The Home Theater PC is Dead

03grandam said:
"taking their dick out of their pants to take a piss" has nothing to do with being able to build and setup an HTPC. Remember those of us that can build and work on computers are the minority not the majority. Hell even BB workers don't know jack shit and yet your average user still takes their computers there to be worked on so whats that tell you? The average user is just tech illiterate, sadly.
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Nah, I was referring to those that can't use one that is already set up. I don't expect your average person to do the actual build/setup.
 
Bring-Out-Your-Dead--monty-python-and-the-holy-grail-591432_800_441.jpg


Bring out your dead!

Good grief. I love my HTPC..... To hard to use my ass......
 
unfortunateson said:
No point in having a HTPC if there is no ability to save local media - i.e. DVD Rips / Blu-ray Rips. There is no built-in way to do this using front ends like XBMC (because of legal nonsense). External programs can rip, sure, but then theres the hassle of updating them for new DVD/BR releases and absolutely no integration. Any tiny box can stream netflix.
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Win7MC with Auto Rip and Compress plugin works just fine.
I can drop a movie in, rip or watch it, and if I rip it, it even gets the metadata for me.


a good Win7MC setup can take a few to get working right, but when done right, it works great, better than XBMC and hell, I even have a plugin that launches Boxee and when I close Boxee, it goes back to media center.

On top of this, my Win7MC HTPC is also my file server, and my WDLive players are automapped to movie/tv folders. I have a WDLive in each bedroom.
My blu-ray player in the master bedroom handles Netflix streaming, all others are played from the HTPC File shares.
 
Pretty funny to claim a CONCEPT is dead. How do you kill something that is purely concept and built using parts that most likely will never stop being made?
 
They'll never be main streem; because you can buy a media player that will play almost any format you can think of and some even have netflix, hulu, browsers, etc for 200 bucks or less.
 
Kaitian said:
PC... Dead
Home Theater... Dead
Microsoft... Dead
AMD... Dead
Mouse... Dead
etc

What do they all have in common?

Oh right, shit that alot of people uses but marketeers are trying to push "new" and obsolete bullshit on them that don't meet our needs.
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To be fair, there are a lot of dead mice, but they breed pretty fast to replace them.
 
Ben Drawbaugh
"There aren't many people out there more passionate about HD than Ben Drawbaugh. He won't watch anything that isn't presented in HD and when it comes to his home theater, he demands the best picture available. This translates into his writing as he prides himself on technical accuracy as well as bringing the news from the perspective of a videophile. When he's not writing about HD, you'll find him with his wife chasing after their two children, or driving as fast as he possibly can in his Honda."

Too bad Ben doesn't have the tools, time and talent to have more than 1 computer.
Hey Engaget, I'm a frikkin' videophile!
 
I think the basic point that this article and the rest of the world has missed is that the HTPC didn't go away -- it is simply that almost EVERY PC is now effectively an HTPC.

The vast majority of PC's (both desktop and laptop) now have HDMI ports.
Basically all newer TV's have HDMI ports (and VGA too, for that matter).
So, connecting pretty much any recent PC to a big screen TV with digital audio requires basically zero effort and one cable.

All versions of Windows 7 except Starter now include Windows Media Center -- which, personally, I feel is one of the best apps for a 10' experience on an HTPC. It is already built into the OS and the configuration is basically NIL unless you are adding a CableCard tuner (and even then, it now walks you through it to where it is hard to screw up your end of things -- though actually communicating the information to the people at the cable company to get them to properly activate the CableCard is another matter entirely). If all you want is a standard ATSC or ClearQAM tuner, then purchasing and configuring any of the various USB based ones on the market is pretty much a no-brainer.

The volume level of most pre-built PC's from Dell, HP, etc has improved so much in the last couple of years that most are now nearly inaudible and actually quieter than some of the HTPC custom builds I did a few years ago.


So, unless you are simply wanting something custom or really wanting it to LOOK like a piece of Home Theater equipment (which I do -- which is why I built my own), pretty much EVERY basic PC being sold these days actually *IS* an effective HTPC.
 
