HTPC set up or HD media player??

[saratdear]

OK here's the deal - I've got quite a LARGE movie collection I've acquired over the years; plenty of movie CDs we bought, (500+) downloaded stuff, and so on. Thinking about a way to organize it and consolidate it into one entertainment system.

How I want it to be - I'll back up all the CDs, DVDs, everything to a single hard disk. Get myself a nice large HDTV. I'm looking for a Mediaman kinda interface for browsing through the movies - MediaMan - Organize with Fun - Elegant Organizer Software for Books, Music, Videos, and Games Very graphic, neat, arranged like that and all. Looks neat. I'm willing to sit for hours to backup every disc and download movie pics and information for each of them. But I want the movies to be searchable by say genre, actor, director, language, whatever.

I was thinking an HTPC setup with a TV tuner card so it could function as my primary TV recording device also. Will that work? Like how they have it in say, Tata Sky and all? I was thinking throw in a half decent graphics card and this could take in some gaming as well. Plus light browsing.

Or can I do all this with a HD media player device? DO they have advanced search systems like what I want as such?

Thank you!

Sarat

 

[sam1]

not sure if other people know this, so i'll post it anyway. seems like atleast some lcd tvs even have capability to play movies directly from external HDDs (connected thru USB). i went to my uncle's place a few days ago and connected an external HDD containing files in .mkv, .avi, .mp4 formats. the TV played each of them brilliantly! if the TVs can do the job, doesn't it kinda render those media players and HTPCs obsolete?

 

[whitestar_999]

with such a large collection along with your desire for it to be searchable across many categories HTPC is the only option.for TV tuner card it depends on your preference.if you are satisfied with analog/mediocre/low resolution recording(less than 720p) then there are lots of options available but if you want to record in full HD 1080p from HD channels like star HD,ZEE HD etc then you have to get a tv tuner with hdmi port which is costly(~8000).

for someone like me who wants best picture quality using custom renderer,frame rate manipulation & de-interlacing,PC with a decent graphics card is the only option.

 

[saratdear]

I did think about HTPC setup. The thing I want to know is whether present HTPC OS have the kind of searching capabilites and graphic display I want.

 

[kARTechnology]

I did think about HTPC setup. The thing I want to know is whether present HTPC OS have the kind of searching capabilites and graphic display I want.

try XBMC, it is for windows as well as a linux live (XBMCbuntu)
XBMC

and I do have it, many skins and customizable a u said, like sort by country, language, director, etc..

ps: for that to work, u should import ur collection, and download the movie/song info so that xbmc gathers info about the movies/song, then u can sort things....