Media Center Laptop

[Shaun004]

I'm sorry if this info can be found elsewhere but I've been researching this stuff for a week or so and just want some advice from people who have practical experience with what I'm trying to do. I'm not all that computer savvy, but I am able to do things to my computer given the proper instruction and have a basic understanding of how everything works. I have a laptop I bought in 2007. It's a HP Pavilion dv6245us. My daughter cracked the screen around thanksgiving last year and I decided to go ahead and buy a newer computer in a black friday sale rather than repair the screen which would have cost a lot of money. I have no use for the laptop and I've decided to turn it into a media center where I can play all my media files and use it as a dvr as well. Here are the specs:

Centrino Duo T5200 1.6 Ghz
1 GB RAM SO DIMM 200 PIN
160 GB HD
Intel GMA 950 Video Card 256 MB RAM

It has an S-Video (7 Pin) and VGA output and it runs Vista Home Premium with MCE.
My goal is to use this computer as a DVR, DVD player, music player, FM radio possibly, Video file player, and internet browser (via wireless keyboard & mouse). I would prefer not to spend too much money, id like to keep it sub 200 as far as upgrading the actual system.

I am planning on upgrading the memory to 2 GB (Max for this laptop) (I found that Best Buy will be offering PNY 2 GB Memory for 35 on black friday so im planning on buying that, is that good?) . Should I upgrade the video card? Can I upgrade the video card in a laptop? Which tv tuner's are the best? Is VGA a quality output (full HD???)? Should I upgrade the sound card? I use comcast cable and a lot of the channels are moving into the 200's, will i be able to record these channels? How much space should i allocate for the dvr? My plan was to transfer all of my music flies (80 GB so far) to this computer, but to keep my video files on my external hard drive and to use an 8 gb flash drive to plug into the "media laptop" when i wanted to watch certain movies to keep enough space for the dvr. Does this seem like a decent idea? Also, from my research I've gotten the impression that vista is a very cpu intensive OS, should i consider overhauling my entire OS since the comp will be used solely for media/internet? Which OS, if any, would be preferable and why? Any and all help would be appreciated. Thank you in advance.

[redwudz]

It's unlikely that you can upgrade the video card or the sound card on the laptop. Upping the memory for Vista should help. Vista is a bit CPU intensive, but trying to change the OS may be a bit difficult as XP or other OS drivers may not be available. I would just leave Vista in there.

VGA is the best output, at least better than S-video. What are you planning on displaying the video on?

There are lots of TV tuners available. But US over the air TV will switch over to digital in February, so if you plan to watch OTA, take that into account. If you have cable, it may continue to broadcast in standard definition for some time. I would look into a USB tuner, but be advised if you have other USB peripherals, you may have some interference.

Hauppauge has a USB tuner which you might consider: http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/prods_hvr_external.html

And welcome to our forums.

[edDV]

It's a HP Pavilion dv6245us.

Centrino Duo T5200 1.6 Ghz
1 GB RAM SO DIMM 200 PIN
160 GB HD
Intel GMA 950 Video Card 256 MB RAM

It has an S-Video (7 Pin) and VGA output and it runs Vista Home Premium with MCE.
My goal is to use this computer as a DVR, DVD player, music player, FM radio possibly, Video file player, and internet browser (via wireless keyboard & mouse). I would prefer not to spend too much money, id like to keep it sub 200 as far as upgrading the actual system.

I am planning on upgrading the memory to 2 GB (Max for this laptop) (I found that Best Buy will be offering PNY 2 GB Memory for 35 on black friday so im planning on buying that, is that good?) .


Should I upgrade the video card? Can I upgrade the video card in a laptop?

You can't upgrade the video chipset. The GMA950 is marginal for VGA out and poor for S-Video out.

What is your TV display? If it is a 1366x768 native LCD-TV with VGA in, the GMA950 should be able to map that at 1:1.

Which tv tuner's are the best?

It would need to be external. Are you tuning over the air or just cable? Check out the Hauppauge HD-PVR to tap your cable box YPbPr.

Is VGA a quality output (full HD???)?

The chipset supports 720p and 1080i. The HP laptop probably won't do 1080p over VGA. Check for yourself on your HDTV and see how high it will go.

Should I upgrade the sound card?

This would need to be external USB. You probably need an external device to play AC3 5.1.

I use comcast cable and a lot of the channels are moving into the 200's, will i be able to record these channels?

