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At this point this all file types and HD-DVD/blu-ray should be working.
This is a clean blank set up and I should (though I never do) back up/take an image, whatever..

Everything OK - Media Center Set-up -sort out the guide listings.
Scan for channels
Do a manual scan on 10714.00 H, 22000 for Channel4 and Film4 +1
See this link for all the freesat channels with frequencies - http://en.kingofsat.net/tv-28.2E.php.

If desired, tweak registry for ITV HD.

Because ITV HD is a red button interactive service it needs to be set up as a separate channel.
Vista will not see it when doing a channel scan unless MHEG (red button) on DVB-S is enabled.
Run regedit and browse to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionMedia CenterSettingsTVConfig
Change the value of “fAllowDvbsMHEG” from 0 to 1.

Do a manual satellite scan with the values: 11428, 27500, H.
A few new channels should be found including 10510 which is ITV HD.
(If you don’t find these try 11426 and 11427 instead of 11428.)

Rename channel 10510 to ITV HD by going to the guide and highlighting the 10510 channel name before using “More Info” to edit the channel.
You can then use the rename channel option to set it to be ITV HD.

Q. I’ve been watching ITV HD and have switched to BBC HD and the screen fades to black after a second, what’s going on?
A. No one is quite sure. However, this is easy to fix by pressing Stop and then Live TV again. If this does not work then close the Media Center application before re-opening it.

Check Guide listings present
Scan for the channels the standard scan doesn’t

Finally, Tweak the menus - If you want to!

Back to the Software…

My last hardware update was bubbling under for quite a while. My graphics card was good, but I wanted better, more efficient HD playback.
An article be Jeff Atwood on just that “Easy, Efficient Hi-Def Video Playback” was the final push necessary.
In it Jeff decribes a great solution, using a magic DLL from Media Player Classic Home Cinema (http://mpc-hc.sourceforge.net/).

1. download the standalone MPC-HC filters.
2. Extract MPCVideoDec.ax and copy it into c:windowssystem32
3. Open a command prompt, navigate to c:windowssystem32, and run regsvr32 MPCVideoDec.ax

Jeff also indicated that he needed to use something like Radlight Filter Manager to assign H.264/AVC, but when I go to this step it was already selected.

Unfortunately I still needed FDDShow Audio Decoder to correctly handle AC3 and DTS over SPDIF for all file formats.
I installed the CCCP Pack, as this is what I had always installed previously, but it may be overkill if the magic dll does all that is supposed (and seems) to do.
Some investigation is probably required here, but for now things are working.

Prior to the Media Player Classic Home Cinema solution, I’d swear by the CCCP Pack, an excellent codec/filter package.

I hate the lack of options when it comes to Blu-ray playback. The options consist of the most unstable, unreliable software releases I have ever encountered.
Until recently I have gone with Power DVD, but I’m now running with Arcsoft TotalMedia Theatre due to it’s better integration with Media Center and the option to down sample Dolby True HD, which my current amplifier cannot handle. At this point we have a clean install, now is the time to install it (and the only point I’ve ever had it reliably work). I’m still not convinced on the repeatability of this, but I’m giving it a go.

MST Standby tool (http://slicksolutions.eu/mst.shtml) - simply the simplest and best tool for making sure your stand by and resume settings are correct (HTPC or otherwise)
LED Driver tool (http://slicksolutions.eu/ledsdriver.shtml) - This is a great application from Herman van Eijk (http://slicksolutions.eu/), who wrote MST Standby. When combined with a very simply DIY project (http://www.degroeneknop.nl/forum/index.php/topic,4809.0.html), this can turn you HTPC into a much more living room friendly DVR.

AnyDVD HD - You just need it.

Deamon tools lite or Virtual CloneDrive - I’m still undecided on which.

Media Browser plug-in - need to tweak configuration so My Videos is not the root folder containing my library

Tuner Free MCE plug-in

Back to the operating system and drivers…
On to the Media Center Software…

So everything is put together and connected up…

Install O/S - blitz main partition/primary drive. (If this is a re-install you’re fine, because all you media is on the second drive.)
Nothing to say about this bit. Follow the prompts and make a brew in between.

Start up and deal with any primary drivers not installed automatically.

