HTPC Tip Of The Day: Vacation Edition

This Tip Of The Day is more of a preview for Mike’s next Life With A Plugin Episode. However, since I am on vacation I thought it would be appropriate.

Just because you are on vacation doesn’t mean you need to leave your Media Center behind. If you are like me, you are always wishing you set a recording for a certain show. All major PVR applications have some sort of remote admin functionality available. Windows Vista/MCE has WebGuide , SageTV has its native Placeshifter application or Web User Interface by Nielm, and Snapstream (BeyondTV) started it all with Snapstream.net .

WebGuide and the Web User Interface both allow you to stream your TV and other media files. I probably take advantage of the photo portion abit too much but that happens when you are a proud papa.

I have mentioned Windows Home Server in the past and is another method to cleanly tie all of your data together in one nice package. While typing this article I am using WebGuide WHS version and listening to music streaming from my home server. :). My CableCard build is not quite complete yet and I am kicking myself for not being able to record some episodes of Smash Lab. 

How do you remotely admin your Media Center PC? Do you think vacation is a time to get away from the Media Center PC grind or do you relax in your hotel room after a hard day and watch a couple of episodes of your missed soap operas?