For most of us we know that windows media center can be customised and modified to meet the demands of 99% of HTPC lovers. This list will cover all aspects of media center, not just making it look pretty and is listed in no particular order. Please do let me know if you have any software that you would like to see added to the list
There are several bits of software out there that will add the relavent Metadata to your movies but I have heard good things about this software so lets give it a go. The authors claim that it is perfect for XMBC, Popcorn hour, windows media center etc. It uses data from the IMDB Database to complete all the imformation about your films.
At the CES conference 2012 Zotac have revealed yet another mini ITX motherboard aimed squarely at HTPC machines, the ZOTAC D2700-ITX WiFi Supreme . It has a buit in Intel Atom D2700 which is a dual core processor clocked at a fairly impressive 2.13Ghz while only drawing 10W of power. This little CPU should be ample, if not overkill for any Media playing machine and probably wouldnl’t play too bad with encoding (although only time will tell).
Builtin you will also find a GeForce GT520 with 512 DDR3 memory, this graphics unit supports 3D Blu Ray playback and HDMI 1.4a technology that can send 8 channel audio over a HDMI cable.
Installing a Windows Media Center theme can instantly transform the look of Windows Media Center, but most people don’t know that it can be done let alone how to so lets take a look at how this is done.
Although now unsupported you will need to install Windows Media Center Studio, because the original creators site is now dead you will need to get your copy from Hack7MC. Instructions for installation are also on that page but if you would rather read it here I also have some instructions
My previous post comparing the range of nettops on the market has been a popular read so I thought it was time to update you with the latest choices available to us today. I will talk about the good and bad sides of each. While this is mainly written towards the HTPC geeks out there it should also be relevant to anyone else looking at these style of machines.
