| With new faster processers, bigger hard drives and | | | | prepared to test some different options before you |
| new larger LCD televisions building a media center | | | | settle on the one that will work best for you. |
| computer has become more and more practical. A | | | | 7. Don't forget to order the remote control. A media |
| media center computer can record multiple television | | | | center without a remote control is a travesty. These |
| shows at one time, can organize all your music and | | | | computers are designed to operated while you sit |
| pictures and can also be used as a normal computer. | | | | back on your couch. The remotes don't cost that |
| They are definitely very cool. However, before you | | | | much and they work great. |
| decide to build your own media center here are ten | | | | 8. Buy the best video card that you can afford. The |
| quick tips... | | | | better the video card that you have the less chances |
| 1. Consider building a machine with a dual core or quad | | | | you have that you will have problems with playback. |
| core processor. The multiple processing threads will be | | | | Before you buy your video card also make sure to |
| very useful when recording multiple programs and | | | | check the list of Media Center approved cards. If the |
| watching a program at the same time. A fast multi | | | | card isn't on there you might want to avoid it. Also |
| core processor is a must if you plan on watching and | | | | make sure that you buy a video card that has a high |
| recording hi definition TV. | | | | definition output that matches your TV (either DVI or |
| 2. Don't skimp on the RAM. A good media center will | | | | HDMI are the best). |
| have at least 2GB of ram and should probably have | | | | 9. Get a good audio card that is capable of feeding |
| up to 4GB. The ram will help keep things moving | | | | source audio to your receiver or your speakers. If you |
| quickly while you are recording programs. | | | | plan on outputting 5.1 or 7.1 data from DVD's you are |
| 3. You can never have enough hard drive space. With | | | | going to want to make sure that the sound card that |
| high definition TV becoming more of a standard you | | | | you pick has an optical or digital coax output. You |
| are going to want to consider having large amounts of | | | | might also consider buying a card that will convert all |
| hard drive space on your machine. I wouldn't build a | | | | the sounds used on your computer into a 5.1 or 7.1 |
| machine that had less than a terabyte of hard drive | | | | digital audio feed. |
| space. | | | | 10. Be prepared to play with your configuration and |
| 4. To increase performance considering using a raid | | | | build. Unfortunately, building a media center is not an |
| configuration for your hard drives. Using raid zero along | | | | exact science and there is usually quite a bit of |
| with high speed SATA hard drives can help you | | | | tinkering involved in getting a stable fully functional |
| improve video performance and can prevent recording | | | | system. If you aren't comfortable playing with the |
| errors. | | | | settings and the drivers to get things to work you |
| 5. Get good TV tuner cards with built in hardware | | | | might consider buying a prebuilt media center and have |
| encoding. Tuner cards with MPEG hardware encoding | | | | someone else do the testing and configuring for you. |
| will take a load off your processor when they record | | | | I have been running windows XP media center edition |
| tv shows, this will help ensure that you won't get any | | | | for quite a while now and I love it. I have built two |
| skipping or problems in your recorded output. I use | | | | different media centers and they have both been a |
| Hauppauge cards in my machine and they work great. | | | | blast. Try it for yourself and see. |
| 6. Invest in a good decoding program. The software | | | | For more information on this topic and others please |
| decoder software offered by Nvidia does a good job | | | | visit This article is free for republishing |
| on my media center. However, I tested four or five | | | | Source: |
| different ones before I found one that operated the | | | | Occupation: Markeing Director of MyBinding. |
| way I wanted with my hardware configuration. Be | | | | |