It's been an interesting journey to setup my media center PC.  First thing that happened to me was, I realized that the motherboard I ordered did not have an HDMI output.  Oops.  One NewEgg RMA later, a $25 restock fee, a $12 shipping label and I was set to order the correct motherboard.  Had it overnighted to me so that I could put the PC together this weekend.

I get the motherboard and head to the office to carefully put the parts together and luck would have it, my OS hard drive was delivered to me DOA.  One more NewEgg RMA and a $9 restock + label fee for a $49 refund.  In the interest of time, I decided to simply partition one of the 2TB drives with the understanding that I would probably image the partition to a new HDD at some point.  I had to get the setup working this weekend.  The Cable installation guy is coming Monday morning.  More on this in a minute.

Install sails along from there.  Windows 7 is truly an amazing operating system.  I remember when OS installs were a big pain in the ass.  These days, Windows 7 simply loads and is up and running in no time.  I added the machine to the domain, partitioned and mirrored the other two drives and was off and running with a new home for my personal media.

It was then that I realized three issues with my setup. 

One, until I get my HP USB IR Receiver in the mail it is hard to use Media Center with a mouse and keyboard. No big deal though because that will be solved in short order once I get the device in the mail. Two, in order to play Blu-Ray discs, I was going to have to make a $99 purchase of ArcSoft Total Theater. I wasn't prepared for that cost overrun and it bothers me a bit that I have another $100 component to add to the solution. Finally, a wired keyboard and mouse was not a viable solution. One is soved, two I'll bite the bullet on and just do it and I thought I solved three with a short trip to Walmart this afternoon. I picked up a HP wireless keyboard and mouse. Works... when I am standing next to the PC. It fails miserably sitting 8 feet away even with new batteries. Thankfully, there's no RMA involved here and this will be a simple return. I'm looking for a 15' wireless mouse/keyboard combo if anyone knows of one.

Lastly, I had an interesting customer service issue this afternoon with Insight Communications. My cable service died on me for the second time this week. The first time I though it was a fluke. The second time represents a pattern so I called Insight's help desk to get it resolved. They told me that I needed a repair technician to come out to my house to look at the cable. Since I already had a cable guy coming to my house Monday morning, I offered this tidbit up and suggested that both the installation tech and the repair tech come to the house so the outage and the CableCARD installation could be done at the same time. Easy, simple, elegant solution. Not possible using Insight's dispatching and work order system. The best they could initially offer me was to schedule both of the technicians for the same time window. (8-11:30am)

I explained the problem with this approach and was stonewalled by the customer service rep.  This is what the computer tells me and I am trained/unable to recognize any problems that fall outside of the parameter space of the all mighty computer in front of me.  Poor girl never knew what hit her as I became more and more angry with the idea that I would have to take additional time off work with no gaurantees that the problems would be resolved.  If the repair technician shows up after the install technician, then the latter will blame the connection when the CableCARD fails to install.  The former would blame the skill of the install technician and I as a customer would wind up with wasted time, no cable service and the grim prospect of starting all over from scratch.  Time to talk to a manager.

Pam answered the phone and I explained my situation to her.  Told her that all I really wanted was to have both technicians at my house in the first appointment window at the same time.  I explained that I should not have to take an additional 3 hour window (3 hours off work) just to get around the shortcomings of their customer service procedures.  She agreed that I wasn't crazy, put me on hold and tried to resolve the problem.  The resolution, get one guy that can do both jobs to come during the first appointment windows.  Fantastic.  Great job.  The first girl either wasn't allowed to deviate from the script or didn't know that such multi-talented individuals existed.  Pam took care of it.  Even called me back in less than an hour to tell me that it was taken care of. 

It's been an adventure so far and something tells me that Monday morning will be more of the same.