HTPC Editorial @ [H] Consumer

It doesn't seem so long ago that we were starting to see the first HTPCs roll off the lines of our favorite integrators. In fact, some are just now coming to market. But the convergence of wanting a smaller form factor and better management of HD content has made people think twice about the HTPC in favor of a more affordable, more manageable device.

Even only taking into consideration the present capabilities of STB/PVR’s, these devices offer significant advantages for recording and watching HDTV and SDTV programming over stand-alone HTPC’s. First, they are incredibly easy to use. With interactive programming guides, dual HD tuner capabilities, and a simple user interface, even the most extreme technophobe can get the hang of it with minimal difficulty. The second advantage that STB/PVR’s have over HTPC’s is the significantly lower financial investment required. Cable providers and some satellite providers rent the boxes for as little as $8-20 per month. Compared with HTPC’s that cost anywhere from $800-$2000 on up, STB/PVR’s are exponentially more attractive to consumers on a limited budget. Also, content providers that do rent boxes will generally let users upgrade for free when new capabilities and technologies are introduced.

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DVD content, on the other hand, could be compressed down to about 1GB/hour of material using a codec like DIVX and would still look fine on most televisions. The prospect of having a video jukebox similar to what music lovers had been enjoying for years was very enticing.

Enter: High Definition Television (HDTV). Consumers who sprang for the big-screen experience encountered their own version of the MP3 phenomenon. Plagued with fuzzy image quality, compression artifacts, and washed-out colors, the DVD media’s inherent limitations suddenly materialized when blown up on a 40-inch+ screen.

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Thats why the vast majority of us with larger TV's rip the disc whole and don't compress it. Taking advantage of something like Purevideo in tandem with even an average nVidia card produces excellent results.

Many people also use ffdshow to upscale all sort sof video formats to the native res of their TV. DVD in particular can benefit from this.

We've already been through this bit of evolution. And considering how cheap hard drive space is it's not a big deal to rip whole DVD's.

Using an HTPC as a personal video recorder (PVR) also lost much of its allure. Once consumers had their first taste of HD programming, standard definition TV looked appalling by comparison. Users could install expensive HDTV tuner cards, but the massive storage requirements HD demands would quickly clog even the largest of hard drives. Furthermore, users that had to go through a set-top box (STB) to receive HD or even SD programming found themselves limited to viewing and recording only one program at a time.

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HD tuners aren't expensive, and haven't been for quite some time. The Avermedia A180 for example is under $75. The new HDHomerun is a dual tuner network capture device that goes for $169. Plus it will tune Clear QAM. It works extemely well and MCE support is coming along. Sure you can't record premium channels in HD, but a lot of people simply don't care. Plus, HD recordings don't take up a ton of space. 4 to 6 gigs an hour. Unless you're hanging onto an entire 22 episode season of multiple shows, HD space won't be a problem. And if people wanted to watch and record more than one channel at a time, they would have added a second capture card and appropriate control device like a USB IR blaster.

Especially in the case of MCE, even an average home user could install any of these devices, or make full DVD rips.

I can't wait for AnyDVDHD.

Good article.

^--you can get the AnyHDDVD beta, which works fine for me. No bug problems yet.

Anyhow, pretty good article, but didn't go too deep. Its all about HD content now. I have pretty much left behind standard def. My next HTPC will be built all for 1080p and hopefully STB integration with cablecard if they ever get that cleared up. Lots of sata2 storage is a must.. at least 2gb of ram, a dual core cool running processor (65nm), HDDVD/Bluray combo drive, and a HDCP graphics card and display. Of course it will all have to run super quiet too. =D I'm shooting for a build date around this summer or the next depending on when I finish my basement entertainment area. I haven't even started on it yet.

Good read, and you bring some good points, and in general, I agree with the conclusion of the article which seems to be "HTPCs are great, but digital streamers/media hubs are making a lot of progress."
It's all true. The convergence of media streamers and DVR boxes brings nice interfaces and ease of use to the average user. However, those who use HTPCs would never be able to give up the main reasons we got into this hobby in the first place:
1. Limitless storage
2. More control over DRM
3. More control over formats (media servers are limited in the formats they can carry)
4. Limitless expandability
5. I've never seen a consumer-level DVD ripping solution, other than one of the 100 disc DVD jukeboxes

It is going to take something special for me to consider a HTPC for my home. I have two HD-DVRs from my cable company connected to my two HD televisions, and I can record any show on any channel, watch On Demand content, and pay only $12 a month each for boxes that anyone in my family can use. I also have fairly inexpensive DVD players for each TV.

