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8
GETTING THINGS
UNDER CONTROL
For basic media control and menu navigation, many Media Center PCs come with remote controls and there are
a number of aftermarket remotes available
from companies like ATI, Cyberlink and Microsoft. If you plan to go
this route, pick a remote that uses USB as its interface to the computer. Some of the older devices still use a serial
port which can make things a bit more difficult.
Now that you have your Media PC about ready to go, how
do you control it. The most flexible option is a wireless
keyboard. This pretty much gives you full control and lets
you do anything you like from virtually anywhere in the room.
Logitech recently introduced a keyboard for just this purpose
(the diNovo Mini™) that fits in the palm of your hand. It is
backlit so you can use it in a darkened home theater and it has
media controls along the top.
diNovo Mini
from Logitech
TYING IT
ALL TOGETHER
However, a network can significantly improve
flexibility and allow more than one PC to access
content. Of course, it can also support a server or
NAS as discussed previously.
The network itself should be at least 100baseT
(100Mbps) to support streaming of HD video. Some
systems are now even using Gigabit Ethernet
(1000Mbps). This will guarantee that almost any
content can be streamed over the network.
Strictly speaking, a network is not
really required for an entertainment
PC as long as an Internet connection
is available to acquire content.
For reliable operation, any content source or
content client should be hardwired to the network.
While wireless networks claim fairly high bandwidth, in
actual use they perform significantly below their rated
speeds. In addition, signal fade or interference can
cause annoying disruptions in the media stream.
Once the network is set up, you can stream content
across it simply by accessing shared folders on the
server PC or NAS and playing it on the local media
player. Windows® Media Player also supports sharing of
its content library between multiple computers.
So your library can exist in one place, but be available
to all the computers in your network as well as other
devices like an Xbox® 360.
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