Turning old comp into htpc. Few questions

[boostified]

Turning Old comp into media extender. Heres what i have so far

-P4 1.6
-Motherboard with 5 pci slots and agp slot for graphics
-Its currently running ti4600 video card
-250gb hd
-Xp Pro
-SB Live 5.1 sound card

ill be adding new
-Power Supply (old one is about to go)
-New case (need cheap one cause this one is falling apart)
-Dvd Drive
-Gigabit lan

I Have my rig in my sig working as server for holding all my dvds ive ripped to drive and such. My question is will my ti4600 run dvds and playback good enough on a 27'' screen? Im thinking of changing over to MCE.Im looking to add vista to my other computer so i could just buy the MCE with upgrade coupon and just use the upgrade with other comp if thats possible. Ive been using theatertek on current comp to play dvds but im unhappy with playback through a 42'' plasma. Quality is not up to par for me so im going to get me a version of purevideo from nvidia to try out and see how that does through windows media player. . I already have gigabit switch to use so wont need that. I will be adding a xbox hd dvd drive soon but this old comp wont be used to playback hd movies so no need for that.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. Ive heard it doesnt take much to make a comp into an extender like im doing so im hoping this old comp will do.

Since my sig didnt show up heres my rig

Lapped [email protected]
P5B-Dlx/Wifi
EVGA 8800gts
Crucial Ballistix 2gb 6400
2xT7K500's Matrix Raid
Seagate 7200.10 320gb
Scythe Infinity
PC Power & Cooling 610w
X-Fi XtremeGamer
Sceptre 22'' lcd
CM Stacker

 

[CrimandEvil]

My question is will my ti4600 run dvds and playback good enough on a 27'' screen?

No cause your going to be limited to only Overlay or VMR7 both of which suck compared to how VMR9 handles video rendering. Not to mention that all of the Ti 4x00 series cards either have terrible svideo out (or flaky DVI support) or moderately okay svideo quality.

Either way a 5200FX is going to be a much better card for this then that Ti. Thats how bad it sucks.

Im thinking of changing over to MCE.Im looking to add vista to my other computer so i could just buy the MCE with upgrade coupon

They're not doing that anymore from what I understand.

Ive been using theatertek on current comp to play dvds but im unhappy with playback through a 42'' plasma. Quality is not up to par for me so im going to get me a version of purevideo from nvidia

Okay but just so you know TheaterTek includes a copy of Purevideo with it.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. Ive heard it doesnt take much to make a comp into an extender like im doing so im hoping this old comp will do.

It really depends on what you mean by "extender" and what software you're going to use with it. I have no idea what "extender" might mean to you or is you even understand the actual concept of one but I can tell you right away that MCE and Vista don't allow you to connect one MCE/Vista machine to another to stream videos to.

It would be simple to house all of your media on your current machine and build another to connect to it and browses it using a ten foot UI. Check out Media Portal, Xlobby, GB-PVR or even MythTV.

 

[boostified]

Well dang i guess ill have to buy new video card.


I will do some research about the upgrade thing.

Well i change over to VLC player and im having much better picture using it instead. And also allows me to stream my movies

I ment extender more along the lines as media portal and things like that. which would be the best to go with. I will just keep my current xp pro on there and run one of those. Im going to house all my dvds and keep my recordings on my main pc.

So this is what my pc will consist of now:
-p4 1.6
-512 Ram
-6600gt
-PVR-150
-250 gb hd
Running either mythtv or media portal.

Id almost be better off getting new motherboard and new cpu wouldnt i?

I was trying to do this without spending so much money but i guess its not really easy to do.

 

[CrimandEvil]

Well i change over to VLC player and im having much better picture using it instead. And also allows me to stream my movies

If true then theres something wrong with the way you have it configed cause VLC looks like crap compared to Purevideo +TTK for me. What settings are you using for both apps?

Id almost be better off getting new motherboard and new cpu wouldnt i?

You can easily just pick up a 6150 mobo (or whatever NV is calling it nowadays) and a cheap s939 or AM2 CPU for it (and probably new memory if you go AM2) and be done with it. You can easily use the onboard video which will give much better results then getting an AGP card for your current old system as well as give you a PCIe x16 for future upgrades.

I was trying to do this without spending so much money but i guess its not really easy to do.

Thats the problem with old hardware, it's not "one size fits all" when it comes to HTPCs. Most likely you're going to have to shell out some cash for parts that fit an HTPC before even tackling the project.

 

[boostified]

My current process for movies consist of the following

-Ripping using shrink so i can take only the 5.1 audio and remove subtitles and menus. I like only watching the movie when i hit play not the commercials.

-I think the problem with ttk was that i had the trial version and didnt have purevideo installed.But now i have powerdvd ultra 7.2 with purevideo codec and it seems to be working the best. I think ill stay with this setup unless you tell me that ttk is way better. I cant really tell as far as quality right now cause im only watching it on 22'' monitor. Both seem comparable right now.

I cant find in ttk where it has the ability to enable purevideo. Or is it already running?

Also im almost certain but if im only pulling the 5.1 audio tracks of the disc will i be able to playback the dvd with audio on just a regular tv without 5.1 surround? Ive changed it to 2 speakers in powerdvd and it worked so id assume so.

 

[TheDro]

If you decide to use the P4 setup and if the motherboard has a auxilary 6 pin power port, then get a Zalman ZM400A-APF, you can find it on pricegrabber, only one left though through the storefront that carries it.

 

[dexx]

You can easily just pick up a 6150 mobo (or whatever NV is calling it nowadays) and a cheap s939 or AM2 CPU for it (and probably new memory if you go AM2) and be done with it.

With regard to handling 720p material, would the onboard video of a 6150 board (say with sempron cpu) cope better than an old P4 1.6 running a 6600gt vid card?

 

[CrimandEvil]

They'd probably be about even with the Sempron having a very slight lead. Considering the prices on s939 parts I don't see any reason for you go with a Sempron over a full A64.