Community Newsletter: Q&A forum: Integrating my computer as part of the entertainment center

Hi. I too have had great luck with my PC and entertainment integration. Recently I added Roku with Netflix -- and instantly added 10,000 movies online FREE to my so-called movie "collection." For a total out of pocket cost of $99 for the Roku technology, it's an amazing value for existing Netflix users.

But here is my question for BUBBA GUMP.

In your resp[onse to Phil, you went thru some of your system highlights as well as siome of the issues people run into, such as DVD copying and so on. In the last paragraph of your page long response to Phil you said this:

"By using an HDTV Card & antenna to watch TV on my PC, I get crystal-clear high resolution widescreen TV with theater-like surround sound without paying a monthly cable bill. That saves me a ton of money every month. The $99 card plus $75 antenna is a pittance compared to $45 dollars a month for Basic Cable. Money in the bank."

I don't quite get how this particular HDTV card and antenna setup actually replaces your cable subscription. I'm not disputing you understand, but my HDTV card and antenna pretty much pickup local stuff, albeit local stuff in HDTV. I wouldn't say that those 6-8 channels replace my cable subscription or much more than a fraction of it. I WISH IT DID! So, BUBBA, could you explain a bit more about your TV reception via the PC card and antenna.

Thank you very much for your informative reply.

Brad

hi!
ya indeed globalization of IT community has increased to its high value.but to me affilicating a Computer machine with TV is simply a very boring and annoying idea.coz as we all know internet is only the Wi - Fi media used in modren era, TV is indeed a special source of entertainment and others facicilites.i think we should no compare or combine both of these,ther is a reason behind that which ofcourse cannot be neglected that Internet and computer are way broder than an TV device.it is better for us to keep TV away from computers

Phil,
What you are looking for is called a Media Centre. There are a number of dedicated units on the market. I have an ACER IDEA 510, which is the size of a small DVD recorder. It allows you to record 2 TV programs simultaneously (and watch a third program on the TV), I have some 1000 colour slides which I transferred onto it, plus DVDs, home movies, CDs, you name it, PLUS it is a fully fledged computer. You can do e-mails, spreadsheets, whatever. There are literally hundreds of TV channels you can watch on-line. Depending on your available bandwidth (I have ADSL 2 +)and location, you can watch programs from countries all over the world. I watch programs -both standard width and wide-screen -from both Europe and North America.Whilst not universal, quality can be surprisingly good. The world has never been smaller!As for cost, you will be looking at upwards of $2500....

The PC is a powerful device. With it you can do almost anything. It does work great when you use the DVI->HDMI cable (or even VGA) and hook up your PC to your High-Definition display. If your HDTV supports real 1080P (1920X1080 screen resolution), you can have an enormous desktop to do stuff on! With enough Graphis Card power, you can play modern games like they were on consoles! Need to upgrade to Blu-ray? Just pop in a Blu-ray drive and install the software!

If you are looking to do this, here are some top tips:

1: A silent system is as important as a powerful system! Concentrate on having a case with large low RPM fans as opposed to 80MM screamers, or if possible, one that is fanless. If you have played a Blu-ray movie on a Playstation 3, you will understand the value of a silent system. The PS3 is far from silent.

2: Get a midrange or high end graphics card that has DX10, HDCP, and an HDMI port on it, e.g. GeForce *600 (* meaning 8,9,2) or higher, or ATi *600 (* meaning 2,3,4) or higher.

3: If you go Intel, get a system with a "45nm" processor.

4: If you go AMD, get a system with a "65nm" processor, but not the Phenom X4 until it becomes "45nm".

5: Fanless graphics cards are great, but will require some kind of case airflow or they will overheat.

6: Very very small "Media Center PC" PCs are prone to hardware failure due to the high heat and cramped design. Make sure you periodically clean the system with an air can to keep the dust out, and put it where the air vent in the room will blow cold air on it.

7: Digital Surround Sound (5.1) Support is imperative. Only the most high end audio cards or onboard systems will actually do it. While even an old Sound Blaster Live! Value will do 5.1, it will NOT do 5.1 over the digital out, and many times your budget buy home theater won't support 5.1 with 3 stereo inputs. The box will not tell you if it does 5.1 over digital or not. You will have to Google search for it. I do know that the HT CLARO OMEGA card, the Sound Blaster X-Fi Extreme Gamer, and the latest Turtle Beach Santa Cruz will do 5.1 over digital. Audio cards normally sound better and put less strain on a system than onboard audio, but there are onboards that do digital 5.1. The Azalea Onboard Audio will do that.

