PC with HDMI output for living room media centre?

ses6jwg

Hi all,

I fancy putting all my dvds etc onto a massive hard drive, and running a PC unit connected to my 32" HD tv the living room.
what would be the cheapest way to go about this?

stef73

how about this
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/167153

ohyeahitssorcy

Does your tv have a vga connector on it ? i use a media centre pc no hdmi just a vga output to the tv and it looks fantastic i use my laptop to remote into the pc from my armchair and select what i want to watch i also use the digital out on the pc soundcard to my home cinema system.

Marty_J

Put your DVDs onto your existing PC in mp4 format, and then get yourself an Apple TV.

scottishblondie

A unit that allows you to plug in a HDD would probably be cheapest. The Sumvision Cyclone MKV is about £70-£80, and also streams BBC iPlayer & YouTube.

Even cheaper there is the Sumvision Micro Upscaling HDMI Media Player, which is like a little USB hub that you plug your external HDD into and it plays onto your TV. You can pick one up for about £25 (Amazon, ebuyer etc)

Of course neither of these will offer the full flexibility of a media PC, but if you want to go cheap and you have an external drive already they are not bad options. You just need to make sure you rip your DVDs into formats that they can play.

robt_2

Do you want a media centrer PC or do you just want to be able to watch DVDs without the discs?

Fifer

stef73 wrote: »

how about this
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/167153

The Revo is a wee bit underpowered for video use and it struggles to cope with HD and Flash material, although the mini-ITX form facto is perfect as you can hang it on the VESA holes on the back of most TVs.

I use a similar solution, but with a dual core Atom 330 and it's much better. Mine was a custom build, but similar to the ASrock Ion 300 (or the 330-BD which comes with a BluRay drive). When looking at prices, bear in mind you need to install your own operating system and add a keyboard (I use a wireless HTPC keyboard with an integral trackpad).

blammo

An Acer Revo R3601, or an ASRock ION330-HT, or possibly new new Asus eee nettop or whatever it's called.

savemoney

I rip them and compress them to mkv format with handbrake very easy to do but does take time

I ripped all mine on to dvd with autogk to XviD but now use Handbrake to do job in mkv

S0litaire

you can pick up an "Atom 330 Nvidia ION" based nettop (or even just the mother board) stick in +2Gb of ram and the biggest sata drive you can afford. you'll have a small / quiet Media center. (make sure it's dual core Atom, single core does not have the oomph for HD playback.)

You can then stick on a Media center app (Either Windows Media center or XBMC) and have HD playback.

savemoney

I play HD via my LG blue-Ray player plays mkv, dvd's, XviD and has youtube capability on it nice piece of kit sits under tv