How to set focus to Meedio

November 15, 2004 eiriksoLeave a comment

What I wanted to do was to map the FireFly-key on my FireFly-remote to a command that would both set focus and bring Meedio to the foreground (because I have had problems with Meedio loosing focus after changing the volume through Girder).

The SetFocus command in Girder did set the focus, but did not bring the Meedio-window to the foreground.

So I found SendFocus here:
SendFocus.rar

…in this thread in the Girder forum:
http://www.promixis.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=5600&highlight=sendfocus

I could not access SendFocus.exe properly from Girder, so I made a BAT-file with the following command:
C:ScriptSendFocus.exe “Meedio Essentials”

In Girder I call the BAT-file from a Execute command found under the “O.S.”-tab.

Home made HD silencer

October 30, 2004 eiriksoLeave a comment

I am building a computer of some left overs after all my experiments. Of course it has to be silent. To make it cheap I built the HD silencer myself. It was inspired by a clever colleague that has done this with his hard drives for a long time.

All you need is some rubber bands and four pins of some kind.

It works very well!

The old MSI Geforce4 Ti4800SE-VTD silenced…

October 30, 2004 eiriksoLeave a comment

I have finally put a Zalman VGA silencer on my GeForce. To keep it cool enough I have mounted a GlacialTec fan that is running at approx 1800 rpm. Works quite well. Completely silent and 30-40 degrees celcius on the GPU.

Complete rebuild of the HTPC

October 30, 2004 eiriksoLeave a comment

I have started a complete rebuild of the HTPC.

The black case is abandoned and all the stuff is moved into a Cooler Master Stacker. A huge case. Lots of space to work in and very easy to cool with big silent fans. I will place it inside a well ventilated cupboard so I don’t have to see it in my living room.

Article in the norwegian newspaper Aftenposten

October 28, 2004 eiriksoLeave a comment

Because of a reference in an article in the norwegian newspaper Aftenposten, I felt I had to do a short update of my page… 🙂 You can read the article (in Norwegian) here: Aftenposten – PVR

I am now running the following software on my PVR:

Operating system: Windows XP PRO SP1
The main PVR-functionallity: Beyond TV 3.4.4
Main menu and navigation: myHTPC
Remote control configuration: Girder
Video and DVD player: ZoomPlayer
Music server: J. River Media Center
Music remote control: NetRemote
Picture Viewer: IrfanView
EPG-Data: XMLTV

The only visible frontends are myHTPC, BeyondTV and the NetRemote GUI on my PDA. All the other software run invisible in the background serving their needs to show pictures, play music and movies.

Here are some new screenshots.

New hardware and software.

October 28, 2004 eiriksoLeave a comment

As part of my ongoing experiments I have bought a Hauppauge PVR-250, and installed my old license of SnapStream PVS 3.3(Now called BeyondTV 3.4).

I run this together with myHTPC to get the music, picture and video archive funcionallity that I am used to from ShowShifter.

I have also installed J.River Media Center 9.1 and a remarkable piece of sofware called NetRemote (www.netremote.org).

Through this I can control my music collection from my old HP Jornada 568 PDA over WLAN. Look at this cool remote:

The Eirikso HTPC (old version running ShowShifter)

October 28, 2004 eiriksoLeave a comment

This is the setup of my HTPC. A NAD programmable remote in the front. HTPC in the upper left space of the rack.

The front of a modified case.

October 28, 2004 eiriksoLeave a comment

Front. As on the back of the case: the very small ventilation holes have been modified with a power drill. Filter from a vacuum cleaner…

The back of a modified case.

October 28, 2004 eiriksoLeave a comment

>
Back. The very small ventilation holes have been modified with a power drill.

Inside a messy HTPC…

October 28, 2004 eirikso2 Comments

The extremely messy inside…. Please note the 300GIG Maxtor HD laying carefully on a bed of cables in the lower left corner. I am not going to move the box, and this way the HD makes less noise compared to if it was fastened in one of the drive bays.

…and, it serves as a self-destruct mechanism if somebody should steal my HTPC… 🙂

The 160GIG Seagate Barracuda is in one of the 5 1/4-bays mounted in a NoVibes drive kit. It is completely silent!