As a side business

Tikker · Post by **Tikker** » Fri Jul 13, 2007 3:56 pm

I think I'm going to attempt to design/build/sell HTPCs as well as home networks for folks

I'd had 95% of the business planned and set to go when Ralf vanished/died

so yeah

who wants one?!?!?!

Post by **Tossica** » Fri Jul 13, 2007 4:06 pm

Tough market to get in to.

Post by **Lyion** » Fri Jul 13, 2007 4:14 pm

I'd be leery of any business involving PC hardware. Good luck with it, Tik. I have a Windows Media HTPC that I finally got perfect...

Tikker · Post by **Tikker** » Fri Jul 13, 2007 4:22 pm

Tossica wrote:Tough market to get in to.

that's why it's just a side business ;)

basically I've got a few local shops who'll contract out builds as they need them

I'm never out of pocket for parts, so essentially zero risk involved

Post by **Tossica** » Fri Jul 13, 2007 4:24 pm

The local shops handle all hardware RMAs and do the repairs themselves?

Tikker · Post by **Tikker** » Fri Jul 13, 2007 4:25 pm

you bet

as far as the end customer is concerned, I don't exist

Post by **Tossica** » Fri Jul 13, 2007 4:25 pm

Tikker wrote:you bet

as far as the end customer is concerned, I don't exist

Hmmm... what are they going to pay you to do then exactly?

Tikker · Post by **Tikker** » Fri Jul 13, 2007 4:29 pm

choose the parts, assembly, OS install/customization

this is more just a hobby for me, not a way to make real money

this way I get to play with different hardware configs without having to buy it myself

Post by **Tossica** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 9:00 am

The HD-DVD player for the 360 has XP drivers. You should start including it with your HTPCs.

10sun · Post by **10sun** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 9:28 am

You should hook up with a general contractor for the creation/installation of personalized home theaters. ie. building shelving/hiding mounts & wires for HD-TVs / speaker sets.

Post by **Lyion** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 9:58 am

Any NT Discount?

Tikker · Post by **Tikker** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 10:44 am

lyion wrote:Any NT Discount?

sure

Like I said, I'm mostly into this right now as a hobby, and as a chance to experiment with hardware/software on someone else's dime

if you want one, send me a PM with what you want to accomplish, then I can decide on parts, etc

then you can either buy the stuff and have it delivered here, or send me the money for the parts and then actually shipping to have it delivered

I'd really like to get a chance to play with solid state drives, and end up with a HTPC with virtually no moving parts at all

Gaazy · Post by **Gaazy** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 11:20 am

I have absolutely zero idea what is going on here, but it sounds fun

Tikker · Post by **Tikker** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 11:26 am

Gaazy wrote:I have absolutely zero idea what is going on here, but it sounds fun

basically, I build boxes (and the network) that allows you to replace a VCR,DVD player, TiVo with a single box

depending on what you want to do, you can also use it as a receiver, a jukebox and a killer MAME(or any emulator you like) box

Gaazy · Post by **Gaazy** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 11:34 am

Is that legal?

Tikker · Post by **Tikker** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 11:59 am

perfectly

Ndaara · Post by **Ndaara** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 2:57 pm

aha! HTPC stands for Home Theatre Personal Computer, perhaps? Now I get it! This is exactly what I decided I wanted to do, I just did not know that there was a name for it (and yes, i still hate acronyms).

I thought I wanted to do this because the speakers on our old stereo (circa 1980) stink, oddly enough, and when we went to buy a new "pair of speakers" the kids at the Big Box Shop didn't know what a Pair of Speakers is, they only know what a System is. That, and we have a couple of old computers lying around with nothing to do.

Hm.. Very cool Tik, good luck with your new business, and PM inc once we get rid of the carpenter ants! =)

Tikker · Post by **Tikker** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 3:25 pm

Ndaara wrote: That, and we have a couple of old computers lying around with nothing to do.

First one I built was out of an old p3 933 with 512 ram

you don't need a whole lot of horsepower to build a semi decent box

just shoot me an email or whatever when you're ready and we can go thru the parts box ;)

Tikker · Post by **Tikker** » Tue Jul 24, 2007 11:08 pm

this is the Bedroom HTPC

Reynaldo · Post by **Reynaldo** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 7:17 am

Looks great Tikker. Good luck with your business. I think that's a great service to provide that alot of people in this generation have no idea how to do, but would all love to have.

Post by **Tossica** » Wed Aug 01, 2007 11:15 am

What does your HTPC do that a modded Xbox won't? Not being sarcastic, I am curious.

ClakarEQ · Post by **ClakarEQ** » Wed Aug 01, 2007 11:54 am

How do you handle premium stations like HBO, etc if the tunner and DVR are built into the PC.

To my knowledge very few cable providers have actually created the hardware that goes in a PC (tv tunner) to allow premium content.

I'm not sure what more you'd be offering than what a few hours of purchased time from Best Buy (geek squad).

Menlaan · Post by **Menlaan** » Mon Aug 06, 2007 6:06 pm

Question from a friend of mine. He recently bought a Toshiba Satellite laptop w/ an integrated m'board sound card. He has noticed that playing MP3s from his laptop into his regular speakers sound worse than CDs in the stereo did. Is this due to the lack of a regular soundcard, the poor quality of MP3s in general, or both? Something else?

Post by **Tossica** » Mon Aug 06, 2007 6:19 pm

MP3's are crap unless you are recording 320Ks.

Harrison · Post by **Harrison** » Mon Aug 06, 2007 6:37 pm

Depends on the speakers, if the stereo doubles as a pre-amp or some shit, you're not going to get the same sound as a stereo with a straight signal with no boost to the speakers.

The soundcard very well might suck ass but, I doubt that with a new Satellite honestly.

MP3 quality drops off a lot noticeably before 256k, but I doubt that's the problem.