8: Windows XP Media Center Edition is nice and light on a system, but Windows Vista Home Premium supports DirectX 10 and will have better support in the future. If you go Vista, MAKE SURE YOU HAVE MORE THAN 2 GB OF RAM! If the shark at $hiny $tuff sells you a Vista PC with 1 GB of RAM, go and purchase 2 GB of compatible RAM and have it installed. You will not experience a massive slowdown of Vista after using it for a week if you do that.

9: Wi-Fi is important to have in your setup if you have more than one PC. Usually the Internet modem is not in a near enough spot to the entertainment room, or there is another computer that has it attached to, and your Media Center PC can't download the channel guides. Get a Wireless Router and a Wi-Fi card unless it is built in, or buy a REALLY LONG (measure out your distances) plenum grade Cat5e or Cat6 Ethernet cable (it's called exactly that) and run it through the walls to the modem or router. Obviously the Wi-Fi is an easier choice.

10: "Ripping" DVD movies to your hard drive, legality rubbish aside, is a great way to keep them from wearing out or risking damage. You need a HUGE drive to do this efficiently. Most often a standard DVD is between 3.5-6 GB if you do a lossless rip. You can compress it some to save space, but quality starts dropping when that happens. Also, you would have to rip the special features separately. For this, a 1TB Hard Drive is a good investment. That should be enough storage for ... about 200 DVD movies at lossless quality.

11: Don't forget an HD capture card! You need this if you want to watch TV through the PC or record TV to the hard drive or use the PC while the TV is playing! You will have to spend a pretty penny to get a good quality tuner, but it is worth it when you built yourself your very own Turbocharged TiVo!

12: Media Center Remote is an often overlooked accessory. While you can use a wireless keyboard or mouse, it is sometimes more convenient to use a remote, especially if you are sitting the recommended distance from the TV, which the Wireless KB and Mouse might not be able to work at that range.

Now, as for the premade OEM systems, there are many on the market that can do all that, and they are reasonably priced and come with warranties. Just remember to take the 12 tips into consideration when you shop. And don't buy eMachines!

If you just want to store your CDs on the PC, you will need several pieces of hardware. First is a video card that can connect to your TV. If you have a classic (i.e. non-HD) TV, the video card should support S-Video output. If you have S-Video, the connector looks like a small yellow circular connector.

If you have an HD TV, you will need a digital video (DVI or HDMI) connector on the back of the video card. Which one you need depends on what your TV requires. If you don't have such a connector, you can buy a VGA to DVI converter cable.

If your video card doesn't have this, you can buy a new, modest video card for about $100.

You won't be able to copy your DVDs to your PC. This is because, according to the DCMA, it is illegal to copy a DVD to your PC, even for personal use.

However, you can put DVDs in your PC and play them as long as your PC has a DVD ROM (almost all PCs made today do). If you are using Windows, this won't cost you anything. In fact, if you purchase a Blu-Ray drive ($145 or so), you can play back Blu-Ray discs as well.

One interesting feature of using the PC is treating it like a TiVo (a.k.a. Digital Video Recorder - DVR). For this, you will need to purchase a video capture board. These cost around $70. However, if you are using Direct TV or digital cable, the card may not be able to change channels for you.

The better video capture packages also include an infrared remote. This is essential for any media center experience. Otherwise, you can purchase a wireless USB keyboard and mouse for $50 or so. I'd go with the remote, myself.

The good news is, if you have Windows XP, the Windows Media Player supports much of this already. It does not, out of the box, support the DVR functionality, but decent video capture boards (Hauppage is a good brand here) come in packages with good software to facilitate this.

If you are willing to learn Linux, there is a very nice free package called MythTV which provides a nice GUI on your TV. This package also provides the DVR functionality for free.

If you are using Vista Home Premium or Ultimate, Microsoft includes their Media Center which also supports much of this.

Also, make sure the PC you want to use has a large hard drive. If it doesn't, you can buy a new 750 GB hard drive for around $130---which is plenty of space to hold recorded TV programs and your audio library.

Finally, for the best possible sound quality, you will want a sound card that supports multiple channels of output. Most typical PC sound cards only output in stereo---which won't use a surround sound audio setup to its fullest. A decent sound card from Creative Labs will cost around $70 or so.

So, overall, you're looking at spending around $550, at most. With this, your PC can act like your DVD player, CD library and TiVo. Also, any games on your PC, you can typically play through your TV.

It can work well but takes some setup. But, unfortunately, it won't let you pack away your DVDs.

