Hello, here is my situation. Now that my cable company has added many more HDTV channels I lost my multi room DVR service. However I want to get this capability back under my own means.

 

I am retiring an old 2002 Dell XPS in early 2009. It has a few software issues so I wanted to run this by you guys. I want to turn this computer into a Media Server computer. I wanted to pop out the old 80 GB hard drive and drop in a 320 GB hard drive, since I am no longer using the old hard drive the software issues will be a non-issue. After that I wanted to install an internal Wi-Fi card since the computer is no where near my router.

 

I want to add a good TV turner card, something that can record TV with the highest quality. I am also hoping it can record HDTV now that I am getting so many more HDTV channels. The last thing I wanted to do is upgrade the OS. Right now it has Windows XP SP2, but it doesn't offer Media Center Edition.

 

I have a Windows XP MCE disk for my newer Dell XPS, would it be possible to install this software on my older Dell XPS? I really don't want to spring for Vista since it has heavy hardware requirements and the hardware on this computer is older. It's a Pentium 4 processor running at 2.2 GHz and has 2 GB's of RAM, can it even handle Vista?

 

Once I have all this up and running I would like to hear my options for streaming the videos to other TV's in my house. My requirement is that it's wireless. The main TV in our home will have the Media Center computer, so I can access the recorded video's right at that point.

 

For my bedroom TV I have an Xbox 360 hooked into it, so I am hoping I can stream SDTV and HDTV to my set through the 360. The other HDTV that I have in our exercise room/den will be near a new Windows Vista computer, so hopefully the recorded shows can be streamed to that computer and to the TV. So I would need one peripheral to stream recorded TV shows to the last TV.

 

My only concern with this streaming TV setup is that my router won't be able to handle it. It's a Linksys WRT54GS, would I be able to use this setup or is it necessary for me to upgrade to an N router?

 

So please if you can give me any suggestions, point me to any resources, anything at all post it here. This is very complex as you see, so I am doing my research now so I can get all my information together before I start buying things. Thanks. :)

Read this thread. This should point you in the right directions. If you want to stream HD, you gonna need an N router.

http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/thread/294754.aspx

Thanks for that link, I figured I would need an N router to do all this stuff. However, do you have any information for setting this all up? It wouldn't be as easy as just connecting it and the computer does the rest, right?

Streaming HD video over wireless is not a good idea. It definately won't be good with 802.11G. You might get away with it running 802.11N, but it's not recommended. If you bought that PC in 2002, I would not consider it for HD anything. 802.11G is fine for SDTV.

You can't watch/record HD cable channels in MCE unless you bought a brand new OEM cablecard certified Vista machine. Forget MCE2005 altogether, it can only do over the air HD.

chrislo:

Thanks for that link, I figured I would need an N router to do all this stuff. However, do you have any information for setting this all up? It wouldn't be as easy as just connecting it and the computer does the rest, right?

There's lots of information on this board. Do your research. If you have specific questions that you can't find an answer for you can always post them here. There's information on Microsoft's website, too. Check out Microsoft's FAQ on how to setup a CableCARD system and they have more information at www.microsoft.com/mediacenter

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/mediacenter/cablecard.mspx

MitchSchaft:

Streaming HD video over wireless is not a good idea. It definately won't be good with 802.11G. You might get away with it running 802.11N, but it's not recommended. If you bought that PC in 2002, I would not consider it for HD anything. 802.11G is fine for SDTV.

You can't watch/record HD cable channels in MCE unless you bought a brand new OEM cablecard certified Vista machine. Forget MCE2005 altogether, it can only do over the air HD.

Well I would do it wired but it's way too far away from my cable connection/router and I don't want to run an ugly Ethernet cable. So what would I need to do to this computer to get it to record HD? Can I get Windows Vista and a TV tuner card that records HD? I mean I have one DVR right now and I doubt it has as much Ram/Processing power as this old computer and it can record HDTV. Can I setup the computer to automatically download the show to other computers once it's done recording? That would be ok if streaming doesn't work. This computer has a Pentium 4 2.2 GHz and 2 GB's of RAM. I could see about adding more RAM. I would just need the proper OS and TV Tuner card, I think the hardware should be sufficient.

If this doesn't work I might just hook up a separate tuner to each TV and let them record from those boxes. I have 3 computers and 3 TV's that need a DVR so I would just need to program them to record the show, that might be easier than getting one computer to record everything and stream it. I would only need to modify one computer to do the recording since the others have TV tuner cards. I can put it on the TV that is only SDTV, and upgrade it once we switch that TV for an HDTV.

superswiss:

chrislo:

Thanks for that link, I figured I would need an N router to do all this stuff. However, do you have any information for setting this all up? It wouldn't be as easy as just connecting it and the computer does the rest, right?

There's lots of information on this board. Do your research. If you have specific questions that you can't find an answer for you can always post them here. There's information on Microsoft's website, too. Check out Microsoft's FAQ on how to setup a CableCARD system and they have more information at www.microsoft.com/mediacenter

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/mediacenter/cablecard.mspx

Checked out these places and they seem more set towards troubleshooting.

You can't watch/record HD cable channels in MCE unless you bought a brand new OEM cablecard certified Vista machine. You should look in to SageTV. It'll do all of this out of the box.

MitchSchaft:

You can't watch/record HD cable channels in MCE unless you bought a brand new OEM cablecard certified Vista machine. You should look in to SageTV. It'll do all of this out of the box.

So I just can't retrofit an older computer then? Thats ok, I still got a SDTV in my home I can connect it to that TV and use it a few more years until I upgrade that set to HDTV. Do you know if I can use my Windows XP MCE disk from my newer disk to install that OS onto my older computer though?

Yeah, that won't be a problem.

MitchSchaft:

Yeah, that won't be a problem.

Oh good, thanks for your help Mitch. I will update this thread once I start the retrofit.