GeekTonic by Brent Evans

If you've been pondering the best way to get unencrypted QAM into your Home Theater PC, I highly recommend the SiliconDust HDHomeRun tuner.  It connects via the ethernet so it won't take up any space inside your computer or USB ports, can tune unencrypted QAM (digital/SD & HD) channels as well as OTA HD channels and it's a dual tuner to boot.  It normally sells for $170, and NewEgg had a one-day deal for $140 a week or so ago, but now Amazon has it for an even better price:


Amazon (affiliate) has the HDHomeRun tuner for $129.99 with free shipping

The HDHomeRun works with the following Software:

• Windows Media Center:
  
  • MCE 2005 32-bit
  • MCE 2005 64-bit
  • Vista MCE 32-bit
  • Vista MCE 64-bit
• SageTV - HTPC software for Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Home Server, Mac & Linux
  
• SnapStream BeyondTV - DVR for Windows
• Elgato EyeTV - DVR for Mac
• MythTV - DVR for Linux
• MediaPortal - DVR for Windows
• GB-PVR - DVR for Windows
• VLC - Multi-platform media viewer
• TSReader - MPEG-2 transport stream analysis

If you want to check to see what channels you can get through clear QAM, check out SiliconDusts Clear QAM database by inputing your zipcode and selecting your cable provider.

If you want to research the HDHR a little more before buying check out my review of the device from last year

A Movie Catalog feature has always been an important part  of my HTPC from the time I started and used Meedio through Beyond Media all the way to SageTV now.  I think MyMovies for Microsoft Media Center is one of the better Movie applications for HTPC's and Adam Thursby of the Entertainment 2.0 blog has done a great walkthrough of MyMovies for Media Center.  I can do many of these things in SageTV, but I'm hoping to see a few more of these features show up for SageTV in future versions.

Check out this great ScreenCast of MyMovies by Adam Thursby:


Adam has also begun a Media Center Podcast - I checked his first one out yesterday and added it to my list of podcasts to follow.
via Entertainment 2.0's post on MyMovies

The latest rage in portable media devices these days has been touchscreen with the iPhone and iPod Touch.  But with Home Theater PC's typically touchscreen isn't the first thing people think of - its controlling that HTPC with a remote control (the 10-foot interface) that first comes to mind.

There are however some times when a touch-screen interface does lend itself to the HTPC.  You can use touchscreen for the remote control, for a secondary monitor in a room for controlling and viewing or even as a primary monitor in a kitchen or other room that lends itself to a touchscreen interface instead of or to complement the remote control.

Take Sam Greco's touchscreen HTPC for instance.  Sam has several SageTV clients in the house, but the kitchen has the prized touchscreen interface. Sam uses an ELO 1543L touchscreen monitor he purchased from eBay.  The monitor has a USB connection for the mouse/touch & runs his touchscreen from his server PC in the basement. The screen is mounted in a kitchen wall just above with long USB and VGA cables.

In addition to SageTV, he uses Premise Systems for home automation with 10 audio zones, UBP lighting and SageTV.  All of this is controlled with the touchscreen monitor in the kitchen.  He has other SageTV clients in the house, but the kitchen has the prized touchscreen interface.  Check out this video Sam recorded (no sound this time) to demonstrate the SageMC touchscreen interface for SageTV:






The SageMC touchscreen interface was a project developed by Mike, known as MeInMaui on the SageTV forums.  Mike also contributes to the SageMC project and developed a mouse-friendly interface for the SageMC UI called SageMC Toolbar.  Then ported that project into the touch-screen interface.

The SageMC Touchscreen Interface plugin adds a control bar to SageMC intended to provide touchscreen users with the following touchscreen buttons::  Back, Home, Stop Play/Pause, Skip back/fwd, Skip back2/fwd2, Record, Sleep, and Fullscreen.
Also, in the Video OSD, the play/pause button is removed and replaced with Left and Right Buttons. (The Play/Pause functionality is already built in to the time bar)

Minimum Requirements

Java v1.6 or higher
SageTV v6.3.5 or higher
SageMC v6.3.7 or higher


 More Info & Download for the SageMC Touchscreen InterfaceYou can find out more about Sam Greco's setup with Premise, SageTV and his touchscreen monitor at his MediaPC Forums site.

One of my favorite shows, Heroes returns in about a month (9/22/2008).  Here's the latest Heroes Season 3 trailer.


Set your DVR's and HTPC's to record it now - it's a great show.

If you’ve been waiting to use all of the new features of SageTV 6.4 until it was released out of beta, your time is now.  SageTV, a leading HTPC software company released their latest version of SageTV (6.4) for their flagship HTPC front-end software, SageTV today. 
This latest version of SageTV comes as a free update to anyone who has purchased SageTV 6 so there is no reason not to grab it now.  6.4 has been in public beta testing (all licensed SageTV users can use the public betas) since May 2008 with eight different versions of 6.4 being released like wildfire through last week.  That is a very fast update cycle plus everyone gets the opportunity to try out the new features in Beta if they choose to.
What are the major improvements in SageTV 6.4?

• Hauppauge HD-PVR Officially Supported for Windows Users
• Hauppauge HD-PVR Supported on Linux (Experimental for the moment)
• Automatic STVI Generation in the SageTV Studio (this means it’s easier for plugins)
• EXIF metadata/thumbnail support for JPEGs
• New file system & network browser
• H.264 videos from YouTube (this is in addition to the many other online videos you can access from SageTV already
• High definition photo display on the STX-HD100 HD Extender
• File transfers to/from Placeshifter clients
• Editing of aspect ratios on the fly for the STX-HD100
• Lots of bugs fixes & performance enhancements

Full release notes can be found in the announcement thread at the SageTV Forums
You can download SageTV 6.4 for your Operating System (Windows, Linux, Mac, Windows Home Server) here
If you have a SageTV HD Extender, go ahead and download your firmware update on it to version “20080812 0” to make sure you get all the latest extender features and improvements.

I'm looking forward to seeing what the next version of SageTV includes - and I bet it won't be long either.

If you are one of the happy owners of the component recording, Hauppauge HD-PVR - I should have a nice surprise for you sometime tomorrow - stay tuned to GeekTonic for complete details Friday!