After many years considering the possibility of building a dedicated home theater PC for my living room, I finally decided to go ahead and do it. I think the critical factor for that decision was the availability of some very slick compact PC models based on the Atom/ION chipset. Thanks to the Nvidia ION engine, these little machines can drive Full HD displays without overloading the CPU. It means in the end you can have an Intel Atom based low cost machine that can still deliver the graphical horsepower you need.
Next step was then choose what box should I use. My first idea was to use a Acer AspireRevo AR3700-U3002, I believe because the AspireRevo is the best known product in this class. However, doing some research on the web I found the Zotac MAG. It costs about $100 less than the Acer box, but does not include Windows. In my case, as the plan was to use a Ubuntu and MythTV, I did not want Windows anyway. As the Amazon reviews for the Zotac were quite good, I decided to go ahead and give it a try. Bought it in Amazon for $268.00, not bad for a good looking PC with these specs:
One thing that I also want my system to do is work as a DVR, and that is actually the whole reason for using MythTV. That means I need some sort of capture device to record the signals from my cable box. I wanted it to be HD capable, so I was not left with many choices, There seems to be good documentation on the web about these capture device and it is known to be supported in MythTV, so I decided to try the Hauppauge 1212 HD-PVR:
An interesting feature this box has is that it captures HD video from component video signal and has a pass-through function. That means you can avoid content protection mechanisms you would find in analog signals and at the same time maintain the normal connection between the cable box and the TV. These means you don't need to turn on the DVR every time you want to watch TV. For me at least that is a good thing and I am happy to see this feature is available in this product.
There seems to be good documentation on the web about these capture device and it is known to be supported in mythtv.
The last piece of gear I figured I needed was some sort of remote control to be able to navigate the system. The HD-PVR does have an Infrared receiver and blaster, but I was not sure I would be able to use it, as the driver for that part of the hardware seems to need work. I went ahead and for no basic reason bought the Wireless USB PC Remote Control Mouse for PC.
Not sure if this is going to work, but for $20 I thought it was worth trying. Let's see, next step is get all the gear and start putting the system together.
Next step was then choose what box should I use. My first idea was to use a Acer AspireRevo AR3700-U3002, I believe because the AspireRevo is the best known product in this class. However, doing some research on the web I found the Zotac MAG. It costs about $100 less than the Acer box, but does not include Windows. In my case, as the plan was to use a Ubuntu and MythTV, I did not want Windows anyway. As the Amazon reviews for the Zotac were quite good, I decided to go ahead and give it a try. Bought it in Amazon for $268.00, not bad for a good looking PC with these specs:
Technical Details
- Zotac mini-PC with Intel Atom N330 and nVidia ION chipset
- 2GB DDR2-800, 160GB HD
- 6x USB 2.0, WIFI, Gigabit LAN, 8 channel Audio, VGA, HDMI, 1x eSATA port, SPDIF optical output
- 4-in-1 built in media card reader, included stand, VESA mount, AC adapter
- Low power usage, NO OPERATING SYSTEM
One thing that I also want my system to do is work as a DVR, and that is actually the whole reason for using MythTV. That means I need some sort of capture device to record the signals from my cable box. I wanted it to be HD capable, so I was not left with many choices, There seems to be good documentation on the web about these capture device and it is known to be supported in MythTV, so I decided to try the Hauppauge 1212 HD-PVR:
An interesting feature this box has is that it captures HD video from component video signal and has a pass-through function. That means you can avoid content protection mechanisms you would find in analog signals and at the same time maintain the normal connection between the cable box and the TV. These means you don't need to turn on the DVR every time you want to watch TV. For me at least that is a good thing and I am happy to see this feature is available in this product.
There seems to be good documentation on the web about these capture device and it is known to be supported in mythtv.
The last piece of gear I figured I needed was some sort of remote control to be able to navigate the system. The HD-PVR does have an Infrared receiver and blaster, but I was not sure I would be able to use it, as the driver for that part of the hardware seems to need work. I went ahead and for no basic reason bought the Wireless USB PC Remote Control Mouse for PC.
Not sure if this is going to work, but for $20 I thought it was worth trying. Let's see, next step is get all the gear and start putting the system together.
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