Reasons for building an HTPC vs. streaming to a console?

[ibex333]

I have the parts left over from an old system to build a dedicated PC just for media content on the TV and I'd like to know if there is any reason in building one. I was never interested in HTPCs before so I dont know much about them, but from what I hear, I dont see how they provide any real advantages over just streaming wirelessly to a console.

1)HTPCs allow to watch digital channels on TV using a TV-tuner card.
Who cares, it's not like I can watch Discovery and History channels for free using this thing. All I can watch are the "free" channels. But I can watch them for free using my cable service, so why bother?

2)HTPC allows to just connect to the TV and basically just watch you-tube or netflix, or do anything as one would with a normal computer. But I can connect any PC to my TV and do the same thing?

3)HTPC can be built to be slim and light. Yes, I agree there..


Is there something I am missing? Do HTPCs provide other advantages?

Thanks.

 

[mshan]

HTPC is less likely to be locked down as much as mass produced item from mainstream conglomerate like Sony or Samsung.

You can choose higher quality parts that may or may not produce better image quality and sound (dedicated cards vs. integrated) and lower noise components.

Google TV seemed like a good idea, but look at what happened because all content providers locked them out.

You can fly under the radar so to speak with DIY HTPC and software programs from small independent developers vs. giant conglomerate that media providers will try and extract revenue from.

 

[velillen]

HTPC's arent for everyone. For example all the features, say my parents, want could be found on a roku device. However there are still plenty of other things i like and that shyw i enjoyed my htpc personally.

Some of the pros -

-Watch any file. doesnt matter on codec/container/audio you can play it.
-Store all 300+ movies in a remuxed mkv. Get the same movie/audio quality as the bluray without the stupid ads/previews/warnings
- Access to pretty much anything content wise. Plugins for things like hulu and youtube. Or hop online and stream from espn3, or find a live stream of a sports event. Literally can watch just about anything. Even download right to the htpc for viewing later.
- Stay current. Want bluray? Buy a bluray player drive for your htpc. Or want to go from say vista to W7? Then just buy W7. What im saying is you can stay current with the latest and greatest formats by just upgrading. A roku or PS3/Xbox is stuck at that level for ever.
-Can game if you want. Emulators offer snes/nes/ps1/ps2 games. plus can play pc games.

*-Cost - this one can be seen either way. You can build a decent htpc for ~400 bucks. or you can spend way more and have it better.

-Tv antenna for OTA HD. Use it as a DVR. Way to cut the cable bill and still get local channels and also record them.

Obivoulsy there are flaws though.

-Can be hard to setup...getting it to play all formats could be hard.
- Could cost more than other devices
and more but im lazy.



As for your number 2....well yeah. A htpc is just simply a PC anyways. Its just more designed strictly for home theater usage vs everyday websurfing and the such.

 

[dbailey]

I rent a 4$ / month cable card from Verizon so I don't have to pay $20 / month to rent an hddvr from them or a $10 tuner from them. The thing pays for itself in a few years. You can also use your pc to listen to your mp3 collection or stream music from online for another few features.

 

[Aikouka]

When I tried PS3 Media Server, I had a lot of issues with subtitles. Given I watch anime with soft subs, that's just not going to work.

 

[guachi]

Ceton quad tuner + a cable service that doesn't copy protect its channels (FiOS) + lots of HD space + VideoReDo (to remove commercials/fix errors) + HandBrake = lots and lots and lots of permantly stored, HD, commercial free TV shows/movies.

Plus, like others have said, it's a PC so it can play almost anything, it's not locked down, and it's upgradeable.

I don't have a console and haven't had one since I owned an NES in 1990. But I love the versatility using a HTPC gives me.

 

[s44]

- Access to pretty much anything content wise. Plugins for things like hulu and youtube. Or hop online and stream from espn3, or find a live stream of a sports event. Literally can watch just about anything. Even download right to the htpc for viewing later.

You can do this -- more easily, actually -- over streaming with PlayOn.

But there's a cost, and you need a decent desktop as server anyway.

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

I like the elegance of having everything in a single, small enclosure. Blu-ray/DVD, 4-tuner HD-DVR, streaming, Netflix/Hulu/Vudu/Amazon, Pandora. No need for 3 or more separate boxes to provide what one can do.

And as mentioned previously...no DVR rental. In little more than a year the Ceton card pays for itself, not to mention there are four tuners instead of just two.

