Building a HTPC

It's really easy to be caught up in technology developments nowadays. You are probably reading this article from a computer in your home, through a connection to the internet. Think about it - that was a technology that was in its infancy less than 10 years ago, and completely nonexistent as recently as 1990. Soon after we had one computer in our homes we found reasons to have two, three, or more. In many cases when we would buy a new machine we would simply keep the old one, giving the obsolete hardware to the kids or to mom to use in another room in the house. Then, of course, we needed to network those machines together to share a common internet connection (broadband by now) and share our own personal stash of information. At first we just wanted to access our MP3 music collection (legal copies or otherwise), but very soon we had the storage capacity for pictures, video, movies, and whatever else we stashed on our hard drives.

And while PC technology was spreading in the home arena, a new contestant called "TiVo" entered the video foray, altering practically overnight how we would watch our favorite TV programs. TiVo, of course, was one of several brands of a Personal Video Recorder (PVR). Now we could pause live TV while we got up to get a beer, record and play back not just any specific TV show or movie, but EVERY time that show was scheduled over the next few weeks, and watch them all at our leisure. Wow. Here was a power and capability that was beyond our home PC. We could spend thousands of dollars on the latest Dell, HP, or home built rig and not be able to do that. BUT NO LONGER. Enter the Home Theater PC (HTPC).

Within just the past two years, it is now possible to have a computer in your home that has all the functionality of a TiVo-style PVR, plus all of the aforementioned personal computer features. The mainstream PC manufactures like HP, Gateway, and Sony now make consumer HTPC's that have multimedia capable hardware, plus Microsoft has published a custom version of Windows XP Professional, called Windows Media Center Edition (MCE). Together with MCE these HTPC's offer an impressive array of features, including:

• Full PVR functionality, including recording, pausing, and playback of live TV; scheduling up to 2 weeks in advance recording of broadcast programs by name, genre, and other properties; and archiving of recorded programs.
• Remote control operation (ie no keyboard or mouse needed)
• HDTV capability.
• Highest quality video output via S-Video, DVI, or component level for display on high-end plasma or LCD televisions.
• Digital 5.1 surround sound from recorded programs and from DVD discs.
• Digital audio interface with your home stereo gear for listening to music.
• Hard drive space sufficient to store the largest imaginable CD music library, and indexing such a library for easy playback, custom playlists, and so on.
• Latest generation graphics cards (DirectX 9.0 compatible), processors, and motherboards capable of handling the latest hardware-hungry video games.

But buying a pre-built HTPC is not your only way to obtain such a machine. For die-hard computer freaks like me, the only option has always been do-it-yourself. So that's the focus of this article. I'm going to build my own HTPC, and here's how I did it.