A short introduction to my hardware

Let me introduce you to my setup. First, there's the media center PC itself. Then, I use a Marantz SR5500 A/V receiver and a Samsung CRT television set. The front and center loudspeakers are home-built kit speakers. And for the vinyl collection, there's a Thorens TD125 turntable.

A more detailed description will follow in a future post, but here's some features of the PC:
- Greenpower HTPC case with VFD display
- 2.4GHz Pentium 4 CPU
- 160 GB Samsung spinpoint hard drive.
- Hauppauge PVR350 analog TV card

The Marantz SR5500 receiver is a 7 channel A/V receiver. I chose it for its wide range of supported standards and the sound quality as reported in the reviews. Also, it has options for multi-room support and control through an RS232c serial port, even though I haven't used those features so far. I'd say the Marantz will serve all my needs for at least a decade.

The Samsung CX-5235W tv set does as fine a job as you can expect from a CRT. It has detachable speakers, which is nice when the sound comes through the receiver anyway. Obviously, it is high on my list for an upgrade. I'm thinking flat, high definition and a quality pc-interface. But before I make up my mind, there's quite a few things to learn about interlacing, progressive scan and pixel mapping.

For surround sound, I use five loudspeakers. The front and center speakers are all built by yours sincerely. The design is Scirocco by Speaker and Co., a small dutch chain of DIY hifi loudspeaker enthusiasts. The front speakers also reach the low ranges, so I don't need a subwoofer.
The rear speakers are near antique, these have been in the family for over thirty years.

Another touch of history is the turntable. I picked up collecting records well after the introduction of CDs, mainly because it's so much fun searching flea markets for eighties stuff. It's a Thorens TD 125 MKII with a SME III arm.

Welcome to my Blog!

When I started building my mediacenter PC in 2003, I would have bet a dear thing that a PC in the living room would be common in many households very soon. Why bother with a separate dvd player, video recorder, a stack of hifi components and a zillion remote controls, when you can combine everything in neat single box? Why invest in a hard disk recorder or a home cinema set, only to find out 6 months later that it's not compatible with a newer media standard?

But these days, DVD players can be bought at prices lower than actual DVDs and they're versatile enough for most people. A mediacenter PC offers tons of features more, but is still a rarity in the living room. And to be honest, as yet I wouldn't recommend one to a less technically oriented friend. Let's face it, a mediacenter owner has to spend some time under the hood every once in a while.

Myself, I enjoy tweaking the setup, adding plugins and shopping around for parts. There's satisfaction in making my home theatre setup behave exactly the way I want, whereas a piece of consumer electronics strictly dictates how to operate it. I intend to keep you posted of my stumblings through mediacenter universe by posting my experiences on this Blog. Enjoy!