My Media Experience – your guide to build your own HTPC media center experience.
This page is a starting point to help you with the following objectives
1. Highlight the most relevant home theater PC articles on this site
2. Guide you through the 5 steps to a successful HTPC project
To save your time, I have put together a free eBook including the best content and tips on this site. You can download this HTPC eBook here.
“Home Theater Personal Computer, HTPC for short, is a computer connected to your TV which is dedicated to the purpose of playing media files and internet media content.”
Nowadays, there are many ways such as media extenders and media players to stream media files to your TV over the home network and Internet. However, if you want to reach the full potential of the connected home entertainment, then getting an HTPC is the way to go. There are many myths about home theater PC that simply are not true anymore as the technology and software has advanced.
The common demand of movie fans, video game fans as well as music fans is a device that is able to provide high sound quality, high video quality along with the ability to receive internet streaming in the same time.
A good computer, in addition to the right accessories, is able to provide you with all these demands but, moving all these features into your living room and enjoying it from the comfort of your sofa is completely different from staring into your computer screen.
This is the exact reason of the emergence of Home Theater PC (HTPC). Now you are able to move all the joy into your living room and directly onto your big screen through this versatile device. An HTPC is a computer but, it is meant to serve as your digital media box that is able to handle all your video, music and games files, either stored on it or streamed from the internet.
Can you buy the ultimate media center pre-built? Is it cheaper to get your media center rebuilt? This depends on two things the needs of the user and the budget of the user.
For this reason, I have developed the HTPC Selector Tool, which helps you to find the optimal home theater computer for your needs. All you need to do is to answer 10 questions and the tool will find the best match to your requirements.
You can try the free Selector Tool here.
In addition, I’m maintaining a list of component recommendations for three kinds of HTPCs: budget, value and performance systems.
- A budget system is a good home theater PC for basic media center activities.
- A value system provides the best HD video performance with an excellent value to price ratio.
- A performance system is intended for people who do other HTPC-related tasks such as video re-encoding and games.
I’m also maintaining a 10 steps guide to build your own HTPC, where you will find the best components used by the community.
To comfortably enjoy the movies and photos on your couch, you need to get the suitable remote control device. This could be done through several ways.
The first and easiest way is a wireless keyboard and mouse where you can lie down and use them from your couch. If you want a more sophisticated controller then either a full LCD remote controller or an air mouse would be a perfect choice.
Your remote is one of the most important keys to controlling your HTPC because it proves that you know it well enough that you can relax while using it. Remote control will allow you to control your HTPC, watch movies on it, and shut it down all with the click of a button. In other words, the remote controller will help you treat your HTPC like a standard home theater device.
These are our popular HTPC accessory articles:
- Recommended home theater PC accessories
- Home theater PC gear you must have
- The best selling HTPC accessory is …
The media center is your desktop. This is where you find all of your programs and information on your home theater PC. Picking which software to put on your HTPC can be hard because you want to have all the right programs to help you perform specific tasks.
However, before you can manage all the digital media files with the media center you need to answer a few questions. How do you want to organize your photos and home videos? What about how you want to organize your television shows and movies? For some HTPC users, how they categorize and play their music is almost as important as what music they want to listen to.
Once you have organized your media with the right software, you can start considering the 10-foot user interface that is the media center software suitable for watching the media content from your sofa.
These are our popular media center software articles:
- Top 10 media center software alternatives
- Detailed comparison of the XBMC, WMC, Boxee and Plex
- Operating system alternatives for a home theater computer
- Step by step guide to setup XBMC Live Linux
So, if I have you convinced that HTPC is the way to go, click the links to get started with the XBMC Media Center.
2. Get a keyboard, mouse, and remote
4. Install XBMC to your computer
5. Configure your media center
You will have a smoothly running media center that you can be really proud of. Just take XBMC media center for a test drive; I am sure you will be as pleasantly surprised as I was.
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