You would need to tap the cable box with an HD-PVR to get digital SD and HD channels.
http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/data_hdpvr.html

How much space should i allocate for the dvr? My plan was to transfer all of my music flies (80 GB so far) to this computer, but to keep my video files on my external hard drive and to use an 8 gb flash drive to plug into the "media laptop" when i wanted to watch certain movies to keep enough space for the dvr. Does this seem like a decent idea? Also, from my research I've gotten the impression that vista is a very cpu intensive OS, should i consider overhauling my entire OS since the comp will be used solely for media/internet? Which OS, if any, would be preferable and why? Any and all help would be appreciated. Thank you in advance.

This laptop is a poor choice for an HTPC. A fast desktop with a decent NVIDIA 8600 up would do much better and allow use of internal disks and AV components.

[edDV]

Hauppauge has a USB tuner which you might consider: http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/prods_hvr_external.html

The new USB2 Hauppauge stick tuners have added ClearQAM tuning. This gets you the locals off cable in HD but the only way these can cap digital cable channels is from cable box S-Video NTSC.

You would need the HD-PVR box to get the cable digital SD+HD channels out of the cable box in full resolution. The problem here is the HD-PVR records to h.264. Your laptop + GMA950 will be marginal for h.264 playback so you may need to drop resolution to 720p and use higher bit rates.

[jman98]

This laptop is a poor choice for an HTPC. A fast desktop with a decent NVIDIA 8600 up would do much better and allow use of internal disks and AV components.

I strongly advise paying attention to this good advice. In my opinion all laptops are poor choices for HTPCs because of the difficulty of upgrades. I understand why people want small and portable, but all that means in reality is that you can't upgrade anything and you end up having to buy USB hubs and run a million devices off USB because it's your only option for an upgrade. And your choice of video cards is limited to "whatever will fit in my laptop".

[yoda313]

There is a side option for a media center instead of a laptop. If you don't want a fullblown desktop you can get those mini-atx desktops. Those things come in really small packages.

You're only problem with that would be getting standard video cards to work in it. You would need to get those half height cards.

[redwudz]

There is a side option for a media center instead of a laptop. If you don't want a fullblown desktop you can get those mini-atx desktops. Those things come in really small packages.

You're only problem with that would be getting standard video cards to work in it. You would need to get those half height cards.

The Mini-ITX I put together can use a full size PCI video card. But the CPU isn't up to H.264/MKV decoding and playback. https://forum.videohelp.com/topic349524.html#1837526 But it does output to my 800 X 600 video projector via VGA.

But I think the OP wants to do this with a minimal budget. Go ahead and try it as you should know the limitations now. I would start with the video processing and display. If you get that to your satisfaction, then you could add a tuner and the external storage.

[Shaun004]

Thanks for all the advice. I was wondering which sort of limitations and to what extent they will be to you all are talking about. I'm sure that most who contribute to this board are very concerned with video quality and trying to achieve full HD, but to be honest a full hd picture quality is of very little importance to me. I certainly don't want an awful picture, but 720p would be more than up to my standards. Im more interested in having an affordable option that will be able to work as a dvr, dvd player and be able to send my video files (mostly avi's and mpeg type files) to a television. To be honest I don't believe I even have a single piece of video which would qualify as anything near hd (one mkv but I believe its 720p)...even comcast cable broadcasts hd in 720p as far as I know.

With that in mind, would this still be a bad option?

[edDV]

Thanks for all the advice. I was wondering which sort of limitations and to what extent they will be to you all are talking about. I'm sure that most who contribute to this board are very concerned with video quality and trying to achieve full HD, but to be honest a full hd picture quality is of very little importance to me. I certainly don't want an awful picture, but 720p would be more than up to my standards. Im more interested in having an affordable option that will be able to work as a dvr, dvd player and be able to send my video files (mostly avi's and mpeg type files) to a television. To be honest I don't believe I even have a single piece of video which would qualify as anything near hd (one mkv but I believe its 720p)...even comcast cable broadcasts hd in 720p as far as I know.

With that in mind, would this still be a bad option?

Do you have an HDTV now? You can test that laptop with MPeg2 and h.264 files now without buying anything else.

Try a friends HDTV if you don't own one. Connect VGA and set output to to TV native resolution (usually 1024x768 or 1366x768 for smaller LCD-TV sets).

You will quickly find your limitation is that Intel GMA950 chipset plus typical single drive laptop issues.

For SD DVR duty you need a cable box, capture device and infrared control for channel changing plus PVR software. For HD DVR duty you also need something like the HD-PVR (~$225).
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4146200&SRC...yCjCVqHCjCdwwp