Help setting up my PC as my media center

[randalllewis]

Here is the situation: I have a newer Media Center PC with a huge hard drive, a fast processor and a dual TV tuner and an HDMI port on the video card. I'd like to use it in my entertainment center and dump TiVO, which is costing me $16 a month. My cable provider is Comcast and they tell me they offer an HD settop box that does not include a DVR for around $6 a month. My question is about how to set up the PC in the mix. I am sure it will be necessary to use IR blasters in this process. Where do they go?

Comcast won't help with a PC setup and I've looked around on the Green Button website and a few others for some basic instructions. Haven't found what I need so I thought I'd try here.

[Sven Johannsen]

My question is about how to set up the PC in the mix. I am sure it will be necessary to use IR blasters in this process. Where do they go?
Depends on your PC. Typically those sold as Media Centers, often indicated by coming with an MCE Remote, will come with little IR bugs. Those usually have what looks like an earphone plug on them. I have had two specifically. One uses and IR receiver that is on the end of a long USB cord. The receiver had the sockets for the IR bugs. The other kind had the IR receiver actually in the front of the PC. In that case the IR Bug sockets were on the case in the back.

Once you have that figured out, you just run through the MCE setup, telling it you have a cable box and what kind, so that the system can prepare itself to send the right IR codes out the bugs to the cable box receiver.