Hi, i've got an old laptop computer which has become poorly!! basicaly the screen doesn't work anymore. it's currently in the shop to see if they can fix it or not but it seems that it might not be worth fixing due to cost.

Other than no screen it works perfectly as I can plug it into my tv and get a perfect picture.

It is an Advent 1ghz with 512mb memory and a dvd rom, its running windows millenium, what I want to do is turn it into a media centre thing so I can record the tv onto the hard drive etc, play dvd's/music etc and get tv listings and stuff (as close to sky+ type functionality as poss) it is already linked to my home wireless network.

Anyone know what I need to purchase in order to make this happen? it seems a shame to bin it as apart from the screen works fine.

Windows XP media cnetre and a media centre compatible USB TV Tuner.

Don't know if this is the cheapest place but they are nearly always close:

http://www.aria.co.uk/ProductInfoComm.asp?ID=16054

The media centre remote *may* work with the IR ports that most lap tops have built in but it's not much extra to get a USB IR reciever.

It's definitely a decent enough spec laptop to run it - assuming you are able to 'lift it' so the air can flow underneath it it should be pretty quiet too

Would the laptop graphics be up it though? My experience is that you need a Plasma or LCD Monitor/TV with a DVI input to get decent pictures. That means your laptop has to have a DVI output. You can go the S-Video route but again the picture anint great. Does MS media centre do something to make the screen more viewable and can you use it for internet access.

Would the laptop graphics be up it though? My experience is that you need a Plasma or LCD Monitor/TV with a DVI input to get decent pictures. That means your laptop has to have a DVI output. You can go the S-Video route but again the picture anint great. Does MS media centre do something to make the screen more viewable and can you use it for internet access.

I have a LCD tv that i will use it on, just connect it with the normal cable you'd connect a monitor with on a normal computer, not sure what the connection is called though the picture quality seems pretty good to be honest.

Yes the laptop has internet access via the home wireless network.

Would I need to upgrade the hard drive? i cant remember of the top of my head how big it is, think its 20gb though. I wont be storing masses of stuff on it, just the odd episode of Top Gear/Simpsons.

For storage, I'd look to a USB external hard drive, if you find you fill the 20gb too quick. Replacing the 2.5" laptop HD is still quite a pricey task you see, for a decent size jump. Whereas you can get a 160gb Freecom USB drive for £80

Good idea to use it for this really. Ideal when the screen goes on them. I used an old one as a webserver/small fileserver for years

Not sure on what TV card to use for it really. I've used the Freecom DVB-T USB one (which is tiny and already comes with a remote). You can get that for about £45 and has freeview on it. Not sure if it interfaces with WMCE properly though. There's probably a list of compatible cards knocking about somewhere. I can't be bothered looking for it at this time, but I'd be interested as I'll be looking to do this sort of setup with an older machine sometime soon.

Steve