Monday, November 13, 2006
Might as well start with the reason for these upcoming articles:
small hick town + hype of tivo + computer = Home Theater PC

So I have decided to build myself a HTPC so that I can record my television shows, pause, rewind, fast forward, and keep my TV shows as a digital file. Years ago I had figured that computers, television, radio, and phones would come together and all people would have a computer in their house that would manage and control all of these different types of media. This is slowly coming true, there is a very thin line between TIVO, and Windows MCE. This has also come true for telephones with the creation of programs like Skype. We have been able to listen to streaming radio for a long time now with winamp.

What shall I start out with? How about my computer hardware:
Case: ASUS TA250 ATX Mid Tower (chosen for the front ports: firewire, audio, 4-USB 2.0)
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 3000+
Motherboard: DFI Nforce3 250GB (chosen for the all the extra firewire, USB, and audio ports)
Ram: Two sticks of Samsung PC3200 512MB DDR400
Hard Drive: Samsung Spinpoint P Series 250GB(chosen for its quietness)
DVD Drive: BenQ DW1650 DVD±RW (higher quality DVD drive)
TV Tuner Card: MSI Theater 550PRO PCI
Video Card: Nvidia Geforce 6600 (VGA, DVI-I, & s-video out)
Soundcard 1: An old Sound Blaster Live
Soundcard 2: Onboard sound from the motherboard
Speakers: Headphones for gaming
Speakers: Logitech speakers for the television
Operating System: Windows Media Center Edition
Keyboard & Mouse: Logitech cordless MX3000 (wireless K.B. & M is a must)
Computer Monitor: Samsung picture tube general purpose monitor (connected through VGA)
Television: Toshiba 26HL86 26" widescreen HDTV (connected through DVI-I -> HDMI)

- If you intend to use one computer as your HTPC, and a regular internet/gaming computer, splurge and get a dual core CPU. It will be well worth it. If you are going to have two computers, I would recommend a CPU with at least 1.5 GHz for the HTPC. As per an article that I read as I was doing my research months ago. You can choose whatever speed you need for the other computer.

- The case I chose has audio, microphone, 1 firewire port, and 4 USB 2.0 ports on the front. With the extra 4 USB ports I can plug my gamepad in the front without having to reach around to the back. I also plug in the ipod to the front it's great.
If I was to have a seperate computer for the HTPC, I would choose one of those HTPC cases that are horizontal, and intended only for HTPC systems example

If you wish to setup your own HTPC I would recommend getting these components that I have bought myself. The TV tuner you buy will depend on what signal you recieve your cable television though. I recieve my signals through a regular old coaxial cable.

If you can afford it, buy two computers, one for gaming, and one for watching TV. That way you can avoid some of the problems I have encountered, which I will elaborate on more later. But then you will run into a whole 'nother set of problems I would'nt know about.

I suggest doing plenty of research yourself before you jump into a HTPC.
The HTPC News site has some good articles
The Hardforum home theater sub-forum
And google.

Having a home theater PC is great because of the things it allows me to do:
Play my .mp3's on my TV speakers
Watch, record, pause TV from the couch
Browse the internet from the couch
Play games on the TV
Watch downloaded videos from the couch (Sony Bravia commercial, Top Gear, YouTube vids)
Go through my vacation pictures, hi-res pictures, backgrounds, on the TV

All of this is not without some problems I have had to work though:
- Setting up the Toshiba HDTV to work with the computer
- Using only one computer and one processor causes some pains when the wife is watching TV,
and I am playing EvE-Online
- Using only one computer with two sound cards for both sets of speakers