I'd say that being "dead" is a bit different from being mainstream. As long as small form factors exist (and you really don't even need that) they will never be dead!

I'd have one if I had the spare money. Or a living room with a respectable TV =p
 
My HTPC have two silent Fermi 47 , a I7 to 4.00 ghz, is connected to a 1080p projector and I use a mouse from the sofa using a special table that allows me to lie down in the couch . Now I'm writing this, in a 100 " screen. In a little while may play a true 1080p game or editing images with photoshop. This is a HTPC. I can watch movies in TV online or in the the DBT in HD. It may have a Blu Ray perfectly. This is the HTPC. Why do I want 3 or 4 different machines if I can do everything with a pc PC?

About this topic and the future

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/...ery_Aggressively_Support_PC_Gaming_On_TVs.php

But even with that commercial success, Kotick sees limitations to growth due to the walled nature of services like Xbox Live. Now, he wants to "very aggressively" support the open PC platform by backing companies like HP and Dell, which have the capability to release "new gamer-friendly PCs, designed to be plugged into the television."
Click to expand...

A HTPC :D . Sorry for me english lenguage ;)
 
My HTPC have two silent Fermi 47 , a I7 to 4.00 ghz, is connected to a 1080p projector and I use a mouse from the sofa using a special table that allows me to lie down in the couch . Now I'm writing this, in a 100 " screen. In a little while may play a true 1080p game or editing images with photoshop. This is a HTPC. I can watch movies in TV online or in the the DBT in HD. It may have a Blu Ray perfectly. This is the HTPC. Why do I want 3 or 4 different machines if I can do everything with a pc PC?

About this topic and the future

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/...ery_Aggressively_Support_PC_Gaming_On_TVs.php

But even with that commercial success, Kotick sees limitations to growth due to the walled nature of services like Xbox Live. Now, he wants to "very aggressively" support the open PC platform by backing companies like HP and Dell, which have the capability to release "new gamer-friendly PCs, designed to be plugged into the television."
Click to expand...

A HTPC :D . Sorry for me english lenguage ;)
 
My HTPC have two silent Fermi 47 , a I7 to 4.00 ghz, is connected to a 1080p projector and I use a mouse from the sofa using a special table that allows me to lie down in the couch . Now I'm writing this, in a 100 " screen. In a little while may play a true 1080p game or editing images with photoshop. This is a HTPC. I can watch movies in TV online or in the the DBT in HD. It may have a Blu Ray perfectly. This is the HTPC. Why do I want 3 or 4 different machines if I can do everything with a pc PC?

About this topic and the future

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/...ery_Aggressively_Support_PC_Gaming_On_TVs.php

But even with that commercial success, Kotick sees limitations to growth due to the walled nature of services like Xbox Live. Now, he wants to "very aggressively" support the open PC platform by backing companies like HP and Dell, which have the capability to release "new gamer-friendly PCs, designed to be plugged into the television."
Click to expand...

A HTPC :D . Sorry for me english lenguage ;)
 
extide said:
Anyone remember the ORIGINAL HTPC?
The Gateway 2000 Destination
heh
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Remember the Destination???? Oh yeah.
Actually, am still using my RF keyboard and remote from mine (they work quite well on a USB to PS/2 converter) on one of my HTPC's.

I've been using and working with HTPC's since before they were called HTPC's -- and was one of the technical leads on a product that was developed around the same time or slightly prior to the Destination. Sadly, due to corporate myopia and political infighting between divisions, it never saw the light of day publicly.

It was called MAT (Media Access Terminal) and was a VERY custom built-PC -- and would NOT have been cheap.

