Bigger is better, right? People buying shiny new TVs always struggle as to how big a TV you should buy. With the prices of HDTVs falling, people can afford to buy bigger and bigger TVs.

To help everyone find the right size TV, THX has developed a quick process for calculating the optimum viewing distance for 1080p HDTVs.

• Step 1: Measure the diagonal screen size
• Step 2: Divide by .84

Basically, the methodology revolves around preserving a 40 degree viewing angle between where you sit and the width of your TV. I personally think this is kind of crazy. Take a 42″ TV. Dividing 42 by 0.84 gives you 50 inches. The optimum viewing distance is just over 4 feet! Talk about going blind.

To watch a movie 10 feet away from the screen, you would need over a 100 inch screen according to the good folks a THX. Wow. I suddenly feel very inadequate.

Before I originally bought the the antenna, a tuner card, and BeyondTV, I looked at Antennaweb.org to see if I was able to get any over the air broadcast HD channels. For the most part I am able to get every channel you would expect. However, a couple channels are a pain to watch.

Broadcast HD programming does not get “snow” if you get bad reception. It just doesn’t show. In some cases, it is like watching streaming video, with constant buffering. Recently, I got the great idea that I should run coxial cable through the walls upstairs to my attic and hope that improves the reception. I would still use the Silver Sensor, but it would just sit in the attic instead of my office. I know the best thing would be to have an outside antenna but I just do not want to install one.

I have no idea whether reception would improve if I put an antenna in the attic. Before I rip open my walls to run cable, I am going to test it out though by running the cable up the stairs. I figure that is the low tech way of seeing if I am an idiot or not, without having patch holes throughout my house.

Missingremote.com has a great article on how to add a HD-DVD or Blu-ray drive to your media center computer. Computer drives for the next generation of DVDs have dropped and price and are actually somewhat reasonable. Based on the article this is what you need to watch the next generation of DVDs on you computer:

1. Microsoft Vista (XP can work but is limited)
2. A video card that supports HDCP (if you want to use your DVI/HDMI connector)
3. Cyberlink’s PowerDVD Ultra Player
4. A HD-DVD or Blu-ray drive (the article uses the Xbox 360 add-on drive connected to a PC).

One thing I learned from the article is that Cyberlink has a Blu-ray or HD-DVD advisor tool to see if your current hardware set-up can play those movies. The article did not discuss how to rip HD-DVD or Blu-ray discs to a computer, something that is very useful for a media center. Maybe that will be their next guide.

The Snapstream blog has posted a video overview of the set-up process for their Beyond TV software. From the post:

This demonstration focuses on the process of setting up Beyond TV. A quick overview of what is covered in the video:

• installing and setting up a USB TV tuning device
• downloading and installing Beyond TV
• setting up Beyond TV

More companies should have videos like this, especially in the media center/htpc world. I use Beyond TV on my Dell 24″ monitor as a second TV. I did struggle alittle bit with the ATSC installation. For the non-techie, such an installation could be intimidating. This video shows how easy the installation is to complete.

Most people assume you need either cable or DirecTV to get high definition television channels. In every major city in the U.S., the major television networks broadcast in high definition (1080i or 720p). Reception of this high definition signal is free and requires two things: an ASTC HD tuner and an antenna. A tuner can either be built into a TV, be a separate tuner box, or, in the case of a computer, a separate PCI tuner card or USB tuner. The antenna can be either an indoor or outdoor antenna.

My current set-up is for a second TV in my house. I am using a Dell 24″ computer monitor, a VBox’s Cat’s Eye DTA-150, and a Silver Sensor indoor antenna. I am about 14 miles away from the broadcast towers. I can get most of the major networks with the indoor antenna, though at times the reception is spotty. With broadcast HD, bad reception is like watching a choppy internet video. Digital broadcasts are an all or nothing endeavor, there is no “snow” as with analog reception.

So is broadcast HD reception for you? That depends. For computers and laptops, I think it is a great alternative, especially since most computer monitors are close to being high definition in terms of resolution. For less than $100, you can turn your computer into a HDTV. For a large screen TV in a basement or a living room, I would be more hesitant of using an indoor antenna. If you are over 10 miles from a broadcast tower, I would highly recommend an outdoor antenna. Installation is more difficult (i.e. how do you get the antenna connection indoors) but the cost of the antenna is fairly cheap (under $60). Antennaweb.org is a good site to find out how far you are from your local broadcast towers. Antennasdirect.com has a wide selection of outdoor antennas.

