Building new SFF box for Tivo function... questions

[ahsia]

Thinking about building a SFF box for Tivo function, DVD playback, music jukebox, etc. etc. Probably get AMD, 512mb memory.

Question about video card: What do I really need that won't be overkill (not going to play games on this)?

Also, I have the ATI TV Wonder PCI card. Will that work for mpeg2 capture/encoding?

And... I will want to use Windows XP Media Center edition, right?

Thanks for your help!

 

[Boogak]

1. Any modern video card should work. I run my two HTPCs off a ATI Radeon 8500LE and 7000.
2. Not familiar with card so dunno
3. Not necessarily, Media Center is just Windows XP with the Media Center software frontend installed. You can get the most of the same functionality off 3rd party software.

 

[Nessism]

I recently built a HT box out of my old 1400 Tbird and a Ledtec "Expert" WinTV card. Much to my chagrin, the system won't keep up when trying to capture video using mpeg2 "optimal" quality; it drops frames and the sound losses sync.

Make sure you have a hardware encoding card, or a lot of cpu horsepower, or you will run into troubles like me.

Good luck.

Ed