Custom Home Theater PC

HTPC_screenshot Thought you might find this project interesting.  I have an old laptop connected to the PC input on my HDTV.  I use XBMC or Boxee for viewing my movie archives; Picasa3 for viewing home movies and pictures; iTunes for music through my home theater sound system (and iPhone syncing); and Miro for viewing EZRSS torrents.  With TightVNC, I use my netbook as a remote (no satisfaction from my iPhone remote apps except for the Boxee remote).  Since I see the laptop only on the big screen, I wanted to easily navigate to the media through the appropriate program or website.  So, I made a webpage.  Great, except that I couldn’t execute computer programs from it.  Converted it to a Powerpoint SlideShow which works, but I don’t have or want Office on my HTPC.  Converted HTPC.pss to HTPC.exe and I have an app I’m going to alpha test for a bit.  There are links to my computer (standard install locations) for XBMC, Boxee, iTunes, Miro, Tivo Desktop, and Picasa3.  On the web I have FindInternetTV, YouTubeXL, RadioTime, last.fm, Pandora, Hulu, Tivo.com, Yahoo! TV Listings, and facebook (for viewing our friends’ pictures).  As an iPhone lover, I have inappropriately procured a few of their icons and their basic layout (sans captions).  Once I’ve lived with it a bit, added a configuration utility and non-proprietary icons, I hope to sourceforge it.  What do you think?

Update 2009 08 20 Tried it on my HTPC without Power Point Viewer and the exe file didn’t work but asked for an Office key.  So much for portability.  (Not that I’ve given up.)

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