I searched, read the ms pages and wikis, but i still don't know how useful it all is in practice.


With a HDTV tuner card, i can watch over the air HDTV,right?. w/ a digital capable card, i can watch digital cable. Is there a card that does both? Can the same card provide video output? what format? My TV has hdmi and component and probably svid, but id rather not use that. If its up to my video card to provide output, i think i only have svid out.

Are the ATI drivers any good? Does this crap all work together?

Can it really replace my TWC HDDVR? Is it easy to use? What are the limitations?

I assume the Media center downloads the TV listings and gives me a guide menu right? Is it fast?

Remote control, where do i get a remote?

Can i share music from another PC to the media center? Can i share from the media center to other PCs on the network? What about tv, live and recorded?

Is the Windows XP Media Center the same as Vista's? Any limitations there? Can you get the media center part seperately?

What kinda of hardware do i need? I have a AMD Athlon64 3500 w/ a gig of ram. I know i need more ram for Vista, 2gigs? 4? Is the CPU up to it? my mobo is socket939.. i could get an AthlonX2 for it.. worth it?

Anyone have a recipe for a cheap/quiet home theater PC build?

11/16/2007 11:52:43 AM

Hauppauge 1600 or 1800 combo card

ATI drivers for what? Their tuner cards generally blow, but vid cards are actually pretty good for HD.

Yes you can, yes it's easy to use. MCE only 'officially' supports 2 cards. I have 2 combo cards in my rig for a total of 4 tuners. you can hack it to work w/more cards.

You are correct. It does it in the b/g every 2 weeks or so, you'll never even know.

The Hauppauge I mentioned above comes with a generic remote but it does everything the official MCE remote does.

Yes you can. Yes you can. Yes you can, except for live TV.

No, MCE and Vista MC are different. I use Vista, so can't really tell you the differences. The GUI was tweaked to be more widescreen friendly in Vista, that's about all I know.

I'd get at least 1.5 Gigs for Vista. I'm using an old P4 3Ghz in mine.

11/16/2007 12:24:22 PM

^I've been asking everyone this question that has the 1800. What clear qam digital channels can you receive? And how do you receive HD channels? Do you have to get the HD channels OTA, or can you get HD channels as part of the cable digital channels? I want to upgrade cause my ati theatre 650 only does OTA HD and NTSC analog which looks horrible, so i want the digital channels, but i also don't want to deal with OTA HD cause i can't get good reception.

11/16/2007 12:59:30 PM

sorry I can't be more help. I use OTA for my HD channels, but I do get a few QAM channels through the ole' cable line.

Seems like you should be able to do what you're saying, though... at least in theory.

I'm in a different market (Charlotte) anyway, so any results I'm getting might not be all that helpful to ya anyway.

11/16/2007 1:45:34 PM

Can any of these receive digital cable, SD and HD? beyond channel 125?

11/16/2007 3:29:38 PM

google might be your best bet on that one.

11/16/2007 3:45:43 PM

no.

you'd need a tuner card that supported a cablecard.

there are none available to the public atm, if i recall correctly

most digital channels are encrypted QAM64/128, hence the need for the cablecard.

you can get clear QAM channels (some digitals, some HD) if your tuner supports QAM.

11/16/2007 3:47:14 PM

And the 1600 does support QAM, fyi

11/16/2007 3:50:58 PM

http://ati.amd.com/products/tvwonderdigital/index.html

?


hrmm apparently its OEMs only for now.


welp, thanks for letting me know that a HTPC makes no sense at this point in time.

[Edited on November 16, 2007 at 4:42 PM. Reason : fdfd]

11/16/2007 4:36:58 PM

you will most likely never be able to do this with a PC you already own or built yourself

cablelabs is VERY strict about who they let use cablecard stuff

they're requiring that the actual PCs themselves be certified before they'll work with a cablecard product.

11/17/2007 12:55:48 AM