What Mediacenter system do you use?

[Bastiaan]

It seems my old MediaCenter system died.
But it seems a good excuse to look for a better one, especially one that goes on standbye and stays on standbye.....

Question: what mediacenter do you use and what are your remarks/suggestions?

On the side: I am on UPC cable meaning digital tuners are no option for now. At the moment you see more and more dual core Atom CPU systems coming up. Which could be interesting.
Because of my job (shooting movies) I like to watch good quality so HD is important to me. The landscape is changing rapidly...

[Snelvuur]

xbmc is out for windows and linux, if you use linux you can also install myth tv so you can do cable tuner stuff aswell.

// Erik (binkey.nl)

[Bastiaan]

Thanks Erik, I got a house full of Windows 2008 server and Vista machines + couple of Macs.
I am quite happy with the MS Mediacenter functionality but will certainly look at xbmc.

[Snelvuur]

look at http://www.teamrazorfish.co.uk/gallery.html , cant say no to that..

// Erik (binkey.nl)

[Esteban]

A picture is a thousand words, a video is a million [:D]

Here you can see it in action:
http://vimeo.com/1501354?pg=embed&sec=1501354

Ciao,
Esteban

[Bastiaan]

It looks great, agree but I use my system mainly for recording TV so I don't have to watch (my own) commercials
Bastiaan

[TANE]

Hi Bastiaan.
I'm happy with my Acer Idea 511, works fine
Power consumption +/- 55 watt
standby 6 watt.

[Bastiaan]

Yes your Acer is also nice and small.
My Qmotion is a big machine. Seems the power unit stopped working.

[Bwired]

I also have the Acer Idea 511, works fine!

[Bastiaan]

Went around today to find a mediacenter, seems they are not very popular. Most people buy a DVD recorder with harddisk.
MediaMarkt said they had to sell their stock (of Acer's) for a very low price and stopped.

[TANE]

they are not mainstream..
You can build your own using the Intel E8XXX CPU

[Bastiaan]

yup will try to fit it in my old housing of the Qmotion but will need to find a new powersupply that fits. Basically it should be working again but it could be time to upgrade the set.
There is already an Intel desktop board in it with a P4 @ 3 gig. But it will be hard to find a cooler that fits if I change to the Exxx series. This one has a system with pipes and a cooler element to the side.
Does the Acer playback 720P?

[drmacchi]

Just a question about noise level? Do you feel it important? Normaly a mediacenter is a pc with low noise level, fanless power supply, low rpm cpu fans , vga fanless ..... My mediacenter is an old one : AMD 3500 12 cm fan low rpm , geforce HDMI card fanless, 350 watt fanless psu , it's really a pleasure watch dvd or tv without noise. Today with new Intel dual-quad core it's impossible to have a fanless system, even those wonderful fanless psu aren't anymore sold because of too low electrical power

[Bastiaan]

I think low noise is very important. My Qmotion was OK, didn't really hear it in normal use.
Now I like to add, it is equally important it should be also energy efficient....
Thats whats holding me from rebuilding it and looking for other options.

[TANE]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by drmacchi</i>
<br />Just a question about noise level? Do you feel it important? Normaly a mediacenter is a pc with low noise level, fanless power supply, low rpm cpu fans , vga fanless ..... My mediacenter is an old one : AMD 3500 12 cm fan low rpm , geforce HDMI card fanless, 350 watt fanless psu , it's really a pleasure watch dvd or tv without noise. Today with new Intel dual-quad core it's impossible to have a fanless system, even those wonderful fanless psu aren't anymore sold because of too low electrical power
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">You can better go for a good PSU than fanless version. Seasonic 380 is one of the best
there will be always some heating in the system PSU will bring it outside.
If you have good components you will not hear it.
For HD content you need a good Video card..best is to go for passive version that is under clocked.

If you have a good system with S3 support system will be in standby mode most of the time.
best is to check the standby usage than active usage.
S1 will use about 30 Watt power in standby!
for 22 hours is that 660 watt