Building a PC as a PVR/Bluray Player

[coolj478]

I wanted a PC that I plug into my HDTV to act as a pvr and blu ray player. So I went out and bought a dell studio slim pc.

Worked great except for watching clear qam cable channels, the audio would skip every 10 to 20 seconds. So I looked for a setting to change on the PVR software (WinTV) but couldn't find anything worth changing to fix the problem.

The CPU was never maxed out (not even close) and the video displayed fine on the TV (also the sound worked fine if I watched an analog cable channel only problem was clear qam). So I tried plugging the same coaxial cable directly into my TV and watched the same clear qam channels, the sound was perfect (so the problem has to be the computer).

I tried calling dell support but they couldn't figure anything out either, finally I tried installing XP over windows Vista, but that didn't solve the problem. It should also be noted that both audio and video worked perfectly when playing a blu ray. Since dell couldn't tell me what was wrong they sent another machine and that still didn't work.

So now I'm setting out to build my own machine. For reference here's what was in the dell machine:
Intel® Core™ 2 Quad processor Q8200
Blu-ray Disc
4GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz
ATI Radeon HD 3450 256MB
Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio
Hauppauge HVR1250 hybrid TV Tuner

I'm thinking for the machine I build I'll use: a Hauppauge HVR2250 hybrid TV Tuner instead.
I'm also thinking quad core is unnecessary...I'm thinking I'll go for a dual core 3ghz. Since both TV tuner cards suggest at least a 2.2ghz P4...maybe the 2.3 quad core (8200) was cutting it too close?
Getting that same video card should be a cheap and usable option (since it worked perfectly when watching a blu ray).
4GB of ram should also do the trick.

Where I'm kind of torn is on the sound card...should a mother board with good integrated sound be enough or could that have been my problem all along...no dedicated sound card?

Let me know what you guys think?

Thanks!

 

[superfuzzy]

Have you considered building a PC around an AMD 780G motherboard, such as an ASUS M3A78-EM AM2+/AM2 AMD 780G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard?
That chipset and an AMD 65 nm processor will play Blueray, x.264, etc. For gaming you would probably need more than the on board graphics.

 

[shortstuff_mt]

I'd upgrade to at least a HD 4670 GPU. You could also check out the HD 4550, but I think the 4670 makes a great HTPC GPU. I like your choice of the HVR-2250. I just picked one up in addition to my HVR-1600. I use this rig as a HTPC and it works great!

E6420@3.2GHz - ZALMAN 9500A- GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS3 - 4GB CORSAIR XMS2 DDR2-800 - CORSAIR 520HX - 64-bit Vista - Hauppauge HVR-1600 & HVR-2250 TV Tuners

I tweaked Vista to allow my to record 3 HD and one analog show at the same time. I use an OTA antenna, but my HD playback is flawless. That should give you an idea of what to expect since you're looking at a 3GHz Core2Duo and my CPU is running at 3.2GHz.

I use Vista Media Center as my UI. The problem could possibly be with the WinTV software. I didn't like that software at all. I installed it, checked it out, and uninstalled it in about 20 minutes. Vista Media Center works great for me.

 

[coolj478]

Thanks for all the advice so far!

shortstuff: A couple of questions what are you using for sound? Are you using the integrated sound on your motherboard (if so what board do you have) or are you using a sound card?

I completely agree, WinTV is horrible, but I wasn't able to get any clear qam channels on Vista's Media Center, which is why I didn't use it. How'd you get digital to work on Vista MC?

Thanks again!

 

[KyleSTL]

There is a ClearQAM patch for VMC. Search for it on the net. The 2250 is an awesome device, nice choice. The computer you spec'd should be fine. I'd suggest getting an OEM copy of Vista Home Premium/Ultimate and starting with a clean slate. All the junk the Dell installs is probably what's holding it back. Don't believe for a second that the computer you have is incapable of doing what you want it to do. I have a HTPC

E5200
HD 3650 DDR3 512
HVR 1600
HVR 1800
4GB Corsair
6400AAKS

...and it runs everything flawlessly. I think building brand new is a waste of money. If you don't like the case, get a new one and use everything from the Dell, but don't start all over, the problem is the software, not the hardware.

 

[shortstuff_mt]

I'm using the onboard sound on my Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3.

I'd look up the Clear QAM patch or look into Vista Media Center TV Pack 2008. The TV pack allows clear QAM using Vista Media Center. The only reason I haven't installed it is because it records in a new format. I edit a lot of my recorded TV and I'm not sure the editing software supports the new format. Other than that one thing, the TV Pack looks awesome - Google it.