All things Computing!

[maginoodle]

Hi all, i usually use my media player to play all my avi files on my tv. I starting to play up so am thinking of just using it as a external drive and hopefully convert this comp to a htpc. My question is what is the cheapest way to do it?
I realise i need some sort of card to give me rca plugs to connect to my tv and most likely will need software as well.
What is the best free software to use? Is media portal ok?(theres a link in prophetvx's post) The tv it will be used on atm is a 68cm crt type(yeah i know its outdated but i wont update until its stuffed). The comp has an amd seperon 3100+ 1.8gig with 1.87 gig of ram(should be 2 but think the vid card is using the rest).

Any help appreciated

Cheers Shane

 

[STEALTHY™]

Epic dig......

I use my 360 as a media centre (but not using the media centre option on there, thats crap)
You can get one for just over $150 for an arcade, link to your PC, and job done.

The benefit of this setup means you can have as many xboxes are you like linked to the PC, and each can watch a different file at the same time.

 

[maginoodle]

yeah i did a search and thought this was the best thread to post in.
i dont have a 360 and i the idea was to lower the amount of gadgets i have. currently running 3 pvr's, dvd player,video,media player, comp and modem all near this tv.

 

[STEALTHY™]

yeah i did a search and thought this was the best thread to post in.
i dont have a 360 and i the idea was to lower the amount of gadgets i have. currently running 3 pvr's, dvd player,video,media player, comp and modem all near this tv.

not sure what a pvr is.

I run PC, xbox, and TV. No need for anything else with this setup (assuming your PC has a tuner in it)

 

[maginoodle]

pvr is personal video recorder, basically a digital set top box with hard drives that they record on. i watch a lot of tv so they come in handy cause i can record 3 shows and watch another all at once.
Dont have a tuner in the pc.
Have just started looking at ebay to see what is available.
Am trying to work out if my video card is able to use VGA to S-VIDEO / RCA CONVERTER CABLE ADAPTER FOR PC TV - eBay, Cables, Components, Computers. (end time 07-Jun-10 21:37:34 AEST)(or buy another vid card that allows it) with Y SPLITTER CABLE FOR SVGA VGA 1 PC to 2 MONITOR #9658 - eBay, Cables, Components, Computers. (end time 12-Jun-10 00:00:13 AEST) so i can leave it connected all the time. This way i can just use windows media player to watch or if i can use something like 4 Pin S-Video 3 RCA RGB Y Pr Pb Out Bracket Adapter - eBay, Adaptors, Components, Computers. (end time 22-May-10 22:20:40 AEST).
Will now look at tuners to see how they work.

 

[STEALTHY™]

I cant help with that side of things, only have limited knowledge, but the xbox system works, and it works well (moreso because my dad uses the other xbox in the lounge to watch shows he likes on demand)

The tuner will work the same as the pvr, but i'd assume it would be the same setup, you'd need more than one to record anymore than one channel (or maybe a high end one to record multiple)

 

[bezz]

Hi all, i usually use my media player to play all my avi files on my tv. I starting to play up so am thinking of just using it as a external drive and hopefully convert this comp to a htpc. My question is what is the cheapest way to do it?
I realise i need some sort of card to give me rca plugs to connect to my tv and most likely will need software as well.
What is the best free software to use? Is media portal ok?(theres a link in prophetvx's post) The tv it will be used on atm is a 68cm crt type(yeah i know its outdated but i wont update until its stuffed). The comp has an amd seperon 3100+ 1.8gig with 1.87 gig of ram(should be 2 but think the vid card is using the rest).

Any help appreciated

Cheers Shane

Check out this thread.

Best software to use for viewing avis etc is XBMC. It doesn't have tuner card support however.
That PC should be fine to run videos on your TV in standard definition. The hard part will be getting a decent output onto your CRT tv. I tried a few years ago using a component connection on my video card, but had heaps of trouble showing the correct resolution on the tv. In the end I bit the bullet and bought an LCD.