DQ Clan: David's Weekend Project

When our old CRT TV finally gave way to the junk pile, I decided to pick up one of those nice looking high-definition TV's down at Costco. The decision to choose which brand to buy is another post all by itself. But after getting the HDTV, I realized it wasn't the same with my old standard definition Tivo. I needed a high power HD personal recorder. I had many options. I could just pick up the new HD Tivo for $299 and pay the monthly fee or I could order the HD-DVR from my local cable provider. But both options were too costly for my budget, so what I decided to do was build one with my old desktop. Of course deciding to build my own was just the beginning. There were still so many more options to choose from, from the OS to use to the software to the TV tuner card. Turns out there is a whole community out there of people building these so called HTPC (home theater PC). It took me about 1 week to decide what to put in and what software to use. There was a lot of driving back and forth to Best Buy to pick up components and then return them. Well here is what I ended up with.

CPU: Intel Pentium 4 with HT
Memory: 1G Ram
Video Card: ATI Radeon X300 with 128 MB
TV Card: ATI HDTV Wonder
OS: Windows Media Center 2005
PVR Software: Windows Media Center
Network: Netgear MA101 802.11B USB adapter
Antenna: Philips MANT-310 Amplified Indoor Antenna
Hardrive: 120 GB

As you can see most of the components are very out dated, the PC is about 4 years old. The tuner card I got from Ebay for 15 dollars. I think the most money was spent on the antenna which cost me 30 dollars. Since I couldn't get it to record from cable (long story), I had to try different antennas and different positions with the antenna to pick up all the local HD channels. This wasn't the most expensive one, but it works only if I put it on top of the fire place. The USB adapter I took from my Tivo box. But the result is.... my very own HD PVR!!

Still to do: I still need to add a sound card on it so I can listen to digital audio. Also it would be nice to have a bigger harddrive to store all the HD programs I will be recording. And then maybe in the future I will get one of these nice looking cases to the put the PC in.

Oh I also decided to put some games in there.