It had a dedicated 8x8 VCP Media Processor on it capable of doing POTS based video conferencing, mpeg decoding, mpeg encoding, etc. It had a custom audio/video board with NTSC and FM Radio tuners and more input/output muxing capability than most amplifiers. It also had a separate dedicated IO processor that could handle all TV functionality and tuning so that the OS (Windows 95) wouldn't have to deal with it -- and served as a watchdog for the rest of the system (in essence, no matter how screwed up Windows got, you were ALWAYS able to do the basic TV, radio, and audio functionality). It had full IR receiving capability with IR shooter and full IR learning. It had Caller-ID capability and would do Caller-ID overlays over live TV when a call came in. It had freeze frame video capability and we had even done some internal demo code that implemented very basic DVR capability (Mpeg1 I-frame only encode -- which was all we could handle realtime) -- WAY before TIVO was around. It was also going to be one of the first products released that used the Intel Pentium II Klamath CPU -- with our ship date coinciding with the release of the PII and it was even originally supposed to have been shown at a press conference with Andy Grove. It also had a VERY pretty fully programmable VFD display module on the front of the unit (I still have a bunch of them and still use them on my current HTPC's).

Honestly, it was an HTPC done right -- especially for when it was designed. Another product with the same name was eventually released by a different design team, but it was a completely different product with far less functionality, no secondary IO processor, and it depended on Windows 98 completely for all functionality (with predictable results -- i.e. it sucked). It basically floundered and was pulled from the market quite rapidly.

C'est la vie.
 
Other features that the MAT system had that I forgotten about was a full EPG system with TV Guide data (which was quite forward looking for the day), the ability to control all your other devices (VCR, etc) via the IR shooting and schedule recordings on the, built in speakerphone capability tied to the Caller-ID function on the remote (a call came in, it showed on-screen and you could answer the phone by pressing a button on the remote -- and it would automatically mute the volume for other devices and pause video playback, etc). It also included CD audio capability built-in and a higher end prototype version we did included DVD playback (via a PCI card with hardware MPEG2 decoder). We even had MP3 playback capability built in to our in-house versions (we even had a hack interface that tied it to a command line ripping utility -- though we only added this to our own personal units after the project had already been killed).

The amount of "prior art" and potential patents that were squandered by this project boggle the mind.
 
One more feature I forgot -- we had a Dolby Surround decoder and the DVD version was going to include optical outputs as well as a PCI card with Dolby Digital 5.1 decoding.
 
to be fair, a $199 PS3 or xbox 360 can do everything a HTPC can do if the server has tversity on it... I kind of don't see the point of a HTPC anymore...
 
Chimel said:
#2 is one of the hindrances, CableCard was a failure in the US and does not even exist outside the US. I would say instead:

2. Increased presence of mini-ITX boards with embedded video

Today, the only modern board on newegg is the ZOTAC 880GITX-A-E for the Phenom II, but it still features the 3yo DirectX 10.1. Their only LGA 1155 model does not include video.
Many mini-ITX boards can use passive cooling or a single CPU cooler, and at a square 6.5" / 17 cm, they can be available in many attractive and silent SFF cases.
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[Yoda]So impatient you are.... yes?[/Yoda]

http://www.zotacusa.com/zotac-h67itx-a-e-wifi-lga-1155-mini-itx-intel-motherboard.html
 
So apparently, WMC and only WMC=HTPC in the eyes of Engadget.
I guess that puts them in the non tech-savvy camp.
 
Haven't like read the thread but Win Mac HTPC is dead. What's that Intel AMD joint effort Linux kernel called?
 
I just built and installed a new HTPC boxen in my bedroom last week with my Plasma TV.

I watched a movie on it last night. True Grit.

love live the htpc!
 
RyanLucier said:
to be fair, a $199 PS3 or xbox 360 can do everything a HTPC can do if the server has tversity on it... I kind of don't see the point of a HTPC anymore...
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No it can't -- unless the server is also a Windows 7MC box.

Also:
XBox360 = hair dryer
Good HTPC = inaudible
(with a Talismoon the 360 is better, but still WAY too loud)

The biggest thing lacking is real DVR/TV support with CableCard capability. Internet TV is ok for some things, but the picture quality still looks like crap compared to a good HD Mpeg2 feed.

Similarly, my wife uses our HTPC for all her work stuff in Word and Excel -- which you are not going to be doing on an XBox.

