I was at Sam’s Club the other day and saw a Demo HD television playing the Blue Ray movie “TinkerBelle’s Lost Treasure”.¬¨‚Ć Although I was not impressed with the movie I was completely impressed with the picture quality of a Blue Ray playing at full 1920 x 1080 playback.¬¨‚Ć Having lots of old computers and computer parts in my home along with a newer HD Samsung television I decided to try and build a HTPC that could playback Blue-Ray’s in full capacity, hold my personal media collection and stream Netflix Movies at the highest quality settings possible.

To work with I have an older Dell Dimension computer that has the Intel 915 Chipset and Pentium 4 hyperthreaded processor set at 3 ghz.¬† With this Intel Chipset upgrading the processor to Dual Core or Core 2 Duo was not possible so I am sticking with the Pentium 4.¬† After reading review after review of Video cards I came to the conclusion that the ATI 4670 Graphics board was the best fit Рhaving 300 stream processors, an HDMI output and full digital audio.¬† This card also is capable of off loading the CPU intensive task of decoding Blue-Rays and providing a full 1920 x 1080 resolution on my Samsung HDTV.¬† If you had a more robust processor you could probably get away with using the ATI 4350 which costs only around 40$, in my case I needed a step up to make up for my aging system.¬† There seems to be some disagreement on the internet as to whether a Pentium 4 can handle Blue_Ray playback,¬† I can say from experience it can handle it perfectly if you are using it in conjunction with a robust video card (pci-e).¬† For the Operating System I went with Windows 7 Pro as this OS offers great performance, slick interface, and is fully compatible with the ATI graphics Card.

75.00$ on new egg  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125277&cm_re=ati_4670-_-14-125-277-_-Product

For Memory I eeeked out having 2 gigs of total RAM at 800 mhz – in addition I added a 2 gig flash drive to the back of the machine and dedicated it to Windows Ready Boost for faster caching.

For the Blue Ray Drive I purchased a 67.99$ unit on Newegg.com.  This drive comes with PowerDVD version 8 with Full HD and Blue-Ray playback capability.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106326&cm_re=lite_on_blue_ray-_-27-106-326-_-Product

One tricky element or having a working HTPC in the house is configuring a remote to use the machine.  Here I suggest two options: a friend of mine showed me a Iphone Ipod application called Air Mouse.  This easy app lets you control the HTPC with an IPOD or IPHONE and works well.  Since I use this HTPC to surf the web I decided to also try a extended range wireless keyboard and trackpad.

I chose this Adesso model off of newegg and have been very happy with its function.¬† Works from easily 35-40 feet away from the television Рresponsive, small, easy to type.¬† The only downside was it was a little pricey at $85.99.¬† http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823166047&cm_re=addesso_wireless_keyboard-_-23-166-047-_-Product

Just a note: watch out for cheap wireless keyboards and mice from Logitech (and other brands), if you check the range on most models available at retail stores like Wal-Mart it maxes out at around 5-6 feet.  In my opinion a wireless keyboard with a six foot maximum radius is worthless.

Finally Adding a wireless pci card (could use a USB one as well) this unit connects to my Home Network.¬† With the Network Connection and adjusting the visual settings on Windows 7 for best look on a televsion (larger icons, text, ect) everything is set.¬† Honestly the frequently used feature of the HTPC is streaming Netflix Рusing this computer to stream netflix results in a much clearer and contrasted image than streaming from Xbox or Playstation 3.¬† With a $8.99 a month subscription you get unlimited movie streaming which equals 70,000 available movies and television programs РA Super Redbox in the home.

For Storage I installed an Internal 1000 Gigabyte RE3 Western Digital Sata drive.¬¨‚Ć This is a server class drive (5 year warranty) that is fast, reliable and not too expensive.¬¨‚Ć Again at newegg http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136313 159$.¬¨‚Ć With a sizzable collection of children’s television shows and movies stored on DVD – I simply copied all of them onto this massive hard drive making it an all in one media center.

Main uses of the HTPC

Stream Netflix (This is outstanding)
Play Blue-Ray movies in full 1920×1080 resolution
Stream Digital Music from Pandora.com or Playlist.com
Play MP3/Music Collection
Store and Display family photos
Run Boxee – Vast collection of online video streams