Comments on: Gear

By: Carlton Bale

Carlton Bale — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 20:35:35 +0000

Purists say to go with a white screen. Most newer projectors don’t need the black level boost from gray screens, so I’d say white is your best bet.

By: Todd

Todd — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 02:38:33 +0000

Carlton,
Basement home theater room with no ambient lights. The room is 19 x 14 and I’m installing an Epson 8700UB. I’m going to go with a 110″ screen and I’m wondering if I need High Def Gray or Bright White. Most viewing will be sports and movies. Your insight is appreciated.

By: Charles

Charles — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 05:31:10 +0000

Great site. Just wondering if you could offer a little info about the rack system that you have set up…
1) where did you get it
2) how is the equipment cooled
3) recommendations on setting it up
4) etc.

Thanks,
Charles

By: Carlton Bale

Carlton Bale — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 22:15:09 +0000

Here's a list of other gear I like, but don't list on this page:

Windows Computer Software

Backup:

Windows Home Server for Windows users
Apple Time Capsule for Mac users
CrashPlan peer computer backup (free) + online backup (unlimited for $3.50/month) works on Windows, Mac, Linux.
Mozy online backup (unlimited online backup for $4.95/month)

Web Browsing/Email:

Web Browser: Mozilla Firefox + these extensions (free + open source)

General:

Office: OpenOffice (free + open source) or Microsoft Office (commercial)
Finance: Quicken (commercial)
PDF Viewing: FoxIT PDF Reader (free)
PDF Creation: PDFCreator (free + open source)
Genealogy: Genealogy Finder? Still not sure about this one.
Mapping: Google Earth
Clock / Alarm Clock: Qlock (free)
Text Editor: TextPad (free commercial demo) or Notepad++ (free + open source)
Note Taking: EverNote (free or enhanced commercial version) - fast, easy, and free, EverNote allows notes to be stored in many formats, has categories, and built-in security.

Music:

Music Editor: Audacity (free)
Music Ripper: Exact Audio Copy (free) or dbMusicConverter (free or enhanced commercial version)
Music Format Converter: dbMusicConverter (free or enhanced commercial version)
Muisc Storage format: FLAC (free + open source)
Music Player: MediaMonkey (free or enhanced commercial version)
Music Tagger: MP3Tag (free) and/or TagScanner (free) and/or MediaMonkey (free or enhanced commercial version)
Podcast Downloader: iTunes seems too be the best but I'm still looking for something better.
Muisc Lyrics: EvilLyrics (free) - Automatic lyrc downloading - supports about any music player software you can imagine: Winamp, WMP 9, iTunes, MusicMatch, Foobar, MediaMonkey, Real Player, QCD, Y!Music, XMPlay, AlbumPlayer, etc.
Apple iPod Audio Book Converter: MP3 to iPod Audio Book Converter (free + open source) takes *.mp3 files and converts/merges them into one single *.m4b file that is recognized as an audio book by iPods, so it can be bookmarked. I also use MediaJoin to combine WAV files from multiple CDs into one large WAV file and the use dBpoweram Muisc Converter to convert to a *.m4b; this results in better audio quality due to only 1 compression stage (wav -> m4b instead of wav -> mp3 -> m4b).

Video:

Media Player: VLC Media Player (free)
DVD Player: TheaterTek (commercial)
DVD Catalog/Collection Manager: DVD Profiler (free or enhanced commercial version)
DVD Decrypting: Slysoft AnyDVD (commercial)
DVD Ripping: Slysoft CloneDVD (commercial)
DVD Format Conversion for Mobile Devices: Slysoft CloneDVD Mobile (commercial), HandBrake (free, open source)
MyMovies for Windows Media Center movie database plugin and collection management software
MediaBroswer for browsing and selecting movies from the server (in addition to MyMovies)
Acrsoft TotalMedia Theatre for Blu-ray playback
Shark007 codec pack (preferred). Can also try Combined Community Codec Pack (second choice), K-Lite Codec Pack Standard (third choice) or for playing Xvid, Divx, and many other video formats in Windows Media Center. For FLAC music files only, try Xiph Direct Show Filters.
WMP Tag Support Extender or Tag Support Plug-in to playback FLAC, OGG, AAC, M4A, and other music formats with Media Center (and Media Player)

Pictures:

Image Editing and Organization: xnView (free)
Image Thumbnailer: Photo Gadget (free)
Image viewing: IrfanView (free)
Advanced image editing: GIMP for Windows (free), Macromedia Fireworks (commercial)
Photo Gallery Creator: JAlbum (free)
Lossless PNG file size reduction: PNGGauntlet (free)

Utilities:

