Was your HTPC project more expensive than you anticipated?

[MeInMaui]

Originally Posted by stevech

I have a new PC with an nVidia 430 chipset with gig-e. Is that the chipset you had trouble with? I'm still at 100BT.

Mine is an Nforce4 SLI chipset.

[Ryokurin]

It was much more expensive than I originally planned, and I've been at it since around 2002. Originally I did it because it was cheaper than a Tivo, but I've spent enough to buy one and a lifetime subscription (when they did them) a few times over.

1. Several processors and boards from a 850mhz athlon to the current A64 3200+

2. Several boards, including a Shuttle XPC that killed a couple of PVR 250s before I tossed it

3. I've gone through about 5 PVR-250s, 150s because of the above and a couple of software tuners, and a All in wonder when I was trying out

4. Hauppauge remote (old magnavox type, new type), streamzap, firefly, Remote wonder, finally settled on MCE remote.

5. several cases and hard drives

6. I've tried dscaler, showshifter, meedio, various open source programs and mce before sticking with sage.

Luckily hardware wise most of it was handmedowns for boards and processors and I was able to sell much of what didn't work but otherwise, in the past 5 years I've probably spent around $3000 on it easily.

[farscapesg1]

I knew it would cost money, but I honestly never realized how addictive it would become. I've always built my own systems since my first Intel BE6 motherboard and P3 processor, and figured this would be a fun adventure to get rid of the VCR (and the 30+ VCR tapes lying around unlabeled) and my cruddy APEX DVD player.

Luckily, I had some old hardware (XP 2800+ and some memory) so I found an old ASUS board with Soundstorm on it and threw it all in an old case with an 80 GB system drive and a 160 GB recording drive. Honestly, I started out with an old "pirate" copy of SageTV to keep the cost down.

It wasn't more than two or three months and I decided that I needed to upgrade the case to something that fit wit my entertainment center, so there was a good chunck of change for a Silerstone case and power supply, and did the right thing and got bought a SageTV license (4 months before they released version 5 of course ). I had also gotten a MediaMPV for christmas from my wife's parents, but that never worked for a bedroom client like I wanted.

I have been pretty lucky in that I've managed to snag some decent equipment from my work to use. My bedroom client system is actually a Dell Optiplex that had a bad power supply at work and was out of warranty. They were going to scrap it instead of just getting a new PS, so I took it and grabbed a PS off ebay for $50. I also snagged a 17" flat panel from work that no one wanted because we had "newer" ones. That was a nice upgrade from my 13" TV/VCR combo that couldn't use COAX and the MVP connected at the same time.

Slowly I have been adding to the system, mostly tuners (started with a PVR150, now up to 2 PVR 150s, a PVR 500, and a HDHomeRun) and finally talked the wife into upgrading the hard drive to a 400 GB storage drive (since were were always running low on storage).

I've just ordered the parts to split things up and create a Sage Server using a X2 3800+ and replace my main system with a client running a X2 3600+. I've almost talked my wife into paying for the SageTV 6 upgrade, so that will probably be my next purchase.

[jdamore]

Hey guys! Think of this as a little investment.

http://www.tvbgone.com/cfe_tvbg_main.php

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by jdamore

Hey guys! Think of this as a little investment.

http://www.tvbgone.com/cfe_tvbg_main.php

This reminds me of a watch I used to have. It actually had a remote control built in. I loved it, I would be at school and we would be watching a movie and *click* off it would go. That was all great fun until the teachers caught on. ooops.

[ozfiles]

When I first started I recognised the need to do it right, the first time. So I got two pvr 250's and that worked for us for a while but eventually we upgraded to a dual hdtv card as well.
I have upgraded the hard drives to store the shows and movies that tend to be keepers.
I'm still using the ati, all in one 9800 pro that I brought for the first case. I have upgraded the case for a component type case that fits nicely with the rest of the system.

So to answer the question, No, I expected the costs associated with my htpc and I wouldn't substitute the learning experience and enjoyment that I and my family have got out of my htpc project for a plug and play device such as tivo.

[stevech]

Originally Posted by ozfiles

...
I have upgraded the hard drives to store the shows and movies that tend to be keepers.

What are you doing for those "keepers" in terms of backed-up storage?
I am trying to decide what to do, for inexpensive RAID-5 storage. Not worth hundreds of dollars to me.

[ozfiles]

Stevech, for the shows and movies that I really want to keep and would hate to lose I have a, VANTEC NEXSTAR3 USB2.0 EXTERNAL 3.5IN HARD DRIVE CASE hooked up to the lan.

[Fluffdaddy]

Nice 4 IDE HDD drives External Storage Enclosure. I'm happy with it.
http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16817332008

[motobarsteward]

My system's sort of evolved. I started with Sky Plus( UK PVR Satellite TV system) and I hated the GUI, the noise that the box made during the summer and the fact that I had to pay £10 per month just for the PVR functionality. I sort of bought the 3Gig Athalon machine for £500 to use as the server from my brother because he was 'upgrading' to a Mac. I paid £100 for a Thermal Take box but couldn't get the 3Gig Athalon to run at less than 70Deg C with out a tornado blowing through the case. I thought I'd like to spend another £250 on the thermal take water cooling system. Then I went into PC world and paid £400 for the most amazing Media PC! You can still buy it online for twice the price! It's a 3Gig Hyperthreading Intel machine on the 915 motherboard with a half decent graphics card etc and it is absolutely silent.

So, that became my living room client. The server now lives in the loft in the garage witht the two Sky boxes and my Cisco Calalyst 2924XL switch and can make as much noise as it wants! The WAF is also very high because there is only one box in the living room and it looks more like a DVD player than a PC. (see attached picture)

Total (including sundry bits like the RGB-S-Video converters, the USBUIRT and the server/client licenses and the Hauppauge MCE500) must come to £1300 (eeek!, don't let the wife see this!). Seeing as I had no budget in the first place, I don't think it's that bad actually.

My only concern is when my wife find the receipt for the Nuclear Power station I had to buy to power it all!

EDIT: Ooo, and I forgot the two NAS boxes that I bought from Maplin for £35 each. I'd run out of drive bays in my server (I have 5 HDD in there!) so these wor a good idea.

[vividweb]

I don't think it was the initial cost that was expensive. It is the fact that I now can have a PVR anywhere I want and have to add more TV's so that everyone is happy. And when I add more TV's I need more tuners and more satellite boxes. It makes it so much easier when the wife approves as well.