Forum Home
Press F1
Thread ID: 80826	2007-07-06 03:50:00	Problems with my "poor mans HTPC".....	NZMacka (11756)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
566366	2007-07-06 03:50:00	Gidday guys.... I had an old PC lying around and after googling around for "uses for an ol PC" I came acorss the idea of using the old box as an cheap and nasty HTPC... So I load up Windows 2K (only OS I still have on CDROM) on the old 1Ghz Celeron, chucked a 128MB ATI 9200 Graphics card with TV out, 640MB of RAM in it and an old DVDROM drive.... It has a Seagate 80GB HDD.... I then dumped around 10Gig of music and some video on to it via the home network from my NAS and all seems to work well..... However, today I took the PC off the bench and connected it to my 38" (I think) Sony TV via the S Video output on the above graphics card.... the old box will play the movies on the TV in fullscreen direct from the HDD OK with no skipping or jerkiness, BUT...the audio is very average, cutting in and out constantly.... Audio from a striaght CD rip is OK an unaffected. So, I am assuming that my on board sound port is not up to the job, but before I spend a dollar on this old box obtaining a new PCI soundcard, I'd be interested to hear what others think... Is my hardware actually up to scratch to be able to do this>? Is the processor, RAM, graphics card and old Intel Mobo just to slow to be able to perform this application? Really appreciate any ideas, as I am getting quite interested in configuring a PC to sit under my TV to hold all of my media files.... so if this won't do...what would need improving? TIA guys.	NZMacka (11756)
566367	2007-07-06 04:03:00	Well celerons arent that great for anything. Its most probably the Celeron thats affecting the sound.	Speedy Gonzales (78)
566368	2007-07-06 04:06:00	G'day Speedy, It may not actually be a Celeron (I was guessing as its so old and its only a Pentium 3 (?) 1 Ghz processor.... if it was'nt a Celeron, what would your thoughts be? I am at work and can't open the box up to check.... i guess if it is an old Celeron then theres not much hope for it! :badpc:	NZMacka (11756)
566369	2007-07-06 04:08:00	Any 1GHz CPU should have no problem. Make sure that no unnecessary software is running. You won't want indexing going on, for example. Yopu don't want Office preloaded. Etcetera.	Graham L (2)
566370	2007-07-06 04:19:00	G'day Graham, Its a vey clean install of Windows 2K.... there is nothing like Office on the PC, and no other apps apart from Real VNC running ( I control this PC from a laptop) ..... I formatted the HDD before a clean instal of 2K. And the processor has no problem with the video output from the grpahics card, this all works smoothly even when being pushed to full screen on my TV....however, the audio does lag, and stutter, which is a touch annoying... Could it be that the onboard sound is just not up to the job?:confused:	NZMacka (11756)
566371	2007-07-06 04:30:00	If the sound is "stuttering" that probably means that the sound system isn't getting its input data fast enough. Have a look for any of the "services" that MS so generously provides. That's another tab in the task manager you get from Ctrl/alt/del.	Graham L (2)
566372	2007-07-06 04:44:00	Gidday Graham, thks for the advice. The sound lags rather than stutters. By that I mean that the video scene is ahead of the audio, and to catch up, the PC audio continuously jumps to try and make up the difference. It definatley sounds like the sound is'nt getting through fast enough though as you suggest. I'll have anothe rlook tonithe and see what else is running in the background.... I assume if I was to get a newer faster PC, then this would cease to be an issue? What are the minimum specs for a decent media PC? All other thoughts still appreciated..	NZMacka (11756)
566373	2007-07-06 04:50:00	My feeling that you shouldn't need a faster computer. A DVD player doesn't have a 1GHz CPU to play video and audio. (Of course it doesn't have a Windows OS, either. ;) The whole idea was to use an old computer, wasn't it? :D	Graham L (2)
1