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I couldn't pass up that Dell deal yesterday so I picked up the following system: Athlon 64 X2 5600+ 1 gig ram 250gig Sata 256mb GeForce 8600GT Vista Premium Total was $678 with delivery. I think this is a pretty good deal considering the system I was going to build off AVS recommendations was about $1100 and the Shuttle system I wanted cost $1200. I think I'm just going to flip the case on its side and stick it in my console.
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Nov 21, 2007 19:29
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You're going to want to bump the ram up, get a DVI-HDMI cable from monoprice, but other than that.. looks good.
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Nov 21, 2007 19:52
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SynMoo posted:You're going to want to bump the ram up, get a DVI-HDMI cable from monoprice, but other than that.. looks good. A couple of questions: Right now I've got my video card hooked up to my Plasma with the VGA connection, everything looks great. The 8600 has VGA out so can't I just stick with using that when I get my new system? Will there be any advantage with connecting through HDMI with a DVI/HDMI adapter? Also, do you think there will be a significant difference between the Athlon chip I picked up and say a C2D E6550 or similar chip? And I'm definitely going to pick up some extra ram, probably towards the end of the year. Thanks for the input.
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Nov 21, 2007 20:47
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visuvius posted:A couple of questions: VGA will work, but is more susceptible to noise and ghosting at higher resolutions. Use DVI-HDMI whenever possible. You may or may not notice the difference, but I have on more than one occasion with other setups. You should not notice a difference at all unless you start doing a lot of video encoding which it does not sound like you will ever do. You've made a good purchase. I would pick up ram asap. Windows Vista with just 1GB of ram can get to be a bit slow especially when working with a lot of media. Depending on how many slots your system has, you may be able to just buy a 1gig kit that contains 2 512mb sticks that you can install in addition to the ram that is coming with the system. If not, you can pick up a 2gb kit which contains 2 1gig sticks for under $100 easily.
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Nov 22, 2007 00:13
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I am putting together a HTPC and will be purchasing very soon(most likely later tonight or early tomorrow). I just wanted someone to look over it and let me know if there will be any problems, this is my first total build. Mobo: ASUS P5K-VM CPU: Intel E6750 RAM: G.SKILL 4x1GB PC26400 RAM HDD: Seagate 500GB HDD Case: Antec V2 Fusion Black, Antec NSK2480, or Thermaltake/Antec Cube Cases (Which all come with PSU) I want to be able to set up and record TV from my DirectTV box, what sort of programs work best for this and which cards do I need to look at? As far as cases, I can't decide if I want the cubes or the other ones, does anyone have any experience and/or feedback with either? I will also be using this as a moderate gaming machine, and for now will be using the onboard graphics until I can find a good price on some GPUs. Any help is appreciated, thanks in advance. VVVVVV Do you have a link to where you can do this? Wood for Sheep fucked around with this message at 00:55 on Nov 23, 2007 |
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Nov 23, 2007 00:17
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I thought it might be worth mentioning that hp has media computers that you can customize with a dual HD-DVD/Blu-Ray drive for an additional $250(!). They make you go with the most expensive processor and video card option if you select it (Athlon X2 5600 and GeForce 8500GT) but the whole thing was about a grand when I was playing with it this morning, which is about what it was looking to build it myself with only one kind of HD capability.
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Nov 23, 2007 00:25
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Wood for Sheep posted:Case: Antec V2 Fusion Black, Antec NSK2480, or Thermaltake/Antec Cube Cases (Which all come with PSU) I have the Antec Fusion Black, and would NOT recommend it simply because of the pisspoor display that it has. Light blue on dark blue for a text display has to be the stupidest thing I've ever seen. Outside of about 2 metres, it is totally unreadable. I've been tempted to unplug it entirely, and probably will when I next open the case. It doesn't display anything I really care about, anyway. Apart from that, though, I'm happy enough with it.
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Nov 23, 2007 02:40
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visuvius posted:Dell Inspiron 531 I got one of these this week! Well, I got the Intel version. Dell was running a deal for the PC only (no monitor) for $329 shipped and I bit. It arrived two days back and works like a charm. The next steps will be to get a Radeon HD card for it (just what is involved in getting low-profile expansion cards? never worked with em before) so I can play 1080p stuff, as well as another gig of RAM, a PCI sound card with optical out and one of those HD-DVD/blu-ray combo drives. I have no intention of using the thing as a Tivo, just for playback of HD media acquired online, so that's really all I'll need. I'm waiting for a price drop on those HD-DVD/blu-ray drives, so in the end I expect the whole thing to cost me less than $700. Woohoo!
