HTPC
This page is just a general run down of my HTPC. For a more complete look at my HTPC please check out the section of my site that is entirely devoted to HTPCs, it can be found here.
If you don’t know what a HTPC is, it stands for Home Theater Personal Computer. Essentially a HTPC is just your average everyday computer with some choice components geared toward a home theater user. HTPC offers tons of flexibility, when a new technology comes out you can usually just buy a new input card or some software and you are good to go, no more buying new set top boxes to have the latest and greatest. They are also great when it comes to upgrading, often all you will have to do is download an upgrade for your software or a firmware update for your hardware and you are good to go, even if you have to buy a new input card for your HTPC it will generally be cheaper than buying yet another set top box. You can also do a ton of different things with a HTPC. I use my HTPC to watch DVDs, as a scaler, an audio jukebox, a DVR (digital video recorder like Tivo), to receive HDTV over the air signals and record them, I scale all my laserdiscs via the HTPC, I can play games on it, view all my digital photos on the big screen (sure beats dragging out the slide projector) and of course all the normal computer stuff like surf the net, check my email, etc. There are a lot of other things people are doing with there HTPC that I am not.
Since I have an entire section devoted to my HTPC I am going to stop here and just give you a list of my hardware and software so you can see what I am using.
HTPC Hardware
- ASUS P4S800 Motherboard
- Pentium IV 2.6GHZ
- Radeon 9500 Pro w/ MP-1 Clarity Mod
- 512MB Crucial PC-2700 Ram
- 2X Toshiba SD-M1712 DVD drives
- Samsung 160GB 7200RPM Hard Drive
- Antec SL400 Power Supply
- MyHD MDP-100 HDTV Tuner Card
- Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-250 TV Tuner Card
- VGA ZM80C-HP Zalman Video Card cooler
- Zalman CNPS7000A-Cu CPU Cooler
- MAudi Revolution Sound Card
- Liteon Airboard Wireless IR Keyboard
- Kanam HT200S (Silver) Case
- Round Cables
HTPC Software
- Windows XP Pro
- TheaterTek
- Powerstrip
- Sage TV
- Media Center 10
- Girder
- Netremote
- FFDSHOW
Filed Under Retired Equipment | Questions & Comments |
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