Turning Old PC Into Media Center?

[stabgotham]

I'm in the process of building a new PC, but I've always wanted to have to ability to watch all the movies on my current PC on my TV. So I started thinking, is there any way for me to turn this current PC into some sort of media center PC? If I were to say, purchase two 1TB hard drives and store backups of my movies on this PC, is there a way to just hook it up to my TV?

I don't have an HDTV currently, I'm still rocking the good old 27" big daddy TV which only has the usual video connectors.

 

[Nik_I]

you probably could, but it may not be worth the money.

 

[SuicideSilence]

what are the specs on the current pc?

 

[stabgotham]

Strange...my sig isn't showing. The current PC is:

Lian-Li PC61
ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe
AMD Athlon 3700+ San Diego
Corsair HX520w
2GB G.Skill DDR
EVGA 7800GT
WD 250GB Caviar
X-Fi Xtrememusic

 

[dagger]

Strange...my sig isn't showing. The current PC is:

Lian-Li PC61
ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe
AMD Athlon 3700+ San Diego
Corsair HX520w
2GB G.Skill DDR
EVGA 7800GT
WD 250GB Caviar
X-Fi Xtrememusic

It's not too bad, and will work. You'll probably need a cpu upgrade besides the graphics card for TV output. Decoding x264 compression at high definition quality fast enough to ensure smooth playback requires more juice than most people think. But still, why don't just use your new PC as a media center? It's not like you'll watch TV and play game at the same time. Put those 1TB drives in your new PC for good use.

 

[ZOldDude]

Use the new one....you just need to buy a longer cable to connect it to the TV.

 

[psymanproductions]

the pc you currently hve has plenty of power for a htpc/media centre pc. all you will NEED is the right cable to hook up ur vid card to ur tv,

things you may WANT are more storage, a media centre operating system, lower power consumption vid card wich can still plsy back hd video, blu ray drive, tv card (to get normal tv into ur pc), the list goes on lol but the specs are defo enough for a media centre and almost defo enough for blu ray/hd dvd playback if u buy the correct optical drive.

look at the out puts on ur video card and the inputs on ur tv and try to find a cable that links the 2... simple!

also look at cables for audio if you dont intend to have dedicated speakers for your htpc