Low cpu intensive OTA HDTV card for MCE [Archive] - Canadian TV, Computing and Home Theatre Forums

electrocutioner

2007-01-29, 09:01 AM

I bought a refurbished MCE 2005 emachine with a celeron-d 356 processor,512 mg ram,and am using a nvidia 7300 256 mg card to use as a dedicated media centre.

I am making good use out of the fs/bb return policy trying to get a tuner card working to my liking for ota hdtv. The computer is quite capable, using the Hauppauge 950 usb tuner, I can watch and record hdtv nicely(somewhat cpu intensive, works best using vlc),but not in media centre so far. I have also tried the kworld atsc-100 and an Hauppauge gotv analogue card(to set up MCE).

Over the course of the weekend I have gotten some sound as well as occasional picture (analogue stations only) from MCE, but it has slowed the system down to the point where it is useless. Will I be able to use MCE with this system? What can I do to keep it from getting so cpu intensive while processing tv?

I was considering trying out either an HDTV all in wonder . Is this card hard to set up under MCE? I see that the new ATI 650 card is supposed to run natively under MCE, but it is pricey(and no remote). Is it worth the extra coin?

The computer works quite nicely otherwise, all I want to use it for is media, but I really want it to perform seamlessly with a nice menu system. I have tried beyondtv (can't get it to work) and sage tv(also very choppy). Is there some way to boot the pc so that only media centre and internet are working?

PS will a computer do the same thing as an upconverting dvd player? Can I return the new one I just bought?

electrocutioner

2007-01-31, 10:21 AM

An update to anyone interested.
Against my better judgment,I got an HDTV all in wonder card.While not the favorite, it was the most readily available, and I saw that people are making it work despite frustrations.

It seemed to work fairly well using WATCHHDTV
http://watchhdtv.net/default.aspx
which was a start.

I then set up using Kram hacks from the guide provided from this site
http://www.hdtvtunerinfo.com/krammcehdtv1.html

Still couldn't see any tv, but thanks to one of this site's members personal blog, I was able to walk through a successful setup hack to get it to work in Canada
http://www.thenears.com/archives/216

So I'm up and running, seemingly in spite of low budget hardware. So far so good. Now my next challenge seems to be that I can not yet record in MCE for some reason, nor can I change the settings for the recorder to increase the HD space it is using beyond the default 10 gig. I also think I will have to re-install the operating system to another HD and use this one for recording to.Probably increase the ram as well.

As far as using the dvd rom for upconversion, my magic 8-ball says "all signs point to yes":eek:


Canadian TV, Computing and Home Theatre Forums > Consumer Electronics and Home Computing > Home Theatre Personal Computer (HTPC) and Media Extenders > Low cpu intensive OTA HDTV card for MCE PDA : Low cpu intensive OTA HDTV card for MCE electrocutioner 2007-01-29, 09:01 AM I bought a refurbished MCE 2005 emachine with a celeron-d 356 processor,512 mg ram,and am using a nvidia 7300 256 mg card to use as a dedicated media centre. I am making good use out of the fs/bb return policy trying to get a tuner card working to my liking for ota hdtv. The computer is quite capable, using the Hauppauge 950 usb tuner, I can watch and record hdtv nicely(somewhat cpu intensive, works best using vlc),but not in media centre so far. I have also tried the kworld atsc-100 and an Hauppauge gotv analogue card(to set up MCE). Over the course of the weekend I have gotten some sound as well as occasional picture (analogue stations only) from MCE, but it has slowed the system down to the point where it is useless. Will I be able to use MCE with this system? What can I do to keep it from getting so cpu intensive while processing tv? I was considering trying out either an HDTV all in wonder . Is this card hard to set up under MCE? I see that the new ATI 650 card is supposed to run natively under MCE, but it is pricey(and no remote). Is it worth the extra coin? The computer works quite nicely otherwise, all I want to use it for is media, but I really want it to perform seamlessly with a nice menu system. I have tried beyondtv (can't get it to work) and sage tv(also very choppy). Is there some way to boot the pc so that only media centre and internet are working? PS will a computer do the same thing as an upconverting dvd player? Can I return the new one I just bought? electrocutioner 2007-01-31, 10:21 AM An update to anyone interested. Against my better judgment,I got an HDTV all in wonder card.While not the favorite, it was the most readily available, and I saw that people are making it work despite frustrations. It seemed to work fairly well using WATCHHDTV http://watchhdtv.net/default.aspx which was a start. I then set up using Kram hacks from the guide provided from this site http://www.hdtvtunerinfo.com/krammcehdtv1.html Still couldn't see any tv, but thanks to one of this site's members personal blog, I was able to walk through a successful setup hack to get it to work in Canada http://www.thenears.com/archives/216 So I'm up and running, seemingly in spite of low budget hardware. So far so good. Now my next challenge seems to be that I can not yet record in MCE for some reason, nor can I change the settings for the recorder to increase the HD space it is using beyond the default 10 gig. I also think I will have to re-install the operating system to another HD and use this one for recording to.Probably increase the ram as well. As far as using the dvd rom for upconversion, my magic 8-ball says "all signs point to yes":eek: