glennbuchan

Ah right. Onboard sound wont decode then?

Sound card?

I was going to reply saying that the motherboard has pretty good sound on it and plus I currently don't own a surround sound system, same with parents. Might be investing in one soon so I should keep that in mind?

Case + PSU

Motherboard

Hard Drive

Memory

Blue Ray Drive

Processor

Graphics card

TV card

No idea on what TV card to use? At the moment I have a freesat box for my tv which I picked up in Maplin for next to nothing. It has hundreds of channels and just works off the satellite outside my flat. Does it matter what type of TV tuner card I get?

I've had a major look around and found the above parts which I think would work pretty well. Bit stuck on processor and Graphics card. I was thinking about selling my xbox 360 elite and buying a wireless xbox style controller for the HTPC... This would obviously result in needing a much better graphics card. Any advice?

(By the way, I'm going to make one for myself now instead to see if there's any advice for myself before making one for parents)

If it's going in the living room then it's got to look good, right?

Correct. Plus it has to match the furniture and TV!

Surely you should decide on what's going in the case before deciding on the case?

Case was quite important as it gave me an idea of size and design. I think it's pretty flexible what then goes into the case as most HTPCs tend to be micro ATX motherboards anyway. Really liked this case when I saw it and apparently it's quite quiet.

I'm thinking about making a media centre computer for my parents as a present but I need some advice. Has anyone tried to do this before and have any tips?

I'm on a tight budget however I think I can make something pretty decent with not a lot of money.

I think I'll need the following:

Case + PSU

Processor + Cooler

Motherboard (Micro ATX )

Hard Drive (500gb or so)

Memory

DVD Drive

TV card

Keyboard

OS (Vista or XPMC?)

Pretty much decided on the case but everything else is undecided. Any advice would be really helpful.

Also if anyone has any components that they need to sell, I'd be interested to hear what you've got8-)

Thanks

Yas! Finished my exams! (2nd year management rgu)

They went pretty good. Only had two though.

pretty much as good as gone, but if it does fall through i'll be in touch.

Thanks:up:

sent you a pm

I know he got there first but if you cant reach an agreement etc I'll take GTA and Grid?

Let me know- thanks!

I don't understand how that's funny.

It's pretty funny what happens in the video.

YouTube - Crazy Bike Crash

My mate when we were younger. I think he's still got a scar from this......

now sold.

It would be amazing to have this as an app for phones. Imagine this on an iPhone using 3G.

I use fruit conserve anyway (it's no added sugar and is like jam except that it relies on the natural sugars from the fruit).

I like Saint Dalfour

So, it's not exactly a new idea. I've been eating this stuff since I was about 5.

It's French though!!

Could you elaborate on the adverts thing?

Every few songs there will be a 10 second audio clip of advertising before the next song.

It's like the radio with much fewer adverts.

There's also a few picture adverts occasionally.

While I still think it's pretty amazing, the adverts are beginning to bug me a little.

Oh, and that 'invite' thing is bullshit - you can sign up via this link https://www.spotify.com/en/get-started

Thanks for that, I just thought it was invite only since it says on the site:

"Spotify free is currently in an invitation-only beta, which means you need to have received an invitation token to access the service "

I'll edit the thread.

I'll give it a whirl.

amurray87(at)gmail.com

You should have an invite

It's kind of like the iTunes store but you can listen to full songs and its a huge database of music. It's free and legal.

Read more here: What is Spotify? - Spotify

I've been using it all today and it's pretty awesome. Free music whenever, wherever.

Get an account here: https://www.spotify.com/en/get-started

As stated above, most of The Xcerts live material is on youtube.

If you are building up a collection and want some older material, it may be an idea to search for "X-certs" in youtube, as that was they used to be called.

For example here's some videos from when they used to live in Aberdeen:

YouTube - The X-Certs - I Hate The Way You Dance (live)

YouTube - The X-Certs - Darker Ages (live)

Hope that helps.

You might want to change this on your site:

"05/06/2008 - Westport Bar, Dundee, England"

*Scotland

Him and me both.... whats the problem?

Bad times.

Don't know if any of you have come across this already but I love this Jam. A Scottish teenager has created a range of Jam with no added sugar and is on my toast every morning!

I know you can buy it from ASDA and apparently you can get it from Tesco and Morrisons too.

His story is pretty interesting:

YouTube - Super Jam Set To Make Teenager A Millionaire

Amazing! Thanks for that!

Last Christmas I received a book called "The Pilgrims Passage".

Although it still hasn't been read I don't have much hope for it and I wasn't very impressed at the time...

looking forward to this gig although I'll be in Edinburgh all day. Probably arriving back about 9.30. When will Xcerts be on?