Advice for building a media center PC

[NU Star]

Hi

I was hoping you guys could give me some general advice for building a media center PC, which I want to hook up to my plasma. I want to use it as:

-DVD Player
-Video Player for Digital Media
-Audio receiver for my cable box and for playing digital music files
-Streaming video from the internet
-Video Games, mostly ROMs (NES, SNES, N64, PS, etc.), not really any hardcore PC games


Some question I had:

-Is there any reason to get Vista Home, or should I get XP Media center edition, or is there some other better software I should use?
-If I get a external HD for most of the media files, is their going to be any trouble streaming them to the computer?
-What do I need to do to set up the computer as an audio receiver? Can I just get a card with a digital audio input or something?

-Is there anything else I should know/consider?

[Beavis68]

what do you mean by "audio reciever" a lot of mother boards have line-in and mic jacks, any board that supports intel Viiv will.

[NU Star]

[ QUOTE ]
what do you mean by "audio reciever" a lot of mother boards have line-in and mic jacks, any board that supports intel Viiv will.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm not really sure. I mean if all I can do is plug it into the mic jack that works, but I was hoping to use an optical digital input, and hook up like 7.1 speakers or something.

[kkcountry]

sorry i can't add anything, but i'm excited to read the suggestions in this thread

[LuckyTxGuy]

I can help....but I'm to go to bed right now.lol I'm about to head to bed and I have an all day car fire school to attend tomorrow, so it might be Sunday before I can get back to this.

I built an XP Media Center PC shortly after Media Center was release and since that day I have watched/recorded 100% of my tv/video/dvds through it. Honestly, it's awesome and it does NOT take a fancy computer to run it.

I'll elaborate more when I have time. If I don't post back on this thread by Sunday evening PM me and remind me!

[NU Star]

Sweet, sounds good.

[NU Star]

THE SUSPENSE

[Freakin]

There are some new motherboards that have HDMI output. If you're building a mediaPC with new parts, then I'd say get that FOR SURE

[NU Star]

[ QUOTE ]
There are some new motherboards that have HDMI output. If you're building a mediaPC with new parts, then I'd say get that FOR SURE

[/ QUOTE ]

I have some older parts I want to use, but I'm flexible. Wouldn't the video card have the output? Is there a big differnce betweem an HDMI-HDMI connection and a DVI-HDMI connection?

[Beavis68]

how old? If you want a media center PC you should use more recent stuff. What are you planning to use?