View Single Post - Need help with monitor, Media center & video options

Enigmachine · Rated NC-17

Hi!

I'm not sure exactly what you're looking for. I don't see exactly what you're hoping to do with this machine, and why you're looking at remotes. I mean, the machine is portable, so why not carry it to where you're listening to music? If it's because it's plugged into a sound system, then it makes more sense to get a remote - but then that means it's also in a fixed location where you can plug a tv cable into the cable tuner and your video card into your wide screen TV... Well, it's just me... I like toys but I don't see how these options are coherent.

So what exactly do you intend to do with it? Smile

One thing about remotes/tuners/Media center, I don't know if this was clear enough, but there's actually 3 parts involved:
1) The TV tuner - plug any TV coax cable into it to get TV
2) The TV software - You can use Media Center, or BeyondTV or SageTV or whatever - this is what would actually let you watch tv in a fun way, schedule recordings, etc.
3) The remote - remotes are usually compatible with Windows Media Center, but they can also be compatible with the software in point 2 above - it depends on the software itself.

So... I guess if you just want to remotely control your music, go with a MCE remote. If you're really thinking about turning your portable into a tv-watching device, plan ahead, there's a lot of details to be concerned with.

Oh, and for the video card, anything that's equivalent to an ATI 9600 or more should be quite enough to watch TV on all softwares, so I don't think there's any worries there.