Home Theatre PC Guide

When I was a kid, one of the exciting times in our household was when a birthday or a special occasion would come around and my father would rent a VCR from the local movie store along with a couple of quality titles. The family would then sit around this wonderful invention and enjoy movies together. I'm dating myself a little by admitting that but when the VCR first came out, it was considered quite an invention and it was really expensive (as with every new technological innovation). Eventually the prices dropped and VCRs became a part of almost everyone's TV room, not only for playback but for recording content while you were home or away. Let me walk through a scenario that has probably happened to everyone at some point in their lives: You're late to go out for the evening and just as you're about to run out the door you remember that Melrose Place is going to be on that night and you just can't miss it. You rush back into the living room and quickly pound away on your VCR remote setting up which channel to record and for what timeframe. You go out and have a good time and when you arrive home, you're excited at the prospects of sitting down and catching up on what had taken place with Kimberly, Michael and the rest of the MP crew. Alas, nothing was recorded! Why? Well, there could be several answers to that question: 1) You forgot to power off the VCR. 2) There was a brown-out and you're now faced with the classic flashing 12:00AM on the display. 3) Worse yet, you had the recording set to SP and you hadn't fully rewound the tape so you're left with the first 15 minutes of the episode. While the details may have been slightly different for you, I can guarantee that everyone has been forced to deal with a VCR snafu at some point in their lives. A wonderful invention, but it was far from perfect. My VCR is now in storage because I, like other geeks and laymen alike, have chosen the new recording path. It is a digital world and I am a digital girl err dude. TIVO and devices like it have taken the world by storm but as computer geeks we had to ask the question: "Couldn't we get a computer to do that?" We sure can. Objectives I've been writing here for a lot of years, and for the most part everyone is comfortable with my style and familiar with my tendencies. You all know that when I take on a project piece like this I'm going to try and provide all the information that I can. That said, I'm going to try and cover all the bases on the topic of Home Theatre PCs (HTPC). You'll probably want to grab a beverage and get comfortable, because there's a lot to talk about on the subject. Written by Jim