I first became interested in media PCs or HTPCs back in September of 2005 after attending a meeting on Home Theatre Technologies at the Ottawa PC User Group (http://www.opcug.ca/public/index.htm).
The majority of discussions were on regular home theatre components such as projectors (LCD, DLP or CRT - it was after all 2005 before the flat screen boom!) and amplifiers. However the last segment was on providing inputs to the system by using an HTPC.
The presenter spoke of options for DVD player software such as Cyberlink PowerDVD, WinDVD and ZoomTek.
The presenter also discussed software programs to use as HTPC such as XLobby (http://www.xlobby.com/), Main Lobby, Microsoft Media Centre and BeyondTV.
Microsoft Media Centre was, at the time, only available on really expensive media PCs costing $2500 or more and it wasn't available as an OEM or retail package.
I tried XLobby on a spare PC and it was really cool, but a bit buggy in 2005! It would be interesting to take a look at it again. Unfortunately I didn't have any other HTPC components to test out anything more than the media organizer features for my music files.
For personal video recorder (PVR) hardware, the presenter recommended an ATI All-In-Wonder video card with integrated tv tuner or the Hauppauge PVR 250 TV (http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/data_pvr250.html) tuner card. The recommended PVR software was SageTV (www.sagetv.com).
This meeting sparked my interest in HTPCs.
Next: My first HTPC components.
Monday, June 16, 2008
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