bpmou
12-08-2008, 12:28 AM
First post, great forum. I am looking to turn my tower in my home office into a Media center PC to hook up with my 47" flat screen tv in our family room. I recently purchased two new Samsung NC10 netbooks, and the only thing that the tower gets used for now is ripping DVDs and pictures. Other wise e-mail and surfung is done on the netbook.
All of that being said, I want to get rid of our comcast cable and use OTA HD antenna through the tower to record TV showes and to play all of our DVD's that are on the towers hard drive. We don't really use our cable that much, so it really doesn't make since for us to keep paying $100 a month for the service. Below are the specs for the Tower, can you guys point me in the right direction of what I need to do to get this working with HD content? Also, I am running Vista Home Premium.
Also, is there away with this system to stream hulu.com or sling.com directly to the TV?
Hardware
Base processor
Athlon 64 X2 (B) 4800+ 2.5 GHz (65W)
2000 MT/s (mega transfers/second)
Socket AM2
Chipset
GeForce 6150SE nForce 430
Motherboard
Manufacturer: ECS
Motherboard Name: MCP61PM-HM
HP/Compaq motherboard name: Nettle2-GL8E
Memory
<table summary="" width="560" bgcolor="#cccccc" border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="1"> <tbody><tr class="theme"> <th rowspan="1"> Component </th> <th rowspan="1"> Attributes </th> </tr> </tbody><tbody valign="top"> <tr bgcolor="#ffffff"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">Memory Installed</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">3 GB</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#e7e7e7"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">Maximum allowed</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">8 GB (4 x 2 GB) (64-bit OS)
4 GB* (4 x 1 GB) (32-bit OS)
*Actual available memory may be less</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#ffffff"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">Speed supported</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">PC2-5300 MB/sec</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#e7e7e7"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">Type</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">240 pin, DDR2 SDRAM</td> </tr> </tbody> </table>
Hard drive
320 GB SATA 3G (3.0 Gb/sec)
7200 rpm
16X DVD(+/-)R/RW 12X RAM (+/-)R DL LightScribe SATA drive
Must use Double-Layer media discs in order to take advantage of the DL technology
Must use LightScribe-enabled media discs and supporting software in order to take advantage of the LightScribe technology
<table summary="" width="560" bgcolor="#cccccc" border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="1"> <tbody><tr class="theme"> <th rowspan="1"> Function </th> <th rowspan="1"> Maximum speed </th> </tr> </tbody><tbody valign="top"> <tr bgcolor="#ffffff"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">DVD-RAM</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">Up to 12X</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#e7e7e7"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">DVD-R DL Write Once</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">Up to 8X</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#ffffff"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">DVD+R DL Write Once</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">Up to 8X</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#e7e7e7"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">DVD+R Write Once</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">Up to 16X</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#ffffff"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">DVD+RW Rewritable</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">Up to 8X</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#e7e7e7"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">DVD-R Write Once</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">Up to 16X</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#ffffff"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">DVD-RW Rewritable</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">Up to 6X</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#e7e7e7"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">DVD ROM Read</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">Up to 16X</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#ffffff"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">CD-R Write Once</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">Up to 40X</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#e7e7e7"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">CD-RW Rewritable</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">Up to 32X</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#ffffff"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">CD-ROM Read</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">Up to 40X</td> </tr> </tbody> </table>
Modem
56K bps data/fax modem
Video Graphics
Integrated graphics
Sound/Audio
High Definition 8-channel audio
ALC 888S chipset
Network (LAN)
Integrated 10/100 Base-T networking interface
Memory card reader
Supports the following cards:
Compact Flash I
Compact Flash II
IBM Microdrive
Secure Digital (SD)
mini-SD
MultiMediaCard (MMC)
Reduced size MultiMediaCard (RS-MMC)
MultiMediaCard Plus (MMC plus)
MultiMediaCard Mobile (MMC mobile)
Memory Stick
Memory Stick Pro
Memory Stick Duo
Memory Stick Pro Duo
SmartMedia
xD Picture Card (xD = extreme digital)
External I/O ports
I/O ports on the front panel
<table summary="" width="560" bgcolor="#cccccc" border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="1"> <tbody><tr class="theme"> <th rowspan="1"> Port type </th> <th rowspan="1"> Quantity </th> </tr> </tbody><tbody valign="top"> <tr bgcolor="#ffffff"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">15-in-1 (4 slot)</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">One</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#e7e7e7"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">1394</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">One</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#ffffff"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">USB</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">Two</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#e7e7e7"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">Headphone</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">One</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#ffffff"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">Microphone</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">One</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#e7e7e7"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">Line-in</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">One</td> </tr> </tbody> </table>
