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DIY links for building your own system

• WinLIRC - open source IR receiver/decoder software.
• Girder - freeware that controls you PC - will work with winLIRC to control any program
• IR2PC - some guy in Germany who sells an IR receiver for RS232 for $20
• IRTrans - another guy in Germany who designed a high performance IR transmitter/receiver.
• www.evation.com - make an IR software system for controlling WinAMP, but looks configurable.
• www.mp3remote.com - the whole package for $14
• software for talking to your serial port
• Epanoramana - excellent collection of links
• Another useful collection of links
• IRAssistant - free software

This sounds like a fascinating setup. I've seen some infrared remote control software but it usually sucks. I suppose just making disc numbers 3 digits long, since track numbers can't go above 99, would make this sort of control easy.

Personally, I'm looking for a similar widget that would interpret numbers as letters to let me jump to a track. This would be used on my laptop with an external numeric keypad velcroed to the dash. (Key-remapping software would let me pop the keycaps into phone standard upside-down layout, to avoid learning the right-side-up numeric keypad.)

Or another way to put it, if recording an Analog signal is going to be "good enough," then what are these companies going to (or try to) put in place to "protect" that content?

But, outside of that, IMO, most of the people with PVR solutions going through their PC are recording analog cable/analog signal... basically, ANALOG.

Have you tried recording from a digital source like a digital cable box and have it be anywhere near as simple as, say, with a PVR built into one?

I have.

For reasons I'll leave out, I had a PVR setup on Windows. In order for me to get the scheduling to work properly and in a TiVo-esque way, it required me to cobble together Girder (for sending the "channel numbers" through a serial cable attached to my digital device) and TVHolic for getting/listing the TVXML cable listings and attempting to schedule the "recording" function
Now, that I'm not going to get into because I was using a Canopus ADVC-100 and Scenalyzer because it was a DV devince... kludgey, to say the least.

The end result was weeks of getting all that plugged in together to try and mimic TiVo functionality and still (however minimal it might be) getting "less perfect" recording than with a native device integrated into the receiver.

I know there are others out there, MythTV (is a great one) and it is actually simpler to setup on linux than windows... but there still isn't great integration with channel changing and those tuner cards because almost all of them assume you want to record what's coming in on the tuner card (ie, channel 42) and not channel "3" or some other AV input.

C'mon... hands down easier to use the integrated receiver/PVR with digital, and that's the way I see the industry going, don't you?

All that we use to control our HTPC is a Logitech MX 700 wireless mouse. With the HTPC app that we use, SageTV, everything is accessible from a mouse-driven interface. We don't use that computer for email or games requiring a keyboard. My only complaint about the mouse is that its range is only about 10 feet.

The only thing that we can't do with the mouse is turn on the TV and the stereo. I am planning on programming one of the extra buttons on the mouse to do this. I'm planning on using it to launch a macro via the software program Girder that will send all of the appropriate IR commands out of the USB-UIRT IR blaster/receiver to turn on all the devices and switch their inputs accordingly. That should solve the only problem we have, which is explaining to babysitters how to use the TV.

What I would recommend would be the Girder "remote control" app, coupled with a good plugin or IR reciever of some sort - set up the hotkeys as you like, and just use a nice wireless trackball for the mousing. Don't know how much typing you'll do on a HTPC, but they have already mentioned the mini wireless keyboards from Gyration.

My goal with my HTPC was to integrate it into my home theater as much as possible. That means using all of the components from a basic infrared remote.

My MyHD HDTV PCI receiver card came with an IR receiver, so that was not a problem. There are many remote control options for the various DVD player packages.

An app like Girder can combine many applications and PC control functions for IR control.

For the things that I cannot do via remote, VNC from my laptop lets me have full control. Or, a basic wireless keyboard/mouse are handy in rare occasions.

First, I would recommend transcoding the DVDs to XviD or DivX with a high bitrate (2Mb/s). You won't notice the quality loss and you'll save a whole lot of disk space. This route also gives you a lot more options, as you can use software like Winamp or BSPlayer to play the videos.

Second, are you any good with programming? What I've done is rig up a simple fullscreen frontend with Java. When you select a movie, the player starts fullscreen. I've got a simple IRman interface, a remote control, and Girder to translate keypresses on the remote into keystrokes that the Java app recognizes. Works great, and it's customizable to my preferences. I can understand if you don't have the time or skill to write a frontend, and I'm sure other posters will point out pre-made frontends.

The best part about Girder: you can translate keys like FF, REW, STOP, etc. into commands the player understands.

Another barrier to adoption of a new program is that many of us have a lot invested in the old ones. In my case I use Winamp - not because I beleive it is the best but because I have it so tied into my system that I would have to break a lot of things to try something new - there would have to be a compelling reason. I have taught Girder the commands for Winamp so I can use different remotes in different rooms, I have programmed my RedRat2 to control Winamp and I have written some batch files so that I can wake up to music. Plugins are definately the way to go here.

I have a TiVo. I use a TiVo instead of piping my cable through my computer for a reason. Its the same reason I have a football games on my GameCube. Some things are just better without the PC. Why would I use awkward PVR abilities of my PC (requiring me to sit in a specific spot, and use a mouse) when I can plop down on my couch and pick up the TiVo remote?