I love PCs (I have 3 at home), but I have no desire to hook any of them up to my televisions. My DVRs work very well for so much less money and much more features.

I've always seen the HTPC as a small market. You will always have people that love the added function and will stick with them. I just seem more functions of it replaced by game systems and things like apples itv. If anything I think MS' idea of the media center machine acting as a server will come about. I can see in the future a windows home server with a bunch of tuner cards in it with cable card slots recording a lot of tv into it and people using like xboxs to stream the video to there tvs(hd and normal).

You also have the "on-demand" programming that people seem to love. Cables and phone companies support it. Lot of people would use something like that over going through the trouble to setup a htpc. In the end the cable box may end up beating out everything elce.

I've had a HTPC for a few years. I initially used it to do all my TV recording, as I just had standard cable. It was also handy for playing back DIVX and MP3. Since I got an HDTV, I stopped using it to record TV. Even the picture quality for standard def recording doesent compare to the quality I get on the Explorer 8300 from Time Warner. Also, the TW box can record 5.1 audio. QAM doesent let me record all of the available HD stations, so unfortunatley unless TW changes things, I'll probably never be able to have HD recording integrated into my HTPC.

valve1138 said:

Thats why the vast majority of us with larger TV's rip the disc whole and don't compress it. Taking advantage of something like Purevideo in tandem with even an average nVidia card produces excellent results.

Many people also use ffdshow to upscale all sort sof video formats to the native res of their TV. DVD in particular can benefit from this.

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Thanks for reading, but I beg to differ. DVD is a compressed format. It's been compressed down from the original 35mm or (70mm) film or HD video, depending. Apart from some documentaries, very few movies and television shows have been shot in 480i.

You're correct that the ability to use tools like ffdshow to tweak picture quality is one advantage that an HTPC has over a consumer-grade DVD player, but no amont of filtering and/or upscaling can put back information that has been lost in the compression process. I've seen DVD's played back on a $15,000 Meridian player, and they still don't look as good as HD. The most immediately noticable difference is color saturation, but with HD you also get much "cleaner" whites and far less pixellation artifacts.

That's not to say that DVD's can't look decent on a large monitor, but particularly on fixed pixel displays like plasma and LCD, HD looks substantially better.

valve1138 said:

if people wanted to watch and record more than one channel at a time, they would have added a second capture card and appropriate control device like a USB IR blaster.

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True, you can control your STB with IR blaster, but unless your STB has the ability to output two separate channels simultaneously, you can still only record one program at a time. If anyone has evidence to the contrary, please PM me.

valve1138 said:

HD recordings don't take up a ton of space. 4 to 6 gigs an hour. Unless you're hanging onto an entire 22 episode season of multiple shows, HD space won't be a problem.

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That's still 8-12 gigs for a two hour movie. And once people start ripping HD-DVD and Blu-Ray to their hard drives, we talking anywhere from 20-50 gigs per disc. As another poster in this thread pointed out, the ability to have a jukebox-style video server (with, for example, several full seasons of multiple shows) is precisely one of the reasons people desire an HTPC in the first place.

I have a shuttle that I use as a SD DVR.......my nvidia dual tuner works very well.....

I dont need no stinking PVR/STB/etc.

nice article though.

I use my old Dell 8400 as a HTPC. With Windows MCE 2005 and a dual TV tuner, I can record anything I like with a minimum of fuss and muss. HD content is not prevalent in my area and I don't have an HDTV anyway, so SD is fine with me (for now). I don't use the HTPC for anything more than PVR type recording and watching DIVX movies though. MCE's integration with Zap2It and the All Movie Guide puts it heads & shoulders above other PVR type solutions available to me. At the time I set it up, my HTPC cost me roughly 30% more than a competing DVD recorder with hard drive - for my $ I got (and continue to get) more flexible recording and much more capability. For that, I'm more than satisfied.

