HAX9000 has 7 chronicles

1. Adventures in HDTV
   

   Player Chronicle -- Posted on Feb 28 2008

   So for xmas the wife and I decided to pony up some dough to get a 1080p television (part of my master plan to assimilate her into the world of video games). After much debating and pricing we (by we I mean I) got a 47" LCD Vizio Gallervia (yes spelling is right)...so far it has been marvelous. Playing call of Duty 4 in HD with full 5.1 surround is a beautiful thing, and watching my DVD collection on an upconverting dvd player is also great. But my real reason for buying the TV was to use it as a computer monitor....a 1080p computer monitor
   
   For those of you thinking of getting a big screen HDTV this psuedo-tutorial is for you!
   
   About 6 months ago I decided to build a new computer. Because I detest using Vista and Linux is unfriendly to the gamer crowd (don't send me crap about WINE I am fully aware of it and the headaches associated with it :P) I settled on Windows XP Media Center 2005 edition. Now you can't just stroll down to best buy and purchase this version of windows...nope you have to buy the whole shebang from 1 vendor. I went with newegg.com because they rock. Anyway I digress, in order to even purchase MCE 2005 you have to buy it with a processor, mobo, ram, and a hdd. 1 week and $500ish dollars later my computer arrived. {{for all you geeks out there here is what I am running- AMD Dual core X2 4000+ processor, 2 gigs of dual channel ram, 500 gig sata hdd, and the man behind the curtain - my gigabyte S-Series mobo which makes me geek out big time...it has build in AMD 690g graphics / audio chipset, supports ATI crossfire...and the best part has optical audio output, and HDMI.}}
   
   Fast forward to last week when I decided to do something crazy...integrate my uber Home Theater PC (here out HTPC) into my home theater setup. So far there have been many great things to come form it, and a few negatives...here they are negatives first.
   
   1- You must have good eye site to use your computer on a 1080p screen. Fonts are small but they are not fuzzy or difficult to read if you set up your fonts right in windows. but sitting back on the couch can still put stuff just out of the range of vision.
   2- wireless keyboards and mice are still in the hit and miss stage. With so many electronics there can be missed signals from time to time. Also it can be difficult to find a comfortable spot to set the keyboard and mouse while working for long periods of time.
   3- Not all computer games have support for full 1080p resolution.
   
   Ok now here are the reasons my computer will not be leaving my entertainment cabinet for a while.
   
   1- Netflix- Recently netflix took away their restrictions on watching streaming movies off their site so with any 8.99 plan you can watch all the streaming movies you want. Now I am not talking about crappy youtube type videos I am talking about near dvd (if your internet connection is good enough) movies. When you consider that there are man full seasons of tv shows like heroes and dexter who needs cable tv or the video store!
   
   2- even though there are very few games that support full HDTV gaming. Just playing games like EVE and warcraft 3 on 47" of LCD is amazing.
   
   3- I now look at youtube, and similar sites in a whole new way. Instead of channel surfing I now surf video sites from my couch and it is fantastic. Some stations are now even streaming HD tv shows (ie Lost).
   
   4- I can access my full music, video and picture selection through media center.
   
   Anyways I have to say my HTPC is here to stay. If any of you are planning on making your on HTPC drop me a line I can help you out on your road to multimedia nirvana.

   
   

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HAX9000 has 3 comment s on this chronicle.

1. HAX9000
   Posted On Mar 01 2008

   You will notice a few spelling errors...please note the section about wireless keyboards and their problems lol

2. Kaptainwow
   Posted On Feb 29 2008

   A set up like that is what i dream of when i lay in bed at night. Very nice.

3. BEN
   Posted On Feb 29 2008

   Very nice HAX!
   
   I enjoyed this and will use it when I finally step up to the HDTV world I also bookmarked the poop out this one...
   
   http://www.digg.com/users/GathrngOfGamers