Home Thearter PC
Starting about 12 months ago my wife and I noticed a disturbing trend in our cable bill. While the bill continued to increase about $5-10 every 2-3 months, our provider, Charter, was pulling channels from the lineup, and moving them to more expensive tiers. As it stood at the time we were using Charter for both internet (via cable) and cable television. Our monthly bill broke down to ~$40 for the internet (10MB/768, although we were only getting 5MB), and ~$70 for television which was the ‘standard’ channels plus a ‘free’ HBO/Cinemax package. Considering that we weren’t really watching that much television, and are on a rather tight budget, we decided this situation required a bit of rethinking. (I should also note that we really didn’t have a lot of options as far as our service provider went. Charter is really the only game in town for high speed internet in my city (no FIOS, Comcast, etc.))
After a bit of discussion, we decided to put together a low cost computer, which we would hook to the television in order to take advantage of the new ‘television over internet’ that has become so popular lately via websites like Hulu and TV.com. Initially we thought about using an Apple TV box, but figured we would still end up paying far too much for what little television/movies we watched. Plus, aside from being used for television, ideally I would like a machine that could actually be used as a computer if needed. To that end we purchased a Dell Inspiron 530s (Dual 2.2GHz, 2GB, 320GB) for about $250 on sale. The machine is low profile and can be placed in both vertical and horizontal positions. When horizontal, it’s not much larger than a VCR or DVD player so it fits nicely into most TV stands. Although the machine came installed with Vista Home Premium I decided to install XP Pro for purposes of speed and reliability.
Given that we wanted to hook the computer to the TV the next step was getting the connections setup. Although the machine had a standard VGA video output (for a monitor), there was no S-video or composite video out on the motherboard. I tried using a VGA to s-video adapter to no avail and ended up purchasing a low profile nVidia 8400GS (512MB) video card ($15 after rebate, NewEgg). The card installed with very little problems (see technical note at the end). The card in question has a VGA, DVI and s-video/composite video out. Using an s-video cable that came with the card I was easily able to output the video directly to the television. In the end it turned out to be a much better option as the low profile video cards that were ‘options’ on the dell website were $80+ at the time.
For audio, the machine itself is already setup for a surround sound speaker system and has multiple outputs. Using a standard audio jack to VGA audio cord which I already had (and probably only costs a few dollars at a radio shack) I was easily able to pump audio into the television. Although I am satisfied with the audio from the television, I may upgrade to a full 7.1 surround sound system in the future which will be extremely easy given that the jacks are already present in the machine.
With the video and audio hooked up, the next hurdle was how to control the machine. Since the computer would sit on the TV stand across the room a standard keyboard/mouse weren’t really going to work well for us. After a bit of research, and talking to another tech friend who has a similar setup, I purchased a Logitech Wireless (RF) keyboard/Mouse package ($35, NewEgg). For my purposes the mouse and keyboard work great. We get decent range with both and are able to do almost anything we want from a good distance away. The only issue we had was placement of the RF receiver to optimize the range. Rather than on top of the TV where I thought it would work the best, the receiver seems to give the best range on the shelf of the TV stand about 20 inches off the floor. For people who are looking into this kind of a system another option for control is a remote control unit. These work by controlling the mouse, or direct clicking buttons on the system. I’ve heard various reviews on how well they really work. Either way, for now we’re sticking with the keyboard/mouse.
Now that the machine was hooked up and we had a way to control it from our couch we began watching Hulu, TV.com and a number of other freely available online websites. Although the system worked great I wanted to try to optimize it for ease of use. After looking around online I found a number of freely available media center style programs that are specifically used for this kind of application. Of the programs that I found (Boxee, SageTV, MythTV, GB-PVR, XBMC, etc.) I decided to use GB-PVR. It seemed to be one of the more developed free media center programs available, and reasonably customizable.
