For years, I have been using X10 for lighting controls all over the house. For some reason, I have always had trouble getting a reliable X10 signal to the switch that controls the overhead can lights in my home theater. I have tried multiple switches from PCS, Leviton and X10 and all have the same problem of either intermittent response or no response at all. I have started investigation some other options and the products from Lutron seem promising. I am looking at both the Radio RA and Spacer products. Here is a link to their site...
Lutron Lighting Products for Home Theater

A modified Xbox just may be the cheapest and most powerful home theater media player and server available. Check it out...
TechTV | Preview: Xbox Mods

Tivo Extraction...
After installing my TurboNet card a few days ago, I started playing with a set of tools to extract a recorded program show from a Tivo. I found a great project on SourceForge called Ty Studio that allows you view, edit and extract your recorded Tivo content into a MPG2 ready to burn on a DVD or SVCD or store on your PC. Check out this realy cool set of tools.
TyStudio - GPL software project for Tivo shows extraction

If you are looking for a DVD player, do yourself a favor and visit this excellent site. The folks at Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity have been doing extensive reviews of progressive scan DVD players for the last three years. This link is to the 2002-2003 edition. Spending more money on a DVD player doesn't mean that you get a better player...
DVD Benchmark - Progressive Scan Shootout - 2002 / 2003

A great online magazine about home theater...
Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity, the world's first home theater audio/video magazine to be published only in electronic format on the Internet, available since 1994.
Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity Home Page

An HTPC has a lot of work to do from scaling video to running a software DVD player. More and more people are using Windows XP as the OS of choice for their HTPCs. The standard installation of XP installs and runs a lot of services (memory resident programs) to support the standard home or business user. Many of these services are not needed or used by someone using XP for a HTPC. Most of these services can be disable from the Services menu under Control Panel. This link provides a complete list of all of the services under XP, their function, and recommended settings for each service.
HTPC Performance - Windows XP Services Removal Guide

For those with some soldering skills, this could be an interesting project.. be sure to read the disclamers.
Do It Yourself Serial Data Interface