Up until maybe a year ago I had never done anything more then replace the RAM out of a computer. Within the last year I have built two HTPCs and one Windows Home Server, and I have had the itch to build another PC. I decided this time around I would build a mini-itx HTPC [...]
From the category archives:
Guides
Yesterday I reported on the availability of the 3.0 Patch 2 software we discovered on the HP web site, and gave instructions on how to install it. Since performing the initial install I’ve spent some more time with my EX495 running the update and have encountered a couple of issues.
The first was a problem [...]
I was doing my usual morning read of some blogs I follow when I came across a post over at Multimedia-PCs that I thought was interesting. I do a lot of switching back and forth between Windows 7 Media Center, XBMC, and Boxee which can be a PITA since I can’t do this easily using use [...]
A few weeks ago I put together Part I of my guide on how to set up Bitstreaming with your Windows 7 HTPC . Part I focused on using Media Player Classic, so Part II will focus on setting up bitstreaming using WMP12/W7MC. This gets a little tricky, so you will see why after reading this guide my [...]
If you are the proud owner of an earlier model of the HP MediaSmart Server such as the EX470/EX475/EX485/EX487, you’ve probably been reading the reviews and watching with a little bit of envy the new features available to owners of the more recent EX490 and EX495. A while ago, HP promised the community an update [...]
Wix or Windows Installer XML is an Open Source toolset used to create Windows Installer (or MSI) packages, including many of the current Windows Home Server Add-Ins. I’m going to be sharing some of my experiences with Wix and the relevant code snippets to try and make it easier for any of you budding developers. [...]
If you have been following along with my last few posts (The Family IT Guy and Setting Up MPC) the main goal that I was working towards was to finally set up bitstreaming of HD Audio (DTS-MA and TrueHD) with my HTPC. Leading up to the last few months this was only possible by using an expensive sound [...]
MPC HC (known as Media Player Classic – Home Cinema) is a free and versatile audio and video player for Windows. One of the great features of MPC HC is that the audio and video codecs are built-in. What this means is that you don’t have to mess around with dreaded codecs or filters on [...]
If you are a user of a networked media tank (nmt) such as the popular Popcorn Hour series you already know that the stock UI pretty much blows, giving you nothing more then a “windows exploreresque” experience. Yes, almost all your files will play back, but let’s face it, we want to impress everyone and [...]