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Nov 23, 2007 11:09
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I'm looking to replace my aging HTPC (as I have for the last year). What do you guys think about this: Foxconn NF4UK8AA-8EKRS 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Manchester 2.2GHz Socket 939 Processor Model ADA3500DKA4CG - OEM Kingston ValueRAM 1GB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Desktop Memory Model KVR400/1GR - Retail XFX PVT86SYAFG GeForce 8400GS 512MB 64-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready Video Card - Retail Comes out to $182 before shipping, which isn't bad at all. I already have the HDD, Case, PSU, etc.
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Nov 23, 2007 18:03
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Wood for Sheep posted:I want to be able to set up and record TV from my DirectTV box, what sort of programs work best for this and which cards do I need to look at? I'm running MythTV and using one of these: http://store.mytvstore.com/004.html MythTV receives remote events through the IR receiver on the PVR-250 and then changes the channel on my digital cable box accordingly. It's been extremely reliable and hasn't ever had a problem once I got it working.
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Nov 25, 2007 17:59
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How do you guys manage your consoles? Is there a PC remote that also works on a component switcher? Do all remotes work with switchers? I've never needed one so I have no clue. edit: I found this one but couldn't find anything on compatibility with a PC. There's also a Microsoft one that says XP only. Slap Happy fucked around with this message at 22:50 on Nov 25, 2007 |
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Nov 25, 2007 22:46
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900ftjesus posted:I'm running MythTV and using one of these: http://store.mytvstore.com/004.html I saw MythTV, but I don't really want to run MythTV as a front-end because I don't want my computer in Linux. I'll be using it for gaming as well. I found MediaPortal and it seems to be what I want. Does MediaPortal do the same as you mentioned?
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Nov 25, 2007 23:08
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Explosm posted:edit: I found this one but couldn't find anything on compatibility with a PC. There's also a Microsoft one that says XP only. All of the Harmony remotes will work on PCs if you have an IR receiver. Sometimes they come with the remote, but you can buy the standard one here. I have that and have had no issues with it (well, none that relate to the receiver anyway, I hate the Harmony I have for controlling the PC). Most of the software front-ends out there will support it as well.
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Nov 26, 2007 02:37
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EC posted:All of the Harmony remotes will work on PCs if you have an IR receiver. Sometimes they come with the remote, but you can buy the standard one here. I have that and have had no issues with it (well, none that relate to the receiver anyway, I hate the Harmony I have for controlling the PC). Most of the software front-ends out there will support it as well. usbuirt and girder can make any front end feel seamless depending on your ability and dedication. Before my media PC died I had managed to set it up so that, with lua scripts and basic girder binds, all my buttons could be context sensitive to the app I had and I could do things like single power tap suspends and holding the remote button for full shutdown etc using lua and timers. It is fun to start an emulator from your couch and have the number buttons go from being bound to from channel buttons to save states etc.
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Nov 26, 2007 03:50
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EC posted:I'm looking to replace my aging HTPC (as I have for the last year). What do you guys think about this: Goddamn every time I start looking at upgrading stuff I just get confused and walk away. Compare the above with this: quote:
...and give me advice. The below stuff is right at $300, but I had already decided to ditch the 8400gs from the top one and move to the 8600, which brought the total price to $240. I'm thinking of going with the bottom setup since I could easily upgrade the video/RAM/CPU going forward. Anybody know if that mobo handles x264 stuff correctly? Also, I can't for the life of me get the prices on Core2Duo's. The 6550 is $169, the slower 6420 is $204, and the speedier 6600 is $229.  Feels like I'm missing something, but doing a side-by-side comparison on Newegg doesn't show anything obvious...
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Nov 26, 2007 18:51
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EC posted:Goddamn every time I start looking at upgrading stuff I just get confused and walk away. Compare the above with this: I'd go with the second setup for a few reasons. 1) With the Gigabyte Motherboard it gives you onboard DVI and DSub with a nVidia 7150 chipset, more than enough for an HTPC, but if you want you can still upgrade that for gaming, too. 2) It gives you a more powerful processor and you will be more "future proof" (If such a thing exists). 3) The Motherboard is MicroATX and if you wanted you could get a smaller HTPC case if you don't already have one. Overall, the second setup seems better, although I would recommend for an extra $5(after shipping) that you get 2x1GB of RAM. And if you want to spend the extra $20 the E6750 processor is faster, can easily overclock, and seems to be the goon favorite(for whatever advantages that is). But either CPU will be fine, it's jsut if you want to spend the extra for that little more umph. Ninja edit: And yeah, I can't figure out the pricing on newegg either, I just take advantage of it.