Zip Compression Application: Zip Genius (free) or 7-Zip (free + open source) or PeaZip (free + open source)
Anti-Spyware: Microsoft Windows Anti-Spyware (free)
Disk Partition Management: EASEUS Partition Master (free), GParted (free + open source)
Tree Size: TreeSize (free)
Unit Converter: Convert by Josh Madison (free)
Personal File Sharing: Dropbox
Instant Messaging: Pidgin (free + open source) works with every IM network you can imagine and has plug-ins to add any feature you'd ever need.
Start-up Manager: Startup Control Panel by Mike Lin (free) and Startup Monitor by Mike Lin (free)
Anti-virus: Microsoft Security Essentials
Firewall: Windows firewall (free)
FTP Client: FileZilla (free + open source) or FTP Voyager (commercial)
Print Screen: ScreenPrint32 (free)
Icon Maker: IcoFX (free) or PixelToolbox (free)
MD5 Checker: hkSFV (free)
CD and DVD Burning: Nero Burning ROM (commercial)
Computer backup software: Cobain Backup (free)
Computer online backup service: Mozy Remote Backup
Program Launcher: Launchy (free + open source - quickly launch any program from you keyboard. No more searching through the Start menu. Starting typing the name of the program and Lanuchy will figure out the program you want.
Remote Access (away from home): LogMeIn.com (free + enhanced commercial version) or ShowMyPC.com (free) or Microsoft LiveMesh (free)
Web Site Backup / Offline viewing: HTTrack (free + open source)
Screensaver Control: SaverNow (free)
Screensaver: Power Dimmer (free)
File Copy: TeraCopy replaces and vastly improves the file copy function built-in to Windows (free)
Windows 7 Taskbar: Windows 7 Taskbar Thumbnail Customizer gives bigger preview windows when you hover over active taskbar applications

Web Applications

RSS Feed Reader: Google Reader
Accounting: Intuit Quickbooks Online
Office Applications: Google Docs
Image Editor: Pixlr, Photoshop Express

Web/Server/Developer Tools

Server-side CMS: WordPress
CSS Editor: TopStyle Lite (free) or TopStyle Pro (commercial)
Server-side Webpage Editing: UltraEdit (commercial)
Webserver: XAMPP is a very easy-to-install Apache Distribution for all operating systems and includes MySQL, PHP, Perl, an FTP server, and phpMyAdmin.

External References

7 Taskbar Thumbnail Customizer

By: Carlton Bale

Carlton Bale — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 19:37:11 +0000

Sorry, I don’t know an exact solution for you, but can give you places to start looking. I think the Apple AirTunes/Airport Express has been hacked to add features, and may do what you’re looking for. Another option might be a Logitech Squeeze Box or Sonos set to stream the live input. There are also IP speakers that might work, but I think most are not wireless: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_speaker

By: Itya

Itya — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 10:37:02 +0000

Hi,
I am looking for a way to connect my HTPC by wifi (802.11G/N) to distant Speakers.

The solution can be either a 802.11G/N Audio amplifier that will be connected directlly to the speakers, or prefrably some kind of small module attached to the speakers with power supply, streaming the music from the computer via 802.11G/n

Ideas?

By: Carlton Bale

Carlton Bale — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 15:02:13 +0000

The Windows Home Server Add-Ins I’m using are Windows Home Server Disk Management, Keepvault Backup, and My Movies for Windows Home Server. I’ve tried a few others but didn’t find them useful enough to keep.

Instead of enabling remote access the WHS console, I installed LogMeIn to allow access to everything (desktop and therefor console as well.)

By: Mike

Mike — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 05:43:27 +0000

What if any addins do you use for WHS?

By: Carlton Bale

Carlton Bale — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 18:56:46 +0000

Keith,

I’m a purist and want the best picture quality, sound quality, and all of the menus and features on the original disk. So I don’t transcode to a different format or container.

I copy from the original disk to folders. DVD are in MoviesTitlevideo_ts structure and Blu-rays are in the structure MoviesTitleBDMV and all of the files from the original disc are within these folders.

The downside is that most media players don’t support this playback structure. Windows Media Center PCs do (Arcsoft Total Media Theatre is required for blu-ray playback.) The Popcorn Hour C-200 also supports both formats. But you’re out of luck for Xbox 360 or PS3 support.

The Collection Management application within My Movies is the best I’ve found for providing the correct cover art, movie details, and other metadata.

By: -Keith

-Keith — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 21:04:01 +0000

Carlton,

Great site! I found it (like others, I daresay) doing research on building a theater.

I have downloaded and installed My Movies to play with, but do not have a media extender for it at the moment. I actually stream all my media from my main PC downstairs to my PS3 using a program called PS3 Media Server…go figure.

My question for you (I have many, but will only post 1 for now) is this: When you rip a DVD or Blu Ray, what format are you ripping to? My thought is that when running through a 1080p projector, a low quality file will look absolutely horrendous, but doing a full quality rip – particularly on BR – is going to make for some huge files.

Thoughts?

Thanks!

Keith