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John_Vella
I haven't seen my friends in so long
Joined: Fri Apr 24, 2009 7:55 am
Posts: 7935
Location: Manchester.
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I've been having a look at the MD website, with a view to building PCTV MK II and have made this list...  The first thing to note is that it's a single core CPU but looking at the blurb on the MD website suggests that it should be fine... I'll paste it below. What do you guys think? I chose the Mini-ITX route purely because I fancied a small PC this time around, but any suggestions are more than welcome. Thanks. _________________John Vella BSc (Hons), PGCE - Still the official forum prankster and crude remarker  Sorry  I'll behave now. Promise 
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| Thu Nov 26, 2009 11:12 am |
 
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saspro
Site Admin
Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 5:53 pm
Posts: 8603
Location: location, location
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Should be a nice setup.
You'll need an os still
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| Thu Nov 26, 2009 11:21 am |
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John_Vella
I haven't seen my friends in so long
Joined: Fri Apr 24, 2009 7:55 am
Posts: 7935
Location: Manchester.
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I'm not too worried about the OS at the moment, as I want to try the RC version of Windows 7 before spending any money on that. For what I want to use it for I'm guessing that I could probably use XP, (with suitable Blu Ray software) or Vista/7 which should both support Blu-Ray, but the drive comes with software, (it says on the site) Any opinions on the OS? I purposely left out Linux for now, as I don't know if the remote control would work with it. _________________John Vella BSc (Hons), PGCE - Still the official forum prankster and crude remarker Sorry I'll behave now. Promise
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| Thu Nov 26, 2009 11:26 am |
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saspro
Site Admin
Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 5:53 pm
Posts: 8603
Location: location, location
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XP doesn't support bluray as it doesn't support hdcp, you have to hack it with anydvd.
Arcsoft total media sorts out bluray & media centre integration in vista (and 7 I think)
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| Thu Nov 26, 2009 11:31 am |
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John_Vella
I haven't seen my friends in so long
Joined: Fri Apr 24, 2009 7:55 am
Posts: 7935
Location: Manchester.
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OK, that's XP out of the frame, (sounds too much like hard work) so I guess Vista is the next best thing, as I have an unused license.
One thing I hadn't really thought about is wireless networking... I could try and find a mini PCI Express card thingy, (had a little look, but no luck so far) or I could get a USB adapter. I also seem to recall seeing a Ethernet to wireless adapter, tough that was some time ago...
Any thoughts?
_________________John Vella BSc (Hons), PGCE - Still the official forum prankster and crude remarker Sorry I'll behave now. Promise
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| Thu Nov 26, 2009 11:44 am |
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saspro
Site Admin
Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 5:53 pm
Posts: 8603
Location: location, location
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For streaming media you really need a draft-N network although I find it easier to use homeplug
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| Thu Nov 26, 2009 12:48 pm |
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John_Vella
I haven't seen my friends in so long
Joined: Fri Apr 24, 2009 7:55 am
Posts: 7935
Location: Manchester.
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I was thinking wireless networking more for iPlayer than anything else, as I already have a NAS box, which I'll use to store files. _________________John Vella BSc (Hons), PGCE - Still the official forum prankster and crude remarker Sorry I'll behave now. Promise
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| Thu Nov 26, 2009 2:20 pm |
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saspro
Site Admin
Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 5:53 pm
Posts: 8603
Location: location, location
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Just use a dongle then.
Check out tunerfree mce for iplayer
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| Thu Nov 26, 2009 2:50 pm |
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John_Vella
I haven't seen my friends in so long
Joined: Fri Apr 24, 2009 7:55 am
Posts: 7935
Location: Manchester.
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This Link has been added to my favourites. Thanks!
_________________John Vella BSc (Hons), PGCE - Still the official forum prankster and crude remarker Sorry I'll behave now. Promise
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| Thu Nov 26, 2009 3:56 pm |
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saspro
Site Admin
Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 5:53 pm
Posts: 8603
Location: location, location
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I'll dig out my list on other plugins tomorrow (remind me) and post them here if you want. Turns a simple htpc into something that rivals some very expensive home theatre systems
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| Thu Nov 26, 2009 10:20 pm |
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finlay666
Spends far too much time on here
Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 9:40 pm
Posts: 4876
Location: Newcastle
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I'd like this too for my freesat hd htpc  _________________TwitterCharlie Brooker: Macs are glorified Fisher-Price activity centres for adults; computers for scaredy cats too nervous to learn how proper computers work; computers for people who earnestly believe in feng shui.
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| Fri Nov 27, 2009 1:07 am |
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saspro
Site Admin
Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 5:53 pm
Posts: 8603
Location: location, location
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| Fri Nov 27, 2009 9:24 am |
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JJW009
I haven't seen my friends in so long
Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 6:58 pm
Posts: 8767
Location: behind the sofa
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Any updates on this, John? I'm looking for a very similar solution so your feedback would be invaluable. Specifically, how does it perform and how quiet is it? I'm finding that my core duo E4500 running at 2.2GHz with Intel 82945G on board graphics is, rather to my surprise, struggling with 720p 60fps. It can play 1080p 30fps no problem, but the higher frame rates seem to kill it. Running Media Player Classic Homecinema, it hits about 60% on both cores and skips frames very badly. I can't offload to the GPU, and the h264 codec seems to be single threaded  If anyone has any tips; one video I have trouble with is "Video: MPEG4 (H264) 1280x720 59.94fps Audio: AAC 24000Hz stereo 85Kbps" Here's my CPU:  Playback is about 50% stutter  _________________jonbwfc's law: "In any forum thread someone will, no matter what the subject, mention Firefly." When you're feeling too silly for x404, youRwired.net
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| Sun Dec 27, 2009 4:31 pm |
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John_Vella
I haven't seen my friends in so long
Joined: Fri Apr 24, 2009 7:55 am
Posts: 7935
Location: Manchester.
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No updates yet, as I am still waiting for the money to come through from my dads bank account... stupid legal stuff _________________John Vella BSc (Hons), PGCE - Still the official forum prankster and crude remarker Sorry I'll behave now. Promise
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| Tue Dec 29, 2009 11:36 am |
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big_D
What's a life?
Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 8:25 pm
Posts: 10691
Location: Bramsche
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Not much help JJW, but the Intel HD4500 integrated graphics on my Toshiba seems to cope ok. The HD4500 specifically has H.264 and VC1 hardware decomprssion built in.
I don't have any public domain 60fps 720p material to hand, so I can't say exactly what the performance is like...
_________________
"Do you know what this is? Hmm? No, I can see you do not. You have that vacant look in your eyes, which says hold my head to your ear, you will hear the sea!" - Londo Molari
Executive Producer No Agenda Show 246
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| Tue Dec 29, 2009 11:51 am |
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