Last week we posted an update on the need to disable User Account Control (UAC) on Intel’s second generation HD Graphics IPG (Sandy Bridge) systems, but we still weren’t sure how to reliably reproduce the results. Well a new DH67BL showed up today along with instructions on how to enable the feature on existing hardware which explains why we couldn’t […]
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Often a good wireless keyboard/mouse all-in-one separates a good home theater PC (HTPC) experience from frustration. Unsung when functioning properly and abused otherwise, it is critical to select a device with good range and a feature set that matches the expected use–which if it includes anything more than casual typing a larger keyboard is the way to go. With up […]
Read moreIn the last podcast I mentioned that I’d heard some talk that Intel was working on a fix for the UAC work around requirement for better refresh rate precision with Sandy Bridge GPUs, but hadn’t figured out how to reproduce it yet… Well I found a semi-public driver that might just be the key. Taking a look at the screenshots […]
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Not that long ago it was a significant challenge to build a small and quiet home theater PC (HTPC). Mini-ITX was an option, but case selection was limited and more importantly the form factor was held back by the lack of decent integrated video performance and the power/heat dissipation requirements of the processor (CPU) and graphics (GPU). With both of […]
Read moreI have to agree with most of what Brent says in his editorial on what Google hopes to do with SageTV – especially the points on AllVid. Whatever they have in store for us, I’m looking forward to reviewing it 🙂 It’s been three weeks since Google gobbled up the tiny Home Theater PC company, SageTV. The tech blogs, mainstream […]
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When selecting the perfect chassis to serve content to the audio/video stack a different set of attributes is required than what is typically demanded from a home theater PC (HTPC) enclosure. The ideal server must be able to scale to support multiple hard drives, keep everything cool and not sound like a shop-vac in the process. With eight 3.5” hard […]
Read moreI’m really happy to see that in addition to the standard “PC” reviews on Lynx (desktop Llano) launch day, there’s at least one HTPC perspective on the platform. You’ll have to read it to get the full story, but it definitely looks like AMD could have a solid competitor to SNB’s in our niche once they nail down some driver […]
Read moreMy house was built in the 1920’s so like the reviewer at HTR I often get unwanted vibration transferred from the sub and have often thought about trying to find something to isolate it from the floor. $60 is a little outside my impulse buy range, but the given the glowing results I might have to attempt a repro. The […]
Read moreWhen the store shut down on Saturday anyone who was evaluating SageTV V7, but hadn’t pulled the trigger on an upgrade license, was in an uncomfortable position not just because going back to a previous rev would have been difficult because of all the enhancements wrapped into V7, but because the wiz.bin (the SageTV database) isn’t compatible between versions. Fortunately […]
Read moreI can’t disagree with the author’s assertion that LED backlit displays are better than their older sibling, but any article that puts “screen thickness” first in the list of important factors when choosing a display then neglects much more important things that actually affect picture quality – like color accuracy, the number of local dimming zones and video processing capabilities […]
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