I have a confession to make. While I used to believe there was no device that could compare with a home theater PC (HTPC) at each television set, I’ve come to realize that in a multi-TV home, that there’s no better solution for your Media Center than an extender. Not a full-blown computer (HTPC) at each TV, but instead, a consumer electric device known by many as an extender. In my home we have one pretty powerful server, a HTPC computer in the family room and three extenders (all SageTV extenders). For viewing TV content, listening to music and watching movies the extenders perform every bit as good as the HTPC in the family room.
As I wrote over on your site, I prefer the server/client configuration as well. Unfortunately, my primary (non-HTPC) solution TiVo is peer to peer. (But at least I can transfer some content.) As opposed to say the FiOS DVR or DISH Network DVR (one client only, but expandable storage). Although, as my pal Jason frequently reminds me – that secondary DISH DVR receiver is SD-only. Last time I visited Ben D’s place, he had a few Linksys (?) VMC extenders scattered about.
Thanks for pointing out this story, Dave. I’ve had it with tivo and am looking for an alternative (as well as extra features like streaming live tv and recorded programs to other rooms). I was a little miffed that the implied promise of dual tuner m-card support (i’ve followed that thread at tivo community and that one poster was being obtuse) but when they wanted me to pay them money to fix a problem that their crappy software update caused, I was finished. To me, Tivo has been on a diownhill slide since they went HD. Buggy software, broken promises and poor customer support seem to be the standard now. I hope that new competition, be it from Moxi or some other source, forces them to get back to the great company that they were when thy started. End rant.