There is alot of potential in PVR's from cable companies, here in Canada we are forced to buy our box ( in the west ) if we want the PVR function, and I recently bought myself one ( Motorola DCT6416 Phase III ) and although I'm very happy, this article brings to light the main source of frustration. The unit is covered with ports, ESATA, 3 USB, Firewire and all of them " may not have functionality in your area ". In reality, they have functionality nowhere I've found. Only the firewire port is active, and only to drive a display, not to connect an external device.

With the bulk of US sales of these units being rentals to users, nobody is willing to open them up and "hack" a way to get the SATA and USB ports to work as they should. Its left to the much smaller flock of users who have outright purchased the unit to do it, and they may be shying away from voiding the warranty on their $800 unit.

We really need Motorola to step up and release firware updates for the boxes independantly of the cable companies to allow us to get some real power use of all these extra ports.

Ryan

my parents use a AMD 3200+ with a dual tuner in windows VISTA MCE. Its nice and all, but for the price, i could have just rented a cable box and it would have been the same and cheaper. i honestly did it becasue i wanted to try it out.

What struck me was when he mentioned problems with HD space.

You can get 320gigs for under $100 these days. Try getting a drive for your 360 for that much.

I think you missed a very valid benefit form an HTPC over a set-top box type scenario:
Most PVR's and DVR's (and all the other names they go by) must be rented from the cable company for 10 to 15 dollars per month. If you buy them, they are several hundred dollars.
Also, their Hard drives are relatively tiny. 60-180GB, whereas the average HD found on a PC today is around 200G.
And of course there's no burning, internet, filaesharing etc on them either.

I moved from a HTPC to a TiVo Series 3 that I upgraded to a 750gb drive. I am really glad I did,

HD via cablecards (which means I get HBO, Showtime, and everything else) is amazing, and until you can actually purchase a preconfigured media center PC (which as of this writing you cannot) with this capability TiVo is one of the only options. HD on the S3 is breathtaking, and the fact that I can record movies that look at least as good if not better than regular DVD is quite nice.

It plays music and displays photo's over the lan quite well, I do wish it had some sort of visualization (like a my pc or ps3). Also does weather, podcasts, internet radio and other stuff I am sure I am leaving out.

I can schedule programming over the internet, so if I find out about something I wan't to see at work I can still grab it.

TiVo's software is much better (imho) than Beyond TV, Sage, or MCE (even vista), for basic TV watching. I think almost anyone who has used tivo and an htpc would agree.


Things I would be missing if I only had the TiVo:

Huge library of digital media (ripped dvds, divx/xvid files, etc) - basically every movie and until recently TV show my children have ever seen is on the htpc, accesible with the touch of a few buttons.

Gaming - I don't game as much as I used to, but Mame and many pc games work very well with a wireless controller from the couch (madden, CoD2, NFS). Resolution was starting to be a problem, with NFSU kind of stuttering at 720p, and forget 1080p. I have a PS3, maybe soon (like tomorrow with VF5) I will play more games with it.




Bottom line - HDTV was the death knell for my HTPC, and that was 6 months ago. I still don't regret making the change, and my wife agrees.

edit: I still have the htpc, it is just in the bedroom and doesn't record anything anymore.

mjz_5 said:

my parents use a AMD 3200+ with a dual tuner in windows VISTA MCE. Its nice and all, but for the price, i could have just rented a cable box and it would have been the same and cheaper. i honestly did it becasue i wanted to try it out.

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Curious, and I'm being serious here, does the cable box have an interactive program guide with descriptions of TV shows, links to movie reviews & cast information & posters, online showcase functionality, etc.? The PVR cable boxes that I had the option of renting/buying didn't, and that was one of the reasons I went with an MCE box. I didn't think I would use those features all that much but all in all it's something I couldn't live without now that I have it.

Agreed with Jiffylush though, if I wasn't using an antenna and regular SD analog cable signal, I would have little use for an HTPC.

HTPCs are far from dead in my house In fact, I've got the parts on the way to upgrade my existing server (in the living room) to a server/client setup using AMD X2 processors.

About 3 months ago I bought a HDHomeRun unit to get QAM HD and my wife loves it, even if we still only have a 27" Standard Def Sanyo TV. She loves the clear HD picture of watching LOST, Grey's Anatomy, and The Unit.

