Build a Budget $550 HTPC – Part 2
Welcome back. In part 1 we looked at some of the features of our HTPC, and some of parts to building it and why we chose them. In this part we will finish off our HTPC, and install an operating system to get it all set up and ready to use.
HDD: Western Digital SATA 7200rpm 640GB
When it comes to hard drives you want the biggest you can get in your budget. Recording TV, especially HDTV, takes up a lot of room, and you don’t want to run out of space. Read more
Build a Budget $550 HTPC – Part 1
This is an affordable HTPC. We want to show that you can build a great system for about the same price as a standard DVD recorder or PVR, while getting a lot more functionality.
This HTPC will be an all in one solution, making it do everything that we would normally expect from multiple devices. We want it to be upgradeable in the future, and offer a lot of storage and a decent performance. It also has to look nice, as it will be in the living room either on its own, or in a rack with other devices. Read more
Is Apple TV as good as a HTPC?
If you are in the market for a Home Theatre PC, or any type of home theatre media solution, you might be considering the Apple TV. This article will not go into the technical specifications of the Apple TV, but rather if it is a better choice than a HTPC for your home media solution. Read more
Choosing a HTPC Operating System
There are many options when choosing an operating system for your HTPC. Each different operating system has many options, and it can be quite confusing trying to pick which one is best. Here we outline some of the features of each operating system, and why you would want to use it. Read more
HTPC vs PVR
The main benefit of a HTPC in comparison to a PVR is that it is configurable. You can configure it to work exactly how you want it, and have the exact functionality you want. However setting it up and getting it to work perfectly can sometimes be a bit fidgety. Read more
What is a HTPC
HTPC stand for home theatre PC, although exactly what is a home theatre PC is debatable. Most people agree that a HTPC needs to be connected to some sort of screen, usually a television. But then there are so many wide uses for a HTPC that it is hard to outline all of them
A HTPC is a device that usually combines the functions of both a computer and a personal video recorder. Most people buy a HTPC to combine many of the features from separate components that would be in their home theatre setup into the one box. This often reduces the costs of components, as well as allowing everything to be controlled from the one location. Read more
Control for your HTPC
The way you control your Home Theatre PC can really affect your entire home theatre experience. It is important that you get a good remote to get the easiest experience and make your home theatre PC seem like a completely integrated solution. Here we outline the major ways of controlling you HTPC: Read more
HTPC Sound Card
Most motherboards these days come with excellent onboard sound. The audio is High Definition Audio, and has DTS and Dolby Digital, with multiple channels (usually 7.1 channels). Most of these come with RCA and SPDIF outputs, so can easily be connected to you audio receiver. Read more
TV Tuner Card for HTPC
A TV Tuner card allows a television signal to be received by a computer. Most also act as video capture cards, allowing you to record television programs onto your hard disk.
Types of TV CardsThere are 5 main types of TV tuner cards:
- Analogue TV Tuners – These are the cheapest TV cards. They receive analogue broadcasts, and need to encode the data in order to record it.
- Digital TV Tuners – These receive digital broadcasts, which are much better quality then analogue. Since Digital TV is sent as MPEG2, no encoding is necessary to record.
- Hybrid TV Tuners – receive both analogue and digital signals. Most Hybrid Tuners can only act as either an analogue or digital tuner, so you cannot watch digital while recording analogue. This is the best option to get if you don’t know that your house receives digital reception.
- Combo tuners – the same as digital tuners but you can watch digital while recording analogue or vice versa. This is also a good option to get if you don’t know that your house receives digital reception, but generally more expensive and harder to find than a hybrid card.
- Dual Tuners – this has 2 separate digital tuners, so you can record one digital channel while watching another. This is the best option to get if you receive digital signal, as it uses one less expansion slot in your computer than 2 separate cards would. Read more
HTPC Harddrive
July 12, 2008 · Filed Under Suggested Hardware · CommentThere are 2 types of harddrives, SATA and IDE. SATA is the newer type of hard drive, with faster transfer rates, and if you have a motherboard that supports SATA it is a better option. With SATA you also don’t have to worry about configuring master and slave drives, as you do with IDE.
Size
When it comes to HTPCs, size DOES matter. As your computer does not have enough processing power to encode TV recordings on the fly (no reasonably priced computer does), recording takes up a lot of hard drive space. Read more