I have been wanting to build a Home Theater PC for a while, but was waiting for the launch of Windows 7 to do so.  When Windows 7 was released on October 22, I started researching what I would need to assemble my own Home Theater PC, and began ordering parts.  Last week, the parts arrived for building my home theater PC using Windows 7 Media Center.  I spent a good deal of Friday night and Saturday putting it together and getting it ready for use.  By Saturday afternoon, I had the PC up and running and connected to my television.

Windows 7 Media Center has a lot to offer as a Home Theater PC (or really, a Home Entertainment PC), including Recording and Playback of TV (DVR-functionality), Movies and Netflix, Hulu and Internet TV, Music and Photo Libraries, and more, all controlled via a remote control and optional wireless keyboard.  Media Center also supports hardware (called Media Center Extenders) that allow you to stream your Media Center content to other TVs throughout your home.  What sets Media Center apart from just a traditional DVR or TiVo is the extensibility.  Third party developers, enthusiasts, and hobbiest programmers can create programs that extend the functionality of Windows 7 Media Center, much like people write apps for smart phones such as the iPhone and Google Android.   Best of all, it comes included in all editions of Windows 7.

Windows 7 Media Center Main Menu

While more of an afterthought in Windows Vista (and a separate version in Windows XP), Media Center in Windows 7 has matured and become a real usable product.  With the new availability of hardware to support CableCards (a small card provided by your Cable provider to decrypt your channels), it is now possible to hook up your media PC to watch and record your digital cable television.  A media PC can do away with the need for a set-top box, and give you more flexibility than a TiVo or traditional DVR, such as copying recorded shows to your laptop or portable media device to take with you on a trip.

Over the next several weeks in a series of posts, I will be providing details on Windows 7 Media Center’s functionality, and how it can be used as the media hub for your home.  I will also provide a more advanced post of the parts and process I used to put my media PC together.  In reality, you can purchase any modern PC, add a tuner or two, and have a viable media center.

Windows 7 Media Center is an example of software done right.  While there are always things that could be better (that’s what upgrades are for), I’m finding it to be intuitive, well-performing, and very flexible, making for a winning product.

• Keeping Shopping Lists
• Searching the vast array of food blogs (shameless plug:  My wife has a food blog called Domestic Pursuits) for finding recipes
• Storing and easily retrieving recipes, both thoes found on food blogs and those originally on paper
• Monitoring Children’s Internet Usage
• Checking on important emails while waiting for food to cook
• Using Skype or Google Voice as a primary audio/video phone

Now, MSI has created a new, counter-top touch-screen PC specifically for the kitchen called the Wind Top PC.  It is reminiscent of Apple’s iMac, but with a PC AMD processor, and provide a home PC for the kitchen that makes sense.  It comes equipped with a WebCam and microphone (for those who care to use Skype on a regular basis), and is a fairly beefy computer for the size.  It’s shape and size make it ideal for a non-desktop environment for use in the kitchen.

As we become more technologically sophisticated as a people, the need for computers in various capacities continues to rise.  Gone are the days where most families had a single desktop or notebook computer to share.  Now, with desktops, notebooks, mobile, and more specialized computers such as MSI’s Wind Top, computing is becoming a facet of everyday life.  As technology continues to improve (especially with touch-screen technology), we will see more and more specialized computers and devices pop up for other uses.  MSI has capitalized on this trend, and the introduction of the Wind Top PC directly addresses the growing trend of kitchen PC’s.

X10 is a system for transmitting small radio signal bursts over common electrical wires.  The signals are small enough not to cause any interference with household electricity, and large enough to allow disparate devices to communicate with each other.  X10 is an international standard for this signalling, as well as a U.S. based company that sells modules to implement the technology for security and home automation.  X10 modules can be centrally controlled by wireless transmitters (using a receiver module plugged into the main electrical system of a house) and, for advanced automation, a computer software controller program called ActiveHome.

ActiveHome allows the user to turn on lights and other appliances plugged into X10 modules via desktop software.  In addition, automatic macros can be set up that are downloaded into a control module which controls the other devices in a home.  For the example, a macro can be created to turn various lights on and off while on vacation.  For this type of Macro, ActiveHome gives you the following options:

• Set different times and schedules for different days of the week
• Set a standard variance of when the lights go on and off based around a certain time
• Tie the on/off time to sunrise/sunset
• Stagger light on/off time throughout the house to give a realistic feel (e.g. lights in living room go off, followed by lights in bedroom going on a few minutes later).

These options allow you to set up the auto-light security measure in a much more natural-feeling way.  Lights are set up to go on and off at varying times, so they never appear to be on the same schedule two nights in a row.  These simple devices have many other uses as well (for example, we use them to tie in our window Christmas lights, so that we can turn all our window lights on throughout the house with a touch of a button).  The devices themselves are relatively simple, but if you tie them in with the software and control module, the remote control module, and other components, they can be a powerful convenience in automating your home.