DVR, HD Tuner, Blu-ray and more... Our fave HDTV expert, PCMag.com's Robert Heron, joins us with a host of tricks for turning Vista's Windows Media Center into a great Home Theater PC
Building a Home Theater PC? Thinking about HDTV, Blu-ray, and how serious a GPU or CPU you need if you don't want to run video games on your HDTV? Can you get away with 1GB of memory? What about hard drive size, or the best tuner for HD?
You're gonna love this episode! Our fave HDTV expert, Robert Heron, from PCMag.com and DL.TV, joins Patrick with a host of expert ideas tips and tricks for turning your Windows Media Center into the ultimate media PC.
BTW, our new fave tool for playing Blu-ray movies in Windows Media Center is AcrSoft's TotalMedia Theater or TotalMedia Extreme...
Vista centric? Sure! It comes standard with Windows Vista Home Premium and Ultimate does a solid job playing DVDs, recording TV and handling your favorite audio and video files.
Looking to integrate Blu-ray playback into your WMC machine? Check out TotalMedia Theatre, $90, which not only plays well with the WMC interface, but still plays HD-DVD disks. It's definitely a more convenient than our former fave, CyberLink's PowerDVD 8 Ultra, $99.95, which bumps you out of the WMC GUI.
Vista... not so much? We also give you a list of WMC alternatives on the show... so you can turn just about any XP or Vista PC into an amazing Home Theater PC.
On the commercial front:
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Posted by ChapmanI on 11/12/2008 at 11:03:28 pm in Systm
I have to take exception with several of Patric's comments about the Antec Fusion case.
I own the NSK-2480 which is a slightly cheaper model with the same basic design. Mine is missing the volume knob, the VFD/LCD (depending on the model of Fusion), the built in IR receiver and the front firewire port. The front of the NSK is silver plastic in stead of the brushed or black aluminum. In all other respects, it is the exact same case.
Firstly, if the VFD is too bright and irritating, unplug it. Just because it is in the case, doesn't mean you HAVE to use it.
Patric's point about the "proprietary power supply" is just plain wrong. You can use any standard ATX power supply you want in this case. The back cutout for the power supply has been specifically designed to accommodate PSU's with a 120mm "bottom" fan. How? By rotating the power supply 180 degrees (ie fan facing up instead of down).
The tipple chamber design allows for better air flow, and separates the primary heat sources. The power supply fan cools the optical drive, and the power supply -- that's it. Outside air is drawn over the hard drives, then into the main chamber. Air is also pulled in over the video card, and in across most of the back of the case. There is an adjustable baffle to route that back entry air to the processor's heatsink. Two adjustable 120 mm fans move lots of air along these routes. Many find they don't need a fan on the heatsink with this airflow.
Patric's point about the size of the case is correct - it is large. In essence it's a rack mount size, with a more living room styled look. Heavy - yea it IS solidly built. Light cases tend to transmit a lot more sound from the drives and fans inside the case.
The case was designed with significant input from Mike Chin, the "quiet PC" obsessed guy behind SilentPCReview.com. His critique of the final product, and discussion of design decisions is definitely worth a read. It made so much logical sense, I had to buy one, and I've been extremely happy with it. If you can live without the volume knob that you'll never use, the "cool guy" VFD/LCD, and a front firewire port, the NSK-2480 version is probably the least expensive HTPC case you'll find. Since most tuner cards come with their own IR receiver, I don't think Fusion's one is needed. (Besides, I chose an RF remote instead.) I'm running the KnoppMyth version of Myth (much more optimized for PVR use the Mythbuntu) on it.
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Posted by rrsavage on 10/16/2008 at 09:20:05 pm in Systm
"I gotta second that I wish that some time was taken to show the install and build because as someone who has been a HTPC fanatic for years, diving in without some very good info can result in a very costly and frustrating build. Love the show but i would have loved to see them take a solid set off components and complete a build and show its features (like the MythTV episode) rather than just touch on various parts because some of those parts are not going to play nice. For example, there is no Windows Media Center support for the long-awaited Hauppauge HD-PVR (much to the huge disappointment of many VMC lovers like myself), probably something that would have been discovered and probably not been recommended should a build have been completed.
All in all I love to see HTPC anything...but rather than give broadbased recommendations, i'd love Systm to stick to beginning to end build projects.
Keep up the good work."
The Hauppauge HD-PVR is supported in both SageTV and BeyondTV enabling HD capture of 720 and 1080 content. I am running two HD-PVR boxes using SageTV and my HTPC life could not be better :-) I prefer SageTV because they have their own HD-100 Extender tiny little set top box. With this set top box I do not have to have a full blown PC at each TV location. All I have is a centralized SageTV server with multiple HD-100 extenders distributed throughout the house. The extenders provide the full SageTV GUI to each location and allow streaming of content from the SageTV server, including all the HD content. The HD-100 extenders is also a much smaller price for a viewing client than building a full HTPC viewer station. SageTV is written in Java, and while it is not free and not open source, the software cost is relatively nothing and there is no recurring cost for programming guide data. They also include a developers API for creating plugins and SageTV studio editor for customizing all aspects of the GUI. There is an active forums of users and developers adding plugins and utilities all the time to provide additional functionality and capabilities. In fact, I found Systm and watched all the episodes directly on my SageTV system from the comfort of my living room on an HD-100 extender. Anyone considering MythTV, BeyondTV, or Vista Media Center should really take a close look at SageTV before making the final decision. I could not e happier. SageTV is available for Windows, Linux, and MAC and is relatively easy to install.
