Yesterday Brent Evans of Geektonic posted up a story “Media Gadget Nirvana – How I Use my Home Theater PC” which is partly inspired by a blog post Ben Drawbaugh did “How I use Windows Media Center”. So with that I wanted to take this time to re-hash my htpc and whs setup, home automation, home theater, and the hardware and software configurations for each and dive a little more into my every day use with each system.
I began writing this piece and it took on a life of its own so to break it up and be a little more manageable to read I will be doing a several part series. This first series will be as the title says is about the different types of HTPC enthusiasts. To start out Brent talks about three types of HTPC enthusiasts and I wanted to keep the same list and go in depth on each one and how I relate to each type.
- The Dabbler/Experimenter
- The Thrifty Enthusiast
- DIY Custom Installer Enthusiast
From my perspective as well my wife’s point of view I can definitely be labeled in all three categories. I love to Dabble and Experiment with things, or as my wife likes to call it “I Putz”. I always try to do things on the cheap, I like to be “Thrifty” with any number of projects I am working on at any given time, and that easily rolls into my HTPC enthusiasm. I also like to keep things custom, if its my old modded ford focus, or my home theater and my media center extender environment I like to keep things custom looking to get the “man I wish I had that” comment from house guests. All in all I would consider myself an all around HTPC enthusiast.
The Dabbler and Experimenter: I love being able to change settings, find new things, find easier ways to do things. I like to be able to find new and more instersting ways to play back a media file, or find a new plugin for media center. In my free time I am always playing around with my “test htpc” which I am currently running windows 7 so that I can learn about 7MC and figure out its quirks. I mostly do this because I want my main HTPC/DVR system to be rock solid, stable, and work 100% of the time. I am always learning how to stream line my system, install only the essential pieces of software and drivers and codecs to get what I need to get the job done. To do this I have a “test” HTPC I use to test out all my settings, changes, software, plug-ins before I install them on my “production” HTPC. To most people I am a little crazy and that I take my HTPC way too seriously, I will admit in most cases yes, but for me I want things to work, and work well, so I make sure that the HTPC never gets anything installed or changed without making sure it works right, that way I know I have a stable HTPC that is the ultimate DVR for my home.
The Thrifty Enthusiast: I would also consider myself a “Thrifty Enthusiast” as well. I know there are much easier, more stable, better looking, ways of doing distributed video and audio systems, however for me they are way more expensive than I am willing to spend to get what I want out of my entertainment system. With my HTPC I am able to DVR ota ATSC HD, as well as NTSC sd cable tv, stream live and or recorded tv shows from my HTPC to any tv in my home via media center extenders. With the same extenders I am also able to watch downloaded videos, movies and tv shows. I am able to listen to music, podcasts, or any other audio on any tv in my home. I can play back family videos, do a photo slide show, look up weather reports, and look at latest news feeds all from the same, easy to use, media center interface that is available on each and every single tv in my home.
DIY Custom Installer Enthusiast: Lastly I would also consider myself a “DIY Custom Installer Enthusiast” as I previously mentioned, I have my main HTPC and media center extenders on each of the tv’s in my home. I have a full gigabit network with hard wired Ethernet cables at each tv location, where I then have Linksys media center extenders that have a small, sleek, custom looking design that give me a small footprint and allows me to have a clutter free install. I like being able to keep my distributed system as clean looking as possible and still be able to move content around my home as easily as possible. Going with Vista Media Center and the Linksys Media Center extenders this gives me the best option for my needs. It allows me to keep the costs low, as each extender I purchased for under $50/each, I paid less than $50 per license of Vista Ultimate, and ran all the structured wiring and home automation equipment/devices in my home myself. Being able to accommodate my “Thrifty” side as well as my “Custom Installer” side at the same time was a huge plus. I like having gadgets, and playing around with new things, so being able to install something and have it look “Custom” but know that it didn’t cost me an arm and a leg was a huge plus.
As you can see I am a little bit of everything when it comes to my Enthusiast nature. Brent says he is/was the same way. I think anyone really into HTPC’s is a little of everything, but when you start out number three gets put on the back burner as you are more into modding and seeing what you can break and what you can fix and how it all works together.
This wraps up part one of my multi part series that I am working on. So please check back soon for more posts continuing on with the series that will eventually wrap up to “How I use my HTPC”
- Josh