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All the pieces of my HTPC are coming together this week and I'm excited to start setting it all up. One thing I'm not sure about is the what wireless keyboard and mouse to get. Since this is going to be in the living room I want it to look good. I also was hoping to get a keyboard with a trackpad on it so I don't need the mouse. Any suggestions?

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I use the keyboard in this picture from HP (sorry I don't know the model number - will try to remember to look when I get home) - it's simple, full featured (without too much crap) and works great. I also use the remote in that picture too - for both my HP HTPC and my Sony media extender - it works great, and it's nice to have the same remote in two rooms.

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So I decided to ignore all your suggestions and went with this keyboard and this mouse.

I really need a real mouse because I will probably end up playing a few games on there. This mouse was chosen because I have a glass coffee table. The keyboard is minimalistic and small, and has a cool glowing backlight.

I already have a remote which came with the pc enclosure which has the directional keypad and the media center button. All the pieces are coming in tomorrow. I'll post pics up at some point with a video of course.

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So I decided to ignore all your suggestions and went with this keyboard and this mouse.

I really need a real mouse because I will probably end up playing a few games on there. This mouse was chosen because I have a glass coffee table. The keyboard is minimalistic and small, and has a cool glowing backlight.

I already have a remote which came with the pc enclosure which has the directional keypad and the media center button. All the pieces are coming in tomorrow. I'll post pics up at some point with a video of course.

We use a very similar mouse here at work. Once you get use to that scroll wheel, all others seem very cheap and limiting.

The keyboard looks great!

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Ya, the Dinovo Mini looks really nice and compact. If only it had xbox360 support it would be perfect but not a big deal. I think that's the way to go. Cnet video review here: http://reviews.cnet....7-32784878.html

I have the Dinovo Edge for Mac -- it is really awesome for my Mac mini which I'm using as my MMC for my home. I'm really impressed by the keyboard and it is really nice to have a trackpad built in rather than to have a mouse. Honestly, for a MMC, the biggest problem I have with a separate mouse is that you never have a usable surface when you need one -- so you end up with another accessory - a freakn mouse pad -- so I'm really happy with the Edge's built in trackpad.

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Yeah I use a Xbox 360 for media browsing. I'm not sure if it is classified as a HTPC or not. I like your solution but it's hard to beat a 360 for $200 you get all you need to be connected to a HDMI supported tv, and content sent via a ethernet connection. If you want the wireless route it's like an extra $100 for the official adapter but for me wired is fine.

The interface for browsing media isn't the greatest but I have it broken up into a directory structure for videos, and music supports playlists. Also using TVersity you can stream any video/audio source in any resolution and have it converted to what the 360 supports on the fly. TVersity also supports streaming podcasts, youtube and hulu (pro version for hulu). And did I mention the 360 is a 360? and plays original xbox games (that are like $5-10 used).

The 360 also supports streaming media through netflix (if you are a gold member). And soon it will have integration for Last.fm, twitter, and facebook.

...no I don't work for Microsoft...

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Yeah I use a Xbox 360 for media browsing...

Ya, I appreciate all that. The whole point of this exercise for me is, I just like tinkering and building of this stuff. I can always upgrade components as I see fit. Also I can add various tuner cards later and replace my cable box. So it's the process, the learning and playing around...

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Ya, I appreciate all that. The whole point of this exercise for me is, I just like tinkering and building of this stuff. I can always upgrade components as I see fit. Also I can add various tuner cards later and replace my cable box. So it's the process, the learning and playing around...

Yeah no I understand I wasn't trying to say this is the only option and everyone must use an Xbox for their media center needs. I dabbled a bit with building my own HTPC. I wanted to make one out of a miniITX, or PicoITX board.

I think a great site for ideas is http://www.mini-itx.com/ they have all kinds of odd projects people have done putting PCs in just about every thing.

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  • 2 months later...

Hi Michael

Quite Jealous as i have been interested in HTPC for some time now. Have you decided what software / front end you are going to use? Please say you are going to design it all in LV as it is something I have always like to do as I believe it is feasable and highly customisable :D Other ones that I have played with have been

Media Portal www.team-mediaportal.com - Alternative to Windows media centre and I found it very slick

Myth TV (Mythbuntu) - Never got working to its full potential, prob the most powerfull

GeexBox www.geexbox.org- Really small front end bootable of a USB Stick!!! <--in dev and has been for some time but quite promising!

Oh and the original XBMC (XBOX Media Centre) on the original(ish) XBOX, which was V good and i would still be using it but needed a HD source.

Another which may be of interest is the XBMC ported onto ubuntu which looks very promising.

The thing i found with all of these is that they all sacrificed cosy looking skins over performance. When im browsing music i do not necessarily want all the album art!! Hence a custom LV front end would be amazing. Might be very easy to launch say VLC media player from the command line with arguments from LV ;)

In the end i settled for a popcorn hour www.popcornhour.com untill I can afford some decent hardware and have some spare time!

Craig

EDIT - Just noticed the thread is a few months old - you are probably up and running by now :)

Edited by oldskool
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  • 10 months later...

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