Just recently, we decided to take the plunge and upgrade from standard cable to basic digital. We don't need HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, or any of those other "premium" channels. The main reason was to get Noggin and Disney for our daughter that is about to turn 1 in March.

So, I brought home our new DCT-2224 STB from Time Warner and hooked it up. Then I showed her the remote and how to use the guide for the new STB. 5 minutes later she was asking why the guide only showed 4 channels at a time, why did it scroll so slow, why did using the arrows to scroll down always move from the last channel to the little "ad" at the bottom of the screen before moving to the next page of channels, what do you mean they wanted $4-5 more per month just to get a DVR included?

Of couse, rest of the conversation went like this...

Can we integrate it into the HTPC so I can use that guide to see the channels?
Yep, I can run a S-Video cable to one of the tuner cards and use an old serial cable to change the channels.
Will we be able to record Noggin for Paige (our daughter)?
Yep.
Why didn't you already do that when you hooked everything up?
Sorry, will be done tonight after all our shows have finished recording

We have friends that have the full Digital DVR package and my wife hate's their remotes/guide setups. We were babysitting for them one night and she wanted to record a show while we fed them dinner. She got to the guide and pressed the record button, and then it asked if she wanted to record that one instance of the show or every instance of the show (or something similiar) and she got pissed that she couldn't just press the record button and sit the controller down, no she had to go through 2 or 3 different selections just to record one show. Then she got started on the FF/RW features of their DVR. Why does she have to fast-forward through the commercials and see them in high speed. Why can't it just skip forward 3 minutes, and let her press another button to adjust it by 10 seconds a couple times either way? Honestly, she still kinda misses our HTPC just skipping the commercials all-together via ComSkip, but I don't miss her complaining that it skipped a couple seconds into the show and she had to adjust it. I dropped ComSkip when I went to SageTV 5 and got her "trained" to the 3 minute jump + 10 second skip back or forward to adjust.

Then there is the whole "media" experience. Neither one of us are what you would call audiophiles. MP3 recordings sound just fine over our cheap "home theater in a box" surround sound speakers. She likes to fire up the MP3s while we are cleaning house on the weekend. Or if we want to watch a DVD, she likes to just sit down and click on it and start watching (since I have already ripped the DVD to the hard drive), skipping all the previews and the stupid main menu screen. There are also a couple series that we like watching that we don't recieve (6 Feet Under, Carnivale, etc.) that I have gotten off of bittorent and we can just fire that up and watch it when we want. Can't do that on a DVR box

Maybe it is a small niche market. Hell, it definitely is. But anyone that thinks the HTPC experience is going to die anytime soon in my house can jump off a cliff for all I, or my wife, care.

theelectic said:

Curious, and I'm being serious here, does the cable box have an interactive program guide with descriptions of TV shows, links to movie reviews & cast information & posters, online showcase functionality, etc.? The PVR cable boxes that I had the option of renting/buying didn't, and that was one of the reasons I went with an MCE box. I didn't think I would use those features all that much but all in all it's something I couldn't live without now that I have it.

Agreed with Jiffylush though, if I wasn't using an antenna and regular SD analog cable signal, I would have little use for an HTPC.

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a friend has a rogers (canada) HD box.. i has movie info and cast.. maybe not that indepth, but really, how many times do you really use that?

I like how the tivo can be programed via the internet, i find it stupid that MCE doesn't do that.. between xo mce 2005 and vista mce, there really isn't anything that is different

mjz_5 said:

a friend has a rogers (canada) HD box.. i has movie info and cast.. maybe not that indepth, but really, how many times do you really use that?

I like how the tivo can be programed via the internet, i find it stupid that MCE doesn't do that.. between xo mce 2005 and vista mce, there really isn't anything that is different

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BeyondTV and SageTV can both be programmed over the Internet. Heck, you can watch SageTV recordings over the Internet via Placeshifter. Haven't seen that functionality from Time Warner and thier DVR units yet

Can you watch that recording on your Tivo on another TV/Computer (or more) in your house? I can watch all my shows recorded on my living room system in the following locations, without having to do any copying or disconnecting external storage units;

Master Bedroom
Kid's bedroom
Office Room
Work (via Internet and Placeshifter)
Travelling (again, Internet and Placeshifter)

I don't have time to read this whole thread, but what f'ing cds are you ripping that they only compress to 500 mb in FLAC?

