"Snag" wrote in message
...
RogerN wrote:
I made the home made antenna to receive digital TV for free, it works
well even though I have it inside the house, I'm getting around a
dozen channels or so, some duplicates. Small tower and outdoor
antenna is planned for future project.

I've been thinking about setting up a media center PC so I can have a
digital video recorder, digitize old video tapes, and play movies.

So far my plan is to get a cheap PC that's good enough to play video,
install my Hauppauge WinTV card, get a video card that will play on
the TV, connect to my home network. My WinTV board was for Windows
Media Center edition, I don't have on my desktop PC, so the IR
receiver, remote, and IR transmitter doesn't work with Windows XP Pro.

Can't help ya with the MCE problem , but I do have a comp set up with a
wireless keyboard and mouse . I'm running Vista Ultimate , with a vid card
that outputs for a std monitor connection and s-video . They make
adapters from s-vid to RCA plug if your teevee doesn't have that input
jack . I have another card , not using it right now , that puts out VGA ,
DVID (I think that's what it's called , for LCD flatscreen) , and RCA .
Audio is plugged into the teevee , y'ed to my stereo too . I don't have a
tuner card - yet . Probably will soon though , I'd like to drop the sat
receivers and save that money every month .

Anyone here done similar with windows or Linux? Any recommendations?
Do video cards with TV out work like a 2 monitor setup with windows
desktop on one monitor and TV on the other monitor, or does it just
work as using the TV instead of a monitor? I thought maybe I could
use UltraVNC from my laptop to select movies to play on the TV.

RogerN

My video card sets it up as a dual-monitor , but normal computer-type
windows don't show up well on the teevee . BTW , I'm using a CRT unit
that's at least 15 years old . My card uses ATI catalyst control center ,
I'm sure there are other driver programs that will perform the same
function .
As far as content , my DVR (directv) is hooked to my home network , and
it's supposed to play content from computer storage - but doesn't work
worth a crap . I D/L and save pretty much whatever content I want ;
another option is HULU and similar sites that stream content .
HTH !
--
Snag
Learning keeps
you young !

Thanks for the info. I'd like to output to the TV screen but have a second
video port for a PC monitor. That way one screen can be used for computer
functions, selecting what video file to play, etc, while the other screen is
the TV displaying TV tuner or videos.

Part of this idea comes from my work, we have PC's running equipment running
Siemens soft PLC's. We don't have any keyboard or monitor connected to the
control pc PLCs. We have UltraVNC on the PC's and connect remotely, the
remote computer becomes the monitor, keyboard, and mouse for the control pc
plc.

I'd like to have my DVR and tuner functions run off the remote to the TV,
and use remote access through the network to handle the computer functions
of the media center PC.

I got rid of Dish Network so I'd like to spend a little to make my free
antenna TV and movies convenient to record and play back.

RogerN