HTPC - Home Theater PC

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For quite awhile now, I’ve wanted to set up a media center PC in my Living Room to make internet access, digital photos, music and videos more convenient. Plus, it would just be really cool to be able to jump online and check email in between movies or TV shows. Here’s a diagram of the proposed addition (1 and 3) and my plan for configuring it into my current network.

My main goal was being able to listen to music - stored on my network’s external hardrive - and surf the internet using my home theater audio system. Other tasks like viewing digital photos and videos are nice-to-haves. That said, I’m not necessarily planning on using this HTPC to view TV or to record digital video. I have another PC with a TV-Wonder card (I think that’s its name) and I might re-purpose the card at a later time. I don’t see much of a reason to do so right now, given that fact that I’m happy with the current setup and am only looking to add the PC to the exiting hardware.. Maybe in the future, I’ll set it up to record video to the PC’s hard drive.

Materials:
	Samsung 40″ Flat-panel LCD HDTV (Model: LN-T4032)
	Samsung 800w 5.1 Ch 5-disc DVD Home Theater (Model: HT-Q40)
	Panasonic Progressive scan DVD HDMI (Model: DVDS52)
	Logitech Cordless Desktop S 510
	Dell Dimension 4600s
	Trendware 108 Mbps 802.11g MIMO Wireless PCI Adapter
	Linksys Wireless-G Broadband Router with SpeedBooster (Model: WRT54GS)
	HIS Radeon 7000 64MB AGP w/Dual VGA (coming up next)
	WD MyBook Essential 250GB USB 2.0 External HD

Here’s how I set it all up.

First, I had to lug the small form factor Dell Dimension 4600s out from under my desk in the office, where it has done a great job collecting dust and serving as a cup stand, over to the dining room table where I could have more room to work. The 4600s is bascially just a stripped down version (fewer PCI slots) of the the 4600 and nice for this application since it’s about half as wide as 4600’s mini-tower. I changed out the Ethernet Adapter for a Trendware 108 Mbps 802.11g MIMO Wireless PCI Adapter. I also brought my extra 15″ LCD monitor to facilitate the configuration process before I actually hook it up to the PC-in on the 40″ LCD.

I ran into my first issue after installing the Wireless PCI Adapter. I went to open the DVD drive to run the installation disc for the drivers and the drive wouldn’t open! After a few choice curse words and staring at the drive for a few moments, I realized it wasn’t going to happen. I thought about using a screwdriver to try and pry it open, but opted against that, for fear of really jacking it up. I don’t necessarily need the drive, since I have a 5 disc DVD changer AND an HDMI DVD player (x-mas gift) - 6 ways to skin a disc - so I opted for the thumb-drive install. I copied the contents of the install disc over to the thumb-drive and installed from there. OK. That worked. We’re good to go.

Next, I hooked up the Logitech Cordless Desktop. No sense having wires all over the place with my new HTPC.

Now to test the wireless adapter. The wireless adapter picked up my router’s wireless signal right off the bat and I was able to jump onto my secure wireless network by simply entering my network key.

Now that I have a wireless connection to the network, I can set up a Network Place to access files on my existing network hardrive. I double checked the names of the existing machines and their workgroup making sure to DISABLE the WEP security on the wireless router by accessing the router’s home at http://192.168.1.1, going to Security under Wireless and changing the dropdown from WEP to ‘Disable’. Next, I set the workgroup name on the HTPC then rebooted. My existing Network Places were instantly imported to the new machine. Sweet! I checked the most important ones to make sure I could access my music and photos and everything works great.

Finally, RE-ENABLE the WEP security and double check the shared connections to ensure they are still active and functioning. Check.

Now to check my email and kick back and enjoy some tunes.

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