Hardware for a home entertainment system

phaxx

This should probably go in the home entertainment forum, but I think it's more suited to here.

I'm building a small machine to go in the sitting room with the new TV we're getting, and there are a couple of things I'd like people's advice on.

It's purpose would be playing DVDs, audio cds, DivXes and mp3s that sit on the server nearby.

The first and most important is the video card - what is the TV out quality like on most normal AGP cards?

I have a Voodoo 3 3000 with TV out, would I be better off getting a new card to do the TV out?

Does anyone know of a video card with TV out that will always have the TV out on? (ie, from the moment it's booted)

It was suggested that I use an x-card, however they don't output the entire screen to the TV, only the dvd/video being played fullscreen, which isn't much good because one needs the controls for it too. If it were just going to be used for DVDs & CDs, I'd get one of these, but I need to be able to see the main screen.

--

I'd very much like to be able to do away with a hard disk in this to increase reliability and convenience. Is it possible to boot windows 2000 over a network? I know it's possible with other operating systems, some googling on the subject hasn't turned up anything.

--

For controlling it, I think using a wireless optical mouse would be suitable. No text entry needed, just dragging playlists, pausing DVD, etc. I'd like to buy a universal remote and build an IR reciever too, for all the common functions.

Dempsey

It's purpose would be playing DVDs, audio cds, DivXes and mp3s that sit on the server nearby.The first and most important is the video card - what is the TV out quality like on most normal AGP cards?
I have a Voodoo 3 3000 with TV out, would I be better off getting a new card to do the TV out?

The quality with avi files is v.good with 800x600,that what you get with the tv w/o installing drivers.

Get something else besides a voodoo3, my creative geforce2 MX200/100(cheap and basic) has twin view, maybe that suits you?

You will need a hard disk anyway, wether booting from disk or network, I believe u need one, ???

phaxx

The quality with avi files is v.good with 800x600,that what you get with the tv w/o installing drivers.

Get something else besides a voodoo3, my creative geforce2 MX200/100(cheap and basic) has twin view, maybe that suits you?

Nah, not looking for dual outputs, just good quality tv out. (at 800x600)

You will need a hard disk anyway, wether booting from disk or network, I believe u need one, ???

Well, other operating systems can boot over the network, create a ramdisk and use that in place of a hard disk. This is definately preferable to a system with a hard disk, but more hassle to set up. The advantage of doing things this way is that the system, once booted & loaded into ram, can just be turned off safely with no risk of damage.

If this isn't possible, I think I'll just use a hard disk and set up a cd with Ghost for Unix on it preconfigured to restore the hd from the image on the server, fastest if anything goes wrong.

PiE

Phaxx, if you manage to get that working I'll buy one off you :]

Dizz

From reading reviews when I was buying my last gfx card the general concensus was that ATI made better cards when it came to TV-out/colour reproduction and that nvidia, before 9700+ models, made debateably better performing gfx cards


Dizz

Dempsey

Originally posted by phaxx
Nah, not looking for dual outputs, just good quality tv out. (at 800x600)

Sorry, I misread the post. Once you have the tv out connected and setup and everything the PC will startup with the tv out enabled.

The thing with 800x600 on Xp anyway you need drivers for the tv if there is none that the only destop res available. Anyway avi files look much more like dvd quality when its at 800x600 rather than 1024x768 or higher

elmer

i think you'd be better with somethign like 98 - playing media files will be very nice using something like this http://www.cdmediaworld.com/hardware/cdrom/dvd_utils_3.shtml#DivXOS

shove it into the startup folder and it's happy days

you'd also need an IRMAN compatible ir reciever - there are various different packages to achieve using a remote to simulate keys

BigEejit

The biggest problem you will encounter with having a PC in the living room is noise ... concentrate on getting quiet components (fanless if at all possible) ...
As for booting over a network... hmm never seen it ... why not get a nice quiet seagate HD .. if it is only used for OS stuff and all the files come over the network it should be very quiet (providing you have enough ram)
As for the wireless mouse ... how far will you be from the pc (receiver) ... AFAIK they dont have a great range 2 meters and my mouse stops working ...

phaxx

i think you'd be better with somethign like 98

HAH
(sorry )

The software on that page is certainly worth a look though, thanks. Why you suggested 98 though, is beyond me

I think I'll just buy a wireless mouse instead of building an IR reciever and buying another remote, no point having two input devices when the mouse will do just fine.

For the mouse range issue, I intend to get a usb extension cable and mount the base station & charger unit on a table elsewhere in the room, closer to the sofa.

I'm thinking about noise all the time while designing it, but that wasn't my main concern about the hard disk. I want the rest of the family to be able to just hit the power button when they leave the room and not have to worry about any shutting down nonsense, or powercuts, or anything going wrong with it. I'm trying to design this to be as friendly towards a mostly computer illiterate family as possible... my intention is that this is a long term thing to be used for a few years, I don't want it falling over when I'm not here to maintain it

I'm going to set it up to hibernate when the power button is pressed, and it'll just come out of that when it boots, which will give a reasonably fast boot time.

I can't find any information on booting 2000 from a network, so it looks like I'll have to go the HD route. Bleh.

And komplett aren't stocking the slot loading dvd I had my eye on for this, feck!

elmer

i suggested using 98 because of it's lightness on resources - the only thing that's of use to you on 2000 for this purpose is the hibernate function which you didn't mention you needed - I also assumed you'd be building it out of old parts and thus might not have a zippy processor

p

Hey,

You might not be interested but i'm doing something similar and am going to use a modded xbox.

