how digital audio streams may be handled (or not) inside typical PC components. You should walk away from both of these stories with a profound appreciation of why so many home theater PC users end up using multiple analog cables — three for 5.1 sound or...

PC keep broadening. In Part 1 of our latest HTPC series, Siggy Moersch makes his selection from ten contenders to house a quiet, yet powerful HD-capable system.. Too Many Choices? The last time we took a crack at building a Home Theater PC (HTPC), we opted...

up to 1080i, the Pro Stick packs quite a lot of punch into a tiny package. The best part about the Pro Stick is that it can migrate easily from an office PC to a full-fledged home theater PC, to a laptop, without skipping a beat. Going out? Take the Pro Stick...

the details of both our test builds.. Parts 1 and 2 of this series have surveyed a number of cases, motherboards, and quiet power supplies, as well as explored processor and memory options suitable for building a Home Theater PC. In this final installment,...

• -Test Build 1: Living Room-Ready And User-Friendly
• -Thermaltake Media LAB

several manufacturers have built desktop PCs as small as 6.5" x 6.5" x 2". These highly mobile PCs are ideally suited to home theater PC (HTPC) applications. We look at their strengths and weaknesses when used for this purpose.. It's quite interesting,...

then there's the elusive home theater PC (HTPC). It's not easy to obtain perfection when assembling an HTPC. It needs to blend into your living room or home theater, which are generally foreign places for a regular PC. Anyone with a little time and a few bucks...