Freecom 320GB Mobile Drive XXS

I bought a 320GB external HDD fom Amazon for £63, which is the world smallest 2.5" external drive so far. I'm not after the design, but it is the cheapest among WD, Seagate and Maxtor. And the reason? I'm making a duplicate of my photo collection since 2001 in case the original storage failed, which is priceless.

Enable Remote Desktop for Vista Home Premium

I'm still new to Vista and I'm expecting it behaves as XP, but i'm wrong in many ways. One of it is Remote Connection. Apparently you can't remote desktop to Vista Home Premium as there is no terminal service. Luckily I found a nice site with simple steps to follow.

1. Download termsrv.zip for SP1.
2. Extract Termsrv.zip to a temp directory
3. Start “Command Prompt” in Administrator mode (Run As Administrator)
4. Run the corresponding batch file for your Vista edition
5. Allow TCP Port 3389 on Windows Firewall or any other firewall product.
6. Done

Perhaps, I can remote desktop to my HTPC and download BT :) , I'd setup DDNS and able to rdp from my office too to bypass firewall.

Logitech Dinovo Edge for £89.99

Finally after my order for Logitech Mediaboard from Amazon and Gameseek were cancelled due stock availability, I decided to go for Dinovo Edge for £89.99 from Ebuyer.

Update 1/4: I'd cancelled my order from ebuyer as they still processing my payment. I ordered from Amazon this morning and it is now dispatched via ParcelForce. As an alternative to this keyboard, I just found a cheaper one here but not sure whether it is a bluetooth keyboard.

Update 2/4: I got my diNovoEdge today. Amazon is really fast. Even I use Super Free delivery that suppose to arrive in less than 5 days, I got it the next day. Thumb up to Amazon.co.uk.

Cheap Logitech Dinova Edge Keyboard

This is the cheapest Dinova Edge Keyboard I can find, for £105.4 at morecomputers.com excluding delivery charge. You can get 3% cashback when using Paypal.

Watch TV shows with SlingBox

SlingMedia had recently announced SlingCatcher to make a complete TV streaming suite without PC. Basically you need a SlingBox to control the digital receiver or DVR and upon receiving the video signal, it is then stream to you via Internet.

I'm still prefer to have a HTPC since a Slingbox does come with a SlingPlayer for PC. This mean after I get one for my parent in KL, and when they pay me a visit here, they still can catch their favour show from here.

D-link MediaLounge for HDTV

I'm quite excited to find out D-Link will announce the release of D-Link MediaLounge PC-on-TV DPG1200 that mirror the PC display. It is not new though, but to have a top networking brand ventures into this space is definately welcoming. This means you can watch YouTube, Joost, TVUPlayer, PPStream, PPLive and many more on your TV. Food for thought, I do think this device is good for existing PC owner, but for someone considering a new PC, configure a HTPC can save you a LCD monitor and the need for buying this MediaLounge.

Still dreaming about building my HTPC

I was about second too close to build my HTPC by ordering Dell XPS 420 and Logitech diNovo Edge Keyboard, as the Dell 10% discount code was just expired (updated 4/1: Dell new 10% code - Q3TCG81H5P8?BM). My idea was to move Dell's components and reassemble it to Shuttle XPC as I think XPS 420 chassis can fetch quite a good price in ebay.

Update 5/1: In CES 2008, Logitech has announced diNovo Mini wireless keyboard, should be looking around £99.00 when it release to the market. It is compatible with PS3 with a touch of a button at the back of the keyboard. What's cool about it is the mouse touchpad can turn into a 4 directional navigator like the normal keyboard. It comes with a lid and its size is about a Nintendon DS size. Impressive!

Shuttle USA has launched new XPCs. I suppose if my calculation works, I will probably pay less for good configuration, but too late now :(

Another potential HTPC for me

Early this month, Asus announced Nova P22 miniPC, with a decent spec that can serve nicely as HTPC. However, there is no release date given. Hopely by the end of the month, there will be an indication of its availability and price.

While browsing Asus website, I saw this nice wifi gadget that capable of receiving windows mail, RSS, make Skype call and stream music. It is AiGuru2 Wifi Phone. But I would prefer to get a PSP although it lacks Skype function.

Have my eye on Shuttle SG33G6 Deluxe

I was reading about Shuttle SG33G6 yesterday and fall in love with it as it comes with onboard HDMI output and integrates Bluetooth, WLAN, USB Speed-Link and fingerprint reader. To configure one without a decent graphic card, monitor, keyboard and mouse, it already cost £470. I'm not sure will this be cost effective to configure one as my HTPC.

