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Posted by Bill Davis on June 23, 2008, 3:25 pm
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Bob
> 1) Is there a URL to the optimum way to build a media center?
1) I don't know of any URL that provides the optimal way to build a media
center, but Microsoft has a lot of resources on its site to help ensure that
you buy Vista Certified products that are guarenteed to work with Vista Media
Center.
I have built three Media Centers for my home, its just like building a
regular PC. The things to look out for are fan noise and case tempurature.
> 2) Is there a URL of reviews of tuner cards and/or remotes to help choose
> the best for Vista MCE?
2) Check the Microsoft site they have a list of all Vista Certified TV
tuners. Its a good place to start to begin you selection.
> 3) As I understand it, there are 3 ways to get digital TV - Over The Air
> (OTA), cable, satellite (I am assuming, but don't really know, that both
> cable and satellite are digital or available in digital, which is a separate
> issue from HD) and IP (i.e. AT&T Uverse product). Does Media Center work
> with all, or not? I heard/read somewhere that it does not work with
> satellite...but to me, all of this would be a function of the TV Tuner, not
> Media Center. Is it a function of the TV tuner card?
3) Media Center will work with cable/satellite/OTA broadcast. Typically you
need to get a kit that includes an IR blaster to work with cable/satellite
set top box. Media Center can be connected via the coax cable (RF), or
composite or S-Video if your tuner sports it.
> 4) On the TV Tuner cards themselves, I have gotten confused reading their
> descriptions. I want a 2 source tuner card, with those sources being any
> combination digital of OTA/cable/satellite so I have all bases covered (at
> this point, I don’t see any reason to have analog TV capable TV
Tuner…advise
> if I am missing something). But TV tuners seem to come with one analog input
> and one digital, which makes no sense to me (since analog is going away).
> Please advise.
>
4) You probably need a dual tuner ATSC (Digtal/HD)/NTSC (Analog). The
analog tuner connector can be used to connect a cable or satelite set top box
to Media Center. So for some it still makes sense to get one with a anlog
tuner. You can always add additional tuner cards later. I have two seperate
tuners.
> 5) I understand in XP Media Center, an analog tuner was required. In vista
> Media Center, there is no such requirement, they may all be digital (and even
> HD).
5) That correct.
> 6) About connecting the Media Center to the TV… I have an HD Sharp Aqueous,
> so I would want to connect the Video via HDMI and the sound via some digital
> method to my AV receiver to pump 5.1 surround to the room. I had always
> assumed I would use a DVI to HDMI cable for the video connection, but now see
> that the TV tuner cards come with all types of connections (even HDMI). The
> computer itself only has a VGA, but I could add a video card that has HDMI or
> DVI or both. So, how do you get the video to HDMI and the Audio to the AV
> Receiver to generate 5.1 surround? Do I need a DVI/HDMI video card or is it
> all done through the TV Tuner card?
6) You pobably want to get a video card with HDMI (either ATI or NVidia),
the cards have hardware video decoding for DVD and Blu-Ray. Additional they
have HDCP support for watching HD content on your Aquos (currently you need
an external player to view Blu-Ray). I play more HD movies these days than
DVDs so hardware accelleration is important to me.
You could just take the output of the video card and connect it to the AV
reciever with out any problems.
> 7) Some TV tuners come with remotes, which seems like a good idea. Do you
> get the best remote possible buy a pair like this, or is buying a standalone
> remote better? What remove works the best?
7) Remotes are a matter of preference, I like the Logitec Harmony can be
quite expensive though. Probably any learning remote you like will work.
Hope this answers some of your questions, hopefully other will help with
things that I missed.
B.D.
"Bob Day" wrote:
>
> I am putting together a high end media center using Vista Home Premium. I
> am in tech support for a living, so it should be fairly straight forward, if
> I can identify the best components. I live in the USA.
>
> 1) Is there a URL to the optimum way to build a media center?
>
> 2) Is there a URL of reviews of tuner cards and/or remotes to help choose
> the best for Vista MCE?
>
> 3) As I understand it, there are 3 ways to get digital TV - Over The Air
> (OTA), cable, satellite (I am assuming, but don't really know, that both
> cable and satellite are digital or available in digital, which is a separate
> issue from HD) and IP (i.e. AT&T Uverse product). Does Media Center work
> with all, or not? I heard/read somewhere that it does not work with
> satellite...but to me, all of this would be a function of the TV Tuner, not
> Media Center. Is it a function of the TV tuner card?
>
> 4) On the TV Tuner cards themselves, I have gotten confused reading their
> descriptions. I want a 2 source tuner card, with those sources being any
> combination digital of OTA/cable/satellite so I have all bases covered (at
> this point, I don’t see any reason to have analog TV capable TV
Tuner…advise
> if I am missing something). But TV tuners seem to come with one analog input
> and one digital, which makes no sense to me (since analog is going away).
> Please advise.
>
> 5) I understand in XP Media Center, an analog tuner was required. In vista
> Media Center, there is no such requirement, they may all be digital (and even
> HD).
>
> 6) About connecting the Media Center to the TV… I have an HD Sharp Aqueous,
> so I would want to connect the Video via HDMI and the sound via some digital
> method to my AV receiver to pump 5.1 surround to the room. I had always
> assumed I would use a DVI to HDMI cable for the video connection, but now see
> that the TV tuner cards come with all types of connections (even HDMI). The
> computer itself only has a VGA, but I could add a video card that has HDMI or
> DVI or both. So, how do you get the video to HDMI and the Audio to the AV
> Receiver to generate 5.1 surround? Do I need a DVI/HDMI video card or is it
> all done through the TV Tuner card?
>
> 7) Some TV tuners come with remotes, which seems like a good idea. Do you
> get the best remote possible buy a pair like this, or is buying a standalone
> remote better? What remove works the best?
>
> Thanks
> Bob
>
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