I/O ports on the back panel
<table summary="" width="560" bgcolor="#cccccc" border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="1"> <tbody><tr class="theme"> <th rowspan="1"> Port type </th> <th rowspan="1"> Quantity </th> </tr> </tbody><tbody valign="top"> <tr bgcolor="#ffffff"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">PS/2 (keyboard, mouse)</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">Two</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#e7e7e7"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">VGA</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">One</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#ffffff"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">USB</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">Four</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#e7e7e7"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">1394a</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">One</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#ffffff"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">LAN</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">One</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#e7e7e7"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">SPDIF out (coaxial)</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">One</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#ffffff"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">Audio (side speaker out, rear speaker out, center speaker out, line-in, line-out, microphone)</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">One Each</td> </tr> </tbody> </table>
Expansion slots
<table summary="" width="560" bgcolor="#cccccc" border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="1"> <tbody><tr class="theme"> <th rowspan="1"> Slot type </th> <th rowspan="1"> Quantity </th> </tr> </tbody><tbody valign="top"> <tr bgcolor="#ffffff"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">PCI</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">Two (One available)</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#e7e7e7"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">PCI Express x16</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">One (One available)</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#ffffff"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">PCI Express x1</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">One (One available)</td> </tr> </tbody> </table>
Drive bays
<table summary="" width="560" bgcolor="#cccccc" border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="1"> <tbody><tr class="theme"> <th rowspan="1"> Bay type </th> <th rowspan="1"> Quantity </th> </tr> </tbody><tbody valign="top"> <tr bgcolor="#ffffff"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">5.25"</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">Two (One available)</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#e7e7e7"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">3.5"</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">Two (One available)</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#ffffff"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">Pocket Media Drive</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">One (One available)</td> </tr> </tbody> </table>
Technologies
AMD Live
All of that being said, I want to get rid of our comcast cable and use OTA HD antenna through the tower to record TV showes and to play all of our DVD's that are on the towers hard drive. We don't really use our cable that much, so it really doesn't make since for us to keep paying $100 a month for the service. Below are the specs for the Tower, can you guys point me in the right direction of what I need to do to get this working with HD content? Also, I am running Vista Home Premium.
Also, is there away with this system to stream hulu.com or sling.com directly to the TV?
Hardware
Base processor
Athlon 64 X2 (B) 4800+ 2.5 GHz (65W)
2000 MT/s (mega transfers/second)
Socket AM2
Chipset
GeForce 6150SE nForce 430
Motherboard
Manufacturer: ECS
Motherboard Name: MCP61PM-HM
HP/Compaq motherboard name: Nettle2-GL8E
Memory
<table summary="" width="560" bgcolor="#cccccc" border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="1"> <tbody><tr class="theme"> <th rowspan="1"> Component </th> <th rowspan="1"> Attributes </th> </tr> </tbody><tbody valign="top"> <tr bgcolor="#ffffff"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">Memory Installed</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">3 GB</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#e7e7e7"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">Maximum allowed</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">8 GB (4 x 2 GB) (64-bit OS)
4 GB* (4 x 1 GB) (32-bit OS)
*Actual available memory may be less</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#ffffff"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">Speed supported</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">PC2-5300 MB/sec</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#e7e7e7"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">Type</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">240 pin, DDR2 SDRAM</td> </tr> </tbody> </table>
Hard drive
320 GB SATA 3G (3.0 Gb/sec)
7200 rpm
16X DVD(+/-)R/RW 12X RAM (+/-)R DL LightScribe SATA drive
Must use Double-Layer media discs in order to take advantage of the DL technology
Must use LightScribe-enabled media discs and supporting software in order to take advantage of the LightScribe technology
