another post from Andy!, this time about grapics cards

[AndyScotland]

Hi All,

2 posts in 10 mins sorry

I've seen how nice Sky+ can be but can't justify getting Sky TV - I get most of my telly from the web
My freeeview box does the job but it's 5 years old & doesn't have all the features like Sky+ pause live TV, schedule programs to record etc
I usually burn avis onto a DVDR & bung it in my DVD player (converting wmvs is a pain tho'!)
(Watching Sons of Anarchy back to back over last weekend was ace!)
Now I've shedloads of old cases, PSUs, processors etc lying about my house.
What I'd like to do is stick together a PC to go behind my TV, I'd then LAN it to my main PC.
I've a tower with a very quiet PSU & an OK processor it, I was hoping that I could get a Graphics card (would probably have to be AGP but I'll need to check to motherboard) that'd
a) Play avis, DVDs etc on my Telly
&
b) Watch Freeview on my Telly too
Both would be nice but a) is the most important!
For this I'd need a graphics with a remote control - I'd seen them years ago but can't find one now!
Does anyone use or seen this kind of card? I've looked but can't really find anything
I'd like to keep this (for want of a better term) media PC to be separate from my gaming rig so cost is kinda, sorta important - I don't want to break the bank so it doesn't need to be this years model
I've seen reviews of of 1TB media servers on ebay from Hong Kong for roundabout a 100 quid but the player part can be a bit ropey.

Am I asking too much??

Sorry if this post is rambling a bit but I'm looking after my 7 year old daughter who has just informed me that she wants to be a kick boxer & wrestler & is currently bouncing round the living room practicing her moves...........if she hurts herself or breaks anything I'm a dead man so this won't matter

[Nemes1s]

If u wanna go real cheap for get about the secand pc and get one of those signal sender boxs out a argos Am planing on doing the sam e thing hav a secand pc am not using and am just gonna us a wireless mouse i hav seen a cool key bored for this kida thing that has a rollerball on it there not to big either

[Thundercat]

You mean a TV card with remote I take it?

One I used to own was a nebula freeview card http://www.nebula-electronics.com/ but be warned most of theese TV cards are single tuners so you can only watch what you are recording
The nebula card also acts as a webTV so you can watch TV over the lan on your laptop etc or viw the internet from work, kinda neat. Also has web interface so you can login from work and set it to record your fave TV while you go off on the piss

Now they are not cheap... always a down side. Dual freeview boxs ore under 70 quid now so you might want to look into them instead to be honest, get one that has a good output so you can copy the recorded file to your computer maybe??

[recruit]

http://xbmc.org/


I have this running on an x-box 1. i can watch youtube videos and stream all my moves from my main PCs 1Tb hdd. Its got some cool stuff and I think the new software has iplayer support etc.

Best of all.. its free. I got an old xbox for a tenner and stick this on however if you have old pc bits about you could build a small low poer machine that will do just what it needs.

I dont know if thats of any help..

[snoopy]

i have an old xbox for £30 if u need it then

[JohnMcClane]

They're £15 in gamestation

[snoopy]

shhhhh

i may still use it, but if anyone wants it i'll part with it for £30- has sentimental value so wouldn't want less

[AndyScotland]

I’ve got my TV PC up and running. I’ve an old tower with a silent PSU. I stuck a cheap nvidia card in it. It’s got a heat sink but no fan which is good. I got an unused hauppauge TV card cheap off e-bay 50 quid instead of 70. It came with a remote. I also got a 1TB drive for 50 quid too. I attached a wireless keyboard & mouse to it. I looked at mythTV but couldn’t be bothered installing it instead I installed MediaPortal which is pretty good. It has lots of neat plug in such as my TV series which means that I can put (for instance) The Wire on the HDD & when I press the info button it gives me a synopsis of the episode – neat. You can also do the same thing for your films where it’ll pull the details from IMDB.com