Yesterday Ben Drawbaugh and I got into it a little back and forth on Twitter about the HTPC and using it as a HTPC directly connected to your display. Whether that is your tv, your projector or some other display medium or in the case of Ben using your HTPC more as a server in a closet up and out of the way basically running as a headless unit serving up extenders.
Back in July Ben and myself joined Josh (the other Josh) and Adam on Entertainment 2.0 Episode 37 part …

We step back to CEDIA one more time this week but this show is a bit different.  This week we get a great opportunity to talk to two people who were at the show and who help provide two very different perspectives.  Joining us this week is Derek R. Flickinger of The Custom Integrator Show and Ben Drawbaugh of EngadgetHD.  These two Media Center mavens give us the low down on what some of the CEDIA announcements mean to Media Center as well as provide context on where we …

Those of use who use Media Center in our homes as more than just a DVR have this love/hate thing going on.  On the one hand, we love Media Center.  The interface, the functionality, the DVR capabilities, all of it.  We also hate the fact that Microsoft has, so far, decided that extenders should be half-hearted affairs that just can’t do everything the PC can.
Well the times they are a changin’ and you can thank Ben Drawbaugh and Andres Echevarria.  Working together the two have come up with a …

I wish I could say that I wrote a review this good, but that would just be dirty.  Plus no one would believe it.  Luckily for you, Ben Drawbaugh has taken the time to walk you through all the new features of Windows 7 Media Center and spell out the good, the bad and the ugly.  Many people who read here know that I have a love/hate thing going on with Media Center and Ben spells out very well how I feel and why.  He accurately hits on each …

Welcome back to part 2 of our discussion on PCs and Extenders with Ben Drawbaugh and Josh Shenkle.  We continue right where we left off last week and this half is a bit longer.  Just chock full of great info though so listen closely.
We still want to hear from you!  You can upload pictures of your setup or leave us a note over at the Entertainment 2.0 drop or you can call and leave us a voicemail at 1-877-856-4933.  Questions?  Comments?  Want to make fun of Josh?  Leave us …

You read that title right.  This week is the first half or so of a two part episode.  We had so much fun with our guests Josh Shenkle and Ben Drawbaugh that we ended up going for over two hours.  This week we talk about the PC vs. Extender models for running Media Center and all of the things that factor in to making a decision on how to run your setup.  In this first of two parts, we talk about the PC side of the argument and some …

The story broke a little while back that Divx was releasing a tech preview to provide support for MKVs within Windows 7.  The great part about this news was that not only would it provide support on your PC itself but because the preview introduced support for Media Foundation, this opened up Media Center extenders as well.
I finally had a chance to install the preview and do a little testing.  While I haven’t been playing with it too much, I wanted to get some information out to our readers …

You read that title right.  This week we went over 2 hours but I have to say, you’ll want to listen to the whole show.  This week, Josh and I are joined by Ben Drawbaugh of EngadgetHD fame for a great discussion on a lot of Media Center topics (with a healthy dose of fun).  Ben has a lot of knowledge when it comes to integrating Media Center into your home and he shares it with all of us this week.
We did cover a few news items as well.  …