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The HTPC is dead; long live the HTPC

arstechnica.com — A reader wrote us recently (try saying that three times fast), lamenting the current state of the home theater PC. Frustrated by the myriad boxes scattered about his home entertainment center, our intrepid correspondent went looking for the perfect one-box solution that could hold his movies, handle his cable TV, display his photos,

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  • cfaslave, on 07/28/2008, -0/+3I agree with much of his editorial: DRM (read CableCard etc) is messing up HTPC's progress, most don't want ugly HTPC's in their livingrooms, etc. But it doesn't have to be that way. There's several great solutions out today including SageTV (with their HDextenders and the Hauppauge HD-PVR especially), BeyondTV, GBPVR, MythTV etc. I think HTPC's are in their infancy, but not on thier way out by any means...
  • Dalhectar, on 07/28/2008, -0/+2If by dead you mean not getting mass market appeal, then I guess so. But there is a significant community of users that in spite of the DRM and expense, decide that a HTPC is the way to go. Just look at the green button forum (thegreenbutton.com) or sage's forum (forums.sagetv.com) and you'll find that there is an install base for HTPCs.
  • apothekari, on 07/28/2008, -1/+3XBMC and a modded Xbox 720p or 1080i FTW!
    Does whatever I need except dvr.
    Which is ok cause dey Aint ***** on tv anymore!
  • samanathon, on 07/30/2008, -0/+1Here's a link that works: http://www.silverstonetek.com/products/p_contents. ...
  • tehsuck, on 07/28/2008, -0/+1There are plenty of nice looking cases for HTPCs out there. Silverstone makes most of them. I currently have a LC-11s and it melds nicely with the rest of my equipment under my TV. (http://www.silentpcreview.com/article228-page1.htm ...
  • geoken, on 07/28/2008, -0/+1Ugly and Loud?

    Not that I care (my HTPC is completely out of sight), but Silverstone HTPC cases generally look as good, if not better than most AV gear one might have. They definately look a lot better than your typical STB that you'd get from your cable provider.

    As for noise, building a silent computer is a trivial task. The only sound you'd hear is the HD, which would still be quiter than your STB since the HTPC case has better sound insulation and offers you the choice of a quiter HD.
  • arcooke, on 07/28/2008, -0/+1I've always wanted to load up a HTPC full of emulators and roms. That alone would make it worth it to me, not to mention streaming movies I downloaded over a wireless network from my main PC to the HTPC. They do have their uses.

    I won an AppleTV in a design contest a while back and couldn't sell it fast enough. As always with Apple, they try to force you to do things their way (itunes, very limited codec support, etc). They don't want you to get your content from anywhere but the itunes store. The great part about HTPCs is that you can do whatever the hell you want with it and you don't have some corporation trying to tell you otherwise.
  • 0Xonox0, on 07/28/2008, -5/+4A reader wrote us recently
    A reader wrote us recenty
    A reade rrote us recnetly
  • DjBlic, on 07/28/2008, -8/+1I wonder what first comment I could post to get like over 9000 diggs.

    Certainly not this one Q_Q

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