Its not often that a product comes along that really shakes up a niche market like ours. With few exceptions we are accustomed to every product acting like all the others. Price or brand recognition ends up being the determining factor in hardware choices.
What happens however when a product comes along and challenges our notions of the HTPC landscape?
Way back in January of 2009 we learned about an exciting product that really deserves the much-overused title “game changer.” Ceton’s InfiniTV 4, a pci-express card that can record up to four …

Just a quick note.  Jere and I got a great email about our last show covering Windows Home Server and HTPCs.  We just couldn’t bare to wait until August to talk about it.  I’ll let you listen for all of the details but suffice to say, there seems to be enough interest that we’re going to have to do another WHS show soon.  Hope you enjoy!
Click here to download Ep. 05 SP1

HTPCentric Subscriptions

Want to back up the PCs in your home without thinking about it?  Need something to server media to several HTPCs spread through your house?  Windows Home Server may be just what you’re looking for.
This month, Jere and I speak with Vince Anido and Alton Marschall, both Windows Home Server users.  Vince is a SageTV user who runs his WHS as a way to maintain backups.  Alton is a Media Center user who recently shut down his WHS and he goes into the reasons why during the show.  Both guys …

While we’re a bit late for June, you get a major geek out in return!  This month, Jere and I are joined by Andy Van Til of DVRMS-Toolbox fame as well as Josh Shenkle, the Minnesota Maven to discuss all things hardware.  From video card chipsets, to processors and storage, we’ve got you covered.  If you’ve been wondering what to look for when selecting an HTPC video card, this is the show you want to listen to.
With topics like deinterlacing, HD playback, I/O speed and caching, you’re sure to find …

I think I can say that we have a great show lined up this week folks.  Those who normally join us live might have noticed we weren’t there this past Tuesday.  That can happen when you need to conserve bandwidth so you can have two great guests join you to discuss their HTPCs and how they use Media Center.  Skype and Ustream both need upload and at times like these, there can be only one.  But it was completely worth it.
This week, Josh and I were joined by Ben …

With the latest Media Center update, many power users learned that their customizations aren’t supported and were removed.  While MS certainly has no requirement to support community hacks, it’s too bad this had to happen.  What should be seen as the addition of some decent content has been marred and turned into a bit of a witch hunt by some.
Either way, there’s a fix available and it worked for me this morning so I thought it would be good to share.  All it takes is the renaming of one file …

The big show is back!  Episode 78 is here to answer your questions and help you along with your Media Center experience.  This week we focus on a few more advanced questions that can get new Media Center users twisted.  Hopefully you’ll find something useful while listening.  You’ll find links to the different software we talk about down below.
One of our listeners wrote in and helped a bit as well.  Being new to the US, he had questions related to TV tuners and what can be recorded with what …

If you’re a Sage user, then this is an announcement you’ve been waiting for.  Brent Evans over at Geektonic has the juice on the latest version of SageTV and version 7 is going into public beta tomorrow.
After taking a look at the screenshots and reading up on the features, I’ll have to say it’s nice to see Sage make it easier to add plugins.  So far that’s really I can say.  I’m not a user but the UI still doesn’t impress, yet.  I’ll need to see more to really …

Yes, you can go searching around the web and learn how to build your very own PC.  It’s not a difficult process and there are lots of how-to’s out there.  That said, since we deal quite a bit with HTPCs here at The DMZ, I thought it would be good to share with our readers how you too can build your very own HTPC and know exactly what’s going on with your system.
While pre-built systems offer you convenience and ease of setup, building your own PC offers a lot …

Jere Jones and I are back this month and it’s all about MythTV!  When you don’t know very much about a topic you go out and you find some folks who have the knowledge you seek and that’s exactly what we did this month.
Jere and I are joined by Patrick Archibald and “Guru”, two MythTV users who help us understand how this HTPC software works and what the key features and benefits are.  Suffice to say it was an interesting and enjoyable show.  I always enjoy learning about different systems …