Wednesday, April 01, 2009

DIY HTPC

I've been watching a lot of HD videos lately and have been scouring the internet for affordable and efficient solutions to stream High Definition video files onto my TV. After looking thru devices like the Western Digital TV and cheapers alternatives in Hawally I came across HTPC or 'Home Theatre PC'. Basically you use a good spec computer as your all in one solution for
1. Storage
2. Multimedia player
3. Gaming device
4. TV receiver
5. As a seed box (if you use torrents a lot)
For more information on HTPCs check this wikipedia link [HTPC]

I've been testing it out wth my laptop hooked up to my LCD tv and the results are kinda good. I can play 720p or 1080 .mkv files on my laptop and watch them in HD on my tv in high resolution.


This is my makeshift arrangement till I get a proper system. I've got the laptop hooked up to the TV via a VGA cable and a Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse so that I can control it from my couch. It helps to have media player shortcuts on the keyboard so that you can use it as a remote control. The sound output from the PC is connected to the auxilliary input on the stereo and thats all !

Heres some great DIY stuff from PC stats [link]

HTPC hardware and guidance listed in AVS forum [link]

2 comments:

Jonyboy said...

Gone are the days when TVs only had an 'ON/OFF' switch and a few knobs here n there for volume control, color, brightness n contrast control.

It was so simple to use.

Who knows in a few years or months time.....some-one some-where, will come up, with a TV tat even micro-waves/cook, your dinner, while u watch ur fav program.....hehehe.

Mathai said...

heheh its called "convergence", you forgot to mention taking out the trash. I would like a machine to do that :)

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