Someone enlighten me on what FLAC is vs MP3?

Riddlinkidstoner said:

Someone enlighten me on what FLAC is vs MP3?

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flac

Riddlinkidstoner said:

Someone enlighten me on what FLAC is vs MP3?

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flac doesn't compress sounds likes MP3s.. but usually only dogs could notice

mjz_5 said:

a friend has a rogers (canada) HD box.. i has movie info and cast.. maybe not that indepth, but really, how many times do you really use that?

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See that's the thing, I use that ALL the time. If I'm just scrolling around looking for movies, an interesting title or movie poster comes up, then I can read a short review and see whether it's worth recording or not. Or go into the cast list, see there's a certain actor, then I can click on the actor and see whether there's more movies playing (within the 2 week time period of guide listings) with that actor in it. etc. etc.

Riddlinkidstoner said:

Someone enlighten me on what FLAC is vs MP3?

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Just another audio codec, that (like every codec) its following likes to argue that it sounds better than the alternatives. I just use Windows Media Lossless. Works great, and drive space is not a real issue (I've got a TON of CDs, and have only used around 120GB).

InorganicMatter said:

Just another audio codec, that (like every codec) its following likes to argue that it sounds better than the alternatives. I just use Windows Media Lossless. Works great, and drive space is not a real issue (I've got a TON of CDs, and have only used around 120GB).

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with WMA, if you want to play the music on another one of your machines, your screwed.. because of the copy protection

mjz_5 said:

with WMA, if you want to play the music on another one of your machines, your screwed.. because of the copy protection

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Where did you hear this....? I have my WMA audio on multiple computers and devices...

mjz_5 said:

with WMA, if you want to play the music on another one of your machines, your screwed.. because of the copy protection

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Say what? Please don't just make up stuff to bach Microsoft with; I've got copies of the WMAs I ripped to my HTPC on my main desktop, my laptop, and my DAP. No copy protection at all. At least think before you post, OK?

This article assums an HTPC is being purcahsed seperately from the main household computer. In that case one can make a very strong argument that $10-$15 a month is easier to swallow than a $1500 dedicated HTPC.


But for me, I just bypassed that step and converted my main PC into an HTPC. It serves both purposes and I don't see why it shouldn't. With a hardware 550 tuner I can record shows in the background and my computer is still powerful enough to run modern games and do whatever I want it to do while it's serving as my PVR.

InorganicMatter said:

Say what? Please don't just make up stuff to bach Microsoft with; I've got copies of the WMAs I ripped to my HTPC on my main desktop, my laptop, and my DAP. No copy protection at all. At least think before you post, OK?

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i dunno.. i remember when i ripped a CD using WMA, i couldn't play it on my mom's laptop. is said something about a license or something.

I use SageTV v5 built into my main gaming computer, and quite frankly, it just flat out is so much better than my TiVo ever was that it's a joke. It's infinitely expandable, I can view things from anywhere, I can burn them to DVD's if I want that will play in normal DVD players, I can add space with ease, customize EVERYTHING the exact way I want it, skip around in the recording easily, and just enjoy it. My old TiVo box was slow, clunky, and took forever to change between menus/screens, not to mention was a completely closed system that I couldn't expand other than hard drive space. God help me if I wanted to change "Season Pass" priorities... it would take upward of 15 minutes sitting on the "PLEASE WAIT" screen, in which time I couldn't interact with the box at all.

With SageTV (or any HTPC setup that's any good) you can pipe things how you want them, not how the cable company wants them. Truth is, on an average computer it only costs maybe a tuner card or two and the software licenses (which have no monthly fees of $15+ like the TiVo's or DVR boxes and pay for themselves within several months). Most newer computers have a 200GB+ hard drive, and since you can set recordings to be good quality still at about 1.5-2GB/hour of recording, you can get a good-sized setup even with a basic configuration. An HTPC setup is speedy, reliable, and in your control rather than someone else's.

Once it's set up, the ease-of-use and features are far, far, far, far, far, superior to any set-top DVR/TiVo box.

With no disrespect intended, I feel this article is quite hyperbolic.

If HTPC is dead it is from a LACK of evolution, not anything to do with PoS console game machines.

