Two weeks ago the DVD drive in my HTPC/mediacenter bit the dusk and called it quits after almost 2 years of faithful service. It was made by NEC, and it was a noisy bugger.
So I was in the market for a DVD drive. I had two choices, buy another DVD drive or perhaps [...]
Archive for the ‘Media Center’ Category
12 Jul
New DVD drive for mediacenter
11 Jan
Second HDTV tuner
Got myself a second HDTV tuner for my mediacenter. $79.99 – $30 + tax + free shipping, I’d say a pretty good deal. There is also a $10 rebate that I need to mail out soon.
The package arrived today. I installed and configured the PCI card without incident. I can now [...]
21 Jan
Windows Vista and VFD/IRTrans
I installed Windows Vista on my Media Center PC today and actually got it to work to the point where I can sit back and enjoy.
The Vista installation was smooth, other than the fact that I couldn’t install the x64 version because my DVD is not bootable and that I couldn’t run the x64 setup.exe [...]
3 Dec
Media Center PC noise reduction
I am pretty happy with my Media Center PC, it has made my TV viewing experience more enjoyable. But if I have to pick one thing that I am not completely satisfied with, then it would have to be the excessive noise coming from the machine.
This afternoon the rattling noise appeared again when I [...]
24 Oct
Linksys DP1600 V2 Media Center Extender
I have a XP Media Center PC which I intend to upgrade to Vista Media Center when the time is right. I also want to buy a Media Center extender to stream videos and music around the house. Unfortunately all current extenders except XBox 360 are V1, meaning they won’t be compatible with [...]
20 Sep
MCE and K-Lite Codec Pack
MCE 2005 and K-Lite Codec Pack don’t like each other. At all.
About two days ago I installed K-Lite Codec Pack on my new HTPC. What can I say, I wanted to take advantage of that fancy Conroe E6400 CPU! Little did I realize at that time that MCE 2005 doesn’t appreciate the [...]
18 Sep
HTPC completed
I have been talking about HTPCs for about two years now, and I have finally done something about it: my own HTPC now sits in the AV shelf next to my HDTV.
The final parts (versus my earlier list) I used are:
Case
Zalman HD160
Motherboard
Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3
CPU
Intel Duo 2 Core E6400
CPU Cooler
CNPS9500 AT 2
Power Supply
ZM460-APS 460w PSU
Hard Disks
2 x [...]
16 Sep
Taiwan websites are slow
I haven’t made any hardware changes to my HTPC since yesterday. Instead I have been installing BIOS, drivers and utilities for the motherboard, video card, etc. Let me tell you one thing: downloading drivers from web sites based in Taiwan is absurdly slow – I am getting dialup speed on broadband!
15 Sep
It’s alive! Muahahaha…
Yesterday the last shipment of HTPC parts finally arrived. I was ready to assemble a computer for the first time in my computer-using life.
As of this morning at 2am, I had the CPU fan, CPU, motherboard, RAM, power supply, VFD, and multi-card reader all inside the Zalman HD160 case.
Tonight I finally put in and [...]
15 Jul
Intel’s Core 2 Duo
Dang it.
Just when I have finally decided to build my HTPC (Media Center PC) using AMD’s Athlon 64, Intel goes ahead and releases its Core 2 Duo chips which basically wipes the floor with Athlons. I have already ordered an AMD-only part, so I am kind of stuck with Athlons.
Only two pieces of information [...]
