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HTPC or PVR

K

ktmtragic

Junior Member
My Strong SRT5495 died and I have a dilemma. Do I buy another PVR or build a HTPC ?
On the PVR I had dual tuners and would mostly watch and record free to air. The downside was I could not stream Iview to the TV.
My question is am I better off buying another PVR or building a media center, or do I need both to get iview? (iview ABC Australia's web catchup flash player). Having a web browser in the living room would be good.
Any help would be appreciated. I have also considered an Xbox
Thanks
 
Don't know any of the particulars of Australia in the broadcast realm, but as far as an HTPC goes, here's my take (on the basis of 5+ years using one and having the wife use it as well):

You definitely need to plan ahead. Plot out everything it has to do, plot out what would be nice to have it do, plot out the fairy tale dreaming that you can easily abandon. Start looking at various software packages at that point, and definitely check out the AUS-centric forums (for example, guide updates for recording and data could be an issue?).

Will it be exclusively a super-PVR (ie recording and some internet video integration), or will you be trying to game and/or web browse, etc as well? Married? Don't forget the WAF.

This leads to hardware, which is part of the planning process. You can go from relatively low end stuff with onboard video that can handle basic decoding to full bore gaming rigs made for re-encoding BR and playing games at high resolution. You will need to look into the options available for remote controls, and/or wireless keyboards etc. Will it be feeding a TV, monitor, going through a receiver, etc etc. Wait until the first time one of your troubleshooting searches turns up the phrase "HDMI Handshake and EDID".

HTPC's can be an utter pain in the ass, primarily in the setup (and subsequently, in any drastic changes) phase, but once running solidly and stably offer far more versatility IMO over any single device.

Xbox doesn't record, so I pretty much assume it's out of the question for you.

edit: every time I see a question like this, I want to point out that a full month between starting research and planning and having your system fully armed and operational is realistic.
 
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Thanks Notposting for your input.
Iview is essentially a web based catchup program that uses flash that allows live streaming but not recording. What I would like is to be able to stream to the TV and have a flash enabled browser available. I also watch and record free to air programs so twin tuners is a must for recording. Am I asking too much?
Thanks
 
Nope, that would be pretty standard fare and an advantage to an HTPC.

On my setup, in general we never bounce out of the Windows Media Center setup. On occasion I will use the wireless keyboard/mse and open up a browser for Amazon Prime video streaming, though the key/mse combo I have is pretty fidgety, so getting a nice one would be an essential I think.

Another example of fidgetiness is screen resolution on TV's. I have found that the couple 720p (with actual panel sizes of 1366x768) TV's I have tried worked best when setting output to 1280x720 and letting the TV's built in scaler handle a resolution it knows.
 
I would check out the sticky at the top of this forum with Assassin's builds, should be a good starting point. The Green Button could be good as well, though obviously WMC oriented, and missing a lot of older information after MS destroyed the old Green Button site. Personally, I have been out of buying new hardware for too long to have any useful information in that regard.

One more point is definitely consider the cost of software, I know nowadays we assume that everything can be done by free software, but the benefit of support and updates with paid software can be worth it IMO. I have shelled out for My Movies and AnyDVD HD, a couple cheap little programs and plugins, back a few years ago paid out for some commercial scanning upgrades, even guide data for Mythtv on linux.

Just another point to consider.
 
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