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Nov 27, 2007 02:19
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I was just introduced to popcorn hour today, and I am quite intrigued. On one hand, it is only $179 and can purportedly play 1080p out of the box. It lacks a hard drive, but you can add one yourself, use an external one, or just stream over your network. It supports HDMI too. I am a little skeptical of its performance with only 256mb of ram but I guess it would have little to no overhead to take care of since it is so specialized. They are apparently in huge demand right now and they are backordered, but it seems like an extremely affordable option for an HTPC.
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Nov 27, 2007 04:01
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I have been working on HTPC/Media Center idea for a few months now. So far I have tried, LinuxMCE, Microsoft Media Center (Vista and XP versions) MythTV on both ubuntu and Fedora, SageTV, and Media Portal on a Core 2 Duo setup with 2 gigs of Ram and a WinTV PVR-150 to record. And.. not a single one does it any better than my 4 year old XBox running XBMC, connected to a 22" HD LCD TV pumping out at 1920x1080 1080i through some no-name ebay HD cables I got for $6. I plan on setting it up as a MythTV frontend sooner or later to schedule recording. Even if you love your current setup, I say get yourself an old Xbox off Ebay or Criag'slist. Hell, I'm sure your friend still has one in the closet with some old Playboys since Halo 3 is his new best friend. Mod it up, (soft or hard) depending what you want, and give it try. That fact I almost spent $300ish on an AppleTV is scary. Yet again, the Xbox wont play back HD DVDs or encodes, due to its outdated processor, but still, its a fun weekend project to set one up, and you may find yourself using it instead, since you can just add sources to stream from and it just "works."
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Nov 27, 2007 06:05
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Wood for Sheep posted:I'd go with the second setup for a few reasons. Ok, thanks for the advice. I think I will bump it up to 2gig and the 6750, it's only like $50 more, so why not?  Edit: what's a good CPU cooler for the 6750? I want to get one as silent as possible...
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Nov 27, 2007 16:38
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kill your idols posted:Yet again, the Xbox wont play back HD DVDs or encodes, due to its outdated processor, but still, its a fun weekend project to set one up, and you may find yourself using it instead, since you can just add sources to stream from and it just "works." HD is the main reason why people aren't buying them for such reasons, plus people also want to record TV. If the system could do that, I would still be all over it. So I bought myself a new HTPC, specs are: GIGABYTE GA-MA69GM-S2H AM2 AMD 690G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Corsair 2gb DDR2 800 memory Logitech Harmony 550 Actually that's it outside of the case. The motherboard is loving stacked in terms of what I needed and wanted and it was only 70 bucks. Now all I need is a infrared receiver for the Harmony remote? Can anyone lead me to a good receiver? I know the one posted above, but for 50 dollars that seems too much for me. CortezFantastic fucked around with this message at 19:36 on Nov 27, 2007 |
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Nov 27, 2007 19:03
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EC posted:Ok, thanks for the advice. I think I will bump it up to 2gig and the 6750, it's only like $50 more, so why not? I have not used a cooler in any of my computers, but this Coolmaster one seems to be fairly good as far as specs. It's aluminum and copper so it might not be the best, since a full copper one would reduce more heat) but for the price (read: free) it might just do the trick. If you want a better one, as far as I know the things to look for would be copper heatsink, the higher AirFlow:Size ratio the better, and then finally the lower dB output the better. Gr1mm posted:Now all I need is a IT receiver for the Harmony remote? Can anyone lead me to a good receiver? I know the one posted above, but for 50 dollars that seems too much for me. If you mean an Infrared Receiver (IR) then I just bought the MCE Remote and it seems to be working fine with my Harmony 880. I don't have a link, but I will edit with one soon. edit: Newegg has it, but they're servers down. I thought I'd noticed it acting buggy lately. Anyway, here's the remote I was talking about, but no link to buy it. MCE Remote. I bought mine with the AverMedia Capture Card Combo on Newegg, the total was $95 after shipping. Wood for Sheep fucked around with this message at 19:30 on Nov 27, 2007 |
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Nov 27, 2007 19:24
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Wood for Sheep posted:I have not used a cooler in any of my computers, but this Coolmaster one seems to be fairly good as far as specs. It's aluminum and copper so it might not be the best, since a full copper one would reduce more heat) but for the price (read: free) it might just do the trick. Does the stock one produce a lot of noise? I'm not going to be overclocking the thing anytime soon, so noise is the first priority for me.
