Mythbox: Hardware

When deciding to put my mythbox together I didn't want to spend very much at all. Nor should I have to: I've got components lying around for Africa. I have a bad habit of upgrading my main PC more frequently than is probably necessary (meanwhile my laptop chugs along on 4 or 5 year old technology, I forget how long it's been) and so this means I've got a spare CPU, motherboard and memory and even a 120 GB hard drive.

120 GB isn't very much when it comes to video so I'll upgrade this at some point. For now, though, I'm making cutting costs my main priority. These are the things that I still think I'll need:

• A TV tuner card
  
• A case.
• A remote control of some kind.
• A DVD burner.

The DVD burner is the only thing I consider optional currently. For now I'm just going to "borrow" a DVD drive from another PC. Seriously, it's pretty rare that these optical drives are used for much these days.

The TV card must be able to receive DVB-S. DVB-S2, the newer standard which enables HD reception, is not a necessity for me because the broadcasters have no plans to upgrade to it yet. Their current satellite has no DVB-S2 transponders. I could get a second card if I wanted to but this isn't a priority. Most DVB-S cards also have an analogue input and this will do for me to plug in my Pay TV decoder. Sure, the video will be analogue (meaning the CPU will have to do a little work) but at least it should work.

The case will have to be fairly high quality and preferably with optical bays oriented to allow horizontal positioning. I'm not a fan of these expensive $400 "media center" cases you see about the place. I don't need metal, nor fancy lights, nor LCD displays. Just a decent black box.

The remote doesn't need too many requirements. However the standard Windows MCE remote should do the trick nicely. Partly this is because it includes IR blasters which allow the PC to change the channel on the Pay TV decoder.

All in all the mythbox should do enough to be useful. My old CPU isn't quite HD video ready probably but given I have practically no hope of getting HD reception this isn't really a concern.

Cheers to fazen for the image. Licensed under CC.

Mythbox: Debating the choice - build or buy

For ages I thought building a media PC was a stupid idea. Why would you spend all that money on a noisy, ugly PC when you could buy a cheap DVR? The answer came to me after much research and just with the passing of time.

Cost became less of an issue simply with time. Computers are cheap. Their components are cheap. This is partly because of reduced costs, partly because the US dollar exchange rate is favourable for me at the moment. Now it's about the same to build as is it is to buy.

Flexibility is the thing that really wins. With a PC I can do whatever I want. More tuners? Go ahead! Watch videos from other PCs? You bet! HD upgrade? Why not! Ultimately it was the fact that my country is finally going digital - but there's a huge lack of digital capable DVR's (I have no idea why). The choice is even more dire when it comes to DVB-S which is want I want to use. I have no hope of getting DVB-T coverage. (An aside - see if you can guess which country I'm in). With a PC I just slot in the tuner cards I want an voila! Entertainment gratification.

In summary then:

Buy:

• Just works

But...

• Limited expandability options
• Small range of digital capable DVRs

Build

• Infinite flexibility
• Easy upgradability
• Choose whatever video source you desire!

But...

• Fiddling required

For me the build pros outweight the cons, mostly because I'm good at fiddling.

This is a joke, right?

I started getting a prompt when I booted saying I had to activate Windows again because I changed the hardware. Of course we all know that the activation system Microsoft uses is ridiculous and treats us all as criminals but my problem is what brought it on.

"Changed hardware!", I hear you cry, "You must have really done something drastic to your system!"

You'd think that, but no. What did I change then? The frickin power supply. That's right the power supply and nothing else. I really don't think that changing the power supply is something Windows could even detect so that leads me to the thought that this is probably a bug. A bug that has the ability to piss me off fully and however many other people have encountered it.

It creates more food for thought too. What if the year was 2015 and Microsoft was no longer activating XP. Or they may not even exist (come on, it's possible!). Activation is another dirty form of DRM which can only hurt consumers. And today that consumer is me.