CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[mc86]

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Hey folks -

Just thought I'd share my experience with my family's first tablet with respect to home theater and media. Please note I didn't buy it to be an adjunct HT device. Primarily, it is the kids' computer (when docked) and is a tablet when not. It is a Dell Latitude 10 Win8 Pro machine and functions well-enough in both cases.

I should note that I use an ancient nokia flip phone and have never owned a touch-screen device (no iXXX anythings, smartphones, androids, etc). OK, my HTPC's monitor is mounted on my rack and is a single-point touchscreen, but that hardly counts. Also, I am a huge pen tablet pc user (my lenovo X61 has been a trusty convertible for 5years and counting). Anyway:

I'm not here to review this particular tablet, Win8 Pro, etc. -- only I wanted to comment on how well it works with my HTPC. I run Win7 Enterprise on my HTPC and use WMC for DVR'd TV, home videos, pics, and low-quality whole-house music. The HTPC machine has a scant (2) 1TB mirrored drives in it. I use components for everything else and serious music listening.

Using the windows Homegroup, and with an annoying amount of fiddling to tell different apps which folders to look for media in, the tablet (no different than a laptop) finds everything and plays content back (on the tablet) just fine as my other laptops do.

I also found a free application in the windows store that allows my tablet to control my HTPC via wireless (full keyboard and mouse) AND acts as a Windows Media Center remote. It isn't Crabb's super awesome iRule or anything, but it is a nice device in a few ways. First, on the rare occasions I need to, my existing wireless keyboard/mouse was RF and a bit of a pain to use from the couch. This ameliorates that problem. Second, I use my HTPC for music playback throughout the house audio system and currently control playback via RF sensors I put on the 1st and 2nd floors (HTPC is in basement). Also a pain. The tablet's wireless control is a little nicer in this regard. I need to learn how to use the "play to" feature, I think.

Microsoft gave away, through today, free WMC licenses to Win8 Pro users. media center does run OK on it and playing stuff back on it is nice enough - we still use the other PCs in the house tho' as my kids do like getting to watch TV without needing to turn on all sorts of projectors, etc. and we have no other TV, etc. This lets them do it from the couch. Also, podcasts are nice here as I use a win8 podcast app with cloud service that lets me listen at work (on and off) or home easily.

Matt

[AnalogRocks]

[AnalogRocks]