Video Asylum

Posted by Ross (A) on December 19, 2010 at 18:22:08

In Reply to: RE: Building a home theater PC on the cheap. Need advice. posted by soundnut on November 18, 2010 at 06:46:35

IMHO no. Last year I tried to do what you contemplate. I used a Dell 2.4ghz / 2gb / WinXP machine. I installed a Haupauge TV card and a 512mb graphics card. I have a fast DSL connection. Never could get recording to work without crashing the machine. Never could get 720p streaming to work without stuttering or buffer issues. 480 from Hulu worked most of the time but remaining issues were still frustrating.

I recently "upgraded" to a Dual Core 1.6ghz/ 2gb Ram / XP machine and a dedicated graphics card. After turn on and tweaking (~45min ?) I was able to stream Hulu TV shows for several hours without 1 drop out, stutter or buffering episode. Then my wife and I watched a movie streamed from Netflix in 720p...again not stuttering, buffering or other issues.

My conclusion, based upon experience, is you need more processing power than a single core chip can deliver. Put in at least 2gb of ram and get a dedicated graphics card.

Best,

Ross