I patiently await ATI releasing the next generation HDTV Wonder, which they allegedly have made agreements with the cable companies to allow tuner use directly with the cable signal... ie" no settop box. The HTPC would be a real settop box but you can build one with 3-4 Tuners instead of two, and have no limitations of simultaneous recording.

This would be a breakthru, as overtheair tv sucks, much of what people watch is on the cable channels not just ABC/CBS/NBC/FOX boadcast.

Myself, I want 4 500GB 7200.10 sataII drives, loaded with 1,000+ of my favorite movies/tv-series stored in mpeg4 (just the video/5.1 english audio, the special items Ill just put the DVD in), as well as 3 HD tuners able to Super-Tivo anything I need to, with a gigabit router and a baby PC at every TV in the house, allowing display/audio of anything saved on the HTPC.

The industry's are to blame that this stuff isn't as simple as pie.

The content industry for not setting up a flawless and full featured "guide" site, for complete content information and scheduling accessible to anyone/thing over the net.... you do want us to WATCH your shit right? Well what are YOU HIDING for?

The cable/sat industry for refusing to make the deals needed for user equipment to access the medium. Why not save the $$ by letting people use approved tuner devices of thier own choosing? Every HDTVwonder+ I use, you get to charge another $3.99/mo for and you dont have to stock a settop box, so what skin is it off your teeth?

The software industry for making all the codec/application/etc software end of trying to accomplish HTPC such a confusing and often poorly designed mess.

This would have been one of the key methods to get Linux some widesread acceptence, by sorting out a solid flawless HTPC application, with needed codecs and easy to use Userface.

Oh well, you dipsticks passed on a potentially huge $$$ market niche, too bad for everyone.

Dont even get me started on the hardware industry who couldn't even settle on an IR remote standard so remotes just up and WORKED without hassle. It boggles the mind how much wasted effort and $$ has been pissed away by all the half-ass attempts at making any effort in this HTPC realm.

This is certainly a topic near and dear to my heart. I was one of the first adopters of the media center mentality when I actually set-up a Win98 based machine in my living room to watch archived and downloaded content. Here are my thoughts on the current state of the HTPC and where I believe it is headed.

First and foremost it is important to note that the definition of the HTPC must remain fluid and in my opinion, the HTPC will cease to exist as a device and evolve into what we commonly view as a platform. Of course I feel this will be the will of Microsoft who is clearly the thought and innovation leader in this respect. I will discuss this platform of the future in a bit but right now it's time to talk about the functionality of the HTPC.

*****Current Functionality of HPTC********
Most HTPC users will tell you that the funcion of the HTPC goes far beyond a replacement of the DVR/STB. I think that most of us HTPC enthusiast types will agree that it makes no sense to replace the STB/DVR with a device that is 3 times as big, far noiser while consuming more power with a more complicated interface. The functionality of the HPTC in the mind of most users typically encompasses the following in what I feel to be the most common order of importance:

1) Available repository for easy access to and storage of audio and video files in any format.
2) Catalog/Library management for the digital archive
3) Distribution hub for these files across the network or internet
4) 10-ft interface for easy navigation when needed
5) Ability to record, transcode and store SD video from a cable or sattelite source
6) Ability to record, transcode and store HD video from an OTA antenna
7) Ability to record, transcode and store HD video from a digial cable source including encrypted channels.

Some here may disagree with the ACTUAL order of importance however hardened users of HTPCs have typically come to accept the limitations of the devices and still find tremendous use for them.

So the HPTC is really the ONLY device that has the ability to accomplish 1-6 and number 7 while a thorn in the side of the community at large, is showing signs of improvement.

Again, the take away here is that the HTPC encompasses a much wider range of uses than a simple DVR.

**********Incoming improvements and enhanced functionality*********
In spring of '06 I was in a meeting at the headquarters of a nameless company who rents movies through the mail. The topic of the meeting was of course the next evolution video rental which was of course online distribution. The company was eager to get a pilot program started for a limited selection of titles to see how the offering took with the public. Now if anyone has read the book "the long tail" they will tell you that this is a step in the wrong direction. The reason being that the value of rental services is not in having the major releases (cable already does that) but that they have obscure titles available that are hard to find in B&M stores. Personally I chalk this up to a victory on the HTPC side becuase eventually, the entire library of these rental companies will make its way online and will be integrated into the HTPC interface. That my friends, is something the cable companies cannot do, and the worst thing that can happen is a unilateral boycott of video traffic from competing providers...and believe me, this is closer to reality than you believe.

