Installing Mythdora 10.21

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Mythdora 10.21 Installation Guide It’s not scary, it’s easy.           There seems to be a misconception among HTPC users that Mythtv is scary to use because you need to run Linux and Mythtv needs a little configuration in many cases to get what you want out of it.  Well, hopefully this guide will illustrate exactly how […]

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Getting Lossless Audio off the PC

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While video quality is important, I find that it’s the audio that really transforms a good movie into an immersive experience.  As challenging as it can be to get flawless video playback working on the HTPC, enabling proper lossless multi-channel audio playback adds another layer of difficultly into the mix.  In this guide we will discuss the different options available […]

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Installing Ffdshow Software

AntiPack was intended as a starting point in that it only includes high quality hardware accelerated codecs for the most popular A/V formats, but does not support everything.  If you need more, ffdshow should be next on your list.  It provides the most full featured software video and audio decoder of any OSS or free DirectShow filter; because of this […]

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HTPC System Guide: High End

It’s been quite a while since we released a system guide with our recommendations and price analysis on building your very own Home Theater PC, so we figured now is as good a time as any. We’ll start with the high end and next week will release the low end system. While some websites or magazines go pretty absorbant with […]

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Top 10 Mistakes to Avoid with your HTPC Build

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Remember the feeling you had when you would pack for a nice long vacation, only to arrive at the hotel and realize you forgot your toothbrush? That feeling can be 100 times as bad when it comes to building out a Home Theater PC (HTPC) where components cost a lot more than $3, not to mention the effort involved with […]

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Keeping your HTPC Awake

Yesterday when we discussed how to make your HTPC use S3 standby I pointed out that my preference is use fairly aggressive idle timers on my client and server PCs, the downside to this approach is that it can cause some undesirable side effects.  Today’s topic is how to workaround some interesting design shortcommings in two popular applications to keep […]

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Configuring Standby on your HTPC

My main HTPC uses around 130 watts at idle, 7 watts in standby (S3), and 4 in hibernate (S4) so the case for having it take a nap whenever it can is quite clear.  There was a time when getting S3 standby working properly was a black art involving careful motherboard and device selection, regsitry hacks, and some pixie dust.  […]

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Enabling Multi-Channel for Other Audio Formats

  Enabling Multi-Channel Audio for Other Audio Formats If you’re fortunate enough to have a PC with multi-channel LPCM output enabling full fidelity audio output is easy (and there’s not much point in reading the rest of this) but for those using a SPDIF or stereo only HDMI connection getting multi-channel audio working can be challenging.  This guide intends to […]

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