Part#2

I ordered the D5000t  on 07/22 and it shipped on 7/24. Guess what no Windows Media Center TV Pack but oh well I still have 21 days to return it with free shipping back and no re-stocking fee but I really like it. HP unlike Dell makes you buy the ATI DTC with the system If you select Vista with Digital Cable support or it won't let you at it for check out. I also had to upgrade the video card one notch from the default 9300 to the 9500GS for the same reason. Dell lets you get the XPS 420 with Vista Digital support without adding the ATI DTC. Since my friends at Comcast sales have no clue when you call them about installer the cable card on a PC, I had to say it's a TIVO setup. Every CSR I spoke with was confused when I mentioned this was for a PC. Maybe I am to technical in my explanation. Anyways the first install date is 9/03. If your like me and want something right away that just won't work for testing and seeing the potential of what you just bought.

 

Part#3

I put the box in my car (darn huge one at that) and headed to my friends house who has an Optoma projector and a portable sony laptop that came with an ATI DTC with a cable card already activated. Thank God for Woot! When I first unboxed the D5000t I noticed the night shift at HP forgot to secure the 9500GS with a screw and it fell down/was moving freely at the bottom of the case arrhhhhh!. The only damge I noticed was the bent audio connector on the video card. I bent it back and secured the video card with my own screw. HP!!!! That would never happen with an S1Digital or Velocity system but then again I only spent just over $1000 for this. The 9500GS has HDMI out which will pass the audio from the onboard Realtek ALC888S. The Realtek ALC888S is pretty impressive for an onboard sound card and the software suite that shipped from HP has alot of options. Here is the spec on the onboard audio if your interested: HP even included a coaxial digital in on the motherboard which is very nice for capturing sound into the PC from the receiver etc.

http://www.realtek.com.tw/products/productsView.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=24&PFid=28&Level=5&Conn=4&ProdID=141

Part #4:

We hooked my D5000t along with my friends ATI DTC and Media Center picked it right up. We just had to go through the wizard and complete the setup and download the guide for his area. This proves adding in another ATI DTC purchased from Sony or Ebay will work fine. We did some testing on the quality of the Digital channels and HD channles in comparrison to the Motorola Comcast box. Man ATI did a fine job with the video quality! HBO looked better on the ATI DTC (just slightly) than the Motorola cable box. Analog channels were handled much better by the Motorola cable box but it was still watchable. I really wanted to see how the upscaling was handled by Windows/Nvidia Pure Video. I brought some of my DVD's so we could do a side by side with his Oppo DVD drive which has the Faroudja video processor. The Oppo does a better job but we didn't have time to tweak the heck out of the settings on the PC. Audio was stellar on the PC with the onboard sound card. You may ask why I didn't order a Blueray drive with the PC. I wasn't sure which HP Blueray drive was  included (latest one?) and what the specs were. I figured I could always add in the latest one for the $250.00 HP was charging. I'll post more when I get a chance to play with this more. The case very nice for an HP and is very quiet. My upgrades will include adding another 500 gig Hard Drive and setup a raid o after I image it first. Mmay I'll replace the other two 512 sticks of 800 mhz memory since HP only lets you add 3 gigs total for a Vista 32 config. I could always load Vista Ultimate and use the digital tuner activation key located on a label on the case so I wouldn'y have any memory limitations. I have seen some postings in where  folks have done this but then I may not have the Media Center TV Pack available as a later date from HP. I am thinking of returning it just to get the Media Center TV pack but there is no confirmation at least so far that HP is shiiping it with the D5000t although I noticed just after I ordered it that there is an option for the ATI DTC with an internal standard tuner.

rgreenpc:

mabrown:

So me personally I'm going to be buying a S1 system very soon, just talking the wife into it.

Good luck

Thanks!  I ordered one on Friday from S1, ordered it through Paul directly, it was nice to order a product from someone who actually knows and uses the product themselves, I should have it in about 2 weeks if testing of the TV pack wraps up next week like he expects.

Thanks again Paul!

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My Media Center Blog

Wow congrats...

My wife laughed at me when I proposed that... (Baby due in Oct and all....)

I am stuck with waiting on DirecTV/MS to get their acts together or switch to Sage and have a $1000 TCO change.

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My VMC setup:
(2) Xbox360s
System 1 -
Dell XPS410 (2.6Ghz C2D, 2GB Ram,Nvidia 8600GT, Blu-ray internal, HD-DVD external (X360 drive), (2) Vboxx DTA150s (OTA HD), 1 HVR-1150 (OTA HD) and Dish Network

Which one/line did you order from S1Digital? Proline series or Home series? What options did you choose and what kind of setup are you going to marry this too?

Ok I haven’t posted on the forum at all besides yesterday since I am more of an observer. The Ice-skater name may throw a few folks off but I do have a lot of hardware and configuration experience at least coming from heading up an IT group for service and repair and being a enthusiast outside the workplace. That drives my wife nuts with all time reading, testing  and wish list of toys on my purchase list. I also was in charge of designing our PC images back in the day when Power Quest was the leading software before they merged with Symantec.

Although I do not own a Dell XPS 420, I maybe be able to find out the burning question on whether the new XPS 420's ships with Windows Media Center TV Pack.. I worked on a large roll out (100's of PCs) with Dell's factory imaging team on asset tagging and image selections that we were rolling out for our large hospital system. I'll see if I can dig up my contact at the factory and see if she llok into this if anyone wants me to pursue it.

