Dave Henshall

i bought an old p4 (2ghz) with 512mb in a small small case a a compaq D51S EVO to be precise and though, hmm, small, quiet with an empty agp and pci slot ..... let buy media centre software and get it built

ive bought a ati radeon 9250 with 256mb agp card with tv out,
a 250 mb hdd with 2mb cach 7200rpm,
and a hauppauge freeview&analogue tuner hvr1300 mce kit,

the tuner card arrives today, so i might get it thrown in with the new hard disc and get MCE installed...

will post up some pics of all the bits etc when i'm done

has anyone else built their own MCE machine yet - ive built loads of standard PC's, but MCE is supposed to be a bit more of an art in getting it all to work correctly....

Fil

nope, but just bought a hauppauge freeview&analogue tuner hvr1300 ( not the mce one ) for ,my everday pc, just waiting for it to be delivered

Dave Henshall

i wnet for the msc one as it comes with a remote that works with mce and 2 ir senders so that mce can controll the skybox to change channel etc - ive ordered 2 setc of rca/svideo to scart leads to connect it all ap aswell, so mce will be able to record sky and/or freeview

SimonT

Good choice!

PCI or USB version?

Fil

did want the 3000, with digital sat, but then the 4000 came out with HD, thats over Ł100, so got just the 1300 off ebay for Ł20, really only wanted for now fm radio!

foreigneRS

some advice about multimedia pc's on this thread

https://passionford.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=238563

Windle

i built one about a year back, fantastic piece of kit they are. Pausing live tv is very handy too i have just short of a terabyte storage though on mine as i got carried away putting my dvd collection on there etc etc. Run my NTL through mine too

AndyBlackFRST

I like the sound of doing this,, Could I run the NTL straight into the PC without using the box?

Windle

probably with the right software and tv card ?? tbh the quality is still better directly from ntl. I only use the tv from the media center to record or pause the live tv. Perfectly watchable but its noticeable that quality has dropped on the 42" plasma. Great for putting DVD's music on etc even the mrs can drive it

Turbocabbie

I run HTPC (Home theater PC) which I use for all my media purposes and choose Linux and MythTV as my front end as it is more stable and smaller that Windows Media Centre which gives me more space for media storage.
The platform I use is the ViaITX platform which has lower power demands and because of this requires minimal cooling which ensures it is near silent and not interrupting the experience of the media playback. When taken into consideration the hardware media decoder available on the ITX platform it makes for a decent small HTPC.

So small in fact you can build HTPC's such as this :



bodywork removed showing PSU and motherboard



DVD-RW exiting from the rear seat.



Ive done computers in many things such as, mini-motos, dustbins, motorcycle helmets, model cars [ including cossies and focus - people love having computer that is a replica of their car for some reason ] and more

A media pc is as complicated as you wish to make it...just plan well and you will have no problems

foreigneRS

UnseenMenace awesome

Jim Galbally

i wanna see more of the PCs youve buit

Dave Henshall

i went for the pci version, the usb ones dont have their own mpg2 encoders built in so rely on heavy use of the main cpu, whic his ok if thats all its donig, but if you are watching something, recording another and want to flick on to the web aswell - could casue the quality to drop right off

Turbocabbie

I've not got that many pictures left due to spilling a cup of tea over one of my own systems which had all the pics of my past builds on it...
the mini-moto is a more recent one that I have finished and is now painted the same colour as the owners own bike complete with number plates. I did two for this person, one is used as office firewall and network storage solution while the other is a HTPC in his home.
Im now doing this very same person a replica of his cossie escort which is based on the bodyshell of a 1/10th radio control car to give you some idea of the scale and size... this is going to replace his desktop office pc.
I will post pictures of this soon as its finished..

In general I can not claim to be doing anything special as a few people are doing such things and pushing the boundary's of computing a little further in all directions, to give you some idea of how the car systems end up heres an example which I myself did not do.

Unpainted Focus showing the motherboard and optical drive at the front


Painted Focus (note working lights to show pc is powered on)


Computer cables plugged into system.


Obviously same with my mini-moto system the car systems are a little bit more fragile than a normal pc due to the fact that everything is hand made and a one off however they do work remarkably well and are very capable for everyday use.
Unfortunately because of the amount of time it takes to build these the cost makes them unrealistic for most people.

Fil

whilst theres so many pc experts in this thread, on the hauppauge site you can download the user manual for the 1300hvr card link here, http://hauppauge.lightpath.net/manua...00-v1a_eng.pdf

but the dam things a pdf file, acrobat thing, i hate this with a passion , how can i make it normall, so i can print out the 20 pages on A4 so i can read it easier, as at the mo all 20 pages print on 2 a4 sheets, and you cant read fuck all

Fil

oh and UnseenMenace install

Dave Henshall

the whole idea of a PDF is that you get to see exactly what the writer of the doc wanted yuo to see, so no quaility or data is lost, eddited or ammended,

http://hauppauge.lightpath.net/manua...00-v1a_eng.pdf

seems to be the correct link,

and i dont think its 2 pages of A4.

i suspect that that is the whole leaflet that unfolds and is on A2...

adobe reader is totally free to download, so just open it and look at the bits you want...

BM08

yes there great UnseenMenace

Has there been any gaming pc's made inside cars and what not? i imagine it would be really good for cooling(i.e sunroof with a fan etc) or maybe even watercooled.
I guess anything is possible with time and money

Fil

yeah ive got the reader and can view it, but i hate all the scrolling around the screen, zooming in and out crap, just want to print it off, but the whole lot ends up on to pages of a4, not 20?

