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Loading ...It’s All Digital!
As an industry veteran that helps to design and develop solutions, I am often asked, “Why would anyone want an HTPC?” After spending some time on this topic with various people, I thought I would provide a little write up. For the sake of simplicity, the terms “Home Theater PC” (HTPC) and “Home Cinema PC” are used interchangeably.
There have been many attempts at putting a Home Theater PC into the living room over the years, but these systems have never enjoyed the success they have strived to achieve. One can’t help but wonder why? Life is stored digitally, everything from vacation videos and photographs to music and movies are all stored in digital formats and easily accessible by the PC. In addition to this, there is a wealth of high quality content on the Internet. Why not marry the PC to the TV where you can enjoy all this wonderful digital content from your living room couch on your high definition, big screen TV?
There isn’t one single reason why these types of systems have never achieved glory. For some it may be price, others may not like the idea of a PC in their living room. For most, they were just too big, ugly, hot and loud. The short answer is that the technology was just not mature enough to handle the tasks required…until now.
So what has changed? Over the past few years, technology vendors have looked at this market and tried to understand how they can develop technology that addresses the shortcomings of previous generations of systems. Improvements in chipset technology, chassis designs, HDD designs, Blu-Ray optical players, cooling technology and software are all coming to fruition to meet the demands of high definition content.
Furthermore, the growth of professional and high quality content on the Internet is changing the way people consume content. You can find everything from old, re-run classics to the latest broadcast television shows online. You can also find a wealth of professionally developed content in broadcast and HD quality through various IPTV providers.
This combination of improved hardware and the growth of online audio and video content is rapidly making the HTPC a very viable solution for the masses. Whether you are a Do-It-Yourself (DIY) individual or just looking for a turn-key solution, there are ways that you can enjoy the HD experience in your own home with an HTPC.
Did you know that with an HTPC you can store and playback your favorite video and movie content, including Blu-Ray? Did you know an HTPC can act as a DVR/PVR for TV and Cable content? Did you know that you can make your HTPC a music and video jukebox? How about pictures? An HTPC can store all your photographic memories so you can enjoy them anytime you like. Of course, all of the above functionality may sometimes be limited due to copy protection mechanisms, but still the Home Cinema PC can be a very powerful device in your entertainment stack and deliver an exceptional HD experience, all at an affordable price.
Stay tuned for updates to this blog where we will discuss in more detail, the functions and features offered by the HTPCs of today. We will talk more in depth on the hardware changes and how they are contributing to a better HTPC experience. We will also talk more about where you can get your own, or if you are up to it, build one yourself.
Till next time, happy trails!
Jay Taylor is a Senior Developer Relations Engineer at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.
#1 by Daniel Sill - March 9th, 2009 at 09:44
My wife is excited about using our HTPC and big TV for her church bible study meetings. It was a use that did not occur to me, but she saw it as soon as I got it all set up and showed her how to use it.
#2 by Jonathan Smith - March 9th, 2009 at 09:48
Jay, Good stuff. I would also be interested in your thoughts arround the HTPC with built in amplification vs. just using a computer like a live64 machine. How does the quality of sound/video compare to stand alone components. Thanks,
#3 by Travis Misterek - March 9th, 2009 at 09:55
Has the time for a PC in the HT not gone by? It seems silly to tell a customer they need a HDTV to hook up a HTPC to, but yet we cannot view HD sat etc.
#4 by Jay Taylor - March 9th, 2009 at 10:02
@Travis Misterek,
Hello, I don’t believe the time for the HTPC has gone by. In fact, I think we are just seeing the early stages of deploymet. The growth of online content is exploding. Virtually all the major networks and film studios are making much of their content directly available to consmers online. Did you know that 20% of US Households are now accessing Primetime TV content online? The number in Europe is even higher. While it is true that Satellite is not available via cable card, even they are looking at ways to make their content accessible by the PC. It is not required to have an HDTV to use an HTPC, but as consumers migrate to HDTV, the HTPC is a great way to deliver content to that new screen. High Res photos, online content, HD TV Tuners and cable card can deliver a powerful HD expeirence to the consumer. Regards, Jay Taylor
#5 by RoCPuter - March 9th, 2009 at 09:56
I think the forgone HTPC was price and feature prohibitive. I still have my original $800 Qbex system which has a DVD and 20 Gig hdd! Now we are building HTPC with media live 5.1 AMD 4850e and blu-ray with 500 gig HDD for $1,299. Just a year ago getting this quality in an HTPC would have cost 3 grand or more.
#6 by Nitin Reddy Katkam - July 26th, 2009 at 14:44
Although I hooked up my computer to my TV, it’s simply for staying updated while I’m not exactly at my computer. Think of it as a scoreboard at a sports event or a flight schedule board at an airport.
I wish I had the 150″ plasma from Panasonic so I wouldn’t have to turn the resolution all the way down to be able to read the text
#7 by Jay Taylor - July 27th, 2009 at 09:27
@Nitin Reddy Katkam, There are a lot of useful functions that you can do with an HTPC. I use mine every day for regular TV viewing, etc.
Depending on the version of the OS you are running, you may be able to take advantage of tools that enlarge the images without decreasing the resolution.
MS has a couple options for this. In Vista, you can go into the Ease of Access Center in the control panel. There you will see some settings for making the computer easier to see along with a magnