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    I assembled a Home Theater PC (HTPC) to stack into my living room entertainment center.  For the OS and recorded TV files I installed as the C drive a Hitachi 2-TB SATA and for music and other videos I put in my old 1-TB Maxtor SATA as the D drive.

    I loaded the copy of Vista Ultimate 64-bit I bought back in spring ’08, updated it, then installed Norton Anti-virus 2010.  It will be hard wired to the router via the on-board RJ-45 LAN port, as are the Samsung 40” LCD TV and Sony Blu-ray player.

    The Samsung TV came with a LAN port so it can hook into the home network.  There is a menu option you can go to that will play videos and photos stored on any hard drive of any computer on the network.

    The Sony Blu-ray player plugs into the network solely to use the Internet for microcode updates.

    People have been asking, why would you need an HTPC anyway?  My number one reason is to record TV.  Currently, I have a Panasonic AccuTune DVD recorder that uses DVD-RWs to record only 2 hours per disk of medium quality video; and that’s when it doesn’t malfunction.  I don’t know how many times it didn’t record my show and I had to pull the power cord to reset it.  Since I use air TV via antenna, a DVD recorder with a tuner is the only non-computer way to record shows.  There are DVR recorders out there but none have tuners.  You can only use them if you have some kind of set-top box like DirecTV or cable.  With the 2-TB hard drive in the HTPC, I can record around 1500 hours with Windows Media Center (WMC) and use the files to create DVDs if I so desire. 

    For the removable disk drive I bought a Pioneer Qflix internal DVD recorder.  It comes with Roxio CinemaNow software that searches the web sites of several movie vendors.  If you want to rent a movie, the flick will download to your hard drive and you have 24 hours to watch it from there.

    If you want to buy a movie DVD the download goes directly to the Qfilx DVD burner, where the data is recorded to a special Qflix dual-layer writable DVD.  Once you create the DVD you cannot copy it.  If you want another copy you have to buy the download again.

    For the interface devices, I am using a Logitech Wave wireless keyboard and mouse combo.  The keyboard has all the WMC buttons at the top for mouse-less control of the TV record and playback functions.

    The TV has 4 HDMI video inputs but the Pioneer Elite receiver has only 3 S/PDIF audio connections.  This means one of my hi-fi components won’t use digital optical for its audio connection.  For the HTPC, I used the DVD recorder’s S/PDIF optical audio connection, running from the onboard port on the motherboard to the VCR1 input to the receiver.  Now, from the DVD recorder, I ran an RCA output cable to the receiver’s VCR2 port.  I won’t be using it much anymore, but it’s a combo unit so it is still needed in order to look at the occasional VCR tape.

    The HTPC and the DVD recorder will use HDMI input directly into the TV.  The HTPC video card is an nVidia GEforce GT9400 1gb with HDMI out.

    For the TV tuners I am using 2 PCI expansion cards, one from Azus and another from Hauppauge.  This way I can record 2 TV shows at the same time, if need be.

    Before I went crazy and installed programs, I wanted to first update the BIOS and all of the motherboard drivers with the latest downloads from the Intel web site.  I am using my old Intel DX48BT2 board and a used E8400 processor I bought off eBay.

    Intel makes it fairly easy to update the BIOS.  You download the file, run it in the Windows environment and watch the messages scroll by inside a window.  As soon as I started the update program, a message came up saying something like, you are trying to update xxx.xxx version of the BIOS with the same xxx.xxx version, do you want to continue?  Apparently there hasn’t been a new version since the last time I updated.  I hit yes to load the BIOS anyway.  Well, a bunch of flash messages came up, and after each a ‘done’.  That is, all except the ‘flashing processor’ message.  The BIOS update got stuck there.

    I figured if the process didn’t move for five minutes, I likely had a problem.  I went into the kitchen, made dinner, ate, washed the dishes, cleaned up, and when I returned to the PC an hour later she was still stuck on the same message.

    This is when it is handy to have another functioning PC in the house.  On my command center machine I searched Google for ‘DX48BT2 BIOS update stuck’.  Sure enough an Intel page was listed with the fix.  You load the latest BIOS recovery file from their site and burn it to a CD.  I used Nero to do that.  You then take the jumper off the BIOS pins on the motherboard, power up with the CD in the reader and presto the BIOS recovered in like 30 seconds.

    I loaded the video card drivers from the nVidia CD.  When I restarted, a DLL error message appeared on the screen. I removed the driver from Device Manager then downloaded the newer Vista 64-bit version from the nVidia site.  Problem solved.

    Next I updated the drivers for the LAN port and the onboard sound without a hitch.  For programs I installed the Roxio CinemaNow software for Qfilx, Windows Live mail client and Firefox.  That’s about all I need as the most useful program of the project – Windows Media Center – is part of the OS.

    The next tricky part was scanning the channels in WMC, which only produced the -1 channels.  For instance, Channel 4 here in L.A. has three HD channels: 4-1, 4-2 and 4-3.  KCET has four: 28-1, 28-2, 28-3 and 28-4.  Windows Vista WMC didn’t pick up any of the -2 or -3, etc.  Windows 7 WMC on my other PC didn’t have this problem, it picked up everything.  I went to Google, where I searched ‘Vista media center tv scan’ and found some useful info.  What you do while you’re in WMC, go to Settings -> Guide -> Add Channels Manually.  This was strange too because as I entered 4-2, 4-3, 5-2 and went back to the guide, those were the only 3 channels listed.  It took out all of the 15-or-so -1 channels.  I re-scanned the tuner with WMC, in 5 minutes it found all the channels!!!  Why couldn’t it do that in the first place?  Was it just by adding a few -2 and -3 channels that prodded WMC to pick everything up?

    For my first test I programmed WMC to record the 11 o’clock news.  The local newscasts are in HD so when they are showing you the talking head in the studio the picture is super sharp.  When they go to footage shot on the street, the video is grainy.  At 11:35 I replayed the recorded show from the hard drive, it looks great.  You have to stand about six inches away from the screen to tell that it is slightly not as high def as the native tuner in the TV.

    While you are watching live TV with WMC in a reduced window at the lower right corner of the screen, you can have email, messenger and internet going in other windows, then when you see something on TV that interests you, double click the WMC title bar to see it full screen.  I was shocked that the picture looks just as good as the TV’s native tuner.  This made me really happy and all in the comfort of my living room.

    I went in to set up the WMC guide to record all my favorite shows.  The guide is so easy and reliable.  I like 60 minutes, so you click on that entry it in the guide and the next screen asks you if you want to record that show or the whole series.  This Sunday 60 minutes is on at 8pm instead of its usual 7pm slot.  I clicked on whole series and scrolled to the next 2 Sundays, when the show will be on at its regular time.  WMC is smart enough to pick it up the time difference and schedule them.

    I ran another test.  I set WMC to record a show 2 hours from now, then set Power Options to put the computer into sleep mode after a half-hour of inactivity.  When it was time to record the show, the computer woke up already logged in and recorded the show.  Thirty minutes later it went to sleep again.  How cool is that?  You don’t need it powered up 24/7 to record shows.

    I listened to streaming radio from a couple stations like KLOS and KNAC through my 450w receiver via the S/PDIF cable.  They sound better than on the normal radio.  That was a pleasant surprise.

    I can’t believe how well this project turned out from assembly to recording shows in beautiful high quality HD in just 2 days.  I can now record more shows than I will ever have time to watch.  What I do is go to TVguide.com and note the shows I want to see one or two weeks in advance and log them into an Excel spread sheet saved as a .pdf file.  I bring up the .pdf, then go to the WMC guide and schedule everything.  I am now able to watch whatever I want whenever I want.

    At first to build the HTPC I used an old tower case I had laying around.  Problem was it was so tall that it barely fit into my media rack and since it was behind the TV, it was a bitch to access the DVD drive.

    After a while I fixed that by buying a real HTPC case.  A couple of weeks of shopping and reviewing online, I settled for the Silverstone Lascala LC20.  It was rather expensive at $200 with shipping but it works great and looks beautiful.  The only flaw was the power and disk lights on the front panel.  They are too bright, especially if you have your theater darkened while watching TV.  I solved that by cutting small strips of translucent brown mailing tape and layering it eight thick over the lights behind the front clear panel.  Now you can barely see the lights just enough to know the unit is working.

    After a month of using WMC on Vista on the HTPC and Win7 in the command center, I found the Win7 version has more features that, for one thing, make recorded shows easier to navigate.  Microsoft says they are not going to make these features available in Vista. Also Vista creates the WMC files in .dvr format while Win7 creates files in .wmf.  If you want to watch a Win7 recorded show over the home network on your Vista machine, you have to convert the file.  It’s easy, all you do is right-click the file and select convert, but what a hassle.  Win7 will read both the .dvr and .wtv.   Vista doesn’t seem to communicate very well with Win7 over the home network either.

    I resolved both issues.  I bought a Win7 upgrade; now both PCs communicate perfectly over the network using home group.  The only weird thing (so far) is the forward button on the keyboard works differently.  Under Vista, to speed through commercials, you tap the button 5 times (more or less depending on the length of the commercial break) and the video advances and stops.  With Win7 you have to hold the button down for 2 seconds before it goes to first stage forward speed, then you have to let up and hold it down again for second stage speed, then again for third stage speed.  Then, as the video is fast forwarding you have to hit the play button to get back to normal speed.  I now find it easer to navigate WMC by using the mouse, which I keep handy on the sofa.

    The box with the Win7 upgrade I purchased on eBay was previously opened, as stated in the ad, which also claimed the product was never used.  The price was right, almost half of what you’d pay at a retail outlet.  Two days after I installed it, a window came up saying, unable to activate this version of Windows.  I’m thinking this box was indeed used at one point, causing me a headache.  The window had a list of options to get the product activated.  I chose the one saying call this Microsoft number for a new activation code.  After dialing, you work through a menu, then when it asks you how many computers you installed this copy of Windows on, you say, “one.”  After a short pause the recorded voice spews out a string of 30 numbers you type into the boxes on the screen.  Activation successful.