<table summary="" width="560" bgcolor="#cccccc" border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="1"> <tbody><tr class="theme"> <th rowspan="1"> Function </th> <th rowspan="1"> Maximum speed </th> </tr> </tbody><tbody valign="top"> <tr bgcolor="#ffffff"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">DVD-RAM</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">Up to 12X</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#e7e7e7"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">DVD-R DL Write Once</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">Up to 8X</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#ffffff"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">DVD+R DL Write Once</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">Up to 8X</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#e7e7e7"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">DVD+R Write Once</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">Up to 16X</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#ffffff"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">DVD+RW Rewritable</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">Up to 8X</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#e7e7e7"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">DVD-R Write Once</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">Up to 16X</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#ffffff"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">DVD-RW Rewritable</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">Up to 6X</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#e7e7e7"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">DVD ROM Read</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">Up to 16X</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#ffffff"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">CD-R Write Once</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">Up to 40X</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#e7e7e7"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">CD-RW Rewritable</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">Up to 32X</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#ffffff"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">CD-ROM Read</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">Up to 40X</td> </tr> </tbody> </table>
Modem
56K bps data/fax modem
Video Graphics
Integrated graphics
Sound/Audio
High Definition 8-channel audio
ALC 888S chipset
Network (LAN)
Integrated 10/100 Base-T networking interface
Memory card reader
Supports the following cards:
Compact Flash I
Compact Flash II
IBM Microdrive
Secure Digital (SD)
mini-SD
MultiMediaCard (MMC)
Reduced size MultiMediaCard (RS-MMC)
MultiMediaCard Plus (MMC plus)
MultiMediaCard Mobile (MMC mobile)
Memory Stick
Memory Stick Pro
Memory Stick Duo
Memory Stick Pro Duo
SmartMedia
xD Picture Card (xD = extreme digital)
External I/O ports
I/O ports on the front panel
<table summary="" width="560" bgcolor="#cccccc" border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="1"> <tbody><tr class="theme"> <th rowspan="1"> Port type </th> <th rowspan="1"> Quantity </th> </tr> </tbody><tbody valign="top"> <tr bgcolor="#ffffff"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">15-in-1 (4 slot)</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">One</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#e7e7e7"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">1394</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">One</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#ffffff"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">USB</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">Two</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#e7e7e7"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">Headphone</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">One</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#ffffff"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">Microphone</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">One</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#e7e7e7"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">Line-in</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">One</td> </tr> </tbody> </table>
I/O ports on the back panel
<table summary="" width="560" bgcolor="#cccccc" border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="1"> <tbody><tr class="theme"> <th rowspan="1"> Port type </th> <th rowspan="1"> Quantity </th> </tr> </tbody><tbody valign="top"> <tr bgcolor="#ffffff"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">PS/2 (keyboard, mouse)</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">Two</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#e7e7e7"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">VGA</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">One</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#ffffff"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">USB</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">Four</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#e7e7e7"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">1394a</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">One</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#ffffff"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">LAN</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">One</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#e7e7e7"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">SPDIF out (coaxial)</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">One</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#ffffff"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">Audio (side speaker out, rear speaker out, center speaker out, line-in, line-out, microphone)</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">One Each</td> </tr> </tbody> </table>
Expansion slots
<table summary="" width="560" bgcolor="#cccccc" border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="1"> <tbody><tr class="theme"> <th rowspan="1"> Slot type </th> <th rowspan="1"> Quantity </th> </tr> </tbody><tbody valign="top"> <tr bgcolor="#ffffff"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">PCI</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">Two (One available)</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#e7e7e7"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">PCI Express x16</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">One (One available)</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#ffffff"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">PCI Express x1</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">One (One available)</td> </tr> </tbody> </table>
Drive bays
<table summary="" width="560" bgcolor="#cccccc" border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="1"> <tbody><tr class="theme"> <th rowspan="1"> Bay type </th> <th rowspan="1"> Quantity </th> </tr> </tbody><tbody valign="top"> <tr bgcolor="#ffffff"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">5.25"</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">Two (One available)</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#e7e7e7"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">3.5"</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">Two (One available)</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#ffffff"> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">Pocket Media Drive</td> <td rowspan="1" valign="top" align="left">One (One available)</td> </tr> </tbody> </table>
Technologies
AMD Live