| Image Gallery |
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| Conroe HTPC & HD Link PC (built December 2006) | |||||||
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Front view of the Zalman HD160 HTPC ATX case. I'm very satisfied with its build quality, fit and finish. |
20x2 LCD display, controlled with LCDsmartie. |
Included 17-in-1 flashcard reader, USB and 1394 ports, mic and headphone jacks are hidden behind the drop-down door below the optical drive. |
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Stock HSF that comes with the boxed CPU. Not bad, but could definitely be better. Replaced it with the Zalman 9500. |
Zalman 9500 92mm HSF, combined with Intel QST fan control and PWM BIOS settings, makes very little noise, even at max CPU load. |
XGene wireless RF mini-keyboard used from the couch. Good range, handy button layout and trackball, low battery LED. FireFly RF remote control receiver in the background. |
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| USFF (Ultra-Small Form Factor) HD Link PC (Dell Optiplex GX620) | |||||||
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Slightly used Dell Optiplex GX620 USFF PC, bought on eBay. 3.2Ghz P4, 1GB RAM, DVD+RW, GB NIC, GMA950 graphics. |
Another shot, showing the USFF's external power supply in the background. A handsome, near-silent, HD Link machine. |
GX620 and 20" Dell widescreen LCD. Treadmill is
about 8' from the screen, so it's a screen-size downgrade from the Samsung in the family room, but the whole setup works very well. |
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| BTV Server: Version 2 "Quad Core" | |||||||
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BTV server (v2.0 for me) is a Dell XPS420 running a Q6600. Zenith SS antenna perched on top. |
Nothing spectacular about this setup -- just sittin' there. |
Another shot of the server, antenna & splitter. Being only 17 miles from the broadcast towers and clear LoS makes this easy. |
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Quad-core goodness makes simultaneous post-processing tasks like ShowSqueezing a breeze. |
BTV server console shown running the web admin. The small APC UPS dedicated to the BTV server is seen to the left of the keyboard; the Belkin UPS on the shelf below the XPS420 is dedicated to the two Ubuntu Linux fileservers. |
Top row, left-to-right: black Leviton wiring panel, Nynex PBX, 16-port 100mb switch, Linksys WAP, BTV server & antenna, Belkin KVM switch (covered by SATA drive trays). Middle row: Belkin UPS for Linux servers, Linux Samba server, APC UPS for BTV server, console. Bottom row: BTV server v1.0, Linux backup server. |
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| Beyond TV screenshots (v4.4) | |||||||
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BTV logo fills white from top-to-bottom to indicate progress. It generally only takes 3-5 seconds to connect to the server. |
BTV Link main menu. |
BTV's Program Guide. Channel names have a DT suffix indicating a digital channel. The red "A" icon indicates that "All Episodes" will be recorded. The "HD" icon flags shows broadcast in HD resolutions. |
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Show information screen for an HD movie (note the filesize). This is a 180-minute, uncompressed HD transport streamfile. |
Post-processing settings screen for ShowSqueeze (transcoding) and SmartSkip (commercial detection). |
Recording setup options screen. |
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| Beyond Media screenshots (v1.1) | |||||||
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BM includes the ability to input your zipcode and pull real-time, local weather reports from the Weather Channel. |
The DVD Library plugin allows you to playback ripped DVDs. It automatically downloads title meta-data and cover-art, and recognizes either ISO images or VIDEO_TS DVD structures. |
Beyond Media main menu. |
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The Netflix plugin for BM allows you to manage your queue, browse popular RSS feeds, and even watch previews. |
Custom menu option which calls DVD Decrypter in batchmode (command-line) to archive DVDs for import into DVD Library. |
With the Game Library plugin, you can launch and play PC games on your HTPC. |
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