Home Theatre PC (HTPC) Discussion

[NDTeve]

Can we dumb it down even further?

1. Wireless Network
2. Computer with Win 7
3. TV's

How do I then connect all to watch cable TV (and save programs) though Time Warner Cable Card on different TV's in House?

[im2kull]

Can we dumb it down even further?

1. Wireless Network
2. Computer with Win 7
3. TV's

How do I then connect all to watch cable TV (and save programs) though Time Warner Cable Card on different TV's in House?

With an Extender (Connected physically to each TV set that you wish to watch cable on, and wirelessly connected to your network).

Explained:
1.Wireless Network
2. Computer with Win 7 (HTPC with a Cable Card).
3. Media Center Extenders (Standalone set top boxes made by Linksys, D-Link, or an Xbox 360)..
4. Connect the extenders to each TV you wish to get cable on, in place of a cable box.

Hope that helps ND.  With TV it works flawlessly, and quite easily.  When you get into the more advanced aspects of sharing other media files it can get pretty complex and tiresome to make work 100% correctly.


--------edit----------------
Also, the only reason you need a Cable Card is if you intend to (or already have) the premium cable from TW (You have their DVR or HD Set Top Box).

You can get standard cable (70ish channels?) without a Cable Card.
You can get premium cable (hundreds of channels, HD included) with a Cable Card.

You can always get OTA (Over the Air) broadcasts with an antenna, and now they're crystal clear digital images.  Something like 20ish channels, with every primetime show being broadcast in HD.

[zlohban]

I have 3 flat screens running Win7 Media Center using a PC, ext. hardrives and MC extenders.  This year I plan to have a PC dedicated to each TV. Has anyone seen the Acer small form with the atom processor. Any thoughts?  I do have one TV on a HP Slim PC and it works great.

[im2kull]

I have 3 flat screens running Win7 Media Center using a PC, ext. hardrives and MC extenders.  This year I plan to have a PC dedicated to each TV. Has anyone seen the Acer small form with the atom processor. Any thoughts?  I do have one TV on a HP Slim PC and it works great.

Haven't seen it, but I imagine it would do the job just fine.  Everything in Win7 gets offloaded for processing to the Graphics chipset..so a small, slower, but much more energy efficient processor is going to be a plus for you since it doesn't need to do hardly any processing.  The Intel Atom uses something like 4 watts of power, at max usage...8 watts if its the dual core version.  For comparison, my dual core processor is the most energy efficient one produced by AMD and it uses 45 watts.  My laptop is an Intel & uses 35.

I plan on doing the same thing as you, running a dedicated PC for each tv rather than an extender.  They will all be Intel Atom based, since it will cut down my electricity bill by like 70%.  I plan on building a new Atom based server to replace my old Pentium 4 based one soon.  That should save a bunch of electricity too.  What's interesting is that if you run Windows Home Server, you can set your HTPCs to "Share" a common recording location on that server...so that all your recorded TV can be accessed from any of the HTPCs.

The only downside is that you would need a seperate tuner in each of the HTPC's (at each TV you intend to use) rather than simply having one central HTPC that dishes out the content via extenders...which would cost you more Cable Card rental fee's if you went with a Premium Digital Cable package from TW.  While more costly, you could potentially have 4 tuners for each set...meaning that you could watch TV while recording 3 other shows in virtually every room of your house.  All seperately.  So say that you have 4 rooms with tv's, 4 HTPC's with Cable Card, then you could have up to 16 Television shows/movies recording in HD at any given moment...or 12 while every TV is in use (Being watched by someone).  Impressive.

[im2kull]

Guessing that this is what you're talking about zlo?
http://us.acer.com/acer/productv.do?Lan ... =750687650

That thing is tiny, and cheap...$200 for a full blown PC half the size of a cereal box.  Its Atom based, and has the ION chipset for graphics...so its plenty powerful enough to be a HTPC.  Has an HDMI out too, so HD TV ready.  Thing probably uses 30 watts as a whole, you could leave it running 24*7 for like $5 bucks a month in electricity.

