Tv with PC into a Media Center

[Amitojc]

Okay, I am in the process of building a PC. I was wondering if I could get some help on building a media center. I have a 40in LCD and was wondering if I could hook that up so I could play movies off my PC. I plugged the LCD into my PC with the HDMI cables. It is currently an extra display. What I want to do is have it so I can use a remote on it, and be able to watch movies that are on my tv. I want the remote to be able to be pointed at the TV now the CPU. Is this possible, what sorts of programs do I run to get this or how do I get this to work. Thanks!

 

[Gillbot]

I use my iPod Touch and Mobile Mouse as a remote.

 

[monkey333]

hippo remote for ipod, or ipad in my case is pretty awesome..

 

[jtvang125]

The beauty of a HTPC is its flexibility but with that comes an extensive and often times frustrating setup process. If you're looking for the simplicity of just getting your media to play and outputted to your tv, I'd recommend those hard drive based media players. Just pop in a hard drive, load your media and you're set. Most include a remote to work with the UI too.

But if you still plan on building a htpc there are many guides on the net to walk you through. To answer your question specifically about controlling it with a remote, you'll need to either buy a Windows Media Center compatible remote or a USB infrared receiver. The WMC remote will come with its own IR receiver and will work with the Windows Media Center app by default. A USB receiver will allow you to use a fancier remote like the Logitech Harmonys that can control all your other AV equipment too. You'll need something like HIP or EventGhost to translate the inputs from the remote to commands that the media software will understand.

There's another thread with several different media software people commonly use on their HTPC. They will all work for your purpose so it'll come down to personal preference on what you want to use.

 

[Amitojc]

Hm first what is HTPC? Sounds good. I dont want to use a HD media player because I will have my computer and want to run everything out of that. Lets say I go with the Logitech Harmony control and will i have to have the input coming from the computer? I would have to get a rather long usb cable in that case. Also where do you find the guides to set it up. Thanks!

 

[Fallen Kell]

HTPC = (H)ome (T)heater (P)ersonal (C)omputer

For using your remote control with your computer, you need to get some software and hardware to support it. Personally, I use USB-UIRT:
http://www.usbuirt.com/

And I also use several pieces of software to control. Specifically, I use Girder:
http://www.promixis.com/

As well as MediaPortal:
http://www.team-mediaportal.com/

Really, with just the MediaPortal, I can do just about everything I want. Girder just lets me do some more custom stuff and automation of other devices that the computer can connect to and communicate with. MediaPortal is free. A USB-UIRT will cost you anywhere between $40-60 (and is worth every penny).

 

[Amitojc]

Cool thanks I am going to try using MediaPortal. It looks cool and its free. I had a few questions about using the remote control, usb irt. First, it says that it has the ability to receive information from any remote and then has the ability to turn on any electronics. Lets take for example I have a ps3 which I use as a bluray player. It says from my computer I can turn on the ps3, but how exactly does that work because the ps3 is plugged into only the lcd tv. Thanks for your help.

 

[Amitojc]

Also another question about media portal, is how can I have my pc on, with 3 displays, 2 being moniters, 1 being lcd tv which I want to use media player on, that I can turn on media portal and it only opens on my lcd tv not on my moniter. Thanks.

 

[Emulex]

xbmc can open on any defined display full screen. i suspect with the right config (i'm pretty positive) media portal can do the same. but 7MC+XBMC is awesome.

 

[Amitojc]

xbmc can open on any defined display full screen. i suspect with the right config (i'm pretty positive) media portal can do the same. but 7MC+XBMC is awesome.

Awesome I will definitly look into it. What is 7MC? Is it hard to use XBMC because I just been starting to use media portal and feel okay with it. Thanks!

 

[0roo0roo]

The beauty of a HTPC is its flexibility but with that comes an extensive and often times frustrating setup process....

yea my hp remote still doesn't work quite right, and i can't really be bothered to fix it

i use win 7 media center and media browser plugin

 

[notposting]

7MC = Windows 7 Media Center

 

[wirednuts]

i pretty much refuse to watch tv without mc7 these days... love the free dvr and setup is a breeze

 

[Fallen Kell]

Cool thanks I am going to try using MediaPortal. It looks cool and its free. I had a few questions about using the remote control, usb irt. First, it says that it has the ability to receive information from any remote and then has the ability to turn on any electronics. Lets take for example I have a ps3 which I use as a bluray player. It says from my computer I can turn on the ps3, but how exactly does that work because the ps3 is plugged into only the lcd tv. Thanks for your help.

Unfortunately in the case of the PS3 since it is not an IR controlled device, the UIRT will not be able to control it without you purchasing a device to convert the IR signal to Bluetooth that the PS3 uses (same reason why universal remotes can not control the PS3). This is really my only gripe about the PS3. I fixed my problems with it by purchasing an IR4PS3 (you can read about it here http://www.remotecentral.com/articles/ir4ps3_full_function_ir_remote.htm). This was the first IR to Bluetooth conversion device available for the PS3. There are now several out there (a roundup was done about 2 years ago http://www.remotecentral.com/reviews/ps3_control_roundup/index.html).

The computer can (using the UIRT) send the remote control IR signal out to another device. For instance, I use my UIRT to let my computer signal my cable box to change the channel.

Mediaportal can also be set to run on a particular monitor/screen http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/1_...ediaPortal_properly_on_a_secondary_display.3f