On this guide I  wanted to talk about how I’ve managed to setup a media centre at home on a shoe-string budget by re-using lots of old and aging tech.  This budget media centre has been setup for years now, and has worked extremely well for music, media, music and the internet.

In terms of hardware you’ll need the following.

• Aging Laptop. An old recycled laptop from yester-year. Nothing expensive and ideally it’ll have a minimum of 1GB RAM and Pentium Mobile 1.6Mhz.  You don’t need to worry about wireless connectivity as we’ll use a better solution. It also needs to have 2 USB ports.  You can pick up a ThinkPad T41 from ebay for £100-£150.
• Microsoft MCE remote – you’ll use this as your remote to control the media PC. You can pick these up from ebay for around £10 if you don’t already have one.  I had one provided with my desktop PC,  but never used it, so it was a freebie for me.
• Microsoft MCE Keyboard – this is a wonderful media centre keyboard.  It’s fully functional, light-weight and easily slips under the sofa when not in use. It uses the remote receiver mentioned above to connect to the PC.  The touch-pointer mouse takes a bit of getting used to,  but once you get the hang of it, it’s very easy to navigate.  This isn’t an essential piece of hardware, but does make life easier when the laptop is hidden away under the TV.  You can pick one up for around £20-30.
• HomePlug Ethernet Adapters. These wonderful devices allow you to use your network over the power lines in your house.  I’ve found this much more reliable than Wireless networks.   You can pick them up for around £40 from Amazon.  You simply plug one end next to the media centre laptop, and the other end into your wireless router.   These are perfect for streaming media over the internet. You’ll also need an RJ45 network cable to connect the laptop to the HomePlug.
• VGA cable connector.  We’re going to be using the VGA port available on the back of many new TVs.  You’ll need this for hooking up your Laptop to your TV.
• Audio Cable. You should be able to use the headphone socket on the laptop if you get a cable to connect the audio to the TV – the VGA cable above will only send the video.  The most likely cable you’ll need here is a 3.5mm stereo plug to 2 phono-connectors.   But check what your TV or amplifier needs.

In terms of software,  I currently use and can highly recommend the following.  There is plenty of media centre software around,  but I really like Meedio for its simplicity and tweak-ability.

• Windows XPSP3. I love Windows XP for its stability and support for so much media software. I’ve tried Linux based Media centres,  but I always come back to this.  If you have an older copy, it’s best to reinstall it fresh onto the Laptop so you can tightly control what you install.
• Meedio.  This is the main Media Playing software we’ll use.  I’ve been using it for years with no problems. I’ve always found it fast and reliable as a media centre on an aging PC.   There is a wealth a plugins and skins so you can change it to however you like. The main codebase isn’t currently available on the website as it’s been ported to the open source MeediOS.  However, you can still download the latest and greatest version of Meedio here.  You’ll soon be able to download the open source MeediOS here.
• VLC Media Player. You can either download all of the codecs you’ll need, or simply download VLC.   This has all of the codecs you’ll need, and Meedio can be configured to use this player inside it.  I’m a huge fan of VLC and it works really well with Meedio. If your media won’t play with this,  it probably won’t play with anything.  Download it here.
• RemoteKC. I’ve talked about this before on voato.  This will allow you to use your MCE remote control as a mouse and keyboard. It’s really useful when you have to type some text into a search box.  You can download it from here.

Step 1 Install Windows XP. You don’t need to connect up any of the hardware just yet.  Install a fresh copy of Windows XP onto the laptop.  If you’ve already got a copy installed you need to switch off as many applications as you like, and clean up the laptop to make it run as fast as possible.  There is another article on voato which will help you clean up an older installation of XP.  The best tool mentioned here is TuneUp Utilities which you can use to switch off lots of the unused Windows Services. Don’t bother to install antivirus software, it only slows it down.  Always download media and software using a different machine which does have AV software installed. You’ll need to turn off all the auto updates. and security centre to stop it nagging you.   You can follow this guide for how to do that.

