Avid Hardware

Hardware-wise, there is nothing particularly exciting about the set-up.

There is a server PC, a Pocket PC as remote control, and a regular wide-screen TV.

Although the TV of course has its own tuner, this is not used - everything that is displayed on its screen, and played through its speakers, comes from the Avid server computer's VGA video-out and audio-out ports. The audio is also wired to the HiFi system for when playing radio and music.

Currently the power to the TV (i.e. its on/off switch) must unfortunately still be controlled by the TV's own infrared remote control. As yet I have no alternative to this.

The Pocket PC is a Dell Axim - the cheapest I could find.

The two most interesting things about the server PC are:

• It has a nice looking case, which is designed for use in a living room environment. It has a beautiful brushed aluminium front, and looks just fine under the TV. See Accent Home Theatre PC Cases.
• It is very quiet, as it uses a number of silencing techniques and products.

Other than that it is fairly ordinary:

• Asus A7N8X motherboard - with a good range of built-in facilities and good on-board sound, which is used when driving the TV's speakers.
• AMD XP2600 - seriously under-clocked as I don't yet need the power, and so can keep down the temperature and fan noise. This is cooled by a Zalman Flower, which is about as quiet as they come.
• 512MB SDRAM
• An IBM Deskstar (140GB). I chose that firstly because it allows me to monitor the running temperature of the drive, which is installed into a SilentDrive enclosure and I need to ensure it runs cool enough, and secondly, its software allows you to change the Automatic Acoustic Management setting which almost entirely eliminates the "clicking" head seek noise with only a small loss in performance.
• An NEC ND3500AG DCD-+R/RW that will read and write and DVD or CD format. This replaces an earlier generic unbranded DVD/CD drive.
• A Sapphire ATI 9600 Ultimate video card. This is passively cooled -  Remember - fans make noise!. The 9600 drives the VGA which is directly connected to the Scart socket of the TV via a cable constructed to these instructions). This requires the use of PowerStrip software to generate TV-compatible timing. The TV then becomes a regular VGA monitor, with a screen resolution of 960*540. This replaces the earlier ATI 7500, which was good enough quality while also remaining passively cooled. This drove the TV only through an S-video connector - there is no PC screen on the VGA port - and ran at 800*600, which is legible (just) on the TV.
• An Audiophile 2496 sound card, which drives speakers other than on the TV, for listening to music at higher quality (and throughout the house),
• A DigiTV card from Nebula Electronics. As soon as their software allows, I will add a second DigiTV card. This will allow me to watch one program while recording another. Currently doing this requires use of a second computer with its own DigiTV card.
• Cordless mouse and keyboard. These are hardly used, but are needed for some set-up and administration tasks. The Ultra mouse from Gyration is good, as you can wave it about in the air, and don't need a flat surface.

The networking comprises:

• A 100MB wired LAN (good for copying a 4GB film around).
• ADSL connection to the Internet
• A single 802.11b (Wi-Fi) access point on the LAN, with a CF card for the Pocket PC.

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