Some Questions on Hardware

[Rovers3]

Ok so i have played around with MC 2005 and a few free apps and all are nice, but Sage TV so far is the one i like the best.
So after a trial on a PC with out a TV tuner (wanted to test the other features) this will be the winner.
I am building a HTPC. This PC will have no other uses other than to be a PVR, DVD, MP3, Picture player. No gaming i have a rig designed just for that.
So here is my question.
I am looking at the following right now and trying to keep the cost low as i have most of the items (HD, Processor, case, 256mb ram, 1 PVR 150 Retail, Video card)

AMD Sempron 2800+ 64 edition (will OC to 2 ghz)
At least 512 (more like 764)mb of Ram.
1 40 Gig ATA drive for the OS (windows XP Pro)
1 250 Gig SATA drive for the recordings and MP3 and so forth.
1 PVR-150 Retail
1 PVR-150MCE
ATI X700 Pro 256mb Video card

Motherboard is yet to be determined but i will us the OB sound for now.
Case i have one for now.

depending if i am unlucky with the PVR-150's i might get the usb-uirt as well, but my setup box has serial (that works) as well.

Any suggestions would be great.
I have searched but i most of the units people post are client/server units and several use them to game as well.

This unit will be the Client/server that other then the setup will not have a monitor hooked up and be a direct hook up to the TV. That is the reason for the question.
Thanks
in advance.

[paulbeers]

I can't speak on behalf of the X700. I believe others are using those for displaying HDTV. I use a geforce 6600 by gigabyte that has "silent-heat pip technology" (or something like that) so that it does not require a fan and it works perfectly. I hook it to my 51" toshiba CRT at 1080i and a sempron 2600+ with no probs. I also have found that 512 mb should be plenty of ram. Figure Windows XP will take 200, and sage only requires about 50 more). I used to run it off an only celeron 766 with only 384 mb of PC133 and it never maxed out the ram. In my case I do use a client/server setup, but before I built my current setup, I tested it with my server (see below for stats) hooked up to my HDTV w/ the same geforce 6600 with no problems what-so-ever and rarely went about 40% CPU usage (Maybe 50-55% if I was recording a bunch of shows and watching HDTV). Just remember one tid bit. The Sage Codecs are crap. They are there if you know nothing about computers and don't know what codecs are and just watching SDTV. I use Cyberlink codecs because I already had them purchased, but most people recomend Nvidia codecs whether you are using ATI video cards or Nvidia.

Bottom line: I see no reason why your rig wouldn't work. People have done it with less.

[Rovers3]

I will more than likely use the NVidia codecs for this.
the X700 i have from an upgrade i did a while ago.

[TakeFlight]

I'm running a SageTV client on an Asus T2-P barebones system with a Celeron D 2.93GHz processor. I'm using the integrated Intel Extreme Graphics 2 video to drive my LCD TV at it's native 1360x768 resolution and 1080i HD playback is flawless (using Overlay, not VMR9). I actually haven't tried VMR9 and probably won't since I don't like the "soft" image it produced when I've tried it on my SageTV server computer. Full specs are in my sig below.

[paulbeers]

What is your CPU usage like? I am surprised you can get decent playback with Integrated graphics. I am sure I couldn't pull that off doing 1080i native though, but definately a win I guess! I would say with that info, that x700 should do just fine then!

[TakeFlight]

Originally Posted by paulbeers

What is your CPU usage like? I am surprised you can get decent playback with Integrated graphics. I am sure I couldn't pull that off doing 1080i native though, but definately a win I guess! I would say with that info, that x700 should do just fine then!

Yeah, I was pleasantly surprised that it worked without a hitch. I was trying to build a client PC as cheap as possible so I figured why not give the integrated video a shot before spending money on a card. Even if it played back HD fine I was concerned it might not support the native res of my LCD TV (1360x768). But again, pleasantly surprised that it supports it! My CPU usage is around 60% when playing 1080i HD recordings. So, still some head room there.

[blade]

Even if onboard graphics playback smooth it doesn't mean that they'll do as good a job with the deinterlacing as a better card would.

Whatever you do stick with an nvidia or intel based motherboard. Most others have quite a few problems when trying to use them in a HTPC.

[TakeFlight]

Originally Posted by blade

Even if onboard graphics playback smooth it doesn't mean that they'll do as good a job with the deinterlacing as a better card would.

Whatever you do stick with an nvidia or intel based motherboard. Most others have quite a few problems when trying to use them in a HTPC.

I agree with sticking with an intel based MB. Not that others won't work but you will likely have less headaches with an intel based MB. Of course that's what mine is given it's got the intel integrated graphics. I didn't even think about deinterlacing when I was testing this out. That to me says a lot because it means I didn't notice any deinterlacing issues. PQ is great. It's comparable to the PQ I'm getting (on the same TV) from my Comcast/Motorola 6412 DVR hooked up via HDMI. The PC is hooked up to the TV via VGA.

[Rovers3]

For sure i am looking at an Nvidia board eith e a NF4 or NF3

[paulbeers]

Good choice on sticking to Nvidia. Surprisingly I have had luck with Sis and Via chipsets (I built a cheap pvr using a sis 760 chipset and it worked flawlessly, and I 'retro' fitted an older athlon64 that was using a via k8t800 chipset that was built back when that was about the only choice) and they actually worked, however, I won't use either of them anymore. If it isn't Nvidia (preferred), then I will use an ATI chipset.

[Rovers3]

Has anyone tried the ATI Xpress 200 based boards?

I am looking at one of these possably as i am looking for a Micro ATX Board.

Just wondering if it will conflict with the 2 pvr cards.

Or should i just get a Standard ATX board?