Escaping - 221/365

Escaping - 221/365, originally uploaded by morberg.

A photo from Ramatuelle, France during our recent vacation there.

Software for a Vista based HTPC

I've done a couple of posts on my HTPC setup in the past and I'm now quite happy with the way my system is setup. Since I don't do backup (yes, I know I should, but there really isn't much to save on the HTPC should it crash) I figured I should list the software I'm using in one place. I don't use the media center for anything but watching/recording TV and movies. So here it is, Niklas Morberg's guide to software needed for a Vista based media center:

• Vista Media Center. Not much to add here, I've tried a couple of alternatives, but I think this works really well. Especially together with:
• Mediabrowser which is the best plug-in ever. I use VMC to record and watch TV and Mediabrowser for everything else. I love it.
• MC Menu Mender to remove stuff from the media center UI that I don't use (and set mediabrowser as the default choice)
• DVDFab HD Decrypter for ripping DVD:s (the built-in drive makes too much noise when viewing DVD:s directly)
• External USB drive with ripped DVD:s
• CCCP codec pack to play back pretty much anything
• uTorrent and SCRU to get and unpack pretty much anything
• 7-zip to handle compressed files
• Firefox with xmarks add-on for bookmark synching between computers
• AutoHotKey to switch sound device, audio streams, and subtitles with the remote
• TightVNC for remote controlling with laptop (my original blog entry on the matter)

So not a massive collection, but still some extra stuff needed to get the HTPC to do what I want.

Martini - 83/365

Martini - 83/365, originally uploaded by morberg.

I think this image turned out really nice. Head on over to flickr for more and a setup shot in the first comment.