In reply to:
Do you have any trouble seeing the interface cues on the TV. PC text can be a little weird with this sort of thing and the actual control elements can be hard to work with, or at least I expect them to be. It doesn't sound like you have much trouble with that though, which is enouraging.
Do you mean the interface to change the settings:
volume
channel
input
picture stuff (mostly adjusted once in the beggining so not need to control)
channel numbers
mute
last channel return
PIP - none existant in my TV card
The commands above can be mimicked via a keyboard so I bought a infrared keyboard/mouse. I put my infrared keyboard port against my Rotel learning remote port and transfered all the keystrokes to the learning remote. So now the PC does not meed a keyboard or mouse. All function can be done on the Rotel learning remote. The remote controls the Rotel, WinDVD, WinDVR, the Toshiba DVD, CAE Kareoke player, Marantz SE68 CD player.
When it comes to serfing which is connect on demand since I do not want to HTPC to auto update. Keeping the connection down until needed keeps it from having any further software issues or if someone has nothing better to do than to DOS attack me.
In reply to:
I would also be leary of that PSU, especially if you go with a P4 or something similar. 300W is even getting to the point of not quite being enough, depending on what hardware you have installed. The power consumption of these computers is getting to be absurd.
Point taken. I might need to ditch the small box method and go with a Mini-ATX factor. With that I can use the standard 450w+ silent power suplies. Some of the newer boards will be using Dual channel DDR(proposed increased speeds). Some new GForce cards even take up 2 slots and is supossedly HDTV ready mpeg2 decoding. Since it will natively support HDTV no need for Powerstrip for HD resolutions(maybe).
http://www.msicomputer.com/product/vga/vga_detail.asp?model=FX5800_Ultra-TD
Saturn