I have written several posts about over the air high definition reception. These articles should answer many questions you may have about HD reception.

1. 6 Tips to receive HDTV over-the-air on a PC - Learn more about the steps needed to get HD reception for a computer.
2. 5 tips on watching broadcast HDTV on your laptop - An overview of USB tuners and portable antennas.
3. Two websites for over-the-air high definition television broadcasts in your zipcode - Two tools to see if broadcast HD is for you.
4. Vista HTPC with CableCard: What does it really get you? - Overview of HD cable.
5. Picture frame antenna for high definition reception - Make your antenna blend into your home office.

1. Last.fm - Last.fm is essentially a web-based, user-programmed radio station. The system builds a detailed profile of each user’s musical taste, showing their favourite artists and songs on a customizable profile webpage, comprising the songs played on its stations selected via a collaborative filter, or optionally, recorded by a Last.fm plugin installed into its users’ music playing application.The tiny application runs in the background, tracking your playlists in iTunes and other popular players. It then streams a playlist made up of songs by artists similar to the ones you like based on similar tastes of other Last.fm users.
2. iLike - The main tool in iLike is the iTunes sidebar which can be downloaded and installed once you signup with the site. The iLike sidebar is an iTunes plugin that adds a sidebar to iTunes and provides music recommendations based on what you’re listening to at the time. The sidebar also syncs to and updates your iLife profile so others know what you’re listening to (more or less just like Last.fm).
3. Qloud. Qloud music search allows a number of search options as users can search for music by artist, song, keyword, genre or a number of other criteria. Upon finding a song it can be previewed, added to a wishlist, sent to a friend or purchased from a number of different music services. Qloud enables users to better organize music collections with tagging via the use of the Qloud iTunes Plugin. Upon installing the Qloud iTunes Plugin I found it could definitely help to find music within iTunes.This is my least favorite of the three sites on this list.

1. 
   nMediaPC HTPC 100 Silver Steel ($99). A microATX case that is rated as being only 38 decibals. Very nice.
2. 
   Antec NSK2400 ($95). Being 17.5″ wide, this case would look great with other stereo equipment. It has two internal drive bays for hard drives.
3. 
   nMediaPC HTPC-200 ($99.99). This case normally sells for $120 from Newegg but a $20 rebate drops it to my price threshold. This case is also a microATX case. Many reviews indicate that you should use a DVD drive that is shorter in length from a manuafacturer like Lite-on or Benq.

• Pricewatch.com – A good guide to online computer stores. Focusing on non-sale items, this is a good site to determine whether or not you are getting a good deal from one of the sites listed below. The prices on this site makes you realize how expensive Best Buy and CompUSA really are for tech stuff.
• Slickdeals.net – An online forum where people post good deals. The site has more than just tech items though it is pretty tech heavy. A portion of the site is dedicated to Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving).
• Fatwallet.com – Similar to Slickdeals. In addition to forums, it also offers a rewards/ cash back program.
• Dealcatcher.com – A slightly more focused site which allows you to search by store. A good resource for sales at Dell and the ever popular Newegg.

1. Purchase a USB adapter HD tuner and portable antenna. Articles on the Pinnacle HD Pro Stick have been making their way around the blogosphere. It comes with a portable antenna so you can use it with your laptop when you’re on the road and it also comes with an A/V adapter that’ll let you hook up a cable/satellite set-top box straight to the Pro Stick. Slightly bigger than a thumbdrive, it is pricey at $129. For my money, Artec makes a similar product for about half the price though the include antenna is larger than the HD Pro Stick.
2. Many portable antennas are not very “powerful” with only a range of around 10 miles to the broadcast tower. If you are not traveling, consider getting a larger indoor antenna.
3. It is generally not possible to receive an ATSC signal while en route (e.g. in a car or train).
4. Buy a newspaper. Without an internet connection, you won’t be able to download the tv channel listings. You can download the tv listing ahead of time if you know where you are going to be.
5. When traveling for work, hook up your new HD “tv” to the company pojector and forget about your boring Powerpoint presentation.

The Artec USB tuner.

The Pinnacle HD Pro Stick