Want to build myself a fairly well spec'd Media Centre PC to use when my Hi Def LCD panel turns up. I want to be able to do the following.

1. Record off Sky / Pause live TV / schedule recording.

2. Play DVD's and output to a 7.1 surround system/

3. Burn items recorded off sky to a DVD.

I already have a decent spec'd Small Form Factor PC in the Shape of a HP DC7100 that has 2gb of RAM, 3.0 mhz processor and a 40gb SATA HD drive in it. It has an onboard graphics card but nothing special.

Anyway I know I have got to get a bigger HD, say something like a 160GB SATA drive but I need suggestions on what TV card / Satelite card is worth investing in and that can record and pause live Satelite / TV feeds remember this must be a Small Form Factor card. Also what dolby digital card is worth investing in again must be a SFF.

I will be investing in a Dual Layer DVD burner to go into the unit so I can burn anything I wish that is on the hard drive.

Thanks in advanced Ivan

Using an MCE PC to watch Freeview TV now on 42" plasma.

Ivan, what chipset is the motherboard based on? You may find its onboard graphics good enough to run MCE.

As mentioned I use 2x Hauppauge Nova-T DVB cards, you will need an analogue card to input the sky signal via svideo. The Hauppauge PVR-250 can do this, although I dont know if it will fit into your case. Another option would be to get an external USB2.0 tuner.

My system consists of,

Intel 865GLC Motherboard

2GB Ram

1x250GB HD (TV Recording), 1x160GB (O/S, Music and photos), 1 x External 160GB drive for archiving.

Geforce FX5900 Graphics card

2x Nova-T PCI DVB-T Cards

Using onboard sound.

Gigabit Lan, connected to Windows 2003 server which is used as media server for ripped DVD's.

XBOX 360 used as an extender although this has a small issue.

My main pc has a Soundblaster Audigy2 XS soundcard and this has dolby digital and dts decoding onboard and IIRC features digital output connections.

Also to get the best from recording from TV with one HD only, have loads of ram and disable XP's paging file.

For recording to DVD, add a dvd recorder and Sonic encoders to MCE and you can do it all from within the mce interface.

For the OS go with Windows MediaCenter Edition 2005, works well with TV/Photos/Videos and ripped DVD's and can do everything you want to from within one program thats designed to be viewed on TV.

I use 2 250 Gb SATA drives in a raid configuration With so much stuff on them I don't want to lose it. But I delete stuff frequently and dont have lots of music. With high def you are going to need a lot more storage for video, so would recomend at least 500 gb. Yuou could do this in raid with 4 250 Gb drives but this is satring to get expensive

Thanks Guys.

Mannyo I did look at the Nova-t card but I remember something about Sky using encryption or something.

for sky you're **** out of luck, apart from using an analogue capture card to connect to it, and the IR blaster to change channels. you CANNOT get a satellite tuner card you can put your sky card in for example.

for graphics, just make sure you've got a dx9, MCE-compatible card. a lot of onboard ones will do this. you don't need 3d, you just need dx9 for the MCE interface.

the MCE boxes i've built have been in shuttle barebones kits.

oh, and make sure your tv tuners are on the hardware compatibility list.

ric

You read my mind Ivan. Started playing about with MCE this week.

Like already said you cannot get a tv card that can decode sky. You need a sky box for that. Does this mean you have to change the channels using the sky box? and just set mce to record?

What about cable. Can you get tv card that decode it?

What MCE like on a normal TV using a composite input?

analogue cable (now only in US) yes. freeview, yes. digital cable, not yet. you need the IR blaster infra red remote dongle thingy that comes with MCE to change channels on the box - this obv means you can't record say two sky channels at once.

mce tv out ok for films etc. crappy for desktop use, but you're not going to want to be doing that. looks great on LCD and plasma for everything though

analogue cable (now only in US) yes. freeview' date=' yes. digital cable, not yet. you need the IR blaster infra red remote dongle thingy that comes with MCE to change channels on the box - this obv means you can't record say two sky channels at once.

mce tv out ok for films etc. crappy for desktop use, but you're not going to want to be doing that. looks great on LCD and plasma for everything though[/quote']

Only going to be using it as MCE not for desktop. Will have a play first see how it is.

So the MCE remote control can change over the channels on a sky box or in MCE? or am i reading that wrong.

Right looked at the spec's of the current PC I have and have decided to build one from sratch.

It is mind boggling the different types of kit you can buy nowadays, intel vs amd, PCI-E vs AGP etc etc.

By the time I have spec'd up all the kit it will be out of date

So the MCE remote control can change over the channels on a sky box or in MCE? or am i reading that wrong.

The MCE remote contol controls MCE only. The IR reciever comes with 2 little IR transmitters that you place in close proximity to the sky box and these control the sky box.

As you go through MCE setup it prompts you to press a couple of keys on the remote (sky, freeview, etc), from the codes it recieves it know what type of box to control.

Dont forget to use MCE 2005 properly you need to buy the O/S and the MCE2005 remote control, which comes with the reciever and IR Blasters. You can get the O/S and remote from ebuyer.

There's a couple of deals on Ebay at the minute where you can buy the IR reciever, remote and IR Keyboard in a bundle which will work quite well. I use MCE 2005 but only for Music ATM on my desktop.

You can get a satellite card if you are only interested in the Free to Air programs.

Currently cant get Ch4 or Ch5 on this though it is supposed to be coming later this year.

Incidently, you cant mix digital and analogue cards.ie MCE2005 support two cards but they both have to be the same type, analogue or digital.

I have a FTA satellite box wired into an analogue card works OK through the normal aerial socket just tuned into the output channel on the sat box.