In my line of business, I deal with the top 4 online content distributors in the world on a regular basis. Their growth has been nothing short of explosive in the last 12 months because quite simply, everything is getting bigger. So it chalk up larger files and higher definition as a growing foothold for the HTPC as it is the only device that is flexible enough to grow and change with the rapidly evolving industy. The reason I bring up CDNs is because much of what they deliver is IP based video and audio....most of it available on your HPTC.

Vista is also a major milestone in the future of HTPCs. Now many here will gripe about the restrictions on content however, MS has offered a peaceful (in gesture...not intent) solution to media companies by including compliant code for protected content. In late 07 we will see cable-card ready HPTCs available and believe me...when they show-up, it will not be as big of a headache as everyone is thinking. My gut tells me that the most popular variant of the cablecard HPTC will be those offered as the most bare-bones stripped down models (similar to STBs) at the lowest pricepoint possible. This will likely be the case because everyone in the HTPC crowd cringes at the thought of using a dell or HP as their HTPC machine. What everyone needs to realize however is that the prebuilt box need only be a gateway to get the content onto the network. Basically, expect to shove the box in a closet and stream the content across the network.

As you can see, the networking aspect of the HTPC will become evermore important and will be the foundation for the platform that I mentioned earlier.


******HTPC as a platform*********
The largest impactor to this will be (IMHO) the release of Windows home server which myself and a lot of others have hinged a TON of hopes on. We are expecting nothing short of the second coming and it looks like MS is set to deliver. Widows Home Server (for those who dont know) is an operating system that is meant to do for the home, what server OSs did for the enterprise. It will in effect bring the power of a domain based network to the home with constant availability and security. Integrated into the software will be media sharing module so that any and all media from any computer will be available from a central point. Of course this is expected to integrate seamlessly with Vista.

The bottom line is that many of the functions of the HTPC are being offloaded to network and distribuion devices to allow for ease of sharing and administration.

In a perfect world the HPTC platform will consist of the following devices:

1) CableCard compliant gateway
2) NAS or RAID storage array
3) Computer(s) using vista home premium or ultimate.
4) Kick-Arse TV and surroundsound setup.

With these devices, the entire gamut of HPTC requirements can be met with ease and the user will have all of the benefits of a robust home network.


*******Final Thoughts*********
Right now Jobby-Boy hates drm and his open letter is garnering a lot of support. I think the media companies are actually waking up to the fact that most people would rather pay for the convenience of drm free media than to seek it by illegal measures. The media companies spend MILLIONS OF DOLLARS developing, enforcing and maintaing the security measures needed to secure digital media and at the end of the day, some guy who can snoop in his systems memory finds the master key for their shiny new lock. I fully expect this mentality to spill over into all digital media over the next 5 years.

The media companies already know, they are not really competing for your dollars any more, they are in competition for your time and I feel they would rather you watch a tivo-ed episode of LOST than to turn off the tele and play counterstrike. Keep that in mind as consumers, it's how your free time everyone is after.....with enough of your time will come your money.

Finally, back to the HPTC: It's not going anywhere, it's just going to change. For the time being we may have to abide by a few rules that we don't really like however in the end, the home media platform will offer more flexibility than we had previously thought. So if you are looking for an HTPC to simply record shows..save yourself the time and effort of building and configuring one and get a TiVo.

I have a media-playback computer attached to my TV, with an analog dual-tuner card, dual core Athlon64, 1 gig of ram, and 3x 320gig HDs. It's got a ATi Radeon 9800AIW, which is good enough to play any console style games on the TV, and uses SageTV for video/recorded tv/audio playback. Sure, dedicated PVRs are good, but flexability is better, imo, and I've tweaked this system to do just what I like...

Especially automatic commercial marking and skipping.

