Convince me (not) to build a HTPC

[slackerinabox]

So, I'm moving and am getting a 57" hdtv (mostly since my new neighborhood is so dull I plan on watching a lot of dvds). I'm thinking about going the HTPC route instead of getting a cable company HD-DVR but what are the pros and cons of each? Here are my thoughts, please correct me if i'm ignorant

HTPC - Pros
1. Free after initial purchases
2. I'm not a gamer but it might be fun to break out an emulator to play some vintage games
3. A digital MP3 jukebox of sorts could be fun too
4. I could join CinemaNow or something like that to watch on demand movies but am not sure of the quality/price advantage compared to just getting movies on demand

HTPC - Cons
1. Might be expensive since I'd have to get a larger hard drive and a relatviely modern processor for HD programming
2. Dork appeal - I had one a long time ago and would have to reboot my system when a friend was over and wanted to watch the gilmore girls..
3. can only record one show at a time, right?

Cable HDTV Tuner (pros and cons, i'm getting lazy)
-one box, nothing to really worry about
-can record 2 shows at once
-costs an additional $15 bucks a month on top of my already hefty cable bill
-retro gaming would require a Wii - don't know if i can wait!

that's about it, any thoughts?

 

[QED]

I have both.

Pros with the HTPC is you can not only record in HD, but later on you can burn them to DVD if you so desire. Hard drive space is cheap so you don't have to worry too much about deleting old programs. The biggest con of the HTPC is cost, as well as the inability to record non OTA (over the air) HD channels-- no recording HBO-HD, ESPN-HD, etc.

Pros with the cable box DVR is a smaller upfront cost, and the ability to record any HD channel they offer. Cons are the montly fees, inability to burn directly to DVD (yes, you could feed it into an stand-alone DVD burner but the quality wouldn't be there), limited drive space, and sometimes buggy interface.

I say go with the cable box DVR first-- it's a great bargain for what it does... and as time allows build your own HTPC to get the best of both worlds.

 

[DrVos]

Modded Xbox + XBMC FTW. A cheap and elegant way of displaying computer media on the TV

 

[MrChad]

There's certainly a lot more flexibility with a HTPC, but for me spending $8 / month is far cheaper than the $500-1000 I would need to spend on hardware and software for a PC.

 

[Quasmo]

I cant. I love my HTPC, with 4 NTSC Tuners and an HD tuner. Unlimited record time (based on your HDD size), 10ft GUI is awesome. Only problem is no cable card support.

 

[archcommus]

I'd take the upfront costs and build the HTPC. You'll want the expandibility later and you'll appreciate the lower bills.

 

[Abel007]

Con- Heat
Con- Loud

Pro- Plays Xvids and other formats
Pro- Cable companies suck

 

[slackerinabox]

Originally posted by: QED
The biggest con of the HTPC is cost, as well as the inability to record non OTA (over the air) HD channels-- no recording HBO-HD, ESPN-HD, etc.

Woaw, that's a major con - most of my favorite shows are on HBO or Comedy Central, I had no idea I couldn't record cable tv programs. I understand why - analog input is far less restrictive than HD, right? Is there a hack out there that allows you to input HD footage from the standard cable box?

 

[UTmtnbiker]

Only problem (and issue) with HTPC IMO is the HDTV aspect. The only way to get HDTV on to the HTPC is OTA with an antenna. Assuming that's the route you go, you'll miss a lot of HDTV content the cable company provides (ESPNHD, TNTHD, etc). I don't know of any HDTV tuner cards for the PC that use Cablecard or anything like that.

In addtion, many digital channels are also scrambled, so you would have to have your HTPC with an IR blaster to the digital cable box to get the digital signals.

 

[QED]

Originally posted by: freedomsbeat212

Originally posted by: QED
The biggest con of the HTPC is cost, as well as the inability to record non OTA (over the air) HD channels-- no recording HBO-HD, ESPN-HD, etc.

Woaw, that's a major con - most of my favorite shows are on HBO or Comedy Central, I had no idea I couldn't record cable tv programs. I understand why - analog input is far less restrictive than HD, right? Is there a hack out there that allows you to input HD footage from the standard cable box?

Using an HTPC you can record any analog cable channel-- so if Comedy Central is analog (likely) you should be able to record it. The only channels you won't be able to record directly are your digital channels and your non-OTA HD Channels (like HBO-HD, ESPN-HD, Discovery HD, INHD, etc).

Now with a digital cable box attached to your HTPC, you can record digital channels by feeding the cable box output into your HTPC using an S-video connector and audio cables. On some HD cable boxes, there is a firewire port that you can hook up to your HTPC to enable recording of HD channels. But these are a little more work than recording straight analog cable or OTA HD channels.

 

[speg]

I'm moving back home next month and planning on using my old desktop as a HTPC, it's already mostly set up from last time I was home. What kind of media center front end's are you guys using?

NM: I'm out of date, apparently MCE is standalone now. Yay. Anyone have experiences with it? Does it play well with iTunes?

