ok, thinking about a media PC, mainly just to play music on, but a few movies/TV shows too here and there.

what kinda setup should i look at, and nothing to much, just basic, speed isnt everything here (eg: no OC no water cooling etc)

Hey nerd

What type of files are you looking to play.

A P4 1.6 will be heaps to setup as a media PC and can be picked up on fleebay really cheap from time to time (read about $50 - 100) a reasonable AGP GFX card and a reasonable sound card should be all you need and a large HDD or 2

just divx/avi etc kinda stuffs.

dont want any lag still, and my play DVD ISO's too.

might look see around flee bay

Ive never played back ISOs (yet) so i dunno how they will run but yeah other wise that kinda system will sh!t it in as long as you not concerned about absolute silence and you dont want it to bend you over and wipe your a$$ after you taken a dump then you dont need a super fact PC

my work PC is super fast, and it dont wipe my bum.

getting my sisters old P4 so ill formatt that lil f***er and put ubuntu on it and see how it go's

You want something just like my setup Rob? Does everything but nothing special.
You can waste a lot of money on fancy Windows MCE cases and remotes etc.

I've never got into the Media PC thing, so can't really offer much advice.

Doesn't sound like you want anything along the lines of a PVR with a digital TV tuner card etc, so as mentioned just a basic PC should fit your purpose

yeah something like that would be good, but i dont want nothing fancy, it will be hidden away so the case isnt to important.
the PC im getting of my sister is an old Packard Bell, tis not a bad looking case and imm sure i could fancy it up a little.


the other option is to use my laptop, it's got s-video out and looks not bad on the TV, just dont think the TV i have at the moment has s-video in
will look at a new TV soon ish, just need other things more important at the moment

Fudd I've a goodish AGP GFX card doing nothing in my cupboard if you want it - got S-Video out too (and in)

sounds good

ill check this PC out when i get it and see what it's got.

anyone know if ubuntu would be any good for using as a OS for this project?

What about something like this:
TViX
It's like a Mediagate, only better.

hey guys

This is what i want to do in terms of a media center:

put together a basic PC in a nice horizontal case that will go in the cabinet of my TV. run a network cable from a wall plug behind the TV, to my room and use this to network my main computer with all my movies and music to the media center. this means i dont have to manually transfer files. you can buy a basic remote that u can program to run everything, and depending on how your computer skills are, you could use myHTPC to customize ur own media center front end for free.
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1376549,00.asp

Im looking at the TVIX unit myself at the moment. It does have a few small faults though.
it can only have a single tuner for a start. And apparently it does have a few buggy issues software but these seem to be getting resolved slowly but surely with regular firmware updates.

Id like to see one locally so that I could use it before dropping half a k plus shipping only to find out it doesnt do what i want. the australian tvix distributors dont seem interested in the 6500a though.

I think a combination of the 6500a and the T410 tuner and a Server PC with an additional TV tuner card would give you the benefits of a small dedicated unit and a large amount of storage and the ability to record multiple shows at once

Mediagate is sh!t

the other thing the 6500a has going for it is HDMI 1.3a

So far there is no GFX / sound card that does HDMI 1.3 that ive found any way.
Auzentech have a sound card that has a pass through hdmi adding the sound for HDMI 1.3 but thats nearly 1k by the time you pay for the sound card add on and the gfx card... And there is no garuntee for lip sync. Plus then you have the issues with getting a user freindly interface / menu system & remote that works well and works as you want it to.
At this stage as much as I would prefer to go a dedicated HTPC i think that units like the TVIX M-6500a are at this stage a better option.