    I set the guide in WMC to record every Winter Olympics broadcast during the day, evening and late night.  There was so much that at the rate I was watching it, we would be well into the next Summer Olympics before I could finish.  But with a little help from my Hitachi 2-TB drive the issue was settled.

    All of a sudden while watching recorded TV the video was herky-jerky, and even some shows would go for thirty minutes then freeze.  I could not get them to play.  I ended up deleting over 30 hours of Olympics that wouldn’t move.

    Also while the PC was in screen saver mode, the disk light was solid and I could hear the drive grinding inside the case.  When I went out of screen saver mode the drive stopped.  This was odd.

    I ran a windows check disk, it took all freakin’ day to tell me the drive is bad.  DAM!  I even plugged it into my other PC and got the same results.  I mentioned this to my buddies at work, they said we know Hitachi drives are junk, the Hitachi guy is here almost every day replacing bad 3.5 disks out of our mainframe RAID.

   I went back to Fry’s to return the drive but they couldn’t give me my money back because I was stupid and threw away the box.  I always keep boxes, I don’t know what got into me.  Instead they had me run into the store and get a new boxed drive.  They took out the new drive all sealed in its static bag and gave it to me in exchange.

    I ran that out to my car, then came back in and bought a Seagate Barracuda 2-TB SATA.  I’m not going to run on Hitachi drives anymore.  The one Fry’s exchanged is going up on eBay.

    I put in the new drive but instead of installing Vista and upgrading to Win7 I tried a little experiment.  What if I install the Win7 full version I put on my command center PC and try to activate it using the key that came with the upgrade?  Win7 copied files all the way to the point where you type in the key but the full version wouldn’t take the upgrade key.  I recon this means the keys only work with the copy of Windows it came with.

    At that point I backed out of the key window and put my upgrade disk in the drive.  I restarted the machine, the upgrade disk started to spin.  It installed Win7 the rest of the way without asking me for the key.  It looks like Windows remembered the upgrade key from when I typed it in earlier.

    I updated Win7, installed and updated Norton Anti-virus then went into WMC to scan for channels.  I put in my zip code for the guide information but a message came back saying the guide is not available my your area.  What the heck, I did the same thing on both PCs before and the guide information downloaded just fine. It was a relief that all the channels scanned in successfully for both tuners.

    I tried another area.  Since the broadcasts I receive come from Los Angeles via Mount Wilson above Pasadena, I typed in an L.A. zip code.  Bingo, all the guide information loaded fine.

   It only took two hours to load Windows on the new drive, install and update all the programs, load the drivers and set up the guide to record all my shows for 2 weeks.  In WMC you can add folders that contain recorded TV from other computers on the home network.  Since I have a tuner on my command center PC, I can now record 3 shows at once while watching another recorded show from either machine.

    For the last month I have been using the HTPC, I have experienced no herky-jerky video, just perfect high def picture with crystal clear 5.1 surround sound.  Plus I have 6.5 terabytes of storage on the network to keep it all.

    Now that both are Win7 Ultimate, I can use Remote Desktop to access my command center PC from my living room couch.  I can watch recorded TV, have email up, instant messenger, Internet and access to all the programs installed on the other machine.

    I am now down to one last quirk.  The HTPC is fast, smooth and all that but it won’t go to sleep on its own after 30 minutes of non-activity as scheduled in Power Management.  I am suspecting the culprit is whatever is making the disk light on the front panel to blink endlessly in one-second intervals.  If I go to the start menu and put it to sleep, it sleeps, then wakes up to record the next show.  I want it to go to sleep on its own after the show is recorded, but it won’t.

    If I go into task manager and look at processes and tasks, nothing is running.  CPU is between 0 and 2%.  What the heck is it doing to make the disk light blink?

    I went online and typed in ‘windows 7 disk light blinking’ in Google.  It appears many people are having the same issue.  Most answers from techies say, that is what Windows does, tape over the light, or pull the light’s plug from the motherboard.

    I ran across one posting that suggested it is not the hard drive but more likely the SATA DVD drive is being polled every second by Windows to see if there is a disk in there to autorun.  Per suggestion, I went to device manager, removed the drove and hallelujah the light stopped blinking.  But now I cannot use the DVD drive unless I add it back in and when I did the light started blinking again.

    Two more days of searching online I spotted a post that says, it is the SATA DVD drive.  Try putting the SATA cable into another port on the motherboard.  The way I have it set up, hard drive C is in port 1, DVD drive D is in port 2 and hard drive E is in port 3.  I powered off and plugged hard drive E in port 2 and DVD drive D in port 6.  I powered on, the system came up, no more blinking disk light and it went to sleep as scheduled.

    That didn’t last long.  The disk light started blinking again when the PC restarted after the weekly Windows update.  Since I tracked the problem to the DVD drive, I opened and closed the drive, the light went out.  So now after each restart I have to open and close the drive to stop the incredible blinking disk light.

    The next puzzle to solve is to edit .wtv recorded TV files and create DVDs.  My trusty video editor/DVD maker Nero 8 will not play them.  All you get is sound.  There are programs out there that convert the .wtv files to .mpg to feed into the DVD software but there will be another few weeks of study before I decide which one to install.

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