I wonder why noone mentioned about network media players. Using network media players you are not required to upgrade your existing PC. you just need to have a home network setup and connect your network media player in to your network. once your netwrok media player is in the network you can access shared media folders on your PC from the media player. optionally you can connect a USB hard drive to your network media player and play media files on your HDTV. If your HDTV is DLNA certified TV i think even the network media player is not required, this point i am not sure as i was unable to get the demo here in Japan. i have seen the demo of buffalo network media player accessing media files from a USB hard disk. check this http://www.buffalotech.com/products/multimedia/linktheater-hd/linktheater-hd-digital-media-player/ for more details on network media player and how to setup. this media player is costing about 18000yen(about $200) here in Japan.

i am not a native english speaker still i think my explaination is clear enough to proceed further.

As you can see Phil, the possibilities are endless, but I am going to suggest something really radical....Don't.
When I got my first computer a few years ago, I wanted to have the ultimate sound system all stored neatly in my PC...all my friends went "Ooaah" but as I used it I realized that it was taking me more time to boot, then find and put on the music in my Library, than it was to slip on a vinyl. And I prefer the sound of vinyl. As for movies on a monitor..nup..too small...wrong position in my house...
My pc is now free of music...but that's just me Phil...others have great points in favour...I'm not arguing, just telling you what happened with me. Food for thought anyway. Oh,and if it means anything, the "Ooohs and Aahs" are also temporary.

I forgot the following

The X-box 360 is plugged into input A on my monitor and the PC on input B of my monitor so I can flip between the two.

Also as for doing away with all your DVD cases - bare in mind that the majority of DVD's are copyright protected so you will struggle to get them backed up onto your PC. This would be a good idea if the recording industry would allow people to make legal backups of items which they own (which you are allowed to do under the copyright law), but until the recording industry stop treating all their customers as potential thieves this isn't going to happen.

I couldn't believe that they messed up the casing on a CD I bought legally, it was a clear CD case and where I would have expected to see a picture of the artist as my reward for legally purchasing the CD and not downloading it, instead I got a load of crap text in big letters about how I shouldn't copy this CD, and not even a thank you at the end for purchasing the CD - what a cheek! Next time I'll think twice about paying for a CD by that artist if I'm going to get treated like a potential thief anyway. The least they could have done was had some way of opening the case and pulling the card out to reveal a nice picture underneath.

Anyway enough waffle about my hate of the recording industry...

The other thing you might want to consider is installing a removable hard drive, so instead of having DVD cases lining the shelves you can have a selection of hard drives (depending on the size of the hard drive, each drive could hold between 50-100 DVD quality movies.

I have an Apple MacMini attached to my TV. It works great as a media center, the computer with 2 gigs of RAM was only about $550 when I purchased it and then I bought an external 500GB HD (FW400). It allows me to keep my movies and music on it. And since most of my music in in iTunes I can use FrontRow and have remote control with that. In addition my other TV has an AppleTV attached which then can stream all the music and videos from iTunes on my MacMini to the other TV. Great way to run lots as media on multiple locations.

Hi Phil, I currently use my laptop as my entertainment center. With outputs for an external monitor you can go as big as you want. I plan on getting a projector to view movies and special events. I have an analog/digital TV card to watch cable or antenna digital quality TV. I send the sound to a splitter that goes to a set of wall powered speakers on both sides of the room connected by a wireless device from radio shack.

All I have for you is to check out this link for a whole house media solution that's open source and powerful; http://www.linuxmce.org/
Do not dismiss it because it's free and open source, go to YouTube and search for linux mce. This is my only suggestion, the link and YouTube videos say it all.

I have an Linux-based server in my garaga, that keeps all my photos, videos, music, texts and whatever.

The family of four have each a notebook, which runs Windows AND Linux (dual-boot), which means, that they can communicate with my server reasonable easy - especially if they run Linux. But the server understands Windows-clients via its Samba-software.

Now - in our living room and elsewhere, we have special desktop Pc's, which are equipped with dvb-t and dvb-s cards - so they can record any tv-shown that is transmitted through these channels. They are normally converted from Mpeg-2 to Mpeg-4 (XviD) to reduce the size to 1/4 without loosing quality.

Our old LP's and newer CD's have been converted to OGG-files (another Open Source format) and placed on the server, so anyone may listen in and amplify if so desired.

THe same goes for photos and text and other materials made digital - especially manuals for all our inventory are popular.

Now - how do you find those things? Do we need a special piece of software to locate and active these many objects (at present about 1.5TB). No - if you are running windows, you use the Explorer program - and in the Linux case you use the similar program called Nautilus.

