NAS + MC + Main Gaming pc in one?

[alexisfire]

Should I have my media server, my PVR, and my personal gaming machine be one super pc, or should I spread those out into 2 or 3 seperate computers?

I've got cat5 running throughout my house to all the rooms, and I want all the rooms to be able to watch video from my server. I also want to get a TV dual tuner card and build a PVR. I also am going to upgrade to a new gaming machine. Should I just put 3TB's in a powerful new gaming machine, and the tuner card in there as well, and do everything from one machine? Or should i have the PVR and the storage be one pc, and the gaming pc by itself, or should I split them into 3 separate boxes?

[ocgw]

Should I have my media server, my PVR, and my personal gaming machine be one super pc, or should I spread those out into 2 or 3 seperate computers?

I've got cat5 running throughout my house to all the rooms, and I want all the rooms to be able to watch video from my server. I also want to get a TV dual tuner card and build a PVR. I also am going to upgrade to a new gaming machine. Should I just put 3TB's in a powerful new gaming machine, and the tuner card in there as well, and do everything from one machine? Or should i have the PVR and the storage be one pc, and the gaming pc by itself, or should I split them into 3 separate boxes?

I do it w/ no problem

I am not saying my way is the best, or the only way, but it works for "I"

http://forum.videohelp.com/topic368691.html

ocgw

peace

[rallynavvie]

You don't need to run separate boxes if you do it right. Keep your drives isolated and set up your network properly. Granted you won't be able to game AND use the HTPC functions of Windows (at least not very well) but your tuner can capture while you're gaming with no issues as long as you dedicate a drive to it. I have 5 tuners writing to a single drive and can playback from that drive while all 5 tuners are recording without issue. All of my applications are on the dedicated OS drive. Another large drive holds all my documents, another for my VMs, and another etc,etc.

[alexisfire]

So do you have all 5 tuner cards in one PC? Or do you have a pc with a tuner card in it at each tv? I'll probalby have 4 tv's throughout the house. And I want as little visible at each TV as possible, so they look nice. Or should I just use set-top PVR's at each tv?

[rallynavvie]

That's all 5 tuners in a single box: two HVR-1600s and a single PVR-250. I've since scaled those back as there was never a need to record from 5 different channels at once, I just don't want to watch that much TV

What you're describing will require media center extenders. If you have TVs which are located away from your computer with network cable running to them an extender will interface with your HTPC to playback video. You can use dedicated extenders or something like an Xbox. Most extenders work with Windows Media Center if that's what you're using for the host machine.

[ocgw]

If you do this definitely go w/ a quad core cpu

ocgw

peace

[rallynavvie]

If you do this definitely go w/ a quad core cpu

Any particular reason why? The Hauppauge cards use hardware MPEG2 encoders to save your recorded content and there's almost no impact to CPU cycles from this process. Even playback, depending on the video card, of that recorded content will use no CPU cycles. Sharing the drives out to the network shouldn't use barely any CPU either. Should be able to get away with a dual-core since the gaming is only going to use a single core (for now). Unless you're going to encode that content down to something else (like using DVRMS Toolbox and ComSkip) there shouldn't be a need for 4 cores. Would really need more details on what it's used for. At least the cost differences between dual-core and quad-core machines are pretty narrow, otherwise spend the extra cash on a better video card for gaming.

[alexisfire]

So lets say I have a nice powerful PC, with 4 tuner cards in it. I have a tv in the room with the PVR, and then 3 tv's throughout the house in other rooms. If I want people in those rooms to have PVR functions will that work? Or will I be the only person with PVR capabilities? And I'm confused about how the people at the other TV's will be able to watch TV, will they need cable boxes at each TV? Do those media extenders work via cat 5?

I'm such a newb

[rallynavvie]

The computer with the tuners in it is where you set all your programs to record like a DVR. I've not used any official Media Center Extenders to see if they also allow you to engage the DVR functions or if they just support playback of recorded content. I'm guessing it's the latter. In order to support DVR functions (interacting with a show that's currently airing instead of playing back one that's already recorded) you'd probably need another HTPC, but again I've not used an extender to see how much it can interface with the main HTPC. Someone with an Xbox maybe can chime in on that? I've heard they have pretty good integration with Media Center.

If you do connect the TVs with extenders they'll at least be able to playback any video content you've shared from the main HTPC. If you need live TV you can still hook up the coax input to the TV itself and watch live (without DVR functions of course). Media Center Extenders are network devices so most all of them have a Cat5 jack. I don't know if some are wireless only but I would hope not.

Having a centralized "DVR server" machine sounds like a neat idea though. Does anyone know if MythTV supports this? That's probably one of the better purpose-built HTPC builds I've seen.

[ocgw]

If you do this definitely go w/ a quad core cpu

Any particular reason why? The Hauppauge cards use hardware MPEG2 encoders to save your recorded content and there's almost no impact to CPU cycles from this process. Even playback, depending on the video card, of that recorded content will use no CPU cycles. Sharing the drives out to the network shouldn't use barely any CPU either. Should be able to get away with a dual-core since the gaming is only going to use a single core (for now). Unless you're going to encode that content down to something else (like using DVRMS Toolbox and ComSkip) there shouldn't be a need for 4 cores. Would really need more details on what it's used for. At least the cost differences between dual-core and quad-core machines are pretty narrow, otherwise spend the extra cash on a better video card for gaming.

If you are multitasking or gaming on your main PC while it is being accessed by other users in the house for CD's or Blu Rays I suggest installing a quad core for smooth uninterrupted performance for all users

Why is suggesting installing a quad as cheap as they are now a big deal when we are talking building a "Super PC"? lol

That really is rich, put 5 TV Tuners in 1 PC and think a quad is a waste of money when you can get them for 99 bucks lol

To the OP: Don't shoot your self in the foot being cheap

ocgw

peace