htpc interview questions
Top htpc frequently asked interview questions
Basically I have a bunch of AVI's and such sitting around. In the past I've used an svideo/5mm [computer side] to RCA [TV side] wire that basically makes the TV act as a monitor and uses the TV as speakers. Wondering if there's a better way. Like my question mentions I'm most interested in wireless solutions.
Source: (StackOverflow)
My small (22") monitor went bad on the pc I use to watch hulu/netflix with... The kids like to use this computer to play online games. I am considering buying a HDTV (~32") to replace the smaller lcd. Is this a viable solution that will give satisfactory performance for both types of use?
Source: (StackOverflow)
We're trying to build an HTPC but our current motherboard refuses to reliably go into hibernation - we'll hibernate it last thing at night and come down in the morning to find it running again. I've tried every possible combination of BIOS settings to stop it waking but none seems to work.
Can anyone recommend a good motherboard for this? We use a MCE remote to wake it whose receiver is connected via USB so it needs to wake up from that.
Source: (StackOverflow)
I'm using Hulu Desktop as part of my HTPC. However, as anyone who has used it knows, whenever I start Hulu Desktop it chooses a show of Hulu's choice and starts playing it, which is incredibly annoying as I'm forced to listen to a show that I am not interested in while I scramble to try and find the show I want to watch. Does anyone know how to disable that "feature"? I've been searching on Google and I can't find anything. I found a preferences menu that had the option "Stop Autoplay of Shows?" and I set that to yes, but that's obviously referring to something different, as I still have it happening.
Any suggestions/fixes? Thanks.
Source: (StackOverflow)
What is the recommended hardware/software that I need to install?
FYI, I am running Windows 7 on the HTPC
Source: (StackOverflow)
I'm using Arcsoft TMT3 to play Blurays. It's been playing fine for a few years but all of a sudden TMT3 says that my system isn't HDCP compatible. No changes to anything in the system -- possibly a change to Win7, upgrade to SP1. The manufacturer of TMT3 thinks the issue is with the vid card driver but I'm getting the same results before and after an update to the vid card driver.
I wonder if there is a simple tool I can use to determine if my setup is HDCP compliant? That way I can determine if it's an issue with the video card or the player software.
Source: (StackOverflow)
Long story short, I installed the Windows 10 tech preview on my HTPC. After a recent update to build 10041, I noticed that Windows has started to handle at least some of the commands that are being sent by my remote (a Logitech Harmony One using commands from some generic Windows multimedia remote) in addition to the actions I configured in Event Ghost from before the Windows update.
For the commands that Windows is handling, this essentially causes two keystrokes to be sent to the active window. This isn't terrible, as I can just disable those keys in Event Ghost. However, when I have my remote (or more specifically, Event Ghost) in mouse emulation mode, this causes problems. Every time I hold down a mouse movement button, it also sends the corresponding arrow key. Also, the button I mapped to the left mouse button is the same as what Windows recognizes as the enter key. Whenever I want to left click something, I also hit enter.
I've got Event Ghost set up the way I like it, because Windows was all but incapable of doing what I wanted with the remote by itself. How do I get back to that, where Windows will basically ignore the remote?
Source: (StackOverflow)
Miracast has been described as "HDMI over WiFi"†, and as such I've recommended it to a couple of people asking about HTPC setups when unable to run wire.
After giving it more thought, I'm wondering a couple of things:
- Is this a really lossless signal?
- How does latency affect sound output not coming from the TV/receiver (coming from the HTPC)?
†: "A rough description would be “HDMI over Wifi” and in fact the setup is modeled closely to the HDMI standard."; para 2
Source: (StackOverflow)
I'm considering getting a small-footprint "nettop" computer to use as a home theater PC with my Samsung LN40A550 HDTV. I've been looking at systems like the AS Rock ION HT330, the Acer AspireRevo 3610, or the Asus EeeBox PC EB1501. These are all systems with NVIDIA ION chipset (Intel Atom N330 dual core CPU + NVIDIA GeForce 9400 GPU).
Is the NVIDIA ION chipset powerful enough to support media streaming at HD resolutions (e.g. via Boxee, Hulu, Netflix) and casual gaming (e.g. World of Warcraft, Madden NFL) reasonably well without herky-jerky video output?
