Home theatre, media centres, etc

[1rotty 40]

Sorry Mark - don't take possession til late Sept. Oh and you've got a van right?

Yep & a big trailer-can get a truck with tail lift too-just yell when you're ready mate.

tuituitutituitui

[Driftit 2078]

Here is some of the big brands. Not really needed though. Aesthetics is more important I think. As it will no doubt be sitting near you TV in plain sight.

http://www.computerlounge.co.nz/components...peid=38&t=5

[martyyn 2]

Here's my kit. Bear in mind I built this one some time ago but it still has more than enough grunt to cope with anything I can throw at it. Is quiet as a mouse and sits in a cabinet so looks werent really that important, but noise and performance were.

X-Case Q-Box mATX Case - $151

Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H - $133

AMD Phenom X4 9500 - $275

Corsair 2x2GB DDR2-800 XMS2 - $155

Hauppauge WinTV-HVR4000 - $177

2 x Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EADS - $164 each

I already had a Hauppauge MCE-500 which provided the MCE remote and blasters to control my amp and STB but you wont need one of those to get freeviewHD.

Just found the invoice and I bought this back in March 2008. Prices will probably be the same for the equivalent kit now, although I think some may have gone up.

The motherboard has everything on it you need other than a tv tuner. It does hdmi and 7.1 sound out of the box. I just use the optical out to my amp which takes care of whether the sound is Dolby, DTS whatever and HDMI out to your TV for 1080p viewing pleasure.

I have it running XP and use Mediaportal to handle all the media requirements. Its free and 100 times better than MCE but does take some playing around to get properly sorted.

[3 SERIES 93]

Cheers Martyn for all your fantastic info.

Think I might look into building a HTPC once Ive finished paying off the recent holiday!

Might have to rack your brain a little more in the near future.

Cheers

Brett