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Nov 27, 2007 19:35
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EC posted:Does the stock one produce a lot of noise? I'm not going to be overclocking the thing anytime soon, so noise is the first priority for me. The stock fan/heatsink will be just as loud as any other that you've heard. I can't find the data on the stock stuff so I don't have any numbers for you to compare to, but after market coolers with a good brand will be made better and reduce heat. I'm contemplating buying the one I linked you to, but I don't think it will fit in my case.
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Nov 27, 2007 19:53
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EC posted:Does the stock one produce a lot of noise? I'm not going to be overclocking the thing anytime soon, so noise is the first priority for me. I just built a PC for work with a Core2Quad and I used the stock cooler. It's very quiet - I can't even hear the fan running. It's in a normal work environment however, which is certainly going to be louder than your typical "watching a quiet scene in a movie" sound level will be. It's much quieter than the stock Pentium 4 cooler I used on my 2.6C. On the opposite end of the cooling spectrum, when I built my personal PC (with a 6750), I used a Tuniq Tower cooler and my hard drives are louder than the fan in it. I doubt you'd fit that cooler in a HTPC form factor case - it's massive.
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Nov 28, 2007 00:06
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Hey, what's the story with that newfangled HD-DVD/blu-ray combo drive that everyone's trying to get? Is it still backordered to hell and back? I've got my media PC, it works awesome, now I just want one of these drives and a Radeon HD to future-proof myself. Has anyone gotten one yet? Any known issues?
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Nov 28, 2007 06:29
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Mike Toole posted:Hey, what's the story with that newfangled HD-DVD/blu-ray combo drive that everyone's trying to get? Is it still backordered to hell and back? I've got my media PC, it works awesome, now I just want one of these drives and a Radeon HD to future-proof myself. Has anyone gotten one yet? Any known issues? I have one and it does exactly what it's supposed to. The software solution to playing the content is still very new, as Cyberlink Power DVD Ultra Deluxe super edition is the only player I know of that properly plays Blu Ray / HD DVD discs. Other than that, it works great.
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Nov 28, 2007 09:48
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Treytor posted:I have one and it does exactly what it's supposed to. What are the specs of the machine you're using it with, out of curiosity?
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Nov 28, 2007 15:21
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What is the best QAM included TV tuner? I'd like to get the HD channels my cable company sends out for free along with the rest of the channels. I got this Pinnacle PCTV HD tuner a few months ago on Woot! and I have yet to try it out, but I'm not sure about opening it if it's no good. I'm also looking for what you guys think is the best program going right now to view movies and record TV shows. I don't mind going to Windows or Linux, as long as it's pretty darn good.
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Nov 28, 2007 22:39
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Anyone see this? http://www.engadget.com/2007/11/28/tivo-coming-to-pc-via-nero-software/ Tivo is bringing their software to the PC - it will be bundled with Nero software (probably their most expensive version). I imagine there will still be a monthly fee. Of course, no timeframe was set for the rollout, so it'll probably take longer than the Comcast one (ie: around three years before it is widely available). Really though, other than the hardware flexibility (which I'm sure will be somewhat limited), I don't see many advantages to running this over something else. You're not going to have automatic commercial skipping and the files will be locked down just like in current Tivos.
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Nov 29, 2007 00:02
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LordOfThePants posted:Really though, other than the hardware flexibility (which I'm sure will be somewhat limited), I don't see many advantages to running this over something else. You're not going to have automatic commercial skipping and the files will be locked down just like in current Tivos. Not to nit-pick, but... hardware flexibility is a great feature for the Tivo software. I loved my directivo sat60 and my series2 software, but I outgrew the hardware with advents of hidef video and the desire for more tuners than the tivo supports. You other two specific complaints are pure speculation at this point and should probably be reserved until we see what the actual software looks like. Although suspect you will be proven correct on both counts. The meatier part of this story though is that it implies that they've forked their development to support both linux and windows environments unless they've wrapped some sort of virtualization layer. P.S. I feel a need to endorse beyondtv every once in a while since it doesn't seem to get name dropped in this htpc discussion very often. I'm still happy with this software and it packs a good ammount of value for the price. Definitely worth a look for those dropping in here for first time htpc setup suggestions. The early problems I had getting it to work with my hd homerun have been totally resolved in the last few updates.
