I'm planning on a TV around the August time frame, which will also be my first jump into HD. Shortly after that (once the finances allow it after that purchase anyway) I would be interested in setting up a HTPC and would want to be able to record HD on it. Anything special I would need? Perhaps a video card that accepts component input? I haven't done much research into setting up a HTPC yet, but I know a couple people on here use them. Even some good links to start researching from could help. I would probably wait until Vista is released before I make my purchase, and then use that as the "media center".

you need a HD tuner card, i have the ati tuner card that decodes HD i think i paid 250$ for the card..

this is what i have

http://shop.ati.com/product.asp?sku=2546404
its 119$ btw.
only thing with this card is you need an ati video card, i think i have a 9800 video card.

i havent actualy used it on any HD content yet, but i did use it on regular digital cable and it worked wonderfuly. the software is easy to use.. hope this helps.

I have been using the VBOX Cat's Eye 150 with an opensource front end MediaPortal. MediaPortal is free open source similar to Microsoft MediaCenter (MCE2005). The VBOX can be purchased bundled with BeyondTV and remote, and also works with MCE2005 if that is your Operating System. I was watching Saturday Night Live on the big screen, it was amazing...

I am a MCE fanboy for sure, love this product. I currently have x2 SDTV tuners and x1 HDTV (OTA ATSC) tuner in mine outputting to a 50 inch DLP.

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I would probably wait until Vista is released before I make my purchase, and then use that as the "media center".

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Thats not really a bad idea because there won't be full QAM (cable) support for windows OS's till Vista and Vista also will be required to add cable card support to those tuners.

But what I can tell you about my experience with MCE 2005 and HDTV is its awesome. Granted worring about an antenna isn't much fun but the end result is great. Also a HTPC can be one of the best upscaling DVD players you can find. I highly recomend going with a 6x00 or 7x00 video card from Nvidia and couple it with Nvidia's DVD decoder for full PUREVIDEO support. It's remarkable how awesome it makes DVD's look. Added bonus is it makes SDTV look really good on my HDTV as well. I was really suprised at how well it cleans up the signal. With most TV still being SD it actually very useful IMO.

I'll be going the HDMI route where possible including adding an HDMI graphic card to my HTPC which should be avail in QTY by then - and with a bit of luck a PS3 (all with HDMI, 1080p, Blueray ahhhhh)
Nathan

Be very careful when you go to purchase your video card. Both ATI and nVidia have released cards with HDMI ports which claim HDCP support, but do not in fact support HDCP.

Ya there are parts of the final HDCP spec that are not 100% finished. Expect some lawsuits to follow over the ATI/Nvidia claims of HDCP on their video cards.



HDMI on a video card is useless until they integrate the soundcard on the video card (which I REALLY wish they would do). Don't forget HDMI and DVI are basically the same thing, just HDMI adds in audio.

What version of NVidia software is being used today. I am using the old NVDVD 2.5 which is at least 1-2 years old and way back when it still had excellent upscaling capabilities.
http://www.nvidia.com/page/nvdvd.html
It rivalled some setups using DScaler & FFDshow

I plan to install Vista next week and test out how some of these hardware and software drivers work with the new OS.

Saturn

I'd be very interested in what you see with Vista. The last beta I tried late last year wasn't stable enough for me to try on my HTPC. I'm totally drooling over the new MCE interface thou.

Thanks for the info guys. I'm sure I'll have more questions, as well as be looking for info as far as quiet components go to put in the machine, once I get closer to being ready to do this. I want to at least start with MCE/Vista, and if I find something I don't like then I would look into other options to control everything.

Was it driver problems? I do not know what version of beta this is but supposedly it needs 2 gigs of RAM...I find that rather limiting. I am presuming that it has all debugging turned on. Will let you know if it even works on my HTPC setup.

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I am presuming that it has all debugging turned on.

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Thats what I figured too because the hdd would not stop grinding. I really liked the Aeroglass interface thou. I was able to fire up MCE but it wasn't in a state that would do much of anything.