Boxee Review

June 30, 2009

Right off the bat Boxee has a different feel to it. The menu system is smooth and once you shed off the trappings of conventional media centers and adjust to Boxee’s way of doing things, it starts to feel intuitive. Boxee’s a lot to take in early on which is a bit surprising given how spartan the interface appears. Notice I said appears because once you dive in a little deeper you’ll quickly see there are a ton of settings and features to tweak should you wish.

Posted by B.Greenway | Filed Under HTPC, Media Servers, Reviews | Comments 

Dude, Where’s My Netflix Tab Inside Vista Media Center?

May 21, 2009

Like many of you who heard about Netflix support coming to Vista Media Center I too was anxious to give it a whirl, the only problem is unlike most of the accounts I was reading, my tab wasn’t “just there when I opened media center.

Posted by B.Greenway | Filed Under Blockbuster & Netflix, HTPC, Media Servers | Comments 

Preview: Windows 7 Media Center

May 16, 2009

If you resisted the temptation to “upgrade” your windows based HTPC to Vista this long hopefully what follows will reinforce that decision, Windows 7 could be as little as 5-6 months away and given the fact that Microsoft didn’t release a QAM/ATSC tuner update to the public (its only technically available with new OEM builds) the wait may very well be worth it.

Posted by B.Greenway | Filed Under HTPC, Media Servers, Previews | Comments 

Physical Media is (Nearly) Dead, Long Live Physical Media

May 11, 2009

Back during the HD DVD/Blu-ray catfight, a common call among HD DVD supporters was that Blu-ray may win the battle but ultimately digital downloads would win the war. This was often countered with “I’ll never move to digital downloads, I want a physical copy of my purchase”.
As with many arguments the truth is often [...]

Posted by B.Greenway | Filed Under Blu-ray, HTPC, IPTV, Media Servers | Comments 

Mini-Review: CoolerMaster Silent Pro M500 ATX Power Supply

April 27, 2009

As time marches on I find myself using my HTPC more and more and my other source equipment less and less. With that, I’ve wanted to address one of my systems biggest hardware shortcomings, the noise. Unlike off the shelf consumer electronics devices, HTPC’s aren’t necessarily as quiet as a DVD player, cable box or vacuum cleaner for that matter…

Posted by B.Greenway | Filed Under HTPC, Reviews | Comments 

I Heart my HTPC

July 29, 2008

My opinion of HTPC’s has pretty much come full circle in the last 10 years or so. It’s not that my standards have dropped, as much as it’s the quality of the hardware and software that has improved dramatically. My HTPC recommendations used to go along the lines of “buy something that’ll get the job accomplished but don’t go overboard”. Now I’m of the opinion that if you think this is for you, by all means, go for it. Shoot for full 1080p playback and even the lossless audio support that’s started popping up on certain motherboards.

Posted by B.Greenway | Filed Under HTPC | Comments 

Confessions of a My Movies Junkie

May 18, 2008

Most of the indispensable add-on components of my HTPC didn’t start out that way, or rather it’s the quieter, almost utilitarian additions to my HTPC that I couldn’t live without now. The oh golly gee look how cool this thing is gizmos that initially excite, often fall out of favor as time goes on. While [...]

Posted by B.Greenway | Filed Under HTPC | Comments 

Russound Media Console

March 31, 2008

I guess this really shouldn’t have come as a shock, I mean I’ve noticed an increase in media center PC’s all around, it’s just that well, this ones from Russound. What’s so special about a media center PC from Russound you ask? Aside from the optional dual cable-card tuner slots, LifeWare customized Ultimate Vista Media [...]

Posted by B.Greenway | Filed Under HTPC, Media Servers | Comments 

Review: SyncTV (beta)

February 18, 2008

In the weeks since installing the software I believe I’ve caught a glimpse of the future and its one where physical and digitally distributed media can happily coexist.

Posted by Philip Stamps | Filed Under HTPC, Media Servers, Reviews | Comments 

My HTPC Could Wake the Dead

January 9, 2008

That title should have actually read: My HTPC Could Wake the Dead, but its getting much quieter. It’s been quite a while since I’ve discussed HTPC’s (mine in particular) so I thought a quick re-cap and update of where I’m at with my system might be in order.
Late last summer I picked up the idea [...]

Posted by B.Greenway | Filed Under HTPC | Comments 

Next Page →