[NDTeve]

thanks im2kull...might wait till the prices come down a bit. Seems like we should just ignore each other on the sports boards!!

[im2kull]

thanks im2kull...might wait till the prices come down a bit. Seems like we should just ignore each other on the sports boards!!

Eh...I like to play devils advocate on the sports forum, especially when it comes to Notre Dame.  Don't take anything on there personally, Its all fun and games.  Heck, Now that Charlie is gone I dunno what I'll find to complain about in regards to ND.  Not to mention that Mangino's gone, and took with him the "Fighting Mangino's".  K state has returned to prominence.  Nebraska can give back the black shirts.  Pinkel still can't coach (But boy can he recruit!)  Saban's still an arrogant punk who rightfully gets spat on by every Dolphins fan, and North Carolina just lost their 6th game of the year..proving the AP Voters oh so wrong.  I couldn't have even wished for that much to happen in such a short time!  Hell, as long as the Royals don't make some miraclous signing I won't have much to complain about. 

Its like the old saying "The more things change, The more they stay the same".


Now changing gears again..
I agree with you on not wanting to build a HTPC and extender setup right at this moment.  I too would wait a bit, as Xbox 360's are constantly getting cheaper, and the next year should bring about some big changes to the HTPC industry.  Hopefully the biggest of which will be mainstream Cable Card (Lower Prices..no bugs), New Extenders (With many new features, and faster, smaller, quieter), and Tru2way Cable Cards so that a HTPC can get EVERY channel that a standalone box can.

I plan on waiting at least a year before doing another major upgrade.  There's no real downside to waiting, it should only get better and cheaper to build a TV Distributing/Sharing network in the house of the future.


*I do have some updated photos to post to this thread, but they all need to be resized and cropped..so probably won't be till later tonight, but I will hopefully have this thread updated with TONS of Windows Media Center eyecandy by tomorow*

[bobbyhawks]

I'm good without worrying too much about the CableCard situation yet.  My mac mini, as with all macs, does have the ability to natively pull DVR'd shows from any channel on my Time Warner Scientific Atlanta DVR via firewire.  It isn't seamless like I wish it could be, but I have been able to backup some KU basketball this way.  For the time being, I can just use the input function on my remote to switch between TV and media center, but ultimately, I'd like a dedicated device with the CableCard installed that has an interface to my media center.

[kigmee]

Anything new on the HTPC front? My old TV finally crapped out and my 20+ year old components won't do much with a new one. Time to build a new system.

[zlohban]

I sold my two HTPC computers using media center and switched to Logitech Revue Goggle TV. The Revue is a discontinued product but I find it full featured, quiet and chew at $99. Purchased last one for $80 from Circuit City online. I like how the Revue intergrates the Uverse features, the web, Pandora, You Tube, etc. all together with an easy to use Harmony remote keyboard.

So after I took this leap I sold all my remaining PC crap and switched to Apple....never looking back. Gates lost another customer. Why not Apple TV? It is not complete. When it can replace my set-top box or connect with my set-top box I'll try Apple TV too.

[bobbyhawks]

I sold my two HTPC computers using media center and switched to Logitech Revue Goggle TV. The Revue is a discontinued product but I find it full featured, quiet and chew at $99. Purchased last one for $80 from Circuit City online. I like how the Revue intergrates the Uverse features, the web, Pandora, You Tube, etc. all together with an easy to use Harmony remote keyboard.

So after I took this leap I sold all my remaining PC crap and switched to Apple....never looking back. Gates lost another customer. Why not Apple TV? It is not complete. When it can replace my set-top box or connect with my set-top box I'll try Apple TV too.

I agree about Apple TV. There are some really nice features in it if you are a whole house Apple product customer, but it has some major limitations compared to other products. It doesn't offer 1080p, and it limits app add-ons. I haven't played with the Google TV much, but it seemed like the initial product wasn't quite ready for prime time. To me, Boxee and Roku are better deals in that they allow you to play any media file from your PC (Win or Mac) and have a great selection of apps. Boxee also allows OTA TV integration with a dongle.