Installation of GB-PVR was a snap, with no issues what-so-ever. The program is easy to use and I added a shortcut for the program to my startup menu so that it launches whenever the machine is rebooted (or manually via a shortcut on the desktop). The program comes equip with a number of great default functions as well as user generated plug-ins. Some of my more favorite of these are a built in movie player for watching just about any type of media file, a recording option for people who want to add a TV capture card and make their machine a DVR (more on that later), as well as customizable menus that can link to any program/website you want to from inside the media center. It is the ladder of these that I found to be most important as you will soon see.
Although many of the major networks have jumped on the ‘television over the internet’ bandwagon the one thing they fear the most is people actually playing these shows onto televisions as it will cut into their revenue. (Did I mention that the commercial breaks for most of these shows online are only 30-45 SECONDS long?) At the very least the owners of these shows want you to use your internet browser to watch the shows, so they can attempt to maintain some level of control. To oppose this general attitude many efforts have been made to integrate these shows directly into various media center programs via optional plug-ins. When the networks/producers of these shows see what is happening they block access to their content, after which the developers find a way around. This ‘battle’ has been going back and forth for some time now, and as usual the lawyers are starting to get involved. While an integrated solution that doesn’t require an internet browser would be REALLY nice I don’t want to have to update/edit/change settings on my machine every time something changes (about every 5-10 days currently). This is where GB-PVRs menu links come in handy. By adding menu items that link to websites, I can launch my web browser (Firefox) from inside the GB-PVR program, watch the show that I want and when I’m done, go back to the media center automatically. Moreover, because of the way many of these websites run, I can link directly to specific shows, significantly reducing the amount of internet surfing required to watch an episode. Admittedly this is really just a ‘bookmarking’ function, and it does take some setting up, but in the long run it makes it a much easier experience.
Because we are currently using a tube television (about 4 years old now), the optimal resolution that the computer can output is low. This leads to some difficulties reading icon names and some text boxes in the XP environment. (Keep in mind that the media center programs specifically have large text to avoid this issue.) Although I was able to increase the default XP text sizes with a little tweaking I still wasn’t satisfied as not ‘all’ the text sizes actually changed. In order to make sure I had a way to read any of these boxes, as well as control the machine remotely I found another free program called UltraVNC. Installing this program on the ‘Tv-Box’ as well as my laptop I can now remotely access, view and control the desktop environment. It’s been very handy for maintenance, new hardware setup, or those times when the batteries on the keyboard/mouse die.
Finally, and perhaps the best part about this entire setup, is upgradeability. Although the box is currently setup to be used strictly as a media center (i.e. playing video, audio, etc.) it can VERY easily be upgraded to run as a fully functioning DVR with streaming capabilities. Simply add a decent TV tuner card (and maybe a second hard drive) and you’re all set. Most (if not all) of the media center programs come equip with software that will allow TiVo like recording of television shows with no fuss, and no monthly subscription!
Summary Cost – Hardware:
Dell Inspiron 530s – $250
nVidia 8200GS – $15
Logitech wireless keyboard/mouse – $35
Total – $300
Summary – Software:
GB-PVR – Free
UltraVNC – Free
Firefox – Free
Pros:
No longer have to pay for cable television
Cons:
Mid-level computer experience required for setup (i.e. not for the computer-phobic)
Not ALL networks currently put their shows online… yet…
Technical Note: During installation of the video card I found out something about the Inspironn 530s that I believe I should mention. Because most low profile video cards are also compatible with full sized systems they come with different face plates. In low-profile mode two plates are used, one that is connected directly to the vid card, and a second (usually with the VGA adapter) that is connected via a cord. Because of the design of the Inspiron 530s, no screws are used to hold any PCI cards in place. As a result the 2nd face plate fits very loosely. In my case the mere pressure of trying to connect the VGA cord from my monitor during setup sent the faceplate back into the machine, which can be dangerous and possibly cause a short. I was able to use the faceplate after careful attachment however please BE CAREFUL with the extended faceplate on the 530s. Without screws to hold it in securely it just isn’t that stable.
