Windows Media Center 2005

[marshahu]

I have been toying with the idea of getting Media Center Edition 2005 but I am not willing to pay for a brand new PC, although some may argue that my rig is so under specified I would be better off gettind a newer PC but I just havent got that amount of money to spend.

I have seen many copies of Media Center Edition 2005 up for sale on ebay with a Remote Control although the suppliers suggest that the buyer has to purchase a piece of hardware that will make their PC work? Will an AMD Athlon XP 2600+ and a new Power supply count?

Also Media Center 2005 has support for two TV tuners, but my only problem is where can I get a TV Card which will not only have two TV tuners but also have support for recording Freeview Channels (just to clarify for those on the other side of the atlantic Freeview is our version of Digital TV which offers more high quality channels through a normal aerial) and recording from external sources such as S-Video and Composite input for devices like VCRs and Games Consoles?

Last of all, how does the remote control plug into the computer? Is there a receiver which plugs into the USB port like ATi all in Wonder remotes or is the sensor built into the PC? If its built into the PC how will I be able to use the Media Center remote without a sensor built into the PC? I know the remote seems like a bonus but my dad is not one for operating the TV functions through keyboard and mouse, and a remote will simplify things immensely (don't worry i wont use the remote to try n play 1st Person Shoot em up games lol)

Thanks for your help so far


PC Spec: AMD Athlon XP 2000+, ECS K7S5A Motherboard, 768MB SDRAM PC133, Sparkle nVidia Riva TNT2 M64 32MB AGP Graphics Card, Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 6.1, Windows XP

 

[RichPLS]

Any PC hardware qualifies, and some will just sell the SW straight out.

HaugePauge makes some dual tuner cards.

Most remotes are USB, and I prefer the radio remote, it is not directional and works through walls.

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[peartree]

You can find accessory tv tuner cards almost anywhere. They're about $50 (more or less, depending on features).

Yes, ANY hardware purchase should qualify, if you want to upgrade something anyway. Knowing that you have nearly the same system I do, I can tell you that you SHOULD NOT upgrade your CPU without upgrading your motherboard as well. Buying into old technology is never the first choice in this case. Take this opportunity to upgrade to (at the very least) socket 754 motherboard. That way you can upgrade to 64-bit Windows by simply buying a new CPU. You're going to have to upgrade your RAM to DDRAM no matter what you do, though. PC133 SDRAM is too old to do much good when running newer software. If you can afford to get a socket 939 motherboard and CPU, you'll be even better off. The new 90 nm CPU's use considerably less power than your current chip or any of the Intel chips. That puts less load on your power supply.

The remote depends on what kind of controller you buy- it may be an infrared controller that plugs into a front USB port or it may be an RF (rasio frequency) controller that is built into the PCI tuner card and doesn't need to be line-of-sight.

The point of having two tuners is that you can record one channel while watching another, just like a Picture-In-Picture tv set. This new outboard tuner could even be an HDTV tuner, like the one that ATI sells. Then throw in another monitor on your system and you have an HDTV.

As I said, my system is similar to yours and I can tell you that you have a long upgrade road ahead of you if you decide to do it piece by piece, but a new motherboard, CPU, and RAM will go a long way towards getting the system into the new millennium.

<font color=green>****</font color=green> Never Assume <font color=red>ANYTHING</font color=red> <font color=green>****</font color=green>