Virtualization, EUC, and Computing in General
There are several ways to create a media ‘store’ with an HTPC- Store everything on a single local drive (this drive will also hold the OS) Store everything on a network share Store everything on a second local drive Store everything on an external USB\eSATA drive I think the last 2 options provide the easiest and best solutions – especially for large amounts of media. The problem with storing everything on a single local drive, and … Read more…
Recently, the second [Media only] hard drive in my HTPC started to fail – my Wife heard lots of good old clicking coming from it. So I checked the SMART status – which reported OK, but there was clearly something wrong with the drive. I also happened to be looking in the BIOS just to make sure everything was OK, and I noticed that all of the SATA ports were set for IDE emulation mode! … Read more…
When I upgraded to an ATI HD 5770 card, one of the biggest issues with the HDMI output was the odd ‘choppiness’ when scenes went from full color and light to very dark. After I had figured out how to correct it, all was well…then there was a newer version of the ATI Catalyst driver suite. Dynamic Contrast strikes again!!! What I did not realize is that the update reset the settings for Dynamic Contrast … Read more…
I recently updated both of my Parents’ systems to Windows 7 – and last night I was asked to “Get rid of the security on my Mom’s Outlook”…?…My first thought was UAC. But then- what the heck was she doing that was popping up UAC?? So upon further investigation, the issue was quite different. In Outlook, anytime a web link was clicked the following error showed: This operation has been canceled due to restrictions in … Read more…
The iMon remote controller was always able to turn off our Media Center by itself – but then when a Logitech Harmony remote is introduced, things got ugly. 9 times out of 10, the PC would NOT shut down when the Harmony sent the command. This is likely due to the complexity of the iMon remote commands. This was alleviated when I switched the iMon manager software to recognize standard MCE remote commands instead of … Read more…
We have used an HTPC for nearly 4 years now – and yes this includes using Vista Media Center. There have been a few revisions – completely open setup to test, ClearQAM\Analog tuners, different video card, ATI DCTs…The biggest, and probably best feature is the ’10 foot’ interface – controlling everything with a remote control. I chose the Antec Veris Fusion silver for the case – it has an iMon VFD\remote eye built in to … Read more…