Ten Tips For Building Your Own Media Center Computer [aboutcomputer99.blogspot.com]

Ten Tips For Building Your Own Media Center Computer [aboutcomputer99.blogspot.com]

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This 7th installment in NCIX Tech Tips covers how to create your very own media center PC for watching, pausing, and fast forwarding live TV. I hope you enjoy it.

aboutcomputer99.blogspot.com Media Center PC Showcase (NCIX Tech Tips #7)

With new faster processors, bigger hard drives and new larger LCD televisions building a media center computer has become more and more practical. A media center computer can record multiple television shows at one time, can organize all your music and pictures and can also be used as a normal computer. They are definitely very cool. However, before you decide to build your own media center here are ten quick tips...

1. Consider building a machine with a dual core or quad core processor. The multiple processing threads will be very useful when recording multiple programs and watching a program at the same time. A fast multi core processor is a must if you plan on watching and recording hi definition TV.

2. Don't skimp on the RAM. A good media center will have at least 2GB of ram and should probably have up to 4GB. The ram will help keep things moving quickly while you are recording programs.

3. You can never have enough hard drive space. With high def inition TV becoming more of a standard you are going to want to consider having large amounts of hard drive space on your machine. I wouldn't build a machine that had less than a terabyte of hard drive space.

4. To increase performance considering using a raid configuration for your hard drives. Using raid zero along with high speed SATA hard drives can help you improve video performance and can prevent recording errors.

5. Get good TV tuner cards with built in hardware encoding. Tuner cards with MPEG hardware encoding will take a load off your processor when they record tv shows, this will help ensure that you won't get any skipping or problems in your recorded output. I use Hauppauge cards in my machine and they work great.

6. Invest in a good decoding program. The software decoder software offered by Nvidia does a good job on my media center. However, I tested four or five different ones before I found one that operated the way I wanted with my hardware configuration. Be prepared to test some different options before you settle on the one that will work best for you.

7. Don't forget to order the remote control. A media center without a remote control is a travesty. These computers are designed to operated while you sit back on your couch. The remotes don't cost that much and they work great.

8. Buy the best video card that you can afford. The better the video card that you have the less chances you have that you will have problems with playback. Before you buy your video card also make sure to check the list of Media Center approved cards. If the card isn't on there you might want to avoid it. Also make sure that you buy a video card that has a high definition output that matches your TV (either DVI or HDMI are the best).

9. Get a good audio card that is capable of feeding source audio to your receiver or your speakers. If you plan on outputting 5.1 or 7.1 data from DVD's you are going to want to make sure that the sound card that you pick has an optical or digital coax output. You might also consider buying a card that will convert all the sounds used on your computer into a 5.1 or 7.1 digital audio feed.

10. Be prepared to play with your configuration and build. Unfortunately, building a media center is not an exact science and there is usually quite a bit of tinkering involved in getting a stable fully functional system. If you aren't comfortable playing with the settings and the drivers to get things to work you might consider buying a prebuilt media center and have someone else do the testing and configuring for you.

I have been running windows XP media center edition for quite a while now and I love it. I have built two different media centers and they have both been a blast. Try it for yourself and see.

Find More Ten Tips For Building Your Own Media Center Computer Articles

Question by robo523: What encompasses a good home media center besides and as well as a computer? looking to spend some money and buy a home media center / computer. I know I need a computer but I don't know what kind. What else should I buy? What kind of Peripherals make up a home media center? Best answer for What encompasses a good home media center besides and as well as a computer?:

Answer by Tess.
television, wii, xbox 360, uhm stereos, work out stuff, idkk just be competely random

Answer by Brandie C
gossip

Answer by Bengie R
As far a computer - I tend to stick with mac. Maybe that's not the way you roll, but if you wanna give it a shot, I highly reccomend their iMac (desktop). As far as a media center, I would not recommend a projector but rather a plasma screen. (Projectors are just bulky and poor quality...plus they take too much space). So yeah - prices in plasma screens have dropped a lot recently. On top of that, I would recommend a sound system - you should be able to find that in a package depending on what exactly you want. This could be a two to ten piece set of diff speakers, woofers, etc. If you're interested in a gaming system, I would recommend ps3 or xbox 360 - prob ps3 Good luck! Sounds like you're gonna have a fun time!

Answer by n7of9a
you need good sound output, so a 7.1 sound card (or 5.1) that outputs either directly to good speakers, or to an amplifier which other devices also plug in to (dvd player, etc). You need lots of hard drive space if you are planning on having your media files played directly from the media centre, or good wireless services to connect to your home network. A good sized LCD panel. Absolutely essential are a case that looks good, and one which is quiet, with quiet fans and cooling systems. You may also look into (of course wireless) keyboard and mouse options, but look at Lenovo as they make these specifically for a media centre look and feel. Look online at some high-end media centres for sale and get ideas from those.

[media center computer]