A good home theater PC system is capable of playing back nearly all video, audio and image formats. It can access shared files from your computer or NAS and should be able to access on-line streaming content as well. There are a number of content providers from legal to not so legal.

HTPC system by Teknogeekz

At teknogeekz.com we try to give our users access to the widest array of content available so they may make their own choices about what to watch. Much like your web browser this is a web browser for video content that connects to your TV. What you do with the web browser, legal or illegal, is your business.

Without a doubt XBMC is the most complete and versatile Home Theater PC platform on the market, and its free. Unfortunately for many people free is a very good price but brings on some complications. As it is software that you install on a PC it does not just work with all bells and whistles out of the box.

Configuring add-ons, remote controls and networking the way you need it can sometimes overwhelm the novice user and what can start as a simple project evolves into months of reformatting and reconfiguring.

We at teknogeekz.com now ship XBMC based Home Theater PC Systems pre built to Mexico USA and Canada . We provide easy access to multiple repositories built in as well as our systems are pre configured to access files from our own servers for updates and new features. We also offer forums where users can share information with other users and get help that relates specifically to their system.

Find more information about our HTPC systems here.

Call or write us today for your custom HTPC system!

Although this was originally done to satisfy a remote on a Mac Mini G4 , it works under Linux and PC hardware or a Mac with no IR receiver built in. It will actually give you an Apple IR hardware sensor on any system with a USB port.

Also there is now a new post that explains how to get software support for XBMC and possibly Plex from this under linux with long key press support WITHOUT using Lirc!

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If you have an older Mac Mini or any OSX based Mac without remote such as G5, and want a quick and cheap remote control…..

Here is what I did on a Mac G4 with no IR …

I bought an IR receiver for a Macbook Pro on ebay , connected it to a USB connector by matching up the colors on the wires with standard USB color coding (changing only yellow for white). See..  USB pin-out .

I believe what I bought on Ebay was for a Mac Book Pro and from what I have seen, you want to make sure it is from a MacBook PRO and not just a MacBook. If you buy one with the cable attached it will help you to identify the pin out of the IR receiver, and make it easier to solder as the board contacts are tiny.

It works great on XBMC on a G4 Mac Mini but I have never got it to work in Frontrow , using native Apple Drivers in OSX 10.4 or 10.5. I suspect Frontrow for PowerPC is not IR enabled.

Apple IR Sensor from MacBook Pro

Apple IR Sensor solder side

As always when one has Linux, Mac, and Window, and Android (here is how I do this from Android) making a printer purchase can be tough. very few even mention Linux, and sometimes if support for any one OS is spotty then the whole thing gets frustrating very quickly.

As my old Samsung ML-1710 had died, I had my eye on lower end color laser printers and really liked both the Samsung and HP offerings. Not long ago I helped a friend to configure an HP CP-1215 on a Mac . After doing so it made a wonderful Cross platform printer although it was no longer available and I would not want to have to configure it on multiple Macs as it was tie consuming.

The newer HP and Samsung offerings offered built in network interfaces. I see this as essential for my environment. However one day while at the local office supply store I found a new contender and the price was so low for the Xerox Phaser 6125N that there was no ignoring it. It was less than half the going  price and the last one.  bThis printer was clearly intended for higher volume printing.

Xerox Phaser 6125N

A search around the web indicated that I could get a full set of replacement toners for about $50 US Dollars, and that is for all four! I have read some complaints about toner life but the biggest cost factor in a color laser is the cost of the toner .

DRIVERS:

Window and Mac drivers were a no-brainer and were included on the installation disk, however I always download the latest.

Linux driver on the other hand were a bit of  problem but not un-surmountable. Apparently the FujiXerox C525 uses the same printer language, and RPM drivers for Linux,  and with some work the Xeroxphaser 6125N was printing from Linux.

Now if you are running Redhat or other system that uses RPM based installer simply install the FujiXerox Docuprint C525 here in RPM.

For .deb users I have posted the Alien converted DEB version here.

After installing you need only add the 250 Sheet Paper tray and set this as the default source