Home Theatre PC.

Ok, I've built my new HTPC.

Case: Antec fusion remote black
CPU: Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition HDZ940XCGIBOX 3.0GHz AM2+.
Motherboard: ASUS M3A78-EM AM2+ AMD 780GX chipset Micro ATX.
Memory: 4 x 2GB Kit ocz pc2 8500 Gold Series
Graphics Card: HIS H485QT1024P Radeon HD 4850 GDDR3 1GB.
Hard disks: 2 x 1 TB
TV: 42" Toshiba Regza
5.1 Surround

MS Windows 7

Hauppauge HDPVR: OK, here's my issue, this isn't supporting windows media centre (h.264 is the primary problem) so I need to know if anybody has experience with the following software products and if any recommendations can be made. "Sage TV" or "Beyond TV" are the solutions I'm looking at and are supported by Hauppauge, although if anyone has any other ideas I'm more than open to hearing your opinions?

Cheers.

To be honest, on the HTPC rigs I have built I have never really spent much thought on the TV card as that is really what I use the least. I have always thrown in a Hauppauge WIN TV card as the places I have been at only had basic analog TV. There has never been a problem with them, and the programming etc. of the various bike races have always worked fine, so I am afraid I can't give you much help.

How's the Windows 7 working out? Since my current laptop is dying I am looking at buying a new one with 7 installed to try it out. Managed to keep Vista to a minimum here, although the desk computer I am using now (HP Touchsmart) is running Home Premium. I have to say that I have gotten used to it with the UAC turned off.

Another question...8GB ram? Is that really necessary?

Well I'm looking at this HTPC as being a complete integrated solution which I won't have to mess with for some time. The 8GB of ram might seem excessive but it will allow me to run as many applications as I want (games, tv, software etc simultaneously) without any performance issues. Furthermore, I'm looking towards the next few years as requirements get more demanding.

I never touched Vista and I still run XP on my desktop and laptop but so far I've been very impressed with 7, its useability and stability have beed great and it boots up faster than any OS I've ever used before.

We have HDTV, 1080i/720p and so a standard capture card just won't do going forward, plus the right software will allow me to run everything through a single channel on my integrated amplifier and single input on the TV, which means I won't have to spend 4 months training people how to use the darn thing.

I have just bought myself a new HTPC for the living room. This time I have gone totally the opposite from before and tried to find the smallest package I could, and given the recent development of the Atom processor together with some ingenious chipset work from Nvidia there are now some pretty cool solutions.

I bought this, the Zotac Mag:



It is perfect for my use since I do not need much disk space, but I want a proper lan connection to feed the files. I have installed it hidden in the furniture, with only a small ir receiver being visible, and it works perfectly. I installed Vista Home Premium on it to get the Media Center, and decided not to go with 7 yet due to driver issues. I may change later, but for now it is stable. Image quality is perfect, and sound is enhanced through a serious amplifier installation I have in the basement.

Since it is only used as a Media Center, I have Vista boot straight to that, and then manage it with a MC remote. I do have a wireless keyboard with a built in touch pad available should I need to use it, or if I want to stream TV from the www.zattoo.com site.

Where else do you stream from? I can't use Zatoo

I am not sure where else to stream from to be honest, but you could look into getting a Slingbox hooked up.

I also wanted to add that the Zotac only cost about $300.