Building a video dedicated computer, asking for advice.

[labrynthe]

First off hi,

I am very new to the video end of computers but not to computers themselves. I want to build a computer that will sit with my television, satalite etc. This will be a starter computer to learn on, I can upgrade later once I have a better feel for what I am doing.

What I am looking to do with the computer:
Take tv shows that I have on my PVR and save them to dvd.
Take some of my Laserdisc's and back them up to dvd (incase my player goes out)
Backup my dvd's (I am already doing this on my main system, but would like to farm it out to this new system)
Copying old videos from VCR format to DVD
Eventually I would like to use my computer to act as a PVR for my Hidef satalite tuner (if that is possible). Also to possibly replace my stand alone dvd player as a home theater computer.


My plan (if feasable) is to take my current backup system and canabalize a few parts from other computers to create the dedicated system.

ASUS A7v333 (MB)
AMD 1700+ (Processor)
512MB (RAM)

canabalized parts
ATI all in wonder Raedon 9600 (AGP Video Card)
Plextor PX-708A (DVD +/- R/RW )

What I need to buy
HD(s)

I also have an
ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe (MB)
AMD 2200+ (processor)
1Gig (RAM)

I would like to keep the A7N8X-E with the 2200 and ram to replace the backup system I will be using for the dedicated video system.

My questions:
Is the ATI All in Wonder card good enough to deal with the tasks I am wanting to try?

Will the ASUS A7v333, AMD 1700+ with 512MB RAM be enough processing power to perform the tasks I want to do?

What software would be a good place to start? I would prefer stuff I can at least download a demo of to try out and see if I like it. Freeware is always fine but I am not opposed to purchasing software if it the good stuff. (I realize this is a tough question to answer just from the vast quanty of post out there reguarding the software available.)

What type of HD's would you reccomend? SCSI or SATA

I have read a bunch of FAQ's on the site and some suggested getting 2 HD's; is this because you should have a raid array, a space issue or because you wish to have a seperate drive for the copies only? If its the latter would partitioning one large drive work just as well?

At the moment I am using a system with ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe, AMD 3200+ and 1gig ram to burn dvd backups, direct copy minus some of the audio tracks (to save space). The software I am using is 1click DVD copy. Although I have recently downloaded a copy of DVDshrink, but havent tried using it for an actual burn yet. When making a backup it takes aprox. 45mins to an hour to make the image and around an hour to burn the disc. I believe this is purly because of the dvd drive (8x dvd+r, 4x dvd+RW, 4x dvd-r, 2x dvd-rw, 12x dvd ROM) not the system. My question is how much of a time impact would I see by moving the dvd drive to the slower computer? (guestimates are just fine)

I guess I should also mention what is important to me with regard to my videos. Formost preservation of video, sound quality and format (such as the aspect ratio).

My appoligies that this has almost turned into a book, but I think my brain is now overflowing with all I have read in the past week.
Thank you for your time
_Lab

[redwudz]

Just a few comments;

If you plan to keep the MB, the XP1700 is a bit slow for encoding, for transcoding with Shrink, probably OK. You could pick up a newer Sempron in the XP3000 range for about $80US if your MB can handle it. 512 memory is probably enough.

SATA is good, but I wouldn't change everything to add it. It's a little faster than IDE, but not a whole lot. If your board already has it, sure, use it.
SCSI is very expensive in the HD sizes needed for video.

Definitely two drives. Small for OS, large for video storage.

The software I use the most is VirtualDub Mod, TMPGEnc Plus encoder, TMPGEnc DVD Author. VDM is freeware, the others cost but have trial versions. Much of the other needed software is free, and you can get freeware encoders and authoring programs if the TMPGEnc package is too expensive.

EDIT: Since I have a little time to spare and no one else has responded yet: I have a setup similar to what you are thinking of. It's hooked up to a video projector in the front room. (It's not the one in my profile)

My dedicated PVR computer has a ASUS A7N8X-E with 512MB DDR400 memory and a XP2200 Sempron processor. I overclocked the CPU to 400Mhz bus speed. It has two 80GB IDE drives, one for the OS and programs and a second for video file storage. It helps to have separate drives as it speeds up data transfers during encoding or transcoding. It has a DVICO over-the-air HDTV tuner. I use a ATI 9550 video card outputting from the DVI port through a ATI to component converter to a home theater projector. I rarely use this machine for encoding or capturing as it is a little slower than my main computer, but I do use DVDshrink with it often. Takes about 40 minutes to back up a DVD from start to burned disc.

