The Howerter Blog

I recently assembled and installed a Windows Vista Media Center PC next to my TV. I have been slowly getting all the features to work. Getting the PC to display over component video was a task! I really wanted this box for two reasons: 1) Free HDTV via an antenna and decoder card 2) On demand movies. I am currently working on the on demand portion. I would be getting the HDTV to work, but UPS bent my antenna into a nice S shape while shipping it to me. I am waiting for a replacement. Anyway, I bought a 500GB hard drive and found some good ripping software (DVDShrink, HD Decryptor and Vob2MPG). Yesterday I spend about an hour figuring out how to make video play-lists. I purchased nVidia’s PureVideo codec to handle hardware MPEG-2 video playback and I use AC3Filter to pass through AC3 sound to my receiver. Those previous things took me about a month to figure out and get working. With all that said, I am finally starting to rip all of my DVDs. I have only gotten a couple of seasons of Katherine’s Golden Girls ripped (there are seven seasons), but I have been very impressed with the results. Playback is good and it is really nice to be able to choose the video from the Media Center menu instead of getting up and putting in the disc. I think I will need at least one more 500GB drive, but it should be worth it. Anyone thinking about buying a Media Center PC, I would recommend getting one. It is very nice having a full featured PC sitting next to your TV.