buy one.

Sky+ would need to be via a capture card - again it must have MCE drivers.
 
when you say its ok does it look fuzzy or clear in terms of the text?

would it be easier to purchase a ready built MC rather than purchase a desktop and try and make it a MC whats peoples thoughts thanks for your help!
 
I picked up a dell dim 5000. I partitioned the disk (250GB) and installed MCE on the second partition.
I therefore have a dual boot scenario. I purchased a GT6600 with a FAN - mistake! Try and get a fanless graphics card. I purchased a Hauppage WinTV DVB-T TV card and its great! I got another 250GB disk for my TV recordings from freeview and on my LG42PX11 its great (via DVI). I use a Harmony 668 remote which is tasked based and its cool.
The thing with MCE is to get it to run as quiet as possible, so fanless everything inside is a good idea where possible.
A dedicated MCE machine is good if you want it in the lounge. My MCE PC is in the study so I dont have an issue with the desktop pc lying around.

Hope this helps.

Tone
 
G1OSE said:
when you say its ok does it look fuzzy or clear in terms of the text?

would it be easier to purchase a ready built MC rather than purchase a desktop and try and make it a MC whats peoples thoughts thanks for your help!

No text is clear but when scrolling sometimes the size changes at odd places.
 
sounds like i will have to put up with the fuzzy text
and i think ill buy a ready built MC from evesham they seem to have good deals
on a side note where does the MC get its program information from when hooked to the internet?
whats this about the xbox 360 as well???

Also i have just bought the same phone as you so what is it you have managed to do with the phone and set up and how much did the bits cost?

Thanks
 
I have a PW7 with a HTPC connected via DVI, I use 1024 x 576 and there are a few tweaks you can do in windows to make the text look better.. The best two are to enable large fonts and clear type fonts, you can customise a lot more than that but they are the main two that help a lot. ALso you may need to calibrate your display as this also makes the readability of text improve if you have the brightness / contrast etc set correctly.

Rather than wait for and pay the big price tag of the xbox 360 you could use a modded xbox and import the media center extender kit from the US.
 
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there is a bit of software out approx $30 that gives you wifi control of MCE - not used it yet by looks good.I'll try and find the link

You'll need to buy a sd wifi card - the spectec one is nice and small - only sticks out 5mm.

The xbox 360 is priced approx £210 at blockbusters - so a chipped USA xbox plus extender may not save that much - good excuse to buy a 360 as you'll be able to watch dvd's play music and recorded tv on it over the LAN from you MCE machine.
 
Embarker said:
The xbox 360 is priced approx £210 at blockbusters - so a chipped USA xbox plus extender may not save that much - good excuse to buy a 360 as you'll be able to watch dvd's play music and recorded tv on it over the LAN from you MCE machine.

I take it that is the low spec deal with no hard drive or other gubbins, the full package is nearer £300 and remember it will only play media files from a MCE PC, it will not support divx/xvid playback - not yet anyway...

A modded xbox with MCE extender kit will come in at under £200, although a lot come up for sale second hand for even less, and it will support playback of all files, with the MCE extender kit and xbmc.
 
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