The most convenient things about Apple TV are mirroring with an iOS phone or tablet, flinging video and audio over airplay, and ease of use. Allegedly, it is possible that the new Apple TV will be refreshed and available as soon as Friday, so it is worth waiting to see what happens. Boxee actually has "experimental" Airplay capability now, though I can't vouch for it as I have only used their now unsupported Mac app. If you are looking for an open environment, Roku and Boxee are the way to go. Google should be completely revamping their TV box offerings within the next year, and they will offer more integration potentially with home automation offerings.

To me, the best and most economic HTPC solution today is to have one low energy PC or NAS device that is always on, coupled with the super low-energy hockey pucks like Apple TV, Roku, Boxee, Google devices, etc. The set-tops are cheap (between $50 and $200) and can be added and upgraded as needed. I use a newer model Pogoplug with two USB 3.0 connections on my network (and an older Mac Mini), and I am able to stream 1080p without hiccups. It also allows me to upgrade and swap out external hard drives as needed.

[KCMax]

Thoughts on Aereo?

http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com ... grade.html

[im2kull]

Anything new on the HTPC front? My old TV finally crapped out and my 20+ year old components won't do much with a new one. Time to build a new system.

Windows 7 based HTPC with a Ceton Digital Cable tuner. Everything your cable box has to offer, and tons more (With NONE of the drawbacks). You name your features, build or buy it for whatever fits your budget, and have no stupid recurring/monthly fee's. Can't beat it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi ... toreType=1

[KCMax]

Leaked Boxee TV adds HDTV antenna and DVR to let you ditch cable for good

[earthling]

I'm using HDHomeRun Prime, which is purely network based so many PCs/laptops can access it. Works really well but not particularly intuitive to setup for avg consumer. Since nearly all TWC channels are encrypted, I can only get it to work with Windows Media Center. The WMC setup for TWC cable card is also not exactly intuitive but easier for techies to figure out.

Have tinkered with various HTPC solutions and like HDHR Prime the most, especially since multiple PCs/laptops can access it. Anyone know if TWC can work with other HTPC software other than WMC (for encrypted channels).

Am hopefully getting Google Fiber/TV next fall so will be moot but for those who won't get/want it, would recommend HDHR Prime or Ceton with TWC.

The HDHR 3CC has 3 tuners, the 6CC has 6 tuners...

https://www.google.com/search?q=hdhomer ... 80&bih=662

[SWFan]

Thoughts on Aereo?

http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com ... grade.html

While cool, its jumping through hoops to try and be legal, and I think the TV industry will kill it. They'll either beat them in court, or they'll throw so many lawyers, injunctions, lawsuits, etc. at them that Aero will blow through any and all money they have in a short period of time and just close up shop.

[KCtonic]

Anyone here use SageTV? It's the HTPC system Google's new FiberTV is based on.

[earthling]

Anyone here use SageTV? It's the HTPC system Google's new FiberTV is based on.

http://gigaom.com/video/google-sagetv-acquisition/

[KCtonic]

Anyone here use SageTV? It's the HTPC system Google's new FiberTV is based on.

http://gigaom.com/video/google-sagetv-acquisition/

yeah. Lot's of bloggers had that wrong.

Let's just say I had a few drinks with the former owner of SageTV the night of the Google Fiber announcement in KC. I wrote about it a while back
http://www.geektonic.com/2012/07/google ... agetv.html

During my visit to the Fiber Space I got to a settings screen that has SageTV copyright on it. I've used and beta tested SageTV for several years now and pretty happy I'll get to use it's next generation next year with Google Fiber.

[KCMax]

Thoughts on Aereo?

http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com ... grade.html

Coming to KC

https://aereo.com/preregister/#.UOzFzxXYG-E.facebook