Home theater PCs provide front-row seats

Blending into the living room
If you decide to build a home theater PC yourself, you'll have all the hardware HP, Dell and Sony use and then some to buy a la carte. More importantly, you'll determine what the finished product looks like.

One look at the HP or Dell home theater PCs could make you wonder how a traditional desktop tower will ever look at home in the living room. PC case manufacturers have crafted some gorgeous enclosures that look every bit the high-end home theater component.

Silverstone’s elegant Grandia GD02 case ($180) is available in brushed silver or black aluminum. The Antec Fusion Black 430 case ($219) further blurs the PC and home theater lines with a front vacuum fluorescent display and volume knob. Both horizontal format cases fit comfortably in a home theater rack.

DIYers are advised to pay attention to the sound levels produced by noisy cooling fans in cases, video cards and power supplies. Fan-less, passively cooled hardware is the ticket. Nothing will ruin a quiet, emotionally charged movie scene like the leaf blower-like blast of a PC fan kicking in.

Logitech Logitech's diNovo Mini ($150) is a palm-sized keyboard and track pad that works well with home theater PCs, especially from the living room couch.

The only other piece of gear that’s critical to home theater PC enjoyment is a wireless keyboard with a built-in track pad since you’ll be operating the PC from the couch, not behind a desk.

Some universal remotes like the Logitech Harmony 1000 will control basic Windows Media Center functions, and part of the fun of having a home theater PC is surfing the Web on a big HDTV wide-screen.

Logitech’s diNovo Mini ($150) is an ingeniously designed, palm-sized keyboard that’s perfect for home theater PC use. The Mini’s click/track pad and backlit keys make PC navigating in a dark living room a breeze.

Media extenders and networked HDTV
The home theater PC market is evolving beyond the PC to include media extenders and networked HDTVs.

If your HDTV and home theater PC are in separate rooms, a media extender connected to the TV acts as a receiver for any content on the home theater PC. A mirror of the Windows Media Center application appears on the TV, and it’s as if the PC is connected directly.

Among some media extenders: HP’s MediaSmart Connect ($350) and the Linksys DMA2100 Media Extender ($250), as well as the Xbox 360 ($300).

While media extenders will work over a wireless network, video quality, especially smooth streaming, is much more reliable over a wired network.

If you’d rather not have cables running across the living room floor, consider a clever technology called HomePlug (kits start at about $150). Netgear, Linksys and ZyXEL all market similar HomePlug products.

Setting up a HomePlug network couldn't be simpler. Just plug one adapter into an electrical outlet close to your wireless hub or router. Make a connection between the router and adapter with an Ethernet cable. Presto! Now your in-wall electrical system is a high-speed data network.

Plug in another HomePlug adapter to an outlet close to your home theater, run another Ethernet cable to the media extender and you'll be enjoying data transmission speeds at least four times as fast as 802.11g or wireless-G. Videos will stream buttery smooth.

The latest entry into the home theater PC media extender field is Samsung’s MediaLive adapter, due out in August at an estimated price of $200. This tidy unit mounts on the back of most 2008 model Samsung HDTVs, and provides full media center capabilities over a wireless or wired network connection.

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