I received an email yesterday wondering what exactly an HTPC is, and why wouldn’t I just hook up an inexpensive computer to my flat panel for music, pics, DVD, and video? As I told George, that’s exactly what I’ve done.
A Home Theater PC (HTPC) is more of a usage concept rather than a specific piece of a hardware. Generally speaking, one would want an HTPC to have at least one tuner (ATSC, NTSC, DVB-*, CableCARD), an appropriate video card for HD playback, and some sort of software package(s) to power it all. In my case, I’ve temporarily repurposed an inexpensive HP desktop (a1600n) which ran ~$650 18 months ago. (Vista was a free upgrade by mail.) Because the unit lives in the open, instead of within an AV closet or another room, I purposely sought out a fanless video card to limit noise. Under XP, Microsoft’s media center + DVR software was initially an upsell (XP MCE) and initially only provided to OEMs. Whereas typical multimedia-centric consumer Vista systems (Premium, Ultimate) now include this functionality. (And Apple offers Front Row.) So it’s pretty easy to get into the game. HTPCs provide a whole lot more power and flexibility than a typical DVR or extender, but they’re not necessarily economical and require a larger investment of time in configuration and maintenance than a dedicated consumer electronics device.