10. In Use

When I could keep it from overheating, my new HTPC ran really well. Most of the time it was very quiet since the MEGA180's CPU fan is designed to run at low RPMs until the CPU temperature gets to about 75 degrees C. The upgrades effectively eliminated the jittery picture that I was experiencing with the AIW 8500DV and the picture quality was noticeably better with the AIW 9600. The 9600 uses a technology called "Video Soap" that scrubs the TV image in real-time to reduce pixelation and soften the image.

I also changed software a couple of times. I tried the MSI Media Center, Myth TV and Windows Media Center Edition 2005. I ultimately stayed with Windows Media Center Edition 2005, because MSI's version was very underdeveloped and required the remote that I had come to despise. Myth TV was difficult to set up and though it was a fantastic program I was not enough of a Linux person to get it to function perfectly. I have since tried Knoppmyth, which I found to be much easier to install and work with.

Windows MCE is a joy to work with. The interface is simple, versatile and it looks incredible. It is compatible with multimedia Web content, and online video rental services like Cinema Now and Movielink, and the TV recording scheduler was a huge improvement over ATI's Guide Plus. I was soon recording so much content that I needed more storage space.

Since adding a hard drive wasn't an option in my jerry-rigged MEGA 180, I built a file server and put it in another room so that I could transfer files back and forth without having to worry about the noise. Using a separate PC to serve up files seems to be the trend among HTPC builders at the moment, anyway. Some even use the server to do all of their TV recording as well, but I prefer having my tuner in the HTPC so that I can still take advantage of time shifting when needed.