I have an older Ahanix D4 case housing my main HTPC, one of the main reasons I bought this case over some of the completion was that it was one of the few full ATX cases with a parallel port (LPT) based Vacuum Florescent Display (VFD) at the time. Recently the display started to fade and some pixels have gone […]
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Proper standby support is an essential part of the HTPC experience, something that can help transform the “PC” experience into one much closer to “CE”. While it’s not great when the HTPC in the living room wakes up for “no reason”, when the one in the bedroom does it in the middle of the night – it can be a […]
Read moreThis guide was originally posted for Windows Vista, but I think I’ve got the proper pieces here for it to work on Windows 7. Please let us know via the Comments button at the bottom if you have concerns/issues/feedback! As always, proceed at your own risk! The problem is when you have a 16:9 display that has a typical 4:3 […]
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Mythdora 10.21 Installation Guide It’s not scary, it’s easy. There seems to be a misconception among HTPC users that Mythtv is scary to use because you need to run Linux and Mythtv needs a little configuration in many cases to get what you want out of it. Well, hopefully this guide will illustrate exactly how […]
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When the announcement came that ATI would be releasing a new firmware for its cable card devices which would properly support the Copy Freely protections of shows, I got excited. For the past 2 years, I have been a dedicated cable card user within my Vista Media Center to enjoy high definition recordings via Comcast, even though it meant ditching […]
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While video quality is important, I find that it’s the audio that really transforms a good movie into an immersive experience. As challenging as it can be to get flawless video playback working on the HTPC, enabling proper lossless multi-channel audio playback adds another layer of difficultly into the mix. In this guide we will discuss the different options available […]
Read moreAntiPack was intended as a starting point in that it only includes high quality hardware accelerated codecs for the most popular A/V formats, but does not support everything. If you need more, ffdshow should be next on your list. It provides the most full featured software video and audio decoder of any OSS or free DirectShow filter; because of this […]
Read moreIt’s been quite a while since we released a system guide with our recommendations and price analysis on building your very own Home Theater PC, so we figured now is as good a time as any. We’ll start with the high end and next week will release the low end system. While some websites or magazines go pretty absorbant with […]
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Remember the feeling you had when you would pack for a nice long vacation, only to arrive at the hotel and realize you forgot your toothbrush? That feeling can be 100 times as bad when it comes to building out a Home Theater PC (HTPC) where components cost a lot more than $3, not to mention the effort involved with […]
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