By Dale Farris, Vice President
Golden Triangle PC Club
May 2004

General Overview

"Use Your PC to Build an Incredible Home Theater System" is meant for those home theater enthusiasts with some working knowledge of personal computers (PCs) who want to create the ultimate home theater experience. A Home Theater Personal Computer (HTPC) is basically an ordinary PC used in conjunction with a high-definition-capable television, monitor, or video projector, and a sound system. The book is laid out chronologically and follows the authors' activities as they assemble two HTPC systems, starting with a detailed background of video and audio technologies to help readers understand what the HTPC can do.

An HTPC can do much more than play DVD movies on a HDTV-ready television. The convergence of computers and digital entertainment formats means that the PC platform is well suited to reproducing audio in many formats, including converting older analog recordings to digital. It is also great for capturing and editing home movies, implementing a personal video recorder, creating slide-show presentations with digital pictures, videoconferencing, and much more. "Use Your PC to Build an Incredible Home Theater System" will show readers how to set up an HTPC for the most complete home theater experience available.

Super Features

Covers basic audio and video concepts, and shows how these relate to computer-related multimedia

Contains reviews and recommendations of hardware and software that make the home theater PC (HTPC) work

Includes photos, descriptions, and explanations of difficult procedures and concepts to make creating your own HTPC easier

Covers the integration of HDTV in an HTPC system

Explains the use of digital video recorders

Shows how to use a home computer to maximize the quality of video through processing incoming video signals and outputting these to your TV at the highest quality the TV can accept

Discusses how to use your HTPC to play MP4 material and home video material, such as home movies or slide shows in ultra-high resolution on a HD TV

Shows how to turn your HTPC into a homegrown, TiVo-like personal video recorder unit with unlimited expansion possibilities

Shows how to select components and build an HTPC

Table of Contents

The eleven (11) chapters are organized into four (4) parts, and include the following:

Part One - Home Theater Basics

1)    Video
2)    Home Theater PC Uses
3)    Audio Specifications

Part Two - Hardware Components

4)    Home Theater PC Video Cards
5)    Home Theater PC Audio Cards
6)    Video Capture Devices
7)    Home Theater Remote Controls
8)    Additional Hardware Requirements and Putting It All Together

Part Three - Software and Other Solutions

9)    The Software
10)  The Power of PowerStrip

Part Four - HTPC Systems Wrap-Up

11)  Results and Conclusions

The Appendix contains a super list of online resources.

Target Readers

This book is for those folks who are home theater enthusiasts and have some working knowledge of personal computers. The book will help these people create a new animal on the home theater landscape:  the home theater PC (HTPC). You do not have to be an expert on hardware, and you certainly do not have to know how to program, but you will have to be able to spare a dozen evenings or so fiddling around with various software settings and such to get things running just the way you want.

The HTPC offers so very much in the ay of improving the home theater experience that it is a viable option for anyone but the most technically challenged soul. If you like things to work 100% right out of the box with no fiddling, then an HTPC probably is not for you (at least not one you build yourself). However, if you like to tinker a little and spend a fair amount of time on your PC anyway, then you likely have what it takes to create your ultimate home theater system with the help of an HTPC.

This is an important title on the use of computers in a multimedia environment, and the material represents the ongoing convergence of technologies that now define the information technology and media entertainment industries. The release of Microsoft's Windows XP Media Edition operating system indicates Microsoft's long range vision of PCs, formerly considered only for use with designated computer software related to productivity or gaming applications, is now considered a central device for integrating all existing and advanced entertainment purposes, including serving as a DVD movie player, high-quality stereo sound system, image capture and display system, and other as yet un-invented purposes.

This book will certainly be of great interest to anyone interested in designing their own HTPC to enable them to support these cutting edge functions.

Book Contents

287 pages; acknowledgments; introduction; b/w screen shots; figures; tips; notes; appendix; index

Authors

Bart Farkas and Jeff Govier

About the Author

Bart Farkas is the author of over 45 computer books and video/computer game strategy guides. Bart lives with his wife, two sons, and a pair of fuzzy kitties in fabulous Calgary, Canada.

Jeff Govier is a computer software developer and PC hobbyist with more than 10 years of experience in the high-tech industry. He is the coauthor of two PC hardware guides and is a home theater enthusiast. The evolution of the PC into a home entertainment center is a subject for which he has been waiting many years.

ISBN

November 2002 - First Edition
1-59059-057-0

List Price

$24.99

About Apress

Apress is a publishing company devoted to meeting the needs of programming professionals. Apress' unique approach to computer book publishing grew out of conversations between Dan Appleman and Gary Cornell, Apress' founders, who believe that too many programming books are of such low quality that they are a complete waste of time. Computer professionals need quality books that are not just rehashes of documentation.

The "A" in Apress stands for The Author's Press, and their books have "The Expert's Voice." Apress acquires manuscripts of the highest quality by attracting the best authors and technical experts that the world has to offer. Apress makes authors partners in the publishing process, doesn't impose a "house style" on authors, and doesn't make them conform to a series that straightjacket's them.

Apress also makes sure that authors are treated equitably. Another key feature of the Apress approach to publishing books is taken from the software industry. Apress treats the technical review process as seriously as the best software companies treat the quality assurance process.

Apress is convinced that the innovations listed above make it possible for them to produce the highest quality books, recruit the highest quality authors, and publish titles that information technology professionals need and want.

The Apress management team ensures that the distribution and fulfillment of Apress titles is second to none, and that the capital is available to move aggressively and take advantage of any publishing opportunities that arise. To accomplish this, Apress has entered into a partnership with Springer-Verlag, one of the world's most respected publishing houses. Springer-Verlag is convinced that Apress will be the publisher of quality trade computer paperbacks in the years to come.

Apress will continue to publish titles of the highest quality, and has compiled a team of authors that reads like a veritable "Who's Who" list of the computing industry. The company founders have published over 200 software titles by leading software professionals, all of whom have "The Expert's Voice."

Publisher Contact

Chloe Benjamin
Marketing Associate
Apress
2560 Ninth Street, Suite 219
Berkeley, California 94710
510-549-5930 ext. 120
FAX 510-549-5939
chloe@apress.com
www.apress.com