HTPC (n00b)

[edavies87]

Hey

Just a n00b question but what are HTPC from what ive read they are home theatre pc's that record the tv? Why are they different from a pc with a capture card!

Cheers

Ed

[six5tring]

HTPC's are designed to be a media hub for your life storing recordings, music, pictures and playing tv, dvd's, cds, radio, netcasts ect. All a HTPC is is a PC that you use for this.

What makes a HTPC special however is how it's controlled, how it looks and how it's used.

The general concept is that you have the HTPC in your lounge and inside a hifi looking case. You then run HTPC software on the pc be it windows media centre, myth, meedio ect. These all give you a simple GUI to control you pc with without the need for a keyboard, all done through remote.

The media PC should then become the centre of your entertainment. You want to do something.. you use your PC. simple

six

[edavies87]

cheers six, so if i had a shuttle with a tv capture card and if i installed windows media edition, does it record all day?

Ed

[brumster]

cheers six, so if i had a shuttle with a tv capture card and if i installed windows media edition, does it record all day?

Ed

Unlikely - to record a 1hr show can take up to 1Gb of disk space, so to record a whole day would soon swallow up your hard drive ;) also, in reality, a separate tuner card is needed for each channel you want to simultaneously record from - so to record 3 channels at the same time would need 3 cards. So, as you can see, to record a whole day is not really possible.

Shuttles make an ideal way into the HTPC market though, apart from the fact they have little room for extra hard drives and normally only 1 tuner card (2 at a push).

[Jamez_Warner]

400gb drives are out- 400hours at 1gb per hour - thats half a month of continous recording!

you generally just select the programmes you want ahead of time, and media centre will wake pc ou of standby to record and then go back to sleep


my HTPC :) couldn't resist - sorry

http://www.digital-car.co.uk/setup.jpg

James

[brumster]

400gb drives are out- 400hours at 1gb per hour - thats half a month of continous recording!

...of one channel, yeah ;)

[webbyman]

you would be suprised when i say quite a few people have a terrabyte or so space then... ;)

[brumster]

Not at all :) quite a few of them are on here!

[Rchiileea]

Not at all :) quite a few of them are on here!

:)

400gb drives are out- 400hours at 1gb per hour - thats half a month of continous recording!

you generally just select the programmes you want ahead of time, and media centre will wake pc ou of standby to record and then go back to sleep


my HTPC :) couldn't resist - sorry



James

oi gimmie my amp back !!!!!! nice choice there , i have the 7.1 with 7 technics and yamaha sub.. sound wicked in war movies.

[edavies87]

So what wud u reckon inside my shuttle to get it going as a htpc, also how can you run three channels in? Will any tv capture card work??

Ed