I built my HTPC last summer and today I couldn't imagine my living room without it. I've used several different Cable Boxes/PVR's (Typically Motorolas and the slightly aged Scientific one that came w/ Time Warner) and I find that MCE 2K5 beats them all hands down, with Vista being even better. Why? Well,

- I remotely select which shows I want to record (over web or local net via MCE Webguide 4)
- my roommates and I watch recorded content, ripped movies, and music over the network (on both PCs and Macs)
- I use bittorrent (rather than bog down my workstation with Linux distros filling the hard drive)
- I organize all of my movies, both on DVD and ripped to the hard drive (via My Movies)
- I keep up to date with upcoming movies by watching trailers (also via My Movies)
- I will be storing all of my home videos and pictures on the media center, ready for access whenever I feel like turning on a TV
- I automatically download internet TV for watching at my leisure (via TVTonic)

I'm pretty sure that I can't do any of that on a PVR. Plus, I also get all the functionality of a PVR - I record all of my favorite shows.

All on an old P4 2.8 that I threw a few HDDs and a tuner into, along with MCE (about $500 total over the P4 box).

HTPC's aren't for everyone, but being that this is an enthusiast forum, I'm sure that most people here who like to tinker with their technology would benefit from using a HTPC. On the contrary, I know plenty of people who wouldn't find any benefit to a HTPC, much like my parents, or one of my roommates (MAC user).

If HTPCs are to continue to grow in popularity, they will have to be able to support QAM HD, plus cable companies will have to provide unencrypted HD to homes (Unfortunately Time Warner of Syracuse doesn't seem to do this). With the upcoming super-sized hard drives (1TB coming soon), I think that proper QAM support will actually boost HTPC acceptance.

How long ago was that article written?? An 8000 HD PVR?? That things soooo out of date, the 8300 has been around for almost two years now, bigger storage and no less bugs. The 8000 was prone to crashing.

The jury's still out for me. I have both, an HTPC and a HD PVR. For ease of use, it's the PVR, no question, but for sharing media, (obviously) it's the PC. I love the fact that I can access 30 gb of music in an instant and not have to go rummaging through CDs to find it. I also have a pretty decent collection of DVDs that I've recently saved to my HDD and can access from my HTPC wirelessly. (the HTPC only has a 250gb HDD). I'm at a terrabyte now, and I'm off to buy another 320gb drive today. Another 45 DVDs (or so) of storage. I figure that for every 45 DVDs I get I buy 1 HDD for $100, that's not a bad ratio, it only adds about $2 per DVD. Well worth it to me.

Also, I have to admit to loving the cool factor infront of friends..."Hey, which movie do you want to watch?", and I fire up the PC...

mjz_5 said:

i dunno.. i remember when i ripped a CD using WMA, i couldn't play it on my mom's laptop. is said something about a license or something.

Click to expand...

There's an option for "copy protect music files" in WMP that you need to uncheck.

I suppose if a journalist really wants to make a big splash on the web, he/she needs only find something new and cool, and declare it dead in the water. A web site's overall traffic could surge for months afterward, as irate readers sound off about the issue in the forums. In this case, it's so much bluster over so little. Of the HTPC alternatives mentioned in the article, which one of them offers enough flexibility to make me jettison my HTPC? None of them. I think that this is the real value of the HTPC when compared to set-top boxes -- things like HD-compatibility and additional hard drive space can be added later. What cable company is going to want you mucking around inside their set-top box? In my view, flexibility is the key to the HTPC's current and future success. I see no reason to declare the HTPC a victim of anything, except being somewhat misunderstood.

My $0.02

Tater

tbh I didn't get most of the article. Your arguments against HTPC didn't make sense:

limited storage: HTPC's have the least storage limitations, you can always add more - or easily get it to talk to a server somewhere else with terrabytes of the stuff.

low quality encoding: what has this to do with HTPC's - if anything as it gives you the most storage so allowing you to store the best quality encodings.

HD tuners for HTPC expensive: no they are not, as already pointed out

digital restrictions: you say only sony can play sony then use apple itunes as an example. Sure apple itunes can't play on your generic MP3 player or PVR or whatever, but it WILL play on a HTPC!

user interface: this can be better for the set-top box but you might find the HTPC's interface is better. The big difference is where the STB user interface sucks it will always suck as it can't be changed/upgraded, unlike the HTPC.

the area's I agree are with protected content - you need the special set top box to recieve it, so that's a strong argument for using it. The other major area is power usage - HTPC's are really power hungry in comparison to most STB's so may be costing you $100's extra a year in electricity.