Hi all, thanks for taking the time to read this post.

I read through other posts and Still can't find what I am looking for so I am hoping those who already have this setup can point me in the right direction.

I would like to have a Media server for all my movies and CDs. This would be just a storage PC with 1-2 Terabytes with the option to add more later. I would like a HTPC to access the Media server to play my movies on my main family room tv and MBR tv(add more room later).

I would like a reciever that I can control from the HTPC if possible that is able to do 3 or more zones. This way I can watch a movie in the family room and play different music on the patio.

I would like to control this from the HTPC using a touch screen monitor and also using remotes.

I need advice on the hardware (reciever and HTPC output/input components) and software to control all these devices. This is all on a windows platform.

If anyone has a guide to get me started that would be great or point me in the right direction. Thanks

you might try this in the HTPC forum here on AVS your likely to get a better response over there...

and furthermore you asked way to general a question. you want someone to recommend an entire system for you. you might try a local or internet retailer that sells HTPC's if you want to do this without doing much research and have someone to call for support.

There are a couple of sponsors here of AVS that sell this type of equipment.

Sean

For the HTPC part, well, as Sean wrote...
For the "receivers" part you might want to look at Squeezebox or Sonos, both come with nice controllers (as remotes), both have a UI for your main system and for both you get nice Apps to use an iPhone/iPod touch as a remote, too.

Not to carp, but your subject line is uselessly vague. (You might well have been asking how to dye your hair.) Specificity will attract more attention.

Thanks, I will be more specific next time. I think I got what I needed from reading hundreds of post.

If you want a whole system that is built for this, go to forums.sagetv.com and post some questions over there. I use a beefy quad-core HTPC for the basement which is on a home theater which is also the media server for the rest of the house. Then I have SageTV Media Server loaded onto it, and then I have the R5000-HD mod (google it) done on my Dish Network 211 HD receiver, and did a mod to allow SageTV server to see that as a USB tuner, so that HTPC records all of my TV shows in HD (mpeg2 or h.264) format, and stores them as files on the server which PowerDVD 9 Ultra can play locally on that home theater, or if you buy the SageTV HD Theater (HD200) set top client box you can watch all of this content in full HD on any other TV in the house (depending on how many of those client boxes you buy - they are $200 ea). This system works VERY nice, and with recent beta firmware updates, I can now watch all of my 1080p Blueray rips on the HD200 client unit as well. This system is very functional and my wife is starting to finally appreciate how good it works, now that SageTV has been working out the bugs that were apparent in the early days. It is also nice to put stuff onto my laptop and be able to bring many of those rips and TV shows on the road with me, all in full HD. Check it out if this seems appealing (no I'm not a salesman, but I probably sound like one - I'm just really happy today because I found out last night that the new beta plays all my MT2S blueray files which is a new feature). The video chip on that HD200 is plenty fast to play full 1080p in full motion w/o dropping frames. Nice fluid motion