 

[GTaudiophile]

I plan on building one as soon as I can buy something that allows HD-DVD/Blu-Ray playback & recording as well as lots of HDMI outputs.

 

[Kaido]

Yeah, I'm kind of curious about this too. Option 1 is to build an HTPC, which would be more expensive but more flexible. Option 2 is to get a PVR. I was looking at TiVo and you can get the Humax model which has a built-in DVD player/burner so you can watch DVD movies and backup your shows to DVD. A company called Weakness also offers hard drive upgrade kits to add up to 900 hours to the Humax model. I had my Mac Mini hooked up to my TV for a little while and it was really nice; I sure hope Apple integrates TV show recording in the future. Had a nice clean look to it:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/11405752@N00/163278012/

 

[BD2003]

Having had a HTPC, cablevision DVR, XBMC, etc - the htpc is FAR more trouble than its worth. XBMC is practically utter perfection for playback, but it can't do recording or HD. Thats what the cablevision DVR is for.

15 bucks a month for DVR, 200 bucks for modded xbox is a much better deal than $1000 htpc. It'll play all your videos, mp3s, pics, and emulators.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Comcast only charges an extra $5 a month for a dual-tuner HD DVR over the cost of a HD box, so for Comcast the DVR is a big winner.

Start with the cable HD DVR, then see if you still want other features later.

Even if you want more you might decide an Xbox or cheap PC is all you need to supplement it rather than a high-end HTPC.

 

[Leros]

I would say get a prebuilt device: tivo, etc. There is something nice about having something that just works as opposed to having to fiddle with the HTPC that you built yourself.

 

[happybelly]

If you have Comcast, you can use the firewire port on the cable box and stream/record shows to your PC. It's not as user friendly as using a HTPC or DVR, but it works well. It also works with ESPN, HBO and every other cable channel I've tried except for the MLB package.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: JToxic
I would say get a prebuilt device: tivo, etc. There is something nice about having something that just works as opposed to having to fiddle with the HTPC that you built yourself.

True that - I recently got a Mac and it's the same deal, just works. No fiddling involved

 

[Homerboy]

Originally posted by: DrVos
Modded Xbox + XBMC FTW. A cheap and elegant way of displaying computer media on the TV

yes but it cant record. I personally use 3 of them but they aren't what the OP is askign about.

 

[Iron Woode]

I don't need or use HD, but I just love the budget HTPC I built myself.

total cost would be about $400 cdn - more or less.

XP2500+ 768 megs of ram, 160 gig hdd, LG 16 DVD player, Teatrix Pro tuner and a FX5200 128 meg TV out card all on a ECS mATX MB in a Antec mid tower.

networked to my other PCs and to my router for programming guide updates.

OS is XP MCE 2005.

 

[tRaptor]

PVR-500 = 2 tuners FTW!

 

[MaxDepth]

You are not cool enough to own an HTPC.


Two tuner cards or one of the new cards that has two tuners on it allow for record and watch.

 

[igowerf]

Originally posted by: Abel007
Con- Heat
Con- Loud

Pro- Plays Xvids and other formats
Pro- Cable companies suck

If you want a decent looking case too, it'll be expensive. My OrigenAE X11 case was already $250. It's the size of a large receiver though, so it's quite big.

 

[Jawo]

Originally posted by: Quasmo
I cant. I love my HTPC, with 4 NTSC Tuners and an HD tuner. Unlimited record time (based on your HDD size), 10ft GUI is awesome. Only problem is no cable card support.

Whoa....why 4 NTSC tuners? Whats the benefits of having so many (besides recording 4 shows at once) and how do you avoid signal degredation from splitting?

 

[BD2003]

Originally posted by: Homerboy

Originally posted by: DrVos
Modded Xbox + XBMC FTW. A cheap and elegant way of displaying computer media on the TV

yes but it cant record. I personally use 3 of them but they aren't what the OP is askign about.

You don't need to record most shows when you can just have them automatically downloaded via RSS+Torrent.

I used to have the whole HTPC route, but it was never ideal. Always had issues with overscan, controlling the damn thing etc. When I moved up to HD, Macrovision became a pain in my ass as I couldn't upscale DVDs. Had crazy contraptions to set up emulators etc, and recording was limited to buying tuners etc.

Then I got XBMC, and saw the light. It was perfect for it's job. The interface is still head and shoulders above anything else. Overscan is not a problem, since you fit the image (which is quite good) to the size of your screen. Emulators worked perfect, and you already had a xbox controller with more than enough buttons for everything, without any setup headaches. But it still couldnt record.

The cable DVR let me record, but it was hard to archive stuff, and missing shows etc - but for HD, there really is no alternative.

Right now, I live without HD, waiting for FIOS to come around. I have XBMC hooked up to the TV. I have a small crappy server with a big HD, that pulls everything I need off of bittorrent RSS feeds, the only drawback being that setup is not for the faint of heart, and it take a few hours for the feed to be available, and is only readily available for shows/series - the obscure one time show is something you have to go out and snatch after the fact.

But I'll never deal with a HTPC again.