http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7116821/posts/summaryThu, 26 Oct 2006 15:03:09 +0000http://www.dhampton.com/weblog/DonsHTPC/htpc.htmlDRHamp@dhampton.com (Don Hampton)Blogger115http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7116821/posts/summary/113865274642533327Mon, 30 Jan 2006 20:10:00 +00002006-01-30T20:45:46.506-06:00Remember my mentioning that I was very happy with Beyond TV V4.1 --- with the exception of one relatively minor problem/inconvenience. When playing back recorded HD content everything would be fine until I decided to fast-forward, pause, or in anyway interrupt the video stream. When I did that, the Audio would immediately cut out(as expected), but when I resumed the video ---- the audio was http://www.dhampton.com/weblog/DonsHTPC/2006/01/beyond-tv-intermittant-problem-solved.htmlDRHamp@dhampton.com (Don Hampton)http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7116821/posts/summary/113259972689097164Mon, 21 Nov 2005 18:56:00 +00002005-11-21T13:02:06.903-06:00I continue to be pleased with BeyondTV-4 and it's HD DVR capabilities and performance. I don't know if I mentioned it, but The BeyondTV package included the Snapstream "Firefly" remote control. It's a remote whose receiver plugs into a usb port on the pc then can be used to control several media-based applications. Specifically, I use it to control BeyondTV (I initially used the wireless mousehttp://www.dhampton.com/weblog/DonsHTPC/2005/11/i-continue-to-be-pleased-with-beyondtv.htmlDRHamp@dhampton.com (Don Hampton)http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7116821/posts/summary/113198565486001385Mon, 14 Nov 2005 16:16:00 +00002005-11-14T10:29:21.040-06:00I'm becoming more and more convinced that Beyond TV 4 is the software solution that allows me to easily record and playback High Definition content on the HTPC. It just works and almost "out-of-the-box". Little tweaking was required. I'm learning more about it as I go and continue to be impressed. One neat new feature that I think is pretty cool is "Remote Recording". The program guide is http://www.dhampton.com/weblog/DonsHTPC/2005/11/beyond-tv-4-solution.htmlDRHamp@dhampton.com (Don Hampton)http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7116821/posts/summary/113190110424124810Sun, 13 Nov 2005 16:42:00 +00002005-11-13T10:59:56.476-06:00In the previous post, I mentioned that SageTV was selling and obviously supporting the AverMedia 180 HDTV capture card; and that I also ordered one. I installed the new card --- and gained exactly nothing. It functions (doesn't) just as the Fusion 5 card. I'm now convinced it's in the Front-End software. To date, I've not been successful at getting either card to work with Meedio or SageTV. Whilehttp://www.dhampton.com/weblog/DonsHTPC/2005/11/maybe-break-through-maybe.htmlDRHamp@dhampton.com (Don Hampton)http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7116821/posts/summary/113139962337855586Mon, 07 Nov 2005 21:29:00 +00002005-11-07T15:40:23.413-06:00Like I mentioned before, I've successfully recorded and played back HD content using the Fusion card and the Fusion software --- but, it's very cumbersome. Meedio ( my current media front-end of choice) now supports HD recording and play-back and supposedly supports the Fusion 5 Gold Plus card. I've really tried to make it work, but to no avail. I've even uninstalled both Meedio and Fusion andhttp://www.dhampton.com/weblog/DonsHTPC/2005/11/recording-hd-sounds-so-easy-but.htmlDRHamp@dhampton.com (Don Hampton)http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7116821/posts/summary/112963849519452069Tue, 18 Oct 2005 12:08:00 +00002005-10-18T07:28:15.983-05:00I think I mentioned that I bought an HD Capture card. Actually/technically, it's an HD tuner/capture card. The card is a Fusion HDTV5 Gold Plus card from DVICO. There were actually several cards to choose from and my choices were narrowed down to two. It was either this card, or the MYHD card (with daughter board for HD). The MYHD card is strictly a hardware decoder where-as the Fusion cardhttp://www.dhampton.com/weblog/DonsHTPC/2005/10/so-we-begin-again.htmlDRHamp@dhampton.com (Don Hampton)http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7116821/posts/summary/112907152599567373Tue, 11 Oct 2005 22:53:00 +00002005-10-11T17:58:46.000-05:00When I closed this project down about a year ago, I still hadn't accomplished one of my major objectives. That objective was to be able to record High Definition Content and turn the HTPC into a HD TIVO. At the time, there were virtually no HD capture cards for the PC, and no software to support them. That is starting to change now; there are several HD capture cards and two or three software http://www.dhampton.com/weblog/DonsHTPC/2005/10/ahhhh-and-you-believed-me-when-i-said.htmlDRHamp@dhampton.com (Don Hampton)http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7116821/posts/summary/112214434793833001Sat, 23 Jul 2005 18:37:00 +00002005-07-23T13:45:47.946-05:00Well, this is a little late to document closure for this