I bought the Hauppauge PVR150MCE edition. Why did I not just get the normal edition? I think the name sounded cooler at the time or something. Sigh.

SO anyways, there I was with my copy of Windows XP (just plain old vanilla XP, not MCE) and this darn Vista Remote/Reciever. I plug in the reciever and get a New Device found, which it picks up to be the eHome Infrared Transceiver. Automatic updates doesn’t find anything. So I start googling away, and get more and more depressed and frustrated over the course of about 2 hours. I find a slew of forum posts saying that you should be able to install the Rollup 2 for Windows Media Centre and it will install the correct drivers sweet.

Wrong! Epicly wrong. Times ten. After trying every single combination of random drivers and Updates etc etc the bloody thing was still not working. Why on earth can their not be a simple, Windows XP driver lurking out there???

In the end I ended up editing the INF file for the irblaster drivers by adding the unrecognized device id to the file. Will post up details later. Probably not the best solution but I was able to use HID to program all the remotes functions and mesh it up with GBPVR.

If only I didn’t have a husband that likes watching SKY so much, I could have it all set up by now!! But a certain someone can’t live without un-interrupted TV viewing

My new home theatre PC!! I have no idea why it has taken me so long to get this up and running. I guess a lack of free PC carcasses!!

The original bits (ex Dell Dimension 8400)…

• 1GB(2×512) NECC Dual Channel DDR2 533MHz SDRAM Memory
• 256MB PCIe(TM) x16 nVidia(R) GeForce(TM) 6800 w/TV-Out and DVI
• Intel Pentium 4 530 (3 GHz)
• Sound Blaster(R) Live!(TM) 24-bit Sound Card 5.1
• One rather ugly but opens nicely Dell Clamshell case

The bits I’m adding:

• 500GB Western Digital HDD SATA2 7200RPM 16MB ($172)
• Hauppauge PVR-150 TV tuner card with IR blaster and media remote ($132)
• 54Mbps Wireless Network Card 802.11g (free with new wireless purchase for parents!)
• Lite-on LH-20A1P 20X ATA Dual DVDRW ($37.23)

And a new addition to our little home network will be my folks old wireless router. Im buying them a Linksys WRT150N Wireless-N Router which has some good reviews and hopefully the wireless wont drop out like it did on the old Belkin one all the time.

So thats $341 all up, pretty sweet deal (thanks ma and pa) for a 500GB dvd recorder/new pc!! Im very stoked about it cant wait to get it up and running on our TV. To compare to local prices, a 160GB DVD recorder with no extra features (ie not upgradable, no PC functions, not networkable etc etc) is $549 at DSE at the moment.

I am very, very tempted to splurge out on this sexy, sexy keyboard…

Its rechargeable and would look so good on our coffee table. I also love the fact it has a touch pad thing on the bottom right which mostly eliminates the need for a wireless mouse… browsing the internet from the comfort of the couch has a huge appeal to me, hehe especially after work. Ahh I’m such a nerd.