Source: (StackOverflow)
With consumer-grade hardware, is it possible to successfully stream 1080p mp4 videos to a PS3?
I have a linksys router that can only do 10/100. The PS3 is wired to it with cat5e cable, and the PS3 itself supports gigabit ethernet. I would upgrade the router and get one that supports gigabit ethernet if it could handle streaming like this.
It currently does work with minor jerkiness streaming from my mac to the PS3, but fast-forward/reverse and "goto" (equivalent of scene selection) take forever and/or fail completely. And streaming from my mac of course requires the mac to be on at all times.
When I put the movies on an external USB drive and connect to the PS3 directly, it performs flawlessly. Fast forward and everything works great.
So I was thinking about getting a NAS, but I don't know if any inexpensive NAS (i.e. Buffalo Linkstation Live, WD My Book World Edition, D-Link DNS-321, etc.) can actually deliver the performance necessary to do this, even with gigabit ethernet?
Source: (StackOverflow)
I'm using an Ubuntu box with Nvidia graphics card as an HTPC. My HDTV is a Sony Bravia KDS-R50XBR1; this is a rear-projection unit with many inputs. I am using the HDMI input. I'm using the proprietary Nvidia drivers and they recognize the 1080x1920 resolution just fine.
The display is a little fuzzy but at 50 inches it's perfect for movies. My problem is that the TV has three overscan settings, and none of them reduces overscan to zero. When I was using dual-screen this was fine, but I'm moving to where the TV is my only screen, and the Gnome panels are not visible because of the overscan.
EDIT: The menu in question is Settings::Screen::Display Area and the options are Normal, -1, and -2. The Normal setting has significant overscan, and the -1 and -2 settings make the overscan even worse.
I'd like to figure out how to eliminate the overscan, without trying to scale my 1080p content down to 920p or something ridiculous like that. Ideally there would be some scurvy trick, perhaps involving the TV service menu, to get rid of the overscan on the TV side. Or I could move the Gnome panels, but I still would be missing the edges of my movies. Suggestions most welcome.
Source: (StackOverflow)
Story: I decided to build myself powerful HTPC using top modern "bleeding-edge" hardware, I mean LGA1150 with Haswell (Desktop 4th Generation Intel Core Processor Family). And because an easy way of remote controlling is very important to me, I'm interested in HDMI CEC support and using just one remote for controlling the TV/projector and the HTPC.
Goal: The simplest theoretical way to do that is find LGA1150 motherboard with integrated HDMI CEC support, unlike some Intel LGA1155 (H61, H77) boards which requires additional header to be connected (Pulse-Eight headers).
Problem: Google does not help you much nowadays. So which board supports HDMI CEC? How to realize this? Keep reeding...
Note: since I'm not oriented to AMD, this is just research about Intel's CPU and desktop boards.
Source: (StackOverflow)
Soon I will be getting my own mini-PC (RaspberryPi / MK802 / Mele A1000 / VIA APC).
But I was wondering whether is there any possibility that I can just power up and access my mini-pc's OS by connecting it to wifi/ethernet link and remotely access it over the LAN without actually needing a monitor (throughout the process?) ?
I currently own a laptop and need a download box and later will be getting a HDTV for converting to a HTPC :D
So, I don't really own a spare monitor now but I do have an extra keyboard and mouse.
Is there exists any linux distro for the same? which I can use to directly fireup my mini-pc and hook it up across my LAN to remotely access through my laptop?
UPDATE: How about "booting from LAN"? If somebody could shed some light on this topic so that it is applicable here..that'd great!
Source: (StackOverflow)
I have a Windows 8 machine with an AMD APU attached to my Home Theater system through HDMI (HDMI routes through a Home Theater AMP, then into the TV).
Here's my problem, Whenever the display is interrupted, usually by the TV being turned off or into powersave mode, the audio device lists as "Disconnected" in windows audio devices and I cant get it to re-recognize that the HDMI audio is, in fact, plugged in.
The only solution I have found so far is to restart the machine, which will then recognize the device without any problems, until the next time the TV turns off and the problem once again resurfaces.
Has anyone else seen this phenomenon? I have no idea if its the GPU, the HDMI interface, the AMP, or even the TV itself, as there really isn't much a way to tell...
Source: (StackOverflow)