I guess that even a guest using a MacIntosh can find out how to connect using Finder, but I haven't tried.

The tricky part is using codecs that are labeled: Open Source eg. we have free access to the code behind the video, the music and so on. It does need a lot of transcoding, but believe it or not: You can get software that can deal with any kind of movie, video and what have you.

The best thing being, that YOU are in control, not Microsoft, not Apple, not Hollywod or even worse things.

The next best thing is: It does not cost a fortune and

Finally: It works right out of the box

Hi Phil,

I just installed my system this week. Since my wife and I almost never watched cable T.V. at a cost of ~$55.00/month; I opted to do away with it. In February I built a new desktop PC and had my 2 year old Compaq SR 1750NX (WMC 2005) just collecting dust. I had upgraded this machine with a new processor (AMD Anthlon 64 - 2.4 GHz), 2 GB's of PC 3200 RAM, a new 400 Watt Power Supply and a XFX 7600 GT XXX graphics card. I would have never recovered the upgrade cost by selling it, so now it is the heart of our entertainment center. Our T.V. is still a 27 " Flat Screen CRT (Haier). This unit has fantastic color and clarity and works remarkably well.

It is important to have a PC/graphics card that will handle the LCD HDTV's (37-42""). This machine/hardware will be able to handle it when we change. Also, if you are comfortable with upgrading your PC yourself, you'll save some money.

Suggestions:

Install a sound card with 5.1 - 7.1 surround sound capability ~ $30.00. I have a unit from Creative Labs that I bought last year. However, you can use the integrated audio directly from your motherboard in the In/Out panel on the back of your PC.

Pick up a "Y Adapter" which will connect your 3.5 mm outlet on sound card or In / Out panel to the "CD" RCA adapters on your tuner/receiver unit ~ $9.00.

If you have a CRT T.V., install a graphics card that has an S-Video output. Plug this into your T.V. or splitter box. There are many options for hook up such as HDMI high definition or S-Video, but as long as the TV is not over probably 8 years old, you should have no problem. S-Video cables can be purchased for as low as $ 4.00 for a six ft. piece. If your not going to game with this do not worry about graphics cards that can run "Flight Simulator X" or "Crysis" on high settings. The ones that are 1-2 years old with 256 MB of memory are all that you will need. If you desire to take advantage of Netflix "Watch Instantly," you will need an ATI card (Nvidia has DRM issues). I did have to install a new video card because of this. It is a Sapphire HD 2600 XT 512 MB. This is a good card. I purchased it for $ 60.00 (Open Box) from Newegg.

Lastly, if you have a router for high speed internet, install a PCI Wireless-Lan card in your unit ~ $30.00. I bought an Edimax. Great signal and blazing speed!! It is like having direct cable from the modem.

We also purchased a subscription to MP3 Rocket last year ~ $ 35.00. They have streaming radio and streaming TV programs. AOL also has T.V. programs.

All together, from what I started with above, this investment cost me about $ 150.00.

One point to make: Sometimes the T.V. monitor may hesitate to work when the desktop unit has just been installed through the S-Video port. Just reboot your computer and try again. It will ultimately display.

Good Luck!!

you can spend as much as you want! But first invest in a good soundboard there are a bunch out there and they are reasonably priced.
Normal suround is 5.1 or 5 channels and a bass. and you can go to 8.1, 8 channels and a bass. Just means buying more speakers and a biggersystem. Or if you already have a home theatre system you can hook into that with a simple 2 channel card.
Other variable is hard drive space. although a song doesnt use that much space (800kb) when you start talking thousands of clips it adds up. Not a big problem to accummulate 40 gigs of songs.
My personal system I use seperate amps for each channel. About 1200 watts output. 4 Bose 901s, 2 bose 801s a homemade pioneer center channel and a sony 15 inch woofer. set up in a 24 by 24 foot room.
I put all cds onto a maxtor 500gb hard drive. And am slowly puting my vinyl and cassette tapes on as well. I estimate when all is said and done ill be sitting on a 25000 to 30000 song database.
there are a lot of variables and it all boils down to personal preferences.
Keep the software simple.
Alot of julebox programs are almost unuseably complicated.
Start with real player, its a good program works well, and is easy to use.and the free version is still one of the best out there.

This is going to be a real quick reply...

You may want to consider using a Play Station 3 for your media center, this is what I do. I don't own a single game for the thing, but only use it for the media features. I believe it's the best Blu-Ray player out there. It also updates it's firmware ever month or so. I connect an external drive to it, filled with DVD's, Music, and Pictures.