Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Qythyx]

I've been using MC for a while on my PC and I'm looking to move to the next step of being able to access my media from my TV. I'm looking for suggestions on how to best do this.

The primary scenario for me is to be able to access my videos (including various reencoded movies as well as raw DVD copies, i.e., VOB files). My main incentive for doing this is so that my kids can easily access our DVDs and play what they want without having to do the DVD-disc-juggle, which tends to cause misplaced and scratched discs.

So, I know as a minimum I need a way for an interface to be shown on the TV and I need a remote control to control it. I'm thinking there are 3 main options for me:

1. Use my existing PC and have the video/audio connected to my TV. The biggest problem with this is that I don't have any extra video-out connectors to connect to the TV.

2. Get a HTPC and connect it to my TV directly. I believe this should do everything I need, but I'm not sure of the best usage option. Is just running MC in Theater mode the recommended solution?

3. Get some other type of hardware device that support accessing my media from either my share directly or through MC. I know these devices exist, but I don't know my about them. My biggest concern is that these devices seem to have limited file format support and low upgradeability.


So, what are other people using? What's recommended? What are the gotchas I should be aware of? And, if anyone can speak to it, will MC 12 change the picture at all?


Oh, I should also mention that I do want to support 5.1 sound and HD output (although I don't have any HD input yet). Also, it'd be nice, but not critical, to be able to record TV as well.

[raym]

Sounds like you're wanting an HTPC to me but you're right... there's many different ways to aproach this and it'll all depend on how brave you are 

I've never used a dedicated non-pc hardware solution for this stuff so I can't really comment other than I've heard the same thing in terms of their limited file format support. The interfaces on these things are also not the best I've heard.

Buying a dedicated HTPC would definately give you what you're after but will cost you some.

The way I'd recommend you approached this is by using your existing pc in conjunction with Theater View. Build up your system one piece at a time until you're happy. For example, start by upgrading your video card to give you the video outputs you need for your tv and connect your sound card's audio out to either your tv or hifi. This should be enough for you to get things up and running resonably cheaply and quickly.

Once it's looking like you're getting somewhere, you can then look into the other niceties like remote control, scheduling tv recordings, upgrading your sound card (if required) to give you DD/DTS audio etc etc...

I use Theater View almost exclusively for all this stuff with all my media on a network share. It all works very well and with a little perserverence, I was recently able to say goodbye to my CD player, VCR and DVD player.

Hope this helps.

[dlone]

I use a d-link dsm-320rd for this (but it's honestly not the best choice, there are better ones)

Coupled with tversity it does just what I want
It's about the same size/shape as a dvd player and plays pretty much all of my audio/video (plus dvd's and flash cards) whilst being small and quiet - also it was a lot cheaper than building a HTPC

On the whole i'd give it 9 out of 10
It does have a few irritations - fast forward and rewind being the biggest headache, it does it, but it's really slow doing it (the best it seems to get up to is 9x)

There are better unit out there though - I just bought the first thing I could find that did the job

[Jakester]

I just hooked my PC into my RPTV via S-Video since my TV is analog.  Set output to 800x600 and it's usable.  HDTV obviously would be much nicer!

I use a wireless keyboard (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16823192001) with built-in mouse and the normal MC view.  Much more powerful than Theater View.  Yeah it's not as small as a normal remote, but then again it's not that much larger than some of the fancy touch-screens and it gives complete control, including Web surfing etc.