HTPC Question

[wayner]

I am considering buying/building an HTPC. I was wondering is someone could answer a bunch of questions.

Current Setup (note that I am in Canada ):
TV is a Toshiba 50" Rear projection with component in - no DVI in
Main source is Digital Cable (Rogers Digital) which uses a Scientific Atlanta 3100HD box
Receiver is an Onkyo 501 that can do component switching
Harmony 659 Remote
Series 1 TiVo - Hacked to do lots of cool stuff since TiVo doesn't sell its service in Canada
Gateway Connected DVD player that allows me to play MP3s, MPEGs, JPEGs over my LAN

The HTPC would (hopefully) replace the TiVo and the Gateway Connected DVD with no loss in quality or functionality.

Questions:
Any comments on what type of case to use for an HTPC? The Shuttle cases look good - does anyone have any first hand knowledge?
What video card should I use? Are there a limited number of video cards that can output to component?
If the video card doesn't include TV functionality then what TV capture card?
Is it worth getting XP Media Center Edition (XP-MCE)?
How does Beyond TV compare to the PVR functionality of XP-MCE?
If I want to go with XP-MCE can I buy it anywhere yet or do I have to buy a pre-built system?
It is not easy to capture HD signals now, is there anything to keep in mind for the future when I may be able to capture HD signals - this would likely have to be over cable with the Open Cable standards.

[RobertH]

The shuttle ones are nice but can be kinda loud unless you replace the fans or use fan speed control software (wich if you are using inside a wall unit or tv stand type thing is not recommended as it can easily overheat)

Recommend getting a plain nvidia gf fx or ati radeon without tv tuner functionality then getting an HD transcoder (takes vga/dvi signal and converts to HD PrPbY signal) or for those few radeon cards their HD adapter (wich some have said has poor results)

Recommend using a pvr250 as you will get the higest quality recordings

Not really

Well beyond tv doesnt use an encrypted proprietary video file format for one, and you dont have to pay to get a new version every year as features are added.

MCE only comes on pre-built systems from OEM manufacturers, if you have an MSDN account you can "get" a copy of MCE

Snapstream and MCE both do not support HD capture, the fcc's new crap about recording HD signals will keep this arena quite hushed in the software/computer market for some time and I think most of the HD cards out there now for pc's are: 1) Expensive as all hell, 2) Only capture OTA signals and wont take PrPbY/DVI inputs.

[wayner]

Originally posted by RobertH

Snapstream and MCE both do not support HD capture, the fcc's new crap about recording HD signals will keep this arena quite hushed in the software/computer market for some time and I think most of the HD cards out there now for pc's are: 1) Expensive as all hell, 2) Only capture OTA signals and wont take PrPbY/DVI inputs.

I thought that you could do capture for OTA-HD with some of the HD cards but not cable or satellite as there is no way to get the signal into the card.

The YPbPr inputs are analog so you would have to re-encode to MPEG which would require LOTS of hardware given the high quality signal.