For circa 300 quid you get a nice fast PC with TV out, modding it is easy enough from what i've heard.

It's quiet yuo can get aremote & once it's modded yuo can get nice software like the xbox media player or you can even run linux on it.

ALternatively i'd reccommend getting on of those lindows media PCs - they play DVDs & CDs from the bios so no botting.. They're designed just for this. (or use windows XP media edition)

Goo luck, & let us know how you get on.

- Kevin

phaxx

It was suggested that I use an xbox, but I can't spend that much money on it. I have most of the components already, was just unsure about the video card.

I'm using a mini atx motherboard & PSU with a Duron 800, custom built case. I have done all the plans for the case, will be wooden. (Mostly thin plywood on a frame, with one thick piece of pine on the front) Will have sheet metal/tinfoil/wire mesh on the inside of the panels to protect against EM radiation.

I'd use a desktop case only they're all slightly too high, and they're all ugly anyway! I'm trying to make this look as little like a computer as possible, will have one button on the front, and one small slit for the slot loading DVD drive, and that's it

maxheadroom

phaxx, if you get this working, it'd be great if you could post up a step by step "this is how I did it" To help out the less creative in the audience

phaxx

I intend to. I'll stick it up as a section of my site whenever I bring it back. I'll post a thread or two in the coming month as I get this together!

KdjaCL

All video cards with Tv out have lots of options like run at start up etc:

But umm your tv can only display a low Resoutlion ,nothing close to 800x600.

kdjac

phaxx

As far as I'm aware, most TVs will do something close to 800x600 - all DVDs I've seen have been at a resolution of something like 760x500, and I have a little VGA->TV convertor box that will output to TV at 800x600. (Not using it for this though, as the quality is just WOEFUL)

Anyway, I know what you mean, the actual resolution of TVs is pretty terrible, but that doesn't mean one can't operate at higher resolutions - it just means small text looks terrible.

This isn't going to matter for DVD/DivX playback - they'll be running fullscreen so it makes little difference what resolution they'll be played at.

For things like winamp, though, I think I may have to use version 3 and scale all the windows up to 150% or something, otherwise it will be difficult to make out track names/etc when lazing around in the chair. I dunno, I'll get the thing going first and then see what I can do with the software.

SouperComputer

I'm going to set it up to hibernate when the power button is pressed, and it'll just come out of that when it boots, which will give a reasonably fast boot time.

I dont think this is a good idea, after a few reboots the "image" will get stale and either refuse to boot, run run like crap when it does!

phaxx

I use hibernate on my workstation and it works perfectly. Longest "uptime" I've had without a reboot is over a week, usually reboot to install something or swap some hardware. In my experience its fine, and the mouse will be there so full reboots can be done whenever needed...

I found an S-Video cable lying in a box the other day, so I tried it out on the TV with an ATI card that has an S-Video out - picture is quite good, certainly good enough for films!

maddog

I've done something like that for just an mp3 player..I used one of those cheap Book pc's with 128mb ram, 20gb drive,tv-out, a stereo jack to phono lead for €2 at Power City, wireless mouse... hooked it all up in my kitchen to the telly and into my stereo with winamp 3 playing all my tracks.... works well but i'm kinda thinking along the lines of a dvd/mp3 player myself.
I know you said you've got all your bits but for people who are thinking of doing this you might want to check this out, http://www.mini-itx.com/store/default.asp?c=2#p146 some really nice features and nice and small.

Cheers,
Maddog:D

maddog

this is the link that's got a small footprint motherboard with loads of features... http://www.viamainboard.com/product/epia_m_spec.jsp?motherboardId=81

Regards,
Maddog;)

SouperComputer

thats a sweet little board! Could ye trust a VIA chipset?

can anyone reccomend some idiot-proof software that could be a media center for say, DVD, Divx, Mp3 blah blah?

I might have a go at this myself when I get home, could be pretty cool if it was running right

just one other thing, will that C3 play Divx with good quality? AFIK, the MIPS and whatnot of that CPU aint so great.

cherrio

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?action=info&p=22694&t=775&l=2&AvdID=1&CatID=3&GrpID=3&s=pl

Slot in DVD drive, a little expensive though...

maddog

Originally posted by SouperComputer
thats a sweet little board! Could ye trust a VIA chipset?

can anyone reccomend some idiot-proof software that could be a media center for say, DVD, Divx, Mp3 blah blah?

I might have a go at this myself when I get home, could be pretty cool if it was running right

just one other thing, will that C3 play Divx with good quality? AFIK, the MIPS and whatnot of that CPU aint so great.

try here http://www.showshifter.com/features/index.htm
Also some other nice sites with loads of info:
http://www.evation.com/software/windows.html
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?forumid=26
http://www.cinemaronline.com/index.html
http://www.musicex.com/mediajukebox/
http://www.e-soft.co.uk/?source=es
http://www.mp3-remote.com/devices/

there that should keep you busy...lol
please keep us updated and let us know what ever you decide to build;) .

Dempsey

Originally posted by cherrio
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?action=info&p=22694&t=775&l=2&AvdID=1&CatID=3&GrpID=3&s=pl

Slot in DVD drive, a little expensive though...

Its expensive because it has SCSI interface.

I have the same one but its IDE/EIDE Interface, very good drive either way but the IDE one is half the SCSI price.