Dave Henshall

thats because its not 20 pages of a4, its one page of a2 that is folded into 20 pages....

you must have the option "shrink page to paper size" ticked when you go to print...

Turbocabbie

Ive got a full prepared a working HTPC type system going into my road car it based around the itx platform due to its low power consumption and heat. I use the Voom PC case which is powered off a modified vehicle PSU I run this through a touchscreen which supports the input and visual side of things.. the rest of the parts are generic pc parts such as hard disk, optical drive etc.

My system has motion sensor detection which turns on recording cameras and uploads the images via the wireless internet connection to the server in my home to be reviewed at a later date. It also has a GPS reciever which allows the use of a wide range of navigation systems.
The wireless and pcmcia slot means I always have internet access should I be near a insecure Wi-Fi network or by using my Vodaphone Datacard.
The hard disk contains the media (music and film) because disks can skip and obviously also the computers operating system.

Im currently trying to workout how to use the boot password of the computer to product the ignition system also for added security but not yet achieved this

Fil

"shrink page to paper size" tried it both ways, still only get sheets of a4 out the printer i really do hate pdf crap! i know it keeps file space to a min, but a couple of meg file aint to much to ask for these days

Turbocabbie

I dont mind PDF I just hate Adobe reader, I generally use foxit for PDF under Windows as it has less options than the Adobe reader and because of this it is not capable of doing the things that usually annoy me

http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/rea...own_reader.htm

the reader is free, the editor you have to pay for

here's some reviews on it
http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/fil...scription.html
http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/downloa...xit-pdf-reader

GARETH T

has anyone had much to do with these single chip, single board pc's? the ones whick can use a memory card as a hard drive?

Turbocabbie

You can not use RAM as a hard disk unless it is always powered as its volitile, this is why when your pc crashes it looses what is stored in ram (not saved), because prior to rebooting power to the ram stops (it always requires power to work, usually battery for when your pc is off)

I use the Gigabyte's i-RAM and have 4gb in each card which I use in raid configuration (four cards). The performance is blistering and make no doubt improves system performance dramatically when doing tasks that access the drives on a regular basis.. I run mine with Corsair memory -- pricey hardware though and unless you are doing tasks that access the drive a lot not worth the money

http://techreport.com/reviews/2006q1...m/index.x?pg=1

The single processor supported systems with embeded ram drives usually have either more than enough ram to make them expensive or not enough to make them usable.... In general I have only ever had these run ok with Linux as it can be made to place less demand on a system.. Windows on a system such as this is not wise imho and you would be better off with a solution such as iram

foreigneRS

in acrobat reader, you can print the current view, maybe that will help?

GARETH T

ive seen lots of industrial pc's which can use an sd card as a harddrive

im very behind the times with pc's,. but i know it can be done

Jim Galbally

unseen, ive been looking at those solid state backed up ram card thingies, but dont want to cash out without kowing if theyre REALLY worth it.


well... are they?

i'm really interested in general windows performance and game loading times (would copy primary OS and game of choice to ramdisk)

Jim Galbally

gareth, UM isnt talking about SD cards, as theyre solid state discs, he was talking about normal RAM... i think he misread the question rather than gave an incorrect answer

Turbocabbie

Yes I mis-read the question... I thought you said ram...my oppps

Storage Card based systems are common place and in fact the mini-moto pc posted in this thread uses a Compact Flash the one found here it uses a flash card in a PCMCIA reader for the flash based firewall

They are fantastic although drive performance does not improve drastically I generally use them due to size restrictions due to the types of cases I use

GARETH T

Turbocabbie

To be honest and I hate being that because it reminds me just how nerdy I really am The performance they offer is massive especially in raid configuration and with decent fast ram. They do however obviously increase system temps a certain amount and place greater demands on the psu but the real question is are they worth the money for such a setup and to this I would have to say NO especially when you take into consideration disk size...for most people I would say decent performing hard disks with large cache is as good.

I know someone in Gigabyte which is how I obtained mine on loan for a while, he keeps asking for them back, I keep forgetting to send them for some reason

I would not pay for them myself though as they are great but not fantastic enough to get the wallet out... for my money it would be real raid card (not onboard) and fast drives

Dave Henshall

well ive installed MCE, antivirus and patched her up to the full,

no probs so far, freeview tuner picks up all the channel, just cant see them until my new graphics card arrives.... is using the grappy onboard vga port for now which doesnt hace mce drivers

Turbocabbie

I always run mythTV as it can be configured to do exactly what you require, its got a smaller footprint and uses less resources than Microsofts Media Centre and its FREE.... My complete Media Player OS which plays all video formats, all music formats plus general web surfing, mail, skype etc comes in at 712 mb you have no chance of making Windows Media Centre this small without loosing functionality.

Fil

got my card hvr-1300, and as normall cant install / get the dam thing to work,

if anyone knows cos i dont, i get, A required component (hcwTVWnd.dll) is missing, well thanks for telling me that, but thats no help, folllowed the instructions right, i think?

Dave Henshall

update:

xfx nvidia 6200 256mg agp graphics card fitted and mce running on a 250 gb hard disc,

turns out you cant use all the features of the card at once, ie, recieve freeview using the built in freeview tuner AND record from a external source via the svideo or composite inputs - bugger. and im not sure you can even with 2 cards - can you do this with myth tv - not looked at any other options tbh...

foreigneRS

i think i read that you can do it with 2 cards using myth, if not with xp mc