It has a DVD ROM and DVD RW drive. I do need another hard drive as 80G fills up fast with video. It's also hooked into a router and cable modem. The machine runs pretty much 24hrs a day.

Anyway, I hope that gives you some ideas.

[edDV]

A few comments to add.

...
I want to build a computer that will sit with my television, satalite etc. ...
What I am looking to do with the computer:
Take tv shows that I have on my PVR and save them to dvd.
Take some of my Laserdisc's and back them up to dvd (incase my player goes out)
Backup my dvd's (I am already doing this on my main system, but would like to farm it out to this new system)
Copying old videos from VCR format to DVD

This is all standard S-Video/audio capture and is well described in forum search. 3 basic approaches:

- low compression direct capture with typical capture card (HDD intensive)
- hardware MPeg encoder (e.g.PVR-250)
- hardware DV capture. Realtime software encoding can be added if computer is fast.

...
Eventually I would like to use my computer to act as a PVR for my Hidef satalite tuner (if that is possible). Also to possibly replace my stand alone dvd player as a home theater computer.

Std def is possible. High def is unlikely since satt tuner-dvr is a closed system.

...
canabalized parts
ATI all in wonder Raedon 9600 (AGP Video Card)
Plextor PX-708A (DVD +/- R/RW )

What I need to buy
HD(s)

My questions:
Is the ATI All in Wonder card good enough to deal with the tasks I am wanting to try?

Will the ASUS A7v333, AMD 1700+ with 512MB RAM be enough processing power to perform the tasks I want to do?

CPU is a bit slow for DVD encoding. It will probably keep up with the AIW. The AIW is a bit wasted on a sat system but will work OK for S-Video capture.

Standard EIDE HDDs (5400 OK 7200 better) are all you need. No RAID. Use separate drives for capture and OS. Capture drives will fill rapidly. Keep adding more.

There is not much to add for PVR software because you are tied to sat. Consider their PVR. If you are also tuning off air try Beyond TV 3 with your AIW card. Your CPU is a bit slow but will work .

Otherwise, you are just capping standard def S-Video/audio from the Sat tuner and burning DVD. Plenty of ways to do that.

[labrynthe]

Thank you for the great response, they gave me some food for thought. I have decided to forgo upgrading my reg backup sys and use

ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe (MB)
AMD 2200+ (processor)
1Gig (RAM)

for my dedicated video sys. Since it really sounds like the 1.5ghz will be too slow or will barely cut the mustard. I did not understand what EdDV meant by

The AIW is a bit wasted on a sat system but will work OK for S-Video capture.

Do you mean that the AIW will do more then I want it to? I had read in a few places on the site that AIW might be lacking for what I wanted to do.
I have been thinking about it more and when I take the AIW out of my current system for this I will need to buy a new video card for my game play. Would it be better to take the cash (around 200 ish) and just buy a better capture card? As the ATI works fine for the game play and I dont really need to upgrade there yet.

I did some poking around online and at some of the mom and pop stores near me and found some decently priced HD's. I was looking at a
WD SATA (10,000rpm) 34gb
WD SATA (7200 rpm) 200gb
Was thinking of using the 34 for operating sys and programs and the 200 for the data.
Am I missing anything there?
What I was planing to do was capture, encode, burn, test, delete, move on to next project. Is this enough space, I am sure I will be using really large files becuase maintaining as much quality as possible is really important to me.

To clarify one thing from my original post, when i mentioned my hidef sat reciever I should have said I have a PVR- 510 and a Hidef receiver. The high def doesnt have any recording capabilities, but when we got it they gave use the pvr as a freebie and we got hooked. Now that they are offering more channels with the HiDef package I was thinking of hooking up the Hidef receiver again, but was trying to avoid loosing my recording ability.

[labrynthe]

Opps forgot, one other thing

The MB has built in sound

Realtek ALC650 6-Channel CODEC
Integrated APU(Audio Processor Unit)
Dolby Digital (AC-3) Encorder
S/PDIF in / out interface

http://usa.asus.com/prog/spec.asp?m=A7N8X-E%20Deluxe&langs=09


Does this actually mean that I can maintain my AC-3 5.1 or DTS when I record something from an outside source (like a Laserdisc). Or do I need to be shopping for a good sound card?

[studtrooper]

To get the most out of capturing audio, a dedicated sound card is a must. I recommend the Audigy 2, it can be had for under $100 at places like Newegg.

[jollyjohn]

http://www.pcmech.com/build.htm