Tom-Guy

Inqy, you sure Win Media Center isn't going to be deathly slow on an 866 Mhz P3, or can nlite be used to gut it to bare essentials?

Craig, I haven't gotten either of my CarPC projects off the ground with a CarPC media skin on it; in fact the book PC I want to use for media is the original version. I'd follow Bizzar's advice above as he's had his for over a year now and I believe he's tried a couple different flavors.

Jorsher

haha was just ------- with ya JD. I'd still be rocking my monster of a 32" flat screen crt clocking in at about 180lb and barely fitting in an entertainment center designed for a 36" with an *** so big I had to alter the faux wood cardboard crap on the back. Only reason I have HD is because I can get it cheap.

I thought about using Windows Media Center Edition, but I don't know how well it will run. My oc'ed athlon 2400+, 1gb ram, 256mb radeon 9600 don't play 1080p too well, kinda choppy. Hell, 720p isn't exactly smooth, even after a fresh format. I'm going to mess with the overclocked settings for the video card, proc, and ram to see if maybe they're set too high (or need more voltage) and maybe that'll explain why my comp freezes even after a new format.

I looked into that MythTV thing before, looked pretty promising. I don't want to mess with Linux because I have all the great games with windows, the 360 control (best PC control IMO), the emulators, good media players, etc that I want to play on the projector, even though I'm sure linux will run smoother/faster. Also, I don't know a damn thing about Linux and don't want to learn. I might just try the windows media center, format the comp again, only install what's necessary, tweak the overclocked crap, throw in a tv tuner, and be done with it.

Maybe a carpc front end would be good since they're pretty compact?

Tom-Guy

I wasn't thinking of you when I said that. The guy who might pick up your 50" is the bling-master, and he and a friend were trying to be nice about it but failling miserably the last time they were at the house. If I had an ego I imagine I'd have been pissed, but it was funny watching him realise he'd made an indirectly rude comment and pause for a second before he remembered who he was talking to, and that I don't give a ----. If it costs more than $5, or I can't trade a bunch of ---- I got for free for it, I don't care about it.

Hitchhikkr

Im just givin you hell.
You deserve it and stuff.

T20 doesnt look too bad where im at, still kickin it with the busted *** compaq (pre-hp)

bigdaddyvtec

JD...

As i work on the MS Media center devices team here at ms... I can assure you that on anything less than 3.2GHZ HT proc w/ a gig of ram its gonna be a pig. You can run it on a 2.4, thats stripped down... but At least 3.2 Ht is optimal. It would work however. Just not on a 866 MHZ machine.

A "few" of my vista test machines here at work:

Jorsher

i sees me a monitor with 360 dashboard.

sold someone a widescreen 20" the other day and realized it had component inputs, wish i woulda kept it to rig up in a car. ----. oh well.

bigdaddyvtec

ya that bigscreen in the background actually has the media center "extender" bits embedded in the device. HP has a model on the market, the hardwareis included, but the firmwareisnton tghe units yet... Thats what we are developing.the cool thing is that when you buy a new device (ie TV, DVD player, Zune, etc.), you have everything needed. You wont have to usean external extender such as the xbox, 360, or various settop boxes... So in short, the tvswill have the front end gui....BUILT IN.

prettysweet, we got some cool toys ....

BTW i have a few FM/NTSC Tuner/capture cards laying around too... the cool thing is that the extenders dont use the PC video to render.

Bizzar

I mainly stuck to Roadrunner as it has literaly hundreds of skins to choose from. You can even download a skin editor and make it look like whatever the hell you want. The most recent PITA I have been working on is linking my bluetooth phone to the sob. So, when I am listening to music, watching a movie or have the TV playing, it mutes the sound and incoming calls ring in through my speakers. So far, it dials out and thats as far as I have gotten. Damn this Nokia!

FYI all the frontends I have tried support external aps with a few mods to the script. Very simple. I even use my Microsoft Streets and Maps for GPS through the Roadrunner frontend.

Tom-Guy

Sweet! I have Microsoft Streets and Maps 2006! I'll never get lost wandering around my living room again.