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New Member
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 4/29/2005 2:15 PM
Posts: 30, Visits: 1 |
| Advice needed! Here is the goal: I want to slave a PC to my Sony 57" HDTV - for the purpose of making a media center. I want to feed MPEGs and other digital media to the TV, without stopping along the way to burn VCDs, DVDs, etc. The TV has S-video, coax and RCA inputs.
I have an old 350 Mhz, P2 to use. I have a clean 120 gig hdd to use. I figure on using Win XP as the OS (or should I use the new Windows Media Center OS?). I also need advice on which video card to use, how much RAM to throw in, etc. I figure that and a wireless keyboard and mouse and I am in business. If you recommend a particular configuration or video card.. please let me know why you think it is best to use, or to stay away from. Once I have a consensus on here, I will do the project, and let everyone know how it works out! Thanks in advance for your help.
Win XP Pro, SP1+, P4 2.4 gig CPU, ASUS P4S8X mobo, 1 gig PC2100 DDR, 80 & 120 gig HDDs, MSI FX5600-256 mg vid card, Sony 19" TFT DVI monitor, Optorite DDR +/-DVD RW, DVD-ROM, a bunch of peripherals. |
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Senior Forum Advisor
Group: Senior Advisor
Last Login: 6/28/2008 11:26 AM
Posts: 3,282, Visits: 803 |
| I am gonna say that an old P2 350 would probably not be your best option as a processor to run XP. I have run XP on a P2 - 400 and it worked, but not very good, I would say to use at the very least a P3. As far as a video card, any one with a video-out and 64MB or more of memory should be fine. Video doesn't take that powerful of a video card, that is needed for more robust apps like games.
Write your questions down on the back of a $20 dollar bill and send them to me.
j79zlr's tips and tweaks |
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New Member
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 4/29/2005 2:15 PM
Posts: 30, Visits: 1 |
| Interesting observation! If I can find a P3 around somewhere I willl use XP. .but if not...what do you think of W2K?
Win XP Pro, SP1+, P4 2.4 gig CPU, ASUS P4S8X mobo, 1 gig PC2100 DDR, 80 & 120 gig HDDs, MSI FX5600-256 mg vid card, Sony 19" TFT DVI monitor, Optorite DDR +/-DVD RW, DVD-ROM, a bunch of peripherals. |
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Senior Forum Advisor
Group: Senior Advisor
Last Login: 6/28/2008 11:26 AM
Posts: 3,282, Visits: 803 |
| I run Windows 2000 Professional on that P2 machine now and it seems to run fine, I suggest putting atleast 256MB (if possible, 512MB) RAM in the PC.
Write your questions down on the back of a $20 dollar bill and send them to me.
j79zlr's tips and tweaks |
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| | | Associate Member
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 8/27/2006 12:10 PM
Posts: 335, Visits: 13 |
| Ensure that your graphics card also has a TV/DVI output so that you can connect it to your TV.
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New Member
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 7/27/2003 7:14 AM
Posts: 3, Visits: 1 |
| Hi all, Richard, I just set up the same as what you have described and it rocks. Got hold of a Nvidia GeForce card with TV-out and a neat bit of software thats compatible with XP and Nvidia cards called TvTool. My version is 6.8.4.4.. I just rigged up some co-axial cable from the Video card to Video-IN socket TV. Please note TvTool also eliminated the annoying black boundaries you get on your TV screen if you use your Nvidia 'CLONE' feature. Full screen and excellent resolution at 800x600 and its totally compatible with XP. Just flick your TV to AV, open TvTool, one click and its all there on your TV screen.
Just like to add that I'm not a salesman for these products, if anything goes wrong with a dramatic tweak or piece of dodgy software, I've always got a Norton Ghost floppy boot disk to grab my backup and overwrite the damaged system,,,its a godsend that Ghost, the best software I've invested in avoiding hours of formatting, re-installing Windows, having to re update/upgrade and reinstall many, many programs. Sorry, got all excited.
Paul,
South Australia.
XP Pro. |
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