March 2006
The Archives
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03.17.06Building a quiet bleeding edge PCYesterday ExtremeTech featured an article about building a quiet but high performing computer for gaming. When building a computer that you want to place in your living room as a media center the question of noise is more important than the question of performance. You need some power, but not the same kind of bleeding edge processor and graphics that gamers need to drive their advanced 3D action. That's why it's interesting to have a look at people that have tried to silence a very powerful PC. By using the same methods and simply replacing some of the components with slightly lower ...
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03.16.06Run WinXP on a MacThe contest is over. You can now run WinXP on the 17- and 20-inch iMacs, MacBook Pro, and new Mac Mini. It's just a question of time before someone manage to run MediaPortal, GBPVR, Meedio or a full Windows Media Center Edition on the new MacMini. A computer that has a seriously cool form factor as a media center. It looks good. It's quiet. Throw in two Hauppauge PVR-USB2 and a 1 TB external disk and you have a very nice HTPC. This could bring a complete Media Center solution with TV-functionallity, an electronic program guide and a large user base to the ...
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03.15.06ShowShifter is for saleOne of the pioneers in the media center software market has shut down and are selling all their assets. ShowShifter was one of the first true media center softwares out there. And the first package that I used in my living room. I still miss the usability of the Music Library in that package. They had truly excellent navigation and a very easy possibility to make playlists from the remote. They also supported offline recompression at a very early stage and had a great user community making plugins and enhancing the product. They did some bad mistakes and was simply too late ...
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03.14.06Recommended HTPC hardwareBecause hardware changes fast it is difficult to make a list of recommendations that will last more than a couple of weeks. But people keeps asking, so here's a quick list of some good equipment if you want to build yourself a home theatre computer. Cabinet The expensive but perfect: mCubed HFX The cheaper one: Silverstone LC03 (review) Power supply Silverstone ST30NF (review) TV-Card Hauppauge PVR-500 Screen card Nvidia GeForce 6600GT (review) Note I don't know if this card fits in any of the cabinets recommended here. My main message is: choose a Nvidia GeForce 6600GT that is as silent as possible but still will fit into the case you choose. CPU As powerful AMD ...
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03.13.06Screen technologies. LCD or Plasma?People keeps asking me what I would recommend for a home theatre PC (HTPC). LCD or Plasma? In general I would recommend a good LCD. I know that the problems with burn in have been close to eliminated on the best plasma screens. Still, I find the crisp and clean LCD picture with absolutely no burn in problem preferable. A quick roundup: Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) First of all, it is perfectly OK to use your old tube. A standard cathode ray tube (CRT) connected to a PC through S-Video or even composite video should work fine if you adjust your screen ...