Step 2 Install all the software. Download and install VLC media player first. Meedio relies on the VLC software and CODECS for playing video so I’ve always found it best to install this first.  This is a great feature of Meedio and I’ve always found it to be highly reliable for playing media using VLC.   Also,  since VLC can usually play any format,   it means that Meedio too should have no trouble with many formats.   Once VLC has completed installation, you should then install  the Meedio software.

Step 3 Configure Meedio. Once Meedio finishes installation,  there are a couple of options you need to configure.  You can access the Meedio Configuration application to configure the location of your music, video and pictures.  You can also change the sequence of the menus and add additional applications to the menus.

The two main things you need to configure at this point are the VLC media player and remote control.   To configure Meedio to use VLC player, go to Full-time plug-ins and ensure VLC Plug-in is checked.

To configure the MCE remote and keyboard, you need to download and install the MyMCEE plugin. I’ve saved a copy here for you to download. To install the Plugin simply double click the downloaded files to run the plugin executable, Once installed, select Input from the main configuration screen to make sure that MyMCEE is selected as below.  This will then allow you to use your MCEE remote and keyboard with Meedio.

Step 4 Hook up the hardware. The main thing you need to consider here is where your new Media Centre laptop will be located.  Ensure you don’t hide it neatly away in a cupboard, as it will soon overheat.  Under the TV cupboard  is ideal. Plug the VGA cable into the back of the TV, and also the audio cable.  Plug in the Infra-red MCE receiver into one of the USB ports. Finally connect the home-plug to the PC using a network cable and ensure that the other home-plug is connected to your router.  You may also need to ensure that all your media is “shared” on your main PC.

Step 5 Launch Meedio and enjoy your media. If you’ve done all of the above correctly, you should be able to fire up Meedio and navigate all your media using the MCEE remote.  There are dozens of great configurations you can use with Meedio, including web browsers, BBC iPlayer, YouTube any many more.

Useful Sites
Browse All Plugins for Meedio
Meedio Forum

Meedio Mirrors
Meedio-Ultimate_1.2_Beta.part1.rar
Meedio-Ultimate_1.2_Beta.part2.rar

Extend wireless router range

The speed you get out of your wireless router is hugely dependent on what’s between it, and your laptop.   And, since routers are usually “Omni-directional”, meaning it radiates the signal in all directions,  much of that radiation can be lost if the router is against a wall or hidden in a bookcase. You could spend up to £40 for an antenna extender but with this simple little Freetime Fix-Up you’ll be able to significantly boost the distance and quality of signal by around 5-20%. Some people have reported a doubling of router signal.

All you need is some aluminium foil, glue, some card and the template below.  With this simple guide, you need to create a mirror (a parabola) to reflect the radio waves to a direction in the house which is more useful for you.

No more dead-zones in the house or garden!

Download the template by clicking the image below.

Visit freeantennas.com for more information.

Standard Sky+HD boxes come with a 300GB disc,  but 160GB is effectively dead weight as it’s used for Sky Anytime content, leaving you with a mere 140GB.

The first option is to try and use the eSATA connection on the back of the box. There has been some reported successes, but the port on the back of the Sky+HD box is reportedly only for “future features” and possibly only supports Anytime functionality.

The other option is to crack open the box and fit a larger SATA disc inside.   Clearly this invalidates your warranty on the box,  and you should attempt this at your own risk. If you screw it up, you only have yourself to blame.  However,  there are a number of recorded successes in this DIY approach.  All you will need is a Philips screw driver,  a suitable replacement drive of your choice (check for differences between Pace and Thompson drives), a couple of knives for prising open the box, and and make sure you have grounded yourself before opening the box.  You’ll also need a lot of patience.

You may also find an unexpected benefit of changing the disk of your Sky+HD box is it’s a lot quieter than the old disk.

Have you successfully upgraded your Sky+HD box?

Visit here to upgrade Pace Sky+HD hard disk to get extra storage.

Visit here to upgrade Thompson Sky+HD hard disk to get extra storage.