Obviously the main focus here is the Motherboard, Graphics card and Sound. Though in my current set-up the Vista install picked up everything straight away and correctly.
(Even the BIOS, which though wasn’t the latest, was up to date for the processor I was running.)

NB Initially I answered yes to ACHI SATA configuration, but felt latter that this may have been the cause of the system occasionally freezing. I hadn’t pre-installed a specific windows driver for this first, which seemed (from reading around) to be required. The feature wasn’t something I particularly wanted at present, so it was easier just to go back to IDE mode.

The only hardware element I needed to install was the TV Card.
I went for the latest drivers straight from the Black and Gold website.

As things currently stand, the most irritating bit of an install is with the Media Center TV Pack for Windows Vista (Fiji). Not because it’s difficult, just because it’s not seamless. Despite it being a legitimate and supported OEM update (at least most of it and you can’t just get it from legitimate channels) , it does feel a little messy, though saying that, installing MCE form the original media was even less well strung together.

As ever, the green button and av forum has the low down on the TV Pack.

Prerequisites:
A PC meeting the minimum hardware requirements for Windows Vista
Clean install of Windows Vista Home Premium or Ultimate with Service Pack 1

Installation Instructions:

1. Windows Media Center TV Pack 2008 (x86)
2. Install the PlayReady PC Runtime (x86)
3. Install the following patches from the Download Center (both of these are included in the ZIP file)
KB951685 - The video playback application stops responding when you watch video or Live TV on a Windows Vista-based computer
KB950754 - Noticeable problems occur in the video when you use the DirectSound renderer on Windows Vista
4. Install any required or recommended Windows Updates

And even when you’ve installed that, you need to re-enable HD content.
HD Driver Hack H.264

Move “My” folders to the second drive.

Back to the hardware…
On to the Software…

My hardware desirements currently consist of:

• Silverstone LC14MC Case
• Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-US2H, AMD 780G
• AMD Athlon 64 X2 5050e, Socket AM2
• 2GB DDR2-800 PC2-6400
• LG GGC H20L Blu-Ray/HD-DVD Rom Combo Drive
• BlackGold BGT3540 DVB-S and DVB-T tuner card
• Media Center IR Receiver
• 2 Hard Drives

I prefer two drives, but this is not essential. I like to separate the operating system from the media. I have found that the additional set-up steps is far out weighed by the simplicity to reinstall cleanly and quickly if necessary. As I said, I tinker, so occasionally I want to blast things back to basics with minimal interruption.
You could also partition a single drive for the same benefit, but I read somewhere that having a second physical drive for data read/writes improves performance.
Being that my HTPC is primarily a digital video recorder (DVR), this seemed to ring true.

I modified the case, replacing the hard drive indicator LED with one that runs from a COM port header. Just being able to visually see the operating mode as coloured light makes the unit feel much more like a set-top box.

This is connected to an AV amplifier via SPDIF and a 46″ 1080p HD LCD TV via DVI.
(Previous hardware did not have HDMI and as I didn’t/don’t need audio to the screen, DVI was fine - so that’s the cable in the wall. With hindsight, Not very future proof.)

Back…
On to the Operating system and drivers…

I wanted to put together a set of instructions for a Home Theatre PC destined to fit into the living room and be accepted as part of the TV as opposed to a computer.
There are a couple of little tricks that are outside the install wizards that I think make things work that little bit better.

I have done this a few times now (because I can’t resist tinkering), sometimes from notes and sometimes from memory, but I wanted to capture and collect the nuances (if any).
Actually, the process has become simpler as the software support has improved and I have moved from Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 (MCE) to Windows Media Center within Vista Home Premium (VMC). I’ve stuck to 32-bit builds of the operating systems, partly because of the issues I’ve read on drivers and partly because the H.264 functionality for the Fiji TV Pack is so far only 32-bit. I am currently experimenting with a 64-bit build of Windows 7, but that’s for another day.

The instructions here are particular to my hardware configuration, but only in the finer detail. The general process steps have remained consistent even when the hardware and software has varied. The building blocks of what you need for a HTPC are pretty constant.

PC with TV tuner and optical media drive
Operating system and drivers
Software to play stuff, such as Mpeg decoder, codecs and filters
The Media Center Software

All of this stuff is out there to be searched for and I’ve tried to include the appropriate links at the appropriate points.

On to the hardware…