well... you can call it a HTPC if you want because that is the roll that it is preforming. But the comptuer i am using started life out as a desktop computer in some company office.

It is a Dell Dimension p4 2.4 small form factor desktop PC. (This was Free)
I have done the following.

  • removed the floppy, and put a 80gig HD in its place. (old extra HD)
  • replaced the CDROM with a DVD-Burner. ($200)
  • Added 1 Hauppage pvr250, 1 avermedia m150 video tuner cards. (~$250)
  • replaced the videocard with a Chaintech fx5200 nvidia ($50)
  • Added a vga to component transcoder to display a 720p resolution on my hdtv. ($120)
  • i have a ATI HD-Wonder that was in the system, but not at the moment. This is the card that recorded the hidef recordings of LOST used for the last two screencaps above. When I rebuild into a bigger case, this card will be going back in. (gift from boss)
  • Added the Microsoft Media Center Remote ($40)
  • Installed Microsoft Media Center 2005 ($130 i think)
    [list]
  • Nvidia nvdvd codecs ($20)
  • Powerstrip to get 720p video timing into the hdtv ($30)

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Over all it has been something that I have been working on for the last year or so now. the move to MCE2005 just happend about 5 months ago. Before MCE2005 I was running Beyond TV. I switched because of preformance issues with beyond tv, bugs, and crashes.

I had my sister and her little boy over friday. I put in the DVD Monsters Inc. for her little boy to watch. She made the comment "Wow! we have this same dvd but it looks nothing like that!... look you can see each hair!" I think that they will be getting a hdtv soon


Bryce