Mar
15
HTPC Pointers
Filed Under Media Servers (HTPC) | Leave a Comment
I’m stepping just a wee bit out of my comfort zone here today with some HTPC tips, but I feel as if I’ve learned enough in the process of building two of them that I might have some worthwhile pointers. First off no matter how powerful you thought/think a HTPC should be; if you haven’t factored in 1080p you’re probably way off in the amount of raw horsepower needed for “Full HD” video processing.
In my experience you’re going to want at a dual-core CPU in the 2.3 GHz region or faster and or a video card with full MPEG-2/4 hardware acceleration, (the ATI 2400, 2600 or NVIDIA 8600/8500 come to mind) to get smooth playback with a variety of sources at 1080p.
Ok so with CPU and GPU considerations addressed the other big area I see mistakes being made is with the operating system itself. Think of your HTPC’s operating system as a petri dish you want to run a controlled experiment with, any contaminants (unnecessary updates, malware, etc.) that enter that dish raise the chance of hang-ups and crashes exponentially. Simple things like turning off automatic updates and removing unnecessary startup programs via msconfig; can go a long-ways toward a stable, trouble-free HTPC.
Feb
17
Media Servers (HTPC)
Filed Under Media Servers (HTPC) | Leave a Comment
Some call them home theater PC’s, others prefer the term media server while others just curse in their general direction, whatever you call them they look a lot like the future of home theater. In some form or another it won’t be long before most home theater enthusiasts have a “box” in their living room or home theater that can: record live tv, playback local video files, stream audio and video from another connected device, play games and ultimately access the internet to bring in new content in the form of pay-per view movies and even live “TV” events.
Those of you with Xbox 360’s and Play Station 3’s and networked video devices are already at the forefront of this movement but expect to see this type of functionality to appear in other, less platform specific devices in the future. A few ways to take advantage of the networked video revolution today are the aforementioned Xbox 360’s (particularly when used on the same network as a Vista Media Center equipped PC) A Mac mini using Apples “Front Row” software and devices like the limHD200i from Tomarco.
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