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My Experiments with Media Center PC (HTPC) - Introduction
June 7, 2007
After staving off the temptation of getting myself a Media Center PC for a quite a few months, I finally decided to take the plunge. Till date I was managing my digital content with a SMC EZ Wireless Media Receiver. This was a WiFi (802.11ag) box that streams content from a PC. With this I was able to listen music, see photos and watch video at my entertainment center when the files were stored on my PC in a different room. The SMC media receiver was good for music and ok for photos. However for video it did not live up to my expectations.
The main functionality that I wanted to add to my setup was the DVR (digital video recording) capability. I also wanted to add the ability to watch movies downloaded (legally) over the internet. As more and more companies (iTunes, Netflix, Amazon Unbox, Cinemanow to name a few) were moving rapidly into the area of legal downloadable movies, I wanted to be prepared for the emerging scenario.
The other motive that I had in being prepared for internet movies was that I live in India where renting a good quality DVD can be a real challenge. More often than not, the DVDs that you rent from the DVD/VCD rental shops are scratched all over and midway through the movie you realize that you are not destined to know the full story. DVD after DVD, myself and my wife have been frustrated with this issue.
In addition, most of the VCDs (Video CDs) available for rent are either pirated versions or of very poor quality (often called "camera print" - guess what that is). For the uninitiated, "camera print" refers to the process of recording a film with a video camera while it is being played in the movie theater. You can often hear people laughing or making all sorts of noises and shadows moving here and there.
Once I decided to go for a home theater PC, I had two options - 1. Buy a branded HTPC (in India they are available from HCL) or 2. To build one myself. As I was to visit the US for a few weeks, I decided on the latter option all the while drooling on the prospect of spending endless hours at Frys. I knew that it would be impossible to build, assemble and make it all functional in the short period that I was in the US - this not being the main purpose of my visit to the US. So I decided to buy as many components as I can and to assemble it as best as I could and leave the main configuration and set up for when I was back in India.
Posted by liveit at June 7, 2007 3:57 AM