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Posted by allsighs on 09/10/2008 at 06:50:19 pm in Systm
I gotta second that I wish that some time was taken to show the install and build because as someone who has been a HTPC fanatic for years, diving in without some very good info can result in a very costly and frustrating build. Love the show but i would have loved to see them take a solid set off components and complete a build and show its features (like the MythTV episode) rather than just touch on various parts because some of those parts are not going to play nice. For example, there is no Windows Media Center support for the long-awaited Hauppauge HD-PVR (much to the huge disappointment of many VMC lovers like myself), probably something that would have been discovered and probably not been recommended should a build have been completed.
All in all I love to see HTPC anything...but rather than give broadbased recommendations, i'd love Systm to stick to beginning to end build projects.
Keep up the good work.
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Posted by heinenth on 09/06/2008 at 06:55:55 pm in Systm
Patrick's constant use of the phrase "i like that thought" is relatively annoying. Does he not realize how much he's using it? Also, I was surprised in that intern segment that they were calling the netflix player by roku "the netflix roku" as if that was the name of the product. The player is manufactured by Roku. I actually wonder if they even know that..
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Posted by Zenji on 09/01/2008 at 03:07:12 pm in Systm
There was some quick discussion on the episode about wireless keyboards for media center PCs. I use the Adesso WKB-4000US. It's a small 2.4Ghz unit with a built in track pad. I picked it up at Microcenter for about $90.00. I'm sure it can be found cheaper online but I was in a hurry.
Product Link:
*link*
zenji
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Posted by Ryudo on 08/28/2008 at 01:27:12 pm in Systm
Not a systm watcher normally but this episode I really enjoyed.
Please bring more stuff like this to the show.:)
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Posted by computoman on 08/27/2008 at 09:28:49 pm in Systm
Balmer is adamant on taking it two steps back. In my lifetime thus far I've easily paid more for Microsoft OSes and development software than I've spent on cars.
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Know what you mean. The better half has me on a tight leash when it comes to computer spending. Years ago, I worked in an independent family owned computer mostly software store. Having a second job was a big help to pay for the items I used for my teaching job. Everyone who worked there did get a bit of free software for promotional purposes from some of the software companies. We did have to buy mswindows for twenty five bucks or so. Most of that stuff has gone to a better place now. With linux it is still hard to turn down a free pc though. We picked up another p3 mb and case this last weekend.
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Posted by fishtoprecords on 08/27/2008 at 08:35:47 pm in Systm
"
Patrick just has several of them. It comes up here and over in Tekzilla. Avoid cliches like the plague
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Posted by jdawson on 08/27/2008 at 06:26:02 pm in Systm
Hi All:
A very good show and lots of good useful information.
Another plug-in exits for vista media center and MS MCE 2005 called FireSTB. This plug-in allow you to connect your PC via firewire to to your digital cable or satellite set top box and both record shows in full HD as well as change channels via firewire.
It is the most AMAZING hack that has allowed me now for a few years to record full 1080i MPG files streamed by my digital cable at many gigs per hour to my hard drive and then do with them as I wish. I get full quality video and 5.1 audio in the same bit quality that is sent over the cable network to my TV.
It is well worth checking out...
*link*
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Posted by davmoo on 08/27/2008 at 05:27:44 pm in Systm
"
And I'll counter that at a hacker fest this passed summer, possibly the same one you are referring to, a Mac machine running Leopard was the first one to fall, and did so a full day before the PC.
"
I agree whole-heartedly here. Balmer passed the point of "put up or shut up" with me long ago. He's spouting off the same kind of rhetoric as SCO, and look what happened to them. And just like SCO, Balmer can't produce even one example of an infringement. And until he puts up, as far as I'm concerned he can take his complaints and shove 'em up his butt sideways.
Although he has his bad points too, I think Bill Gates is basically a good person and really did do a lot to further the personal computer industry, as did/does Steve Jobs. You and I both have been around long enough to remember the days when there were *no* common standards in the microcomputer market and it was a bear to buy something that would work out of the box. I remember when one bought a software package, one had to have a certain brand of computer, a certain motherboard, a certain sound card, a certain graphics card, and so on, or otherwise it probably wouldn't work. Now all you have to do is pick the correct set of shelves at the store...PC or Apple...and its easy from that point on.
(Imagine me pounding the desk in anger repeatedly as you read this paragraph :) ) But Steve Balmer, on the other hand, is nothing but an idiot, and his greatest contribution to the PC industry would be if he took early retirement and went away. For every step forward Gates took Microsoft, Balmer is adamant on taking it two steps back. In my lifetime thus far I've easily paid more for Microsoft OSes and development software than I've spent on cars. And every time Balmer opens his mouth he makes me want to chuck all that. Hell, every time Balmer opens his mouth he makes me want to leave the industry entirely and go sell shoes or something. End rant. (Everyone can put away their fire extinguishers now.)
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