Warning - long post but likely relevant to others:
I've given it a ton of thought and pretty much came to the conclusion that I really don't need DVD or Blu-Ray playback from an HTPC. I don't think I'll amass a big enough movie collection anytime soon to warrant the need to store them on an HTPC for convenience sake. And to be honest, it seems like way too much trouble to get the same quality playback as you would from a standalone player, not to mention the lack of a lossless audio solutions. Maybe a year or so down the road things will be much different with more straightforward solutions as the concept matures.
I do howeve think it's still of a great value for music, home video, pics, and DVR... which brings me to my question.
I need some help with hardware recommendations that will give me
1) Really great audio playback, I'm not opposed to having a good soundcard that outputs the right hz or bit rate or whatever it's supposed to do, but I don't want to spend thousands on one of the pro cards.
2) Capable DVR work (I still don't understand what QAM is or what I can record i.e., HD or not), I'd like to potentially be able to record 2 shows while watching something else...if that can be done. I"m assuming mulitple tuner cards will allow that.
3) I'd like enough horsepower to be able to upgrade in a year or so to Blu-Ray playback once things get up to speed.
I'm leaning towards the Omaura HTPC cases and will start out with an 80gig drive for Windows Vista and 1terabyte drive for storage. I don'tknow motherboards and CPU's work best these days.
I'm thinking 4gig of RAM, a decent video card (since I'm not worried about blu-ray but may like to playback and/or rip DVDs). I don't know what I need for Tuner Cards and what they can and can't do and all that. I'd like to just stick with Vista MCE, but may consider Sage.
I'm not looking to cut corners, so if you have recommendations, lean them towards what I ought to get vs what I can just get by with.
