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Welcome to my Home Theater Project! This wiki serves as my stream-of-consciousness "build" log, starting with my initial setup, going through my design considerations, and finally working through the problems to create a final product.

Table of Contents Background 2007-ish 2010-ish 2013-ish Initial Hardware/Setup

Background

Prior to starting this particular iteration of the project, I had previously embarked on different variations on setting up a home theater and a home theater PC (HTPC), so I had some experience with home theater PCs and the software I plan on using. However, I could never quite get everything working the way I wanted it, and I ended up scrapping multiple half-completed setups. However, the knowledge remained. Here's a summary of my previous builds:

2007-ish

While in college, a group of friends and I decided to buy a projector for our dorm root to create THE MOST AWESOME ENTERTAINMENT ROOM EVAR!! The projector was a crappy 720p something-or-other, but it was still amazing. In order to drive the projector, we cobbled together a PC from spare parts.

Initially, we used a wired mouse and keyboard to run the PC, which meant that controlling it was a huge pain. So one of our first goals was getting some kind of wireless controller. I bought an IR controller off of eBay for a few bucks, but it didn't end up working. Someone else bought a fancy Windows Media Center wireless keyboard/track pad, which ended up working really well, and that's what we went with.

For software, initially we tried Windows Media Center, but it just wasn't convenient enough (largely because of codec issues). Instead, we just manually browsed to the folder, and ran all the video content through VLC. We didn't consume much content other than movies and TV shows, though since the PC was running Windows, we were able to handle any other miscellaneous thing that popped up.

2010-ish

After I graduated, and once I got a job and my own place, the bug to set up a home theater and HTPC got me once again. Based on my previous experience, I knew I wanted a projector, and after much research, I settled on an Epson Home Cinema 8350. This full 1080p projector became the amazing centerpiece of my home theater, but again I ran in to the problem both how to drive it, and how to control it.

Again, I decided to go the HTPC route to drive the projector. At this time, I was in the process of building a new desktop computer, so I was able to shuffle things around a bit: I decided to use my old server (an Athlon 64 3000+) as my HTCP, and I repurposed my old desktop computer (a Core2Duo E6700) as my new server. For the HTPC, I got a "new" graphics card off eBay and maxed out the RAM on the motherboard.

To control this HTPC, I decided to dig out my old IR remote. Turns out, with the right drivers, I was able to get the remote working. In the process of figuring this out, I also discovered EventGhost. I didn't really do a whole lot with EventGhost, but I remember planning out control schemes incessantly, so I got pretty familiar with EventGhost's GUI. Sadly, I never got around to actually doing anything withe EventGhost.

In discussing this project with my friends, it was also when I "first" heard of XBMC (I put "first" in quotes because I had a modded original Xbox, and used XBMC on it, but I didn't realize it was a PC platform). I decided to use XBMC as my HTPC's front end.

However, I ran in to a problem with XBMC. I was using wireless to stream my media from my server to my HTPC, and there was a problem with something in XBMC. To this day, I don't know if it was the buffering, the codecs, or just a bug in the software, but I could never get XBMC to stream content very smoothly. Once again, I returned to VLC, and everything worked just fine.

This time around, however, I was using the remote control to at least change volume, which was one big step in the right direction for me!

2013-ish

In late 2012/early 2013, I relocated back to my home town for work. In the process, the hard drive in my HTPC died, so I decided to take another stab at the whole HTPC business. I had recently acquired a new server, so I repurposed my C2D server as my new HTPC. With a fancy new SSD installed, I used XBMC version 11 to create my HTPC front end.

While this worked very well initially (none of the WiFi problems I had before), as I added more content and more plugins, I ran in to more and more problems. Most (if not all) of the problems were PEBKAC problems, but with the new job, I didn't have a whole lot of time to fuss with XBMC.

Around this time was also when I got my first Android smartphone. With Android, I discovered all sorts of software that allowed me to interface between my computer and my phone, ultimately allowing me to control my HTPC (at least in theory) from my phone. This was an incredible development, but, again, I didn't have a whole lot of time to futz with it.

Sadly, this experiment with XBMC was short lived, but I did end up acquiring a Logitech K400 mouse/keyboard combo, which has been absolutely fantastic up to this day. Hopefully, when this project is all done, I'll be able to retire it, but it's my workhorse for use right now.

Initial Hardware/Setup

I'm currently equipped with the following:

• HTPC:
  • Core2 Duo E6700
  • 4GB RAM
  • GT430 GPU
• Epson Home Cinema 8350
• Logitech K400
• Ortek VRC-1100 IR remote
• Nexus 7 (2013)