Skype, etc. are also much more well developed on the PC platform as well.
 
I contemplated building a HTPC for a while but all I really wanted was a few features, most all could be provided by a well-featured media player. So that is what I did. I really didn't care about recording TV programs (trash) or watching TV. I just wanted quality media playback of archived H.264 video and FLAC audio.
 
These people have no idea what they are talking about. I see HTPCs becoming more and more prevalent as time goes on. Its a marking that they are ALL missing out on right now. I think behind all this HTPC is dead hype, there is some cable media providers thinking that HTPCs mean the death of cable. That is the only reason HTPCs havnt gotten more popular.
 
1) WIndows 7 Ultimate (for media center)
2) a remote
3) an ATi video card with HDMI out/audio passtthrough
4) a TV tuner card

Rock and roll it's not hard, it's just people make it hard
 
agree with it , after having built htpcs for 6 of my firends and relatives who are not very comfortable with pcs it has taken a large part of my free time over the 2 years. so many problems were of their own doing. in the end 4 of em asked me to sell thee htpcs and got got a PVR like Sky+ HD.
 
I don't think it's that HTPC's haven't gone mainstream, I think they've taken different forms than expected. Take a PS3, for example. Other than tune TV, it can do pretty much everything you'd use an HTPC for. Cable companies are offering more sophisticated boxes for DVR, etc. So I think the idea that the HTPC is dead is sort of accurate, the idea of digital convergence is still happening.
 
jandar said:
Win7MC with Auto Rip and Compress plugin works just fine.
I can drop a movie in, rip or watch it, and if I rip it, it even gets the metadata for me.


a good Win7MC setup can take a few to get working right, but when done right, it works great, better than XBMC and hell, I even have a plugin that launches Boxee and when I close Boxee, it goes back to media center.

On top of this, my Win7MC HTPC is also my file server, and my WDLive players are automapped to movie/tv folders. I have a WDLive in each bedroom.
My blu-ray player in the master bedroom handles Netflix streaming, all others are played from the HTPC File shares.
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So how do you get past the fact that Win7MC has no scrapers to get info for movies, or that it can't play mkv or m2ts? I'd be interested if you have a solution that stays in-the-box for scraping.
 
"The Home Theater PC is Dead"

It's a small niche. I'd say it was hardly alive to begin with. IMO HTPC never took off because they are way too complicated for the average computer user, and just about every software implementation lacks reliability, fit and finish, usability, etc. Anyone looking to get into this area must spend hours reading online forums only to find that there are probably 150 different ways to do the same thing, each with varying degree of results. And then if you want to get into HD recording, forget it. Just get a DVR from your local provider and be done with it.
 
Haha, the HTPC is dead: Since last CES, Windows Embedded Standard 7 started to include WMC, and some TVs at CES 2011 now come with Win7MC!
Even topboxes like Reycom's do. Although I hope they'll change the name from the "REC" before release, I don't like very much the sound of this name.
 
unfortunateson said:
So how do you get past the fact that Win7MC has no scrapers to get info for movies, or that it can't play mkv or m2ts? I'd be interested if you have a solution that stays in-the-box for scraping.
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Plenty of metadata scrapers out there that work fine. YAMM works, even with extenders, Media Center Master works as well in the background and can monitor folders.

I can play mkv's with shark codecs, and it even works well enough to let me select an audio stream or subtitle, all the while keeping inside Win7MC.

m2ts is handled by PowerDVD, and that even installs a plugin in Win7MC that allows me to open a blu-ray or even HD-DVD (yes, I have some laying around still) and play those. You can usually get free software with your BD-ROM drive.

Outside of Windows7 Pro, I have no additional cost in running anything on my htpc. I do use SlySoft to trick HDCP as I have custom firmware on my Westinghouse 42" and it breaks HDCP.
 
Steve said:
I'm starting to look more like necrophiliac than a news guy. :eek:
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You haven't have you...I know BFG video cards are sexy but...you know what you have to do to become one :confused: now...that would be news...:eek:

Can I put that in a sig...?:D
 
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