Those of you that have followed my articles in the past know that I’m a Linux fan. I appreciate it’s flexibility and potential. I also enjoy a challenge and I don’t mind doing a little digging to solve a problem. When it came time to hatch a HTPC system for the home, I naturally went with MythTV. In fact, I’ve […]
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The basics is a series of articles that I am going to do a regular basis to introduce readers new to the HTPC world about the features and benefits of Home Theater PCs. I guess you can compare this to the cheap free drugs before the true addiction :). The software I will be using for the articles is Vista […]
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So folks you’re sold on Blu-ray, and you want to connect your new Blu-ray enabled home theater PC to your killer sound system, but which way is best? what are the trade-offs? Let’s chart the Blu-ray audio formats first so you get an idea of what formats are used on Blu-ray, which formats are mandatory, and so on. Then we’ll discuss the ways to connect your HTPC’s audio to […]
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Since the first day Microsoft announced Windows Home Server (WHS) was going to be available through OEM Installation Kits, not just strictly by the OEMs, we geeks could not wait to build our own. The hardware requirements were modest enough to where any respectable geek easily could assemble a functional WHS box barely having to buy parts–besides the installation disc, […]
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One of the absolutely huge benefits for using a media center is having the ability to catalog your DVD library digitally and have access to them anywhere in the house. The old stalwart of the Media Center world, MyMovies, is looking a little long in the tooth when you look at the sexy Media Portal skins, or even Apple’s Cover […]
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For those of you that want to get your feet wet with Linux but don’t know where to start, this guide is for you. Today I will be discussing the steps you need to go through in order to install Ubuntu Linux, based on version 8.04.1 desktop 386. This guide will cover the steps performed to install Ubuntu, load the […]
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nMedia HTPCKB Keyboard and Remote Everyone runs into a time eventually when a remote just isn’t enough to control your HTPC, but you don’t want to clutter things up with mouse and keyboard cables. Read on to see if nMediaPC’s most recent innovation will fit your needs. INTRODUCTION nMedia was founded in 2004 with a goal to "create future home entertainment PC […]
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TV tuner evolution has finally crept to the point where we have combo cards that can tune unencrypted QAM and analog cable at the same time. So why would AVerMedia introduce a hybrid software encoding TV card onto the market? Let’s see if this card, associated features, and price point make sense for the HTPC market of today. […]
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Today, Life With a Plugin is going down a slightly different path and we’re looking at a plugin for SageTV. In particular this plugin works only with the popular SageMC STV for SageTV. Since Mike looked at every Netflix plugin possible for VMC, I thought that I should take a quick look at installing and living with the Netflix addon […]
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Ok, so I know that I just recently covered TVTonic , but then they went ahead and released probably the coolest and well implemented plugin in all of Media Center–Olympics!! If you haven’t already noticed, Vista Media Center (U.S. only, sorry international folks) now has under it’s Online Spotlight, a central icon for the Olympics. Clicking on that link entered […]
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