Did you not read the article and decide to comment anyway (like this guy, who at least made a valid point)? Or are you Reading Comprehension Challenged? Either way, surely you've noticed the variety of remote control hardware and software available for PC's now? Not to mention that the XP MCE PC reviewed comes with a (preinstalled even!) remote? And, there's always ATI's Remote Wonder to work with your AIW card, so you can sit on your couch and control your PC in another room. And of course, the XP MCE (as mentioned in the article, is targeted towards being either in your living room or your TV and PC combined (for smaller spaces)p>

There's a reason speciliazed components sell better than PC software geared to do the same thing.

Yeah, but I always thought it was a matter of stability and ease of setup, and sometimes even quality...but maybe it's more consumer ignorance, which you might want to look into becoming the poster child of.

Check out Girder for something that can indeed access the state of various software players for display. Most serious HTPC tweakers use it.

Do I watch TV on my computer?...

I haven't owned a TV in a about 18 months. I've got a 22" monitor, an ATI tuner card, and a DVD drive. I set up a remote control reciever and Girder and everything's great. I watch my TV on it, DVDs, listen to music, it eliminates a lot of redundancy.

On the down side though, the screen size is a little small for viewind DVDs from on the couch across the room, and bigger displays are astronomically expensive. When my girlfriend moves in I'll probably buy a TV, but for a single geek this the most efficient setup I can think of.

Your pretty quick to just dismiss the value of a PC in a home theater system. Your points are valid but only because the better solutions are not obvious. I still firmly believe that you're better off purchasing a dedicated DVD player but the experience of using a computer on a TV can be greatly improved as follows:

1) Remotes
There are many options here and many of them are better than kludgy. I personally use a cheapy Packard Bell Fastmedia remote that can be purchase for between $9-15 online or at computer shows. It consists of a cheapy receiver and a remote. There are even better solutions out there especially for a geeks home theater. Some contain IR receivers and transmitters, allowing you to customize macros and control more than the computer and the components. The biggest problem with these solutions are not the remotes themselves but A/V equipments general lack of a singal standard for connecting multiple devices together to act as one devices (would be nice to power on the DVD player and automatically select the input, audio configuration and picture adjustments).

I personally use a program called Girder to control my win box. Another popular program for linux is Lirc.

2) Sound Quality
Newer sound cards have improved drastically in terms of SQ but you are correct, the minijack is less than ideal and computers in general add noise to the mix. For a better solution connect you computer to your A/V receiver using one of the digital audio inputs. This removes the possibility of the minijack or the computer itself adding noise to the analog signal (most newer A/V receivers have digital inputs that use an internal DAC). Mp3s may not be the ultimate in high fidelty, but for most pop music its good enough and having a huge library online for casual listening is worth the trade off.

3) Video Quality
This is as much a fault of the computer as it is the fault of the TV. Most TV-Out capable video cards have pretty crappy picture quality, in fact I've yet to see one that knocked my socks off. Dedicated VGA converters generally do a better job, but are expensive and probably still won't give a picture as good as a $200 DVD player. But for the lucky few who have HDTVs there is hope. Some HDTV's come standard with a VGA or RGB interface and this is the ideal solution for hooking up your computer to such a set. For me, my HDTV doesn't have a VGA connector so instead I have to use a VGA->Y/Pb/Pr (component) transcoder. Using one of these transcoders provides a signal cleaner than any VGA out I've ever seen plus it allows me to use HD resolutions.


I don't recommend using a computer as a primary source in a home theater, but having a PC in the mix can be quite useful. Being able to control an entire home theater, being able to play mp3s and being able to play mame on a large tv make pretty compelling reason to throw a CPU into the cabinet. The AVSForum - HTPC (Home Theater PC) forum has many people who have a PC connected for various reasons.

http://www.girder.nl. And how long until we see Google just link to 'ask slashdot.' I mean, really. Come on. Oh, and do a search for 'UIR' if you're handy with a soldering iron.

Look for Girder and uird for UNIX.

http://www.girder.nl/links.php And go to the girder hardware pages, there a number of links to actually building a two way ir device for your serial port. Girder is a windows program that you can use to control damn near anything in windows via IR, or any external input device for that matter.. It's has a framework to allow for custom plug-ins... All good stuff.

I use it on my laptop in my car which has IR hiding in the dash, and I use girder to support the funky IR keyboard and remote from a web TV..

As with all other similar solutions (ShowShifter, Telemman HiPix, Hauppage WinTV PVR & HD, AccessDTV, etc), what will make or break this product is the level of integration, and the quality of the SW. So far, the integration with existing A/V equipment has been rather poor. The Destination had to use expensive Computer-IR out transceivers to control your cable/satellite box and VCR, plus the input remote (and I think they never got the SW quite right), and most solutions right now don't offer any kind of IR control integration.

Currently, SnapStream is working on adding more support for this type of integration. John Vanderbeck is leading an Open Source project (IRTuner) to support multiple IR out transcievers. He has written a driver to use the ActiSys 200L (~$65) from SnapStream. He is working on adding support for the RedRat2, and future candidates are the CiR and LIRC. We are also looking into integrating with Girder, making the interface available to other applications beside SnapStream, and adding more functionality and in general, making it easier to turn your PC into a real A/V integration tool...