HTPC

[Tikker]

any of the nerds here have one?

what do you have, hardware wise, software, etc etc

[Jesus]

For Case/Mobo - http://global.shuttle.com/Product/Barebone/SK21G.asp
I think it is a Semperon 2400
ATI All In Wonder 2005

Best I've seen though is my friend's linux box... I cannot for the life of me remember what distro or anything else that would help you out.

He outputs using a projector with 1024x768 resolution and has homebuilt everything.

[Tikker]

no one has one?

[Darcler]

Gidan cant log on NT anymore, I dont know what you are asking or what he has.

[Granh]

I built a shuttle couple months ago. Here's what I put in it:
ATI All-In-Wonder 9800 Pro (128)
Athlon 64 3400
1 gig pc4200 Kingston Hyper-X
dvd writer and all that other jaz.

The TV/Cable part works wonderfully once you get the sound input/output correctly adjusted. The hydra vision works great. Have TV and LCD as monitors. WoW plays perfectly with no lag and all settings maxed. The remote for the vid card is handy since it also works as a mouse. Not sure what kinda info you were looking for, or if this is even the type of system you were asking about, but it's small, powerfull and oh-so-cute.

[Tikker]

I'm looking for a box to do PVR functionality, as well as be able to output movies/etc to my tv/stereo

ie, it's not something I'm ever going to game on

[Granh]

The box I built is my PVR. I've got cable running in, DVD as my only player, and it's all being output to my TV and sound system. Everything runs very well. There were a few issues I ran into if you're gong to make one using the same kind of card.

If you're running your cable, DTV or any other signal directly into the box (Not a built in tv tuner) your sound is output from the vid card to your mic in, or if your sound card has it, a line in. Because you're going through so many different things for your sound, (in, out, in and out again to stereo) there's a lot of tweeking to do on the volumes, else it sounds horrid. A better sound card than the on-board one made a huge different in quality for me. You'll need to just play with it to get the settngs where they sound best.

The other minor thing was the DVD. Turn off auto-run, and remove/disable any other programs that are set to run with your DVD drive. If you're using an all-in-wonder card or something similar they have a built n DVD function and if you try using it, you'll have both it, and any other program set to auto-run trying to start at the same time. Totally jamed mine up.

The card I have also downloads the TV listings so I dont need to buy the more expensive package with my cable company. It's works well and the record function does great. The card was only 190ish, but you can always go to pricewatch and get it cheaper. The box cost me around

[Tikker]

around what? hah

[Granh]

sorry at work and boss came in.

the box/motherboard was 250, but again cheaper at pricewatch (i just didnt want to wait for shippng). the athlon chip was 200ish. ram 200ish. hd, dvd vary.

since you're not doing any gaming and dvd/tv arent as stressfull you can likely get away with 512 ram and pc2700. I'll go home today and try one chip to make sure 512 is ok. You also can get cheaper than 250/200 for the MB and chip since an athlon 64 isn't really helpfull for what you're looking into. if you went with the same card and less expensive others you could likely build it for 500-600ish if you shop around. Pricewatch is a great place