Hauppauge WinTV + Acer i3 compact PC

[ZeroTX]

Hi folks,

I am relatively new to regularly using my Windows Media Center setup. I have had one on my desktop for many years with over-the-air tuner (United States/ATSC), and I've used it to watch programs while working on my PC, but haven't seriously considered having it replace my cable box until I noticed the relatively recent Hauppauge WinTV DCR-2650. I have ordered one of these and plan to replace my cable box. I've also purchased a compact size Acer PC with Win7 64-bit Home Premium, an Intel Core i3 520 3.06ghz, 4GB, 500GB, and a GeForce no-fan low-profile 1GB video card to circumvent the onboard Intel video. I already have an HP wireless keyboard and HP media center remote that I'm told by Hauppauge should work fine with the WinTV device on Comcast.

Beyond a desire for more storage space, any other suggestions or concerns? I'm a pretty light user, but got tired of the tiny recording limit on my Comcast DVR box, and would like to be able to do Hulu and other free streaming to my TV without being crippled and blocked, such as I would be with Google or Apple TV. Lame.

Thanks for any insights...

Also, I went ahead and looked up my exact specs for discussion sake:

Acer Aspire AX3950-UR30P, Intel Core i3-540 3.06GHz, 4GB DDR3, 500GB HDD, DVDRW, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
ASUS GT520-1GD3-CSM GeForce GT 520 Silent Video Card - 1GB, GDDR3, PCI-Express 2.0 (x16), 1x Dual-Link DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x VGA, DirectX 11, Single-Slot, Low Profile
Hauppauge WinTV DCR-2650 (USB 2.0)
HP wireless keyboard & mouse
HP Mediacenter remote control
Monoprice USB Wireless-N adapter

I'll probably be adding a USB 2.0 external drive for content when I get some spare $$ or I'll move one of the existing 1TB USB 2.0 drives from my desktop PC/server.

Thanks!

[Beradon]

Looks pretty good. A number of people here are quite successfully running their media centers on i3s.

Any particular reason for the Hauppauge over a Ceton? Today you can get the 4 tuner USB Ceton cable Card tuner from Newegg for $169. The link is in the deals section of the forum.

[ZeroTX]

Looks pretty good. A number of people here are quite successfully running their media centers on i3s.

Any particular reason for the Hauppauge over a Ceton? Today you can get the 4 tuner USB Ceton cable Card tuner from Newegg for $169. The link is in the deals section of the forum.

I got it running... So far so good!

Mostly price, the Hauppauge was on sale for $99, it conveniently uses USB, and I don't know that I necessarily need 4 tuners. I may regret it later and if I do, I may be able to do the Ceton.

One change is that the tiny case on this Acer was too tiny for the big heat sink on the silent Asus GeForce GT520 card, so I'm using the built-in Core i3 video, which seems to perform quite well for this purpose. That's fine with me as that's $50 that can go toward maybe a 2TB external drive to store my recorded TV.

If I decide I need 4 tuners, I guess I would switch to the Ceton card. Would a Ceton card fit in a tiny case? Which type of slot does it require?

Anyhow, I'm also going to experiment with various online sources and perhaps add an ATSC tuner card to the mix and see if I can eventually wean off of cable entirely. For now, the image quality and programming variety cannot be matched by a non-live-TV option. Not even close... not at any price. So in that sense, cable still has value.

I also discovered that my HP media center remote works fine with this setup... AND Hauppauge put a media remote in the box with the 2650, even though the description doesn't say that.

Thanks for any other input.

[Beradon]

Well, Ceton has a USB version as well so it shouldnt be an issue of fitting unless you're out of USB ports.

As for the Ceton PCIE version, it also comes with a low profile bracket so if the case has expansion slots, even if they are low profile, it should fit. Post a picture of the back of your case or a link to the model of your media PC and I'll be able to tell you.

The one thing I'd suggest if you do eventually choose more tuners is you might need more than 4 gig of RAM, but fortunately RAM is cheap.