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Nov 29, 2007 01:15
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Is there anything out there similar to the popcorn? I just got an hdtv and I want to get an hd media center. I have an xbox running xbmc, but its time for an upgrade. I love that the popcorn doesn't come with a hard drive, since i use SMB shares for all my media. I just don't want to wait till late January to get one. SMB would be the main requirement. I'd like it to use HDMI and support either DVD folders or ISOs. I want to use it like a DVD jukebox. I am in the process of ripping all my DVDs to my hard drive so I have quick access to all of them. Any recommendations?
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Nov 29, 2007 02:19
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Am I the only one that shudders to think of any Nero software that does this? The latest releases of Nero All In One Burning/Printing/Scanning/Um...Security?/Ripping/Editing software has not made me very confident in anything they might put out.
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Nov 29, 2007 02:21
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My dad's going to be getting me a 32" or 37" LCD TV for Christmas, and I plan on using a machine I Frankensteined together earlier this year as an Ubuntu HTPC. However, I don't plan on using a TV tuner card (I don't care about recording TV), and I don't plan on outputting HD content at 1080i or anything insane like that - I mostly just want to play videos and music (once I get some decent speakers) from it, as well as play emulated games (NES, SNES, MAME) and be able to use basic internet functionality (Pidgin, IRC, browsing). I'm not even concerned about a frontend like MythTV, really - I'm fine just browsing things through the default Ubuntu interface. Really, it'll be more of a standard media/internet PC hooked up to a TV than anything else. That being said: Are an Athlon XP 1700+ @ 1.73GHz and a Ti4200 128MB video card enough to output at 720p/a 32" or 37" LCD's default resolution as long as it's not HD content? It's a DVI-output card, so I should be able to find a TV with DVI-in to get the best picture quality. Also, do you have any recommendations for wireless keyboards with integrated trackballs or joystick for scrolling? I would really rather not spend $200 on an overpriced Logitech unit, so I'm looking into something more like this or this.
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Nov 29, 2007 02:31
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Ubik posted:
Yes you will be able to run the monitor at 1366x768. Question for you all. I just got a 8600gt and wanted to know if there's any way to enable hardware decoding for 1080p mvk files through media player classic?
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Nov 29, 2007 03:42
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Ubik posted:It's a DVI-output card, so I should be able to find a TV with DVI-in to get the best picture quality. Don't worry about trying to find a TV with a DVI-in, because you'll be needlessly limiting yourself as far as models go. HDMI is just DVI with audio and HDCP. You can get a DVI to HDMI cable at cablestogo.com for cheap, and just use that. Most TVs have at least one HDMI input that also accepts separate audio (standard red/white RCA) for this reason.
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Nov 29, 2007 05:41
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Is there anyway to play/decode any of the lossless codecs into PCM for my receiver from a blu-ray/HD-DVD disc? The closest thing I've found is this specific motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128063 I haven't really found a straight answer to this yet, so I thought I would ask here.
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Nov 29, 2007 05:44
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n0tqu1tesane posted:Don't worry about trying to find a TV with a DVI-in, because you'll be needlessly limiting yourself as far as models go. HDMI is just DVI with audio and HDCP. You can get a DVI to HDMI cable at cablestogo.com for cheap, and just use that. Most TVs have at least one HDMI input that also accepts separate audio (standard red/white RCA) for this reason. Gotcha. Thanks for the input, guys.
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Nov 29, 2007 08:13
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Do any of you have any experience with the Mvix MX-760HD? I'm seriously considering it. I read it has some quirks, but pretty much every model I have looked into does. Are there any better ones available right now? I wish it had HDMI out, but I can use a DVI>HDMI cable I guess. If anyone can recommend a better HD media player/streamer with HDMI and the ability to use SMB shared drives, please do. I'll probably order this thing when I get paid unless I can find a better solution. It would be great if it could do h.264, but I can live without it for now. I really want the Popcorn Hour networked media Tank, but it looks like it will be a couple months before it will be available again.
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Nov 29, 2007 22:38
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Here's another "Is this practical?" question. I was looking at the Dinovo keyboard/mouse, but really only because I love Pandora and other Internet radio stations. Then it hit me that Pandora has keyboard shortcuts so I don't need to click anything. Yay! QUESTION: Is there a good remote that you can assign keyboard keys to? Basically I want to hit a button that'll launch Pandora in the browser, and immediately have a bunch of the remote buttons correlate to space bar, right arrow key, and other keys that Pandora understands. Can it be done or am I just a dreamer?
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Dec 1, 2007 21:24
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Explosm posted:Here's another "Is this practical?" question. Look up girder, buy girder. If you don't have a IR component buy a USB-UIRT , get girder and then be amazed as you can use any IR device to control your PC.
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Dec 1, 2007 23:33
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