Amazing PC, but outdated soon-to-be-out-of-date Technology

In todays retail PC market, I found only the following 3 PCs have the highest spec, and cost a bomb to buy. But why is it outdated? Exteriorly, I believe it can last for a few years, and you can self proclaim to own a highend PC. But these are only PC for 2007.

We are moving into a different PC era. Year 2008 promises to deliver several new technology for PC. USB3.0 announced back in September will overtake current USB2.0 at the rate of 10x. Then the recent announced Firewire 3200 that will boost from IEEE1394b 800mbps to 3.2gbps. Other than that, graphic card adaptor should move from convensional VGA and DVI to HDMI. Last but not least, wifi connection IEEE 802.11n will be certified. These 4 technologies enough to make any PC you bought this year out-of-date.

Dell XPS 720H2C

Alienware Area 51 ALX

HP Blackbird 002 LCi

That left me with some consideration of how much should I spend for my HTPC configuration next year. Perhaps I should just save up for future.

HP 10% deal & HTPC consideration

I came across a discount code for HP, with free delivery until 31st Dec. This s3230 slimline is ideal for HTPC, but 2 points I dislike about it: AMD and no HDMI output.

My second consideration is Dell Vostro 200Slim, but its dimension is a little big, with depth about 43cm. A 10% discount code only applicable for purchase price more than £599 :(
Both doesn't come with a remote controller, no hdmi output and no TV card. It is definately more expensive for me to build my own, so I might decide to get anyone of these 2 by the end of the year. Ideally, I want to put a low profile graphic card with HDMI output, but there isn't any to choose from, although i found a few result in google.

Consideration for a HTPC

HTPC, stands for Home Theather Personal Computer, some prefer to call it Media Centre PC. I guess when this is mentioned, everyone know why I need onem to put a PC next to a LCD TV.

I've been stuggling to design/settle for a new PC for my new house/home networking, and I'd studied the market for almost 2 months. There are neither 1 solution that fit my needs nor cheap. A HTPC suppose to be a neat and stylist PC like Aopen Mini or Mcubed Macro








but the downside of that is, you can have a good graphic card and limited expandable PCI slot. I can get 2 PCs, 1 for HTPC, 1 for my study room. But, we already have a HP laptop, and a company Dell laptop. Having 2 PCs are redundant. A good HTPC is expensive, Niveus Rainer is one of the top notch HTPC. It is also called Media Centre Extender.

Then, game console come into the picture. Initially I want a PS3 as it supports DLNA, an industry standard for media (audio,video, photo) sharing within concept of a digital home, which able to stream video from a DLNA compatible device/software. I can use TwongkyMedia , a software for PC to stream between PC and PS3 (or XBOX360). Although it can streams Divx, Xvid encoded file, photos and mp3, it doesn't play p2p tv such as ppstream or tvuplayer. And, eventually we think Wii is a better console as we can sweat and exercise at home.

There a few devices other there that archieve my basic needs, such as EZFetch, Linksys DMA 2100, HD Mediabox, but they can't play p2p tv. The latest XBOX360 dashboard did mentioned about P2P tv, but that is subject to ISP content.

So, I need to find other alternative. I do come across this device, Avrio HDMI Over Cat5e/6,

but I don't have a ethernet link at home. I sent an enquiry to the sales team, as I curios whether i could extend the ethernet over Powerline device, such as Netgear HDX101

But they have no clue what i'm referring to :( Then I came across Remote Desktop solution. RD is not something new, it is common if you connect remotely to terminal server on Win2k or Win2003. Depends on the concurrent license you purchase from Microsoft, that's the limit how many users can access the server at the same time without kicking other user from their session. Windows XP and Vista only support single remote desktop session, if you allow other user to remote desktop your pc, you will be kicked out from your session.

Fortunately, I found a great link that allow concurrent access to Vista (Home Premium/Ultimate) version, but required some hack to the registry and a dll replacement. With this hack, it means I can get 1 HTPC for my TV, while using it to watch p2p TV or downloaded drama, I still can remote access it to process my photos (ideally) or play games (not sure my bandwidth is sufficient, maybe with powerline product or draft n router will not be an issue) using my laptop.

Well, this is all I could find/think of at the moment. Home network connectivity can be simple (if you have a lot of money to spend), or complex (under budget constraint, or want to reduce power consumption).