Media center PC

[roadrunner]

Anyone have any advice on setting up a media center on a PC. I am currently ripping all of my physical media (CDs and DVDs) to a large hard drive and would like to use a PC to feed my receiver / TV. Any good guides for beginners like me?

[rhonnin]

I'm also interested in this. I would love to get all my media off my pc and onto it's own network drive.

[roadrunner]

After a little research I came up with the following specs for a htpc. I decided to go with a step up from a micro pc to add a little more power. My plan is to serve all of my CDs, internet streams, home movies, pictures, etc from the htpc. The bummer is that I have to upgrade my receiver to do what I want because of the need of HDMI inputs/outputs. If anyone has any thoughts or real experience before I start to build please chime in.

My next question is for the TV. LCD, LCD-LED, or plasma????? Ugh so many decisions and $$$$....

Case - SILVERSTONE Black Aluminum / 0.8mm SECC Grandia Series GD05B micro-ATX / Mini-DTX / Mini-ITX MB
Motherboard - BIOSTAR TA75A+ FM1 AMD A75 (Hudson D3) SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard
CPU - AMD A8-3850 Llano 2.9GHz Socket FM1 100W Quad-Core Desktop APU AD3850WNGXBOX
Ram - G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL
PSU - SILVERSTONE Strider Plus ST50F-P 500W ATX 12V v2.3 & EPS 12V 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply
Hard Drive - HITACHI Deskstar 7K3000 HDS723015BLA642 (0F12114) 1.5TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Optical Drive - ASUS Black Blu-ray Drive SATA Model BC-12B1ST/BLK/B/AS
OS - Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit - OEM
Keyboard/mouse - Cideko AVK-02-915 Black RF Wireless Mini Keyboard
Receiver - ONKYO TX-NR509 5.1-Channel Network A/V Receiver

[rhonnin]

We went with a plasma just for the sake of durability. We have pets and a glass screen is easier to clean when the dog comes in and shakes all over the place. I also have a hard enough time keeping the cats from chasing shadows on my PCs lcd screen and didn't want to end up with 55" of clawed out pixels.
People whine about glare but it's really no worse than a traditional tube TV.

[roadrunner]

I am leaning toward a plasma TV. They are typically better for displaying motion along with a good viewing angle. The glare may be issue but I don't think it will be worse than what I have today (my LCD has a shiny screen).

I don't know about to add 3D or not. I have a feeling with the way technology is evolving who knows if you would end up with a outdated set in a few years.

[rhonnin]

I am leaning toward a plasma TV. They are typically better for displaying motion along with a good viewing angle. The glare may be issue but I don't think it will be worse than what I have today (my LCD has a shiny screen).

I don't know about to add 3D or not. I have a feeling with the way technology is evolving who knows if you would end up with a outdated set in a few years.

We decided that 3d wasn't worth the crazy pricing. The tech is so new and quality content is really limited. Not to mention, watching a 2 hour movie is all good and fine but imagine 6 or 8 hours of gaming in 3D, seems like a guarantee for recurring migraines.