 

[Anubis]

When I tried PS3 Media Server, I had a lot of issues with subtitles. Given I watch anime with soft subs, that's just not going to work.

random question but why not just use hard subs?

 

[Aikouka]

random question but why not just use hard subs?

I agree that I don't see a point to soft-subs in anime unless the release is dual-audio. I think they just do it that way since the MKV container supports it. The one downside that I have when I watch them on my PC is that some videos will have subtitles tracks that I don't care about, so I turn off the subtitles. Then later on I wonder why my anime has no subs.

 

[kalrith]

As has been already mentioned, HTPCs aren't for everyone. An HTPC made sense to me, because I canceled my satellite and just watch free channels. I have a dual-tuner card and record a lot of OTA (i.e. free) TV. I watch a lot of online content as well, especially ESPN3 and Food Network.

I also wanted to build a low-power (40W at idle), stand-alone system for a couple reasons. I didn't want to have my gaming PC (high power usage) turned on just to watch TV, and I wouldn't be able to stream live TV to anything but an XBOX360. I also don't want my gaming PC's performance decreased by my wife watching TV. I crunched the numbers for converting my gaming PC into a media server plus getting a media extender, and an HTPC just made more sense. I was able to build one for $400 including a diNovo Mini, so the low cost definitely sweetened the deal.

Of course, I never considered getting an HTPC while I had satellite, and I'd probably still feel the same way unless I was installing a cable card in one.

 

[LikeLinus]

I have the parts left over from an old system to build a dedicated PC just for media content on the TV and I'd like to know if there is any reason in building one. I was never interested in HTPCs before so I dont know much about them, but from what I hear, I dont see how they provide any real advantages over just streaming wirelessly to a console.

1)HTPCs allow to watch digital channels on TV using a TV-tuner card.
Who cares, it's not like I can watch Discovery and History channels for free using this thing. All I can watch are the "free" channels. But I can watch them for free using my cable service, so why bother?

2)HTPC allows to just connect to the TV and basically just watch you-tube or netflix, or do anything as one would with a normal computer. But I can connect any PC to my TV and do the same thing?

3)HTPC can be built to be slim and light. Yes, I agree there..


Is there something I am missing? Do HTPCs provide other advantages?

Thanks.

There are things outside of the technical aspect that makes an HTPC much better. The fact that the interface and/or software you use is fully customizable and can be changed to suite the users preferences. I personally use XBMC w/ Aeon Nox and it's great. The interface, usability and how the media is displayed is far better than anything a console has to offer. I have it showing the disc covers, ratings, IMDB score, actors, directors and a description of the movie/show. If I ever get tired of it, I can change how the media is displayed or even change the entire look and feel of the entire interface.

I can also totally customize my remote control and set what buttons do what. The ability to get under the hood and make changes to the code is pretty cool.

Not to mention all of the add-ons that you can get and the scrapers.

From a technical standpoint, the ability to play almost anything is great. Also you can update the codecs and even change what codec is being used when something new has come out that offers better performance or image quality. Not to mention you can upgrade your PC anytime. Say you didn't previously have a Blu-Ray drive, well you can drop $50 and get a drive for your HTPC and you're set. Do that with a console.

Additionally some people use their HTPC to multitask and use things like Couch Potato, torrents and other things to acquiremedia.

Then you can even get into hardware like the Ceton InfiniTV 4 like I have. It can provide 4 streams of cable throughout my entire house via my gigabit network. I have 4 TVs run off one card and do not have to pay a monthly fee for the card or boxes for each TV. You can even get into having software automatically move your recorded copy free content to a network share automatically and having your recorded items available to all TVs in the house.

The point is, it's almost endless what you can do with your HTPC. Your console is what it is. It's great though for people who want to plug and play, but an HTPC is far more fun to people who want to be on the cutting edge and play with all the technology behind it and try things. I had a WD Live Plus and was happy with it for a year or so. But once I got one HTPC built....yeah, I ended up with 2 more within 3 months and now have my entire house fed via a media server w/ a Ceton card to all of our TVs running WMC and XBMC. It's pretty awesome once you get it up and running.

 

[Anonemous]

There are things outside of the technical aspect that makes an HTPC much better. The fact that the interface and/or software you use is fully customizable and can be changed to suite the users preferences. I personally use XBMC w/ Aeon Nox and it's great. The interface, usability and how the media is displayed is far better than anything a console has to offer. I have it showing the disc covers, ratings, IMDB score, actors, directors and a description of the movie/show. If I ever get tired of it, I can change how the media is displayed or even change the entire look and feel of the entire interface.

