It’s been quite some time since I’ve made any updates to our home media system. It’s worked really well for quite a few years. We had been using an older Windows Media Center computer with an XBox 360 as an extender to other TV’s. The last update to that system was back in 2012, adding… Read more »
Posts Categorized: HTPC
A CableCARD Update for the HTPC
A few months back I acquired an update for our HTPC. In order to watch digital channels (anything that isn’t available as an over-the-air network), I needed either a cable box, which I didn’t want to rent, or a device capable of taking a CableCARD. When I first started looking, there were two on the… Read more »
Upgrading the Entertainment PC
It’s been about about four years since the original Entertainment PC was put together. There have been quite a few small changes and upgrades made since then, but it finally reached the point where things were starting to go south a bit too often with this box. Looking at the current conversion of human years… Read more »
Asus Announces Eee Keyboard
Asus, the company that started the whole netbook trend announced a cool new product yesterday. It’s called the Eee Keyboard, and is an entire computer (HTPC) built into a keyboard. The keyboard has a built-in touch screen where the number pad normally goes, which can display widgets, RSS feeds, calendars and more. This thing will… Read more »
NetFlix Has Change of Heart- NOT Removing Profiles
I jut got another email from Netflix, and it looks like they decided not to remove profiles. You spoke, and we listened. We are keeping Profiles. Thank you for all the calls and emails telling us how important Profiles are. We are sorry for any inconvenience we may have caused. We hope the next time… Read more »
Netflix Removes Profiles, Calls it “Improvement”
I just got an e-mail from Netfix, they will be removing profiles feature. I thought it was spam at first, since why would Netflix do this? I followed the link, and found out this it wasn’t a joke, they are in fact removing profiles effective September 1st. This feature lets you set up multiple movie… Read more »
Netflix Set-Top Box
Earlier this week Netflix announced a new piece of hardware, the Netflix Player by Roku. This tiny little box allows you to plug in your TV along with an internet connection (wired or wireless) to get access to all of the Watch Now movies on Netflix. Taking a look at the specs of this piece… Read more »
Blu-ray and HD-DVD for the Entertainment PC
Another component of the Entertainment PC has been upgraded to HD. Now that a winner has been chosen in the next-generation HD disc war, I figured it was time to make a purchase (even though it didn’t really matter with the choice I made). I bought the LG Super Multi Blue Blu-ray Disc and HD-DVD-ROM… Read more »
Hulu Review: Not Too Shabby
This post has been sitting in my drafts for about a month now. I was lucky enough to get in on the private beta of Hulu.com not too long after they started testing. Waiting so long to write this has actually been somewhat helpful. I’ve talked with a few people about their use of Hulu… Read more »
Entertaiment PC: Software
This is a continuation of a few older posts on the entertaiment PC. Adding HD to the Entertaiment PC Building an Entertainment PC: The Guts Much of what I’ve done with software on this computer is based loosely on Jon’s system. The core to both of our systems is a little piece of software called… Read more »
Adding HD to the Entertainment PC
We got ourselves a brand new HDTV for a Christmas present this year. We’d been look at them for quite a while, and finally pulled the trigger the week before Christmas. With that purchase came some other upgrades to keep things working on our Entertainment PC (DVR, Photo Viewer, DVD Player, Sling Viewer, Super Computer)…. Read more »
Leave Amazon Unbox in the Box
To get the jump on Apple, Amazon released their movie download offereing (called Unbox) just days before Apple’s announcement last week. To kick off their launch they’re offering a free download ($1.99 instant rebate) for a TV show. I decided to give the new service a try (since the first one is free). I downloaded… Read more »
Building an Entertainment PC: The Guts
For Jess’ graduation, I told her I’d put together an entertainment PC for her so she could Tivo (that’s a verb now) shows, organize music, watch DVD’s etc. She graduated back in May and I’ve been putting off buying the pieces until just last week when Intel dropped their processor prices. Everything showed up via… Read more »
Yahoo! TV Launched
It didn’t take long for Yahoo to get their branded version of Meedio out there. They’ve called it Yahoo Go TV which adds to their Go Mobile and Go PC. I downloaded and installed Go TV and everything seemed to work pretty well. Out of the box, it doesn’t really have the Meedio feel to… Read more »
Yahoo! Buys Meedio
This past Tuesday, Yahoo! announced their purchase of technology from Meedio who make software for Entertainment Center PC’s. I’ve been eyeing Meedio for a while now and was planning on using their flagship “Meedio Essentials” application for an HTPC that I’m planning on building this summer. You may also remember some older posts about Jon’s… Read more »
