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Setting up a home media PC

I have a long To Do List that I keep on my computer desktop next to a Things To Buy List. Not that I have much free time To Do or money To Buy with, but a guy can still dream.

I have a long To Do List that I keep on my computer desktop next to a Things To Buy List. Not that I have much free time To Do or money To Buy with, but a guy can still dream.

One of the things that falls on both lists is the desire to install (the To Do part) a functioning home media PC or Home Theatre PC (which is obviously the To Buy part).

There are several routes you can go, and all of them require a certain amount of hardware, software and cabling. The payoff is a machine that will quietly and efficiently stream videos, music, online radio, video games and even live television to your television and throughout your house using devices like the Slingbox. You can use media PCs to record television, to back up your movie collections, to watch Internet videos on YouTube, and more.

The first thing you'll need is some kind of a PC. If you're an Apple person you could do worse than picking up an Apple TV box, which are selling for just $260 these days. They're convenient and affordable and you can use them to rent and buy content and link to more content on your computer. You can also use iTunes to handle most of your video and music, but in general Apple TV is a lot more limited than other machines out there.

If it has to be Apple then you might want to consider hooking a Mac Mini to your television or monitor. Basically this is a compact computer available for $599 that can do everything a computer can, as well as stand-in as a media hub with up to 500 GB of storage. It can connect to the Internet wirelessly which means fewer wires to trip over, there's a DVD player and you can connect to two screens simultaneously - albeit with no HDMI port.

Ultimately all of the Apple options are limited in some way, (e.g. no HDMI on Mini, no Blu-ray players, no native support for many formats and codecs), which is why most home theatre PC's are based on Microsoft or Linux. You can get more out of Apple by downloading Plex (www.plexapp.com) but nothing is going to replace the missing hardware.

If you go the Microsoft/Linux route you can repurpose pretty much any tower out there as a media centre, providing you have the right video and audio card installed.

Some companies like Zotac (www.zotacusa.com) make purpose-built mini PCs that are phenomenal home media centres in that they are quiet and powerful and can be customized to the hilt. But pretty much any respectable computer will do.

The advantage of using Windows Media Centre as your software platform is that you can stream content from other PCs, often wirelessly, within the same home network. If you have the money and time, you can even set up a server in one room to house all of your media, and then access it from any television in the house using a device like the Zotac MAG HD.

The key once again is first to make sure you have the right hardware to connect your media PC to both your cable box and your television. If you have a Blu-ray collection then you're going to want to have a box that plays Blu-ray movies.

The hardware part is generally easy and can usually be solved with a single trip to an electronics store. The software part is where it gets interesting.

Windows Media Centre aside, do-it-yourselfers are torn between two platforms for navigating and handling your media, Boxee (www.boxee.tv) and XBMC (xmbc.org).

For instructions on how to download and use Boxee (which is based on the XBMC platform with a multitude of improvements, including social networking) there's ample information on the website. To get the most out of XBMC I recommend visiting http://lifehacker.com/5536963/the-ultimate-start-to-finish-guide-to-your-xbmc-media-center. XBMC, which is itself based on the old Xbox Media Centre, also has a huge range of plug-ins and skins to choose from and is incredibly slick (and it can be run on a Mac).

I have neither program yet but I'm leaning towards XBMC because I don't need some of the features in Boxee like Hulu streaming (which is still not available in Canada) and I like the manual approach to setting it up.

As well both Xilisoft.com and Handbrake.fr make programs that allow you to back up your DVD movies to a hard drive. Technically this is considered illegal by media companies that would rather you bought a new disk every time your old disk gets scratched, but you're probably pretty safe as long as you own the hard copy of whatever movie you rip to your home media centre.

Most PCs are compatible with a remote control, whether they have their own infrared port or you have to plug an adapter into the USB. Apple's remote is solid and simple, but you can get functional Microsoft controllers or even a high-end Logitech universal controllers to handle navigation. There are hundreds of options, so you'll have to do some research to match your setup.

There is a lot of online advice to help you out at sites like Lifehacker.com, ArsTechnica.com, eHow.com. You can also go to YouTube.com and look up Jupiter Broadcasting, which put together an informative three-part guide on setting up the ultimate home theatre.