project, but as I'm about to embark on another project, it struck me that I never formally concluded the HTPC project. This blog initially started out to just document my experiences in building a PC from scratch -- in fact a Home Theater PC. It evolved into that plus the implementation of the overall High Definition Home Theater http://www.dhampton.com/weblog/DonsHTPC/2005/07/project-complete-final-post-its-done.htmlDRHamp@dhampton.com (Don Hampton)http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7116821/posts/summary/110063363433294123Tue, 16 Nov 2004 19:13:54 +00002004-11-16T13:33:54.333-06:00Well I've spent many hours over the last few week -- primarily tweaking Meedio, adding plugins, and working toward getting TheaterTek and FFDShow integrated into Meedio. It's been a fun, frustrating, learning experience. Meedio is a great frontend with tremendous functionality primarily due to the availability of many third-party plugins. It is very complex, and made more difficult by the http://www.dhampton.com/weblog/DonsHTPC/2004/11/progress-update.htmlDRHamp@dhampton.com (Don Hampton)http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7116821/posts/summary/109950629840599584Wed, 03 Nov 2004 17:48:32 +00002004-11-03T16:08:32.823-06:00This is about home network file servers for backup and archived data. First, a little background. We run a home network (both wired and wireless) built around a Linksys WRT54G router/switch. There are currently five nodes on the network; my WinXP pc, Kay's WinXP pc, the WinXP HTPC, a non-Windows digital audio server (for serving mp3 audio to the stereo system) and finally an until yesterday the http://www.dhampton.com/weblog/DonsHTPC/2004/11/off-topic-but-closely-related.htmlDRHamp@dhampton.com (Don Hampton)http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7116821/posts/summary/109837839184165553Thu, 21 Oct 2004 16:42:31 +00002004-10-21T12:06:31.843-05:00I'm plodding along, continuing to tweak this and that and making some progress. In the DVD player area, I have decided on TheaterTek with FFDShow postprocessing. I've downloaded the recently released TT 2.0 and the latest version of FFDShow. It took some playing around with it, but they are now working together well and the picture quality is superb. FFDShow is a software postprocessor and http://www.dhampton.com/weblog/DonsHTPC/2004/10/back-from-vacation-tweaking-continues.htmlDRHamp@dhampton.com (Don Hampton)http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7116821/posts/summary/109637332088305590Tue, 28 Sep 2004 11:37:40 +00002004-09-28T07:08:40.883-05:00In the prior post, I mentioned that one of the things I was working on was researching "Front-End" software. I looked at a few, and have pretty much settled on Meedio. It is now installed and I'm in the process of configuring it for my setup. Here's a few screen shots of the basic look & feel: There are several different themes/skins for it and a lengthy and growing list of http://www.dhampton.com/weblog/DonsHTPC/2004/09/progress-update.htmlDRHamp@dhampton.com (Don Hampton)http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7116821/posts/summary/109550667230098017Sat, 18 Sep 2004 10:29:34 +00002004-09-28T06:05:34.436-05:00Just when I thought I was pretty much done -- The tweaking has begun, and it's gonna be a lot of fun, but will take a while. For me, it's the "Funnest" (I know, that's not a real word) part of all and IMO worth reporting on. I've got the HTPC feeding the display video in its native resolution of 1280x720. At that resolution, the WinXP desktop exhibits significant overscan (that means some of http://www.dhampton.com/weblog/DonsHTPC/2004/09/im-gonna-be-tweaking-for-while.htmlDRHamp@dhampton.com (Don Hampton)http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7116821/posts/summary/109468467717255599Wed, 08 Sep 2004 22:51:37 +00002004-09-08T18:04:37.173-05:00Mark from Audio Concepts came over today and we got all of the audio components re-installed an connected. All video from the SAT/OTA receiver, XBox, and HTPC are connected directly to the Samsung display. The audio from the above sources along with the DAS (Digital Audio Server) is connected directly to the Linn AV5150 processor. And, another big WOW - everything works as planned. About http://www.dhampton.com/weblog/DonsHTPC/2004/09/its-pretty-much-all-done-just-little.htmlDRHamp@dhampton.com (Don Hampton)http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7116821/posts/summary/109424686452424716Fri, 03 Sep 2004 21:04:21 +00002004-09-03T16:43:21.943-05:00I've been so distracted watching the thing that I've neglected to report on progress. We got the Samsung display installed and running off the old antenna in time to watch the last week of the Olympics in HD --- WOW is it ever awesome. Last week, Friday I think, we got the new dish and the new antenna installed and everything connected. Called DirecTV to activate HD and found out that they were http://www.dhampton.com/weblog/DonsHTPC/2004/09/progress-is-being-made-wow-factor-is.htmlDRHamp@dhampton.com (Don Hampton)