I just set up XBMC and it is very nice. I love the 'cover flow' of the titles and some themes actually play trailers of the movie titles to let you preview. Only con was XBMC would crash when scanning my library if there were some weird names and different file structures. So I had to go back and fix some. Otherwise if you haven't tried XBMC, you gotta see it.

 

[LikeLinus]

I just set up XBMC and it is very nice. I love the 'cover flow' of the titles and some themes actually play trailers of the movie titles to let you preview. Only con was XBMC would crash when scanning my library if there were some weird names and different file structures. So I had to go back and fix some. Otherwise if you haven't tried XBMC, you gotta see it.

I found this out the hard way. It is very import to have your media named and structured right. It's a pain in the butt to get it right, but once you do, it's awesome. There are some GREAT tools like Ember Media Manager which will help you get your media together and with the correct media (i.e. nfo, cover art, fanart and such) very quickly.

I used to dump all of my movies in a single folder and just have them the name of the movie. Big mistake. I now have them in individual folders with the year in the name and all of the goodies that XBMC needs. Good stuff.

 

[Zaap]

Same thing as others here have said: these days, HTPCs aren't for everyone. A few years ago it was much more of a solution than today when lots of other devices (including a lot of TVs) do many of the same things.

Still, as with others, there's a lot about an HTPC that for me can't be substituted with anything else.

My reasons for still having several:

1. More tuner options, as gone over. If one doesn't need a TV tuner option at all in an external device, then an HTPC is probably never going to be your cup of tea.

2. Easily expandable and upgradeable; better video cards, audio hardware, drives, CPU, RAM, external perifs, etc. whenever one needs it. And everything is in one 'does everything' box.

3. A good PC in any form, is just plain useful. My HTPCs aren't just for media playback- I use them to rip media, convert and crunch files, store and serve files on my network and 'in the cloud', web-surfing/web media, controlling my 'smart home' system, and some light gaming. I can remote into my machines from anywhere in the world to schedule recordings, run tasks, stream media, and view/control my entire house even when I'm not home. Typical HTPC tasks just aren't that demanding, and the machines can easily handle other tasks at the same time. No console comes close to the control and versatility.

4. Good software for all of the above and more is easy to come by since it's just a Windows PC. No software compromises to run on a console or extender box.

All these are reasons enough for me- but it's also true that many people are perfectly well served for their own needs using consoles or Roku boxes or whatever else.

 

[the DRIZZLE]

For me it was because I just didn't find streaming on a console reliable enough. I had too many files that wouldn't play, or would crash randomly half way through a movie. HTPCs are still kind of a PIA though. I feel like I'm continually messing with codecs or trouble shooting something.

 

[velillen]

For me it was because I just didn't find streaming on a console reliable enough. I had too many files that wouldn't play, or would crash randomly half way through a movie. HTPCs are still kind of a PIA though. I feel like I'm continually messing with codecs or trouble shooting something.

meh i havent really played with codecs in months. The only files i had issues with were itunes ones. I'd downloaded tosh.o in itunes format and it wouldn't play in media browser (with shark007's codec's). but i keep vlc player for that sort of file anyways.

 

[Modelworks]

It depends on the person. If you are the type that likes to collect movies and add cover sheets , customize interfaces , etc then HTPC is the way to go. If you are the type that just want to play the movie without all the fluff then grab a wdtv live box. It plays just about anything and even handles .iso files .

 

[WarrenH]

An HTPC can serve as a single point for all your media.

From family photos and family videos, music, movies and tv series (with plugins), easily accessible with a single remote on your tv in your living room. Additionally, it's a CD, DVD and BluRay player, as well as a multi channel DVR with unlimited storage.

It'll also give you Internet browsing, streamed movies, video calling, and about anything else you can imagine of a pc.

Oh, and contrary to belief, it's not that difficult to set up providing you keep things simple and don't over complicate.

Most importantly, for a decent experience, ensure you have a fairly decently powered system and that it's as quiet as possible, otherwise you'll have more frustration than enjoyment. Often a mistake of throwing together old left over components.

It's our preferred method of living room entertainment in our family, as we can watch what we feel like when we want, without relying on broadcast schedules.