Why have a computer hooked up to your T.V.?
Well, not only is it just cool, but imagine being able to stream thousands of T.V. shows, videos, and music to your living room T.V.
Depending on what you watch, you might even be able to replace your cable!

Well, anybody that knows me, knows I’ve been hooking up media P.C.s for a while. Now, software is improving and our options are expanding.

Looking to build your own cable-replacing media P.C.?
Want to know how’s it all done?
Well, lets get started!

1st the T.V.

I’ll be starting out with this on a Philips 55″ H.D. Wide Screen HD rear projection T.V.

2nd The P.C.

I used one of the spare P.C.s I had picked up for between $50 and $100 each. The PC is a HP dx2250 Micro Tower, running  Windows XP Pro.

From what I’ve read, some people also use Mac minis. Use what you like, but make sure it has enough horsepower.

I would look for a computer that is at least:

• Pentium 4 or AMD equivalent
  Not a celleron  or other “buget” CPU
• 2 gigs of RAM. Personally, I would go for DDR2 or better.
• If you plan on ripping DVDs, or running media off your media PC, I would go with a SATA hard drive that is 200 gigs or larger.

3rd Upgrades

The standard P.C. isn’t quite enough to do the job. The main upgrade we are going to need to get started is a graphics card capable of sending the video to the T.V. For now. I’m using a spare NVidia  card I had laying around, which has an S-Video out. We’re going to want some other upgrades but, for now, we have enough to start having fun.

4th Additional Hardware

Sound
If you do not need high end sound and your P.C. has on-board sound (you have a headphone jack on the back of the computer), you can pick up a headphone style plug to RCA cable converter.
Make sure you don’t buy the mono plug, which is one headphone looking plug on one end, and one RCA looking plug on the other. You will want the one the makes a “Y”, which will allow your media PC to support left and right sound.

Controls
On order, I picked up a Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse. These can get pretty pricey if you buy them at the store. I got mine off ebay for about $22, with free shipping.

Hardware
Thumbscrews. Not necesary, but very convenient. Pick up two thumbscrews, and replace the two screws you have to remove to get the side panel off the case with them. When upgrade time comes, you’ll be glad you did.

5th Software

This is where the real fun starts!

Boxee
I was reading an article the other day, which inspired me to do this project again, and they mentioned software called Boxee. I took a look at it, created and account, installed and tried it, and it’s pretty friggin sweet! It’s in its early stages, but so far I’m seeing very few problems.

Boxee launches a full screen browser, that easily allows you to stream content from Hulu, Comedy Central, and much, much more. They even have Linux, Windows, and Mac versions available. Best of all, it’s FREE!

Windows Media Player and K-Lite
I hate to  push Microsoft products, but I use Media Player quite often. Some videos use codecs, like DivX and others, that require add-ons to play them. The K-Lite codec pack provides everything you will need, minus the spyware, to play any (safe and virus free) videos you will come across.

Finally, the End Result

I’ve been catching up on Southpark, running in Boxee, while typing up the initial version of this post on my netbook. It’s working pretty good, but I do have some tweaks that need to be made to the system. As I perform upgrades, find better software, or anything else, I will update this post with the new info.