 

As of now Dell hasn't commented on Fiji support at least not when I asked them the other day.

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My VMC setup:
(2) Xbox360s
System 1 -
Dell XPS410 (2.6Ghz C2D, 2GB Ram,Nvidia 8600GT, Blu-ray internal, HD-DVD external (X360 drive), (2) Vboxx DTA150s (OTA HD), 1 HVR-1150 (OTA HD) and Dish Network

iceskater99:

Which one/line did you order from S1Digital? Proline series or Home series? What options did you choose and what kind of setup are you going to marry this too?

Home series, Proline is only avaible to dealers.  I upped the CPU to a Quad 9300, added 2GB of RAM (so 4 total), went with Vista Ultimate and 2 internal tuners.  I have some external tuners (5) so I'll take 2 of them and put on this machine and have 4 total.

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My Media Center Blog

Drool..... slurp.... drool again.

I just showed this to my wife... and she said "He doesn't have to deal with me, YOU DO".

Sigh.

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My VMC setup:
(2) Xbox360s
System 1 -
Dell XPS410 (2.6Ghz C2D, 2GB Ram,Nvidia 8600GT, Blu-ray internal, HD-DVD external (X360 drive), (2) Vboxx DTA150s (OTA HD), 1 HVR-1150 (OTA HD) and Dish Network

Just an update - we will probably begin shipping all Media Centers with TV Pack (Fiji) this week. MABrown will most likely have the first Media Center with TV Pack in the world (from my understanding) :).

I'll update The Green Button special page on our website during the week with the new options (for example four tuners).

Note, and thanks to Mabrown for pointing this out, you can use both CableCard and unencrypted QAM tuners at the same time. I didn't actually know that. It's very cool. You get a single channel guide (no more 1000+ range for ATSC channels) and all the sub channels are where they should be! So you get something like (I'm just making this up, but you get the idea):

02 - CBS

03 TNT

04 - NBC

04.1 - NBC 2

04.2 - NBC 3

So you can have four CableCard tuners and then four ATSC or QAM tuners (HDHomerun anyone?) for eight channels. Please note that we have not tested eight simultaneous recordings, but I think Mabrown will be testing that for us soon?

Paul

 

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www.S1Digital.com

Paul, thanks for confirming more features available in TV Pack and for sharing what information you are able to.  I'm in a similar boat as rgreenpc.  Oddly enough I showed my fiance the next Krell system I want and she was all for it...

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.:: Vista Ultimate x64 :: Antec Fusion :: Corsair HX520w :: ASUS P5E-VM :: Core2 Duo E8400 3.0Ghz :: 4GB RAM :: 128GB SSD System\Apps :: 1TB\5TB Data :: LG GGC-H20L BD/HD DVD :: HDHomeRun x2 ::.

mikinho:

Paul, thanks for confirming more features available in TV Pack and for sharing what information you are able to.  I'm in a similar boat as rgreenpc.  Oddly enough I showed my fiance the next Krell system I want and she was all for it...

I demand an anulment.... well except I love her and she does allow me to play and test software from time to time on something we use every day.

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My VMC setup:
(2) Xbox360s
System 1 -
Dell XPS410 (2.6Ghz C2D, 2GB Ram,Nvidia 8600GT, Blu-ray internal, HD-DVD external (X360 drive), (2) Vboxx DTA150s (OTA HD), 1 HVR-1150 (OTA HD) and Dish Network

S1Digital:

Just an update - we will probably begin shipping all Media Centers with TV Pack (Fiji) this week. MABrown will most likely have the first Media Center with TV Pack in the world (from my understanding) :).

I'll update The Green Button special page on our website during the week with the new options (for example four tuners).

Note, and thanks to Mabrown for pointing this out, you can use both CableCard and unencrypted QAM tuners at the same time. I didn't actually know that. It's very cool. You get a single channel guide (no more 1000+ range for ATSC channels) and all the sub channels are where they should be! So you get something like (I'm just making this up, but you get the idea):

02 - CBS

03 TNT

04 - NBC

04.1 - NBC 2

04.2 - NBC 3

So you can have four CableCard tuners and then four ATSC or QAM tuners (HDHomerun anyone?) for eight channels. Please note that we have not tested eight simultaneous recordings, but I think Mabrown will be testing that for us soon?

Paul

 

Paul -

One of these days I hope the wife will allow me to buy one of your great creations.

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My VMC setup:
(2) Xbox360s
System 1 -
Dell XPS410 (2.6Ghz C2D, 2GB Ram,Nvidia 8600GT, Blu-ray internal, HD-DVD external (X360 drive), (2) Vboxx DTA150s (OTA HD), 1 HVR-1150 (OTA HD) and Dish Network

S1Digital:

So you can have four CableCard tuners and then four ATSC or QAM tuners (HDHomerun anyone?) for eight channels. Please note that we have not tested eight simultaneous recordings, but I think Mabrown will be testing that for us soon?

Paul

 

Yep, I just ordered my 2nd HDHR unit.  I have the dual pcix Dvico qam card but they haven't released their drivers for the tv pack yet, so I'll just install it after they do and use the 2nd HDHR on my test system.

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My Media Center Blog