United States of America
I've shaken off the disappointment of the fact that I don't have a good solution for watching/recording Digital cable at the moment, but the more I've read and seen the more I've been encouraged to take the plunge and try to set up my very first HTPC. In the past, I was adamant that my first HTPC would be a Linux box but for various reasons I've decided to stick with Windows (which is the OS I'm most familiar with) and in particular MediaPortal. I'm looking to use MP for everything and anything I can (minus the TV stuff for now) including playing DVDs, music, other video files, Netflix (plugin I believe?), weather and whatever else I can manage.
It's been a long road so far and I'm still not ready. I decided to donate my current desktop PC to be the new HTPC (can't afford to buy a new one), which meant that I had to find a replacement desktop. I dusted off an old Pentium III 1.4Ghz and had to rebuild it, both hardware and software. It's been a huge PITA, reinstalling XP SP2 and the updating all the hotfixes, patches and SP3 from there, plus copying over all my files from the current desktop, but I'm finally done with that.
Now I'm currently preparing my prior desktop as the new home for MediaPortal (with all the same hotfixes, patches and SP3) and I'm wondering if there are any pitfalls, or tricks/tips that other users of MP would find worth mentioning. I also had a few questions:
First, should I run a real-time Anti-Virus solution? I don't really want to because it feels like a waste of system resources but I have a Network Attached Storage device, as well as other PC attached to a home network so there is certainly some potential risk.
Second, I've seen a lot on here about fragmentation and how it can hurt performance. There are lots of good free Defraggers out there such as JKDefrag (MyDefrag?) and the open source UltraDefrag, but I've recently discovered IOBit's SmartDefrag. The nice thing about this software (apart from the fact that it's free for personal use) is that it features real-time defragmentation (like Diskkeeper). However, my question is, is this necessary? Would I be better off just scheduling periodic defrags say in the early hours of the morning, rather than running an "always-on" solution?
Third, are there any other utilities or applications that people necessary/useful for a HTPC? I assume that running stuff like Spybot Search and Destroy or MalwareBytes Anti-Malware is pointless if you're not really using the HTPC for Internet browsing (at least, only visiting a few specific sites like Wikipedia)? I can't really think what else I'd need, although the concept of a HTPC is very different from a conventional desktop, it's really more like a black box that just runs.
Fourth, I have minor concerns about power usage. I'm guessing, although I've never checked, that a full-blown desktop PC is a little more power hungry than a regular stand-alone DVD player (even when idling). I'm conscience of my energy usage so what can I do to make sure that my HTPC unit is using as little power as possible when not in use (particularly in long periods of inactivity like when everyone is sleeping). Can MP handle things like hibernating the PC? How should I configure Windows power management settings? I've thought it might be nice to have a screensaver (say, family photos) for brief periods of inactivity but would this interfere with MP? I saw there's a power management plugin for MP, is this the simple answer?
Fifth and finally, are there any general software optimizations I can do to help my computer run as efficiently as possible? I've read the excellent thread, Which "Services are required, and that has a good discussion about some of the Windows services that can be turned off. I just wonder if there's anything else I could/should do. Although my PC should be more than adequate to run MP (AMD 2.2Ghz Dual Core with 2Gb RAM), I'd like to stress the PC as little as possible since this will keep fan speeds low, and thus it will run quieter.
Sorry for the long post, I'm just trying to trying to make sure I have all "ducks in a row" before I take to the pond of MediaPortal.
It's been a long road so far and I'm still not ready. I decided to donate my current desktop PC to be the new HTPC (can't afford to buy a new one), which meant that I had to find a replacement desktop. I dusted off an old Pentium III 1.4Ghz and had to rebuild it, both hardware and software. It's been a huge PITA, reinstalling XP SP2 and the updating all the hotfixes, patches and SP3 from there, plus copying over all my files from the current desktop, but I'm finally done with that.
Now I'm currently preparing my prior desktop as the new home for MediaPortal (with all the same hotfixes, patches and SP3) and I'm wondering if there are any pitfalls, or tricks/tips that other users of MP would find worth mentioning. I also had a few questions:
First, should I run a real-time Anti-Virus solution? I don't really want to because it feels like a waste of system resources but I have a Network Attached Storage device, as well as other PC attached to a home network so there is certainly some potential risk.
Second, I've seen a lot on here about fragmentation and how it can hurt performance. There are lots of good free Defraggers out there such as JKDefrag (MyDefrag?) and the open source UltraDefrag, but I've recently discovered IOBit's SmartDefrag. The nice thing about this software (apart from the fact that it's free for personal use) is that it features real-time defragmentation (like Diskkeeper). However, my question is, is this necessary? Would I be better off just scheduling periodic defrags say in the early hours of the morning, rather than running an "always-on" solution?
Third, are there any other utilities or applications that people necessary/useful for a HTPC? I assume that running stuff like Spybot Search and Destroy or MalwareBytes Anti-Malware is pointless if you're not really using the HTPC for Internet browsing (at least, only visiting a few specific sites like Wikipedia)? I can't really think what else I'd need, although the concept of a HTPC is very different from a conventional desktop, it's really more like a black box that just runs.
Fourth, I have minor concerns about power usage. I'm guessing, although I've never checked, that a full-blown desktop PC is a little more power hungry than a regular stand-alone DVD player (even when idling). I'm conscience of my energy usage so what can I do to make sure that my HTPC unit is using as little power as possible when not in use (particularly in long periods of inactivity like when everyone is sleeping). Can MP handle things like hibernating the PC? How should I configure Windows power management settings? I've thought it might be nice to have a screensaver (say, family photos) for brief periods of inactivity but would this interfere with MP? I saw there's a power management plugin for MP, is this the simple answer?
Fifth and finally, are there any general software optimizations I can do to help my computer run as efficiently as possible? I've read the excellent thread, Which "Services are required, and that has a good discussion about some of the Windows services that can be turned off. I just wonder if there's anything else I could/should do. Although my PC should be more than adequate to run MP (AMD 2.2Ghz Dual Core with 2Gb RAM), I'd like to stress the PC as little as possible since this will keep fan speeds low, and thus it will run quieter.
Sorry for the long post, I'm just trying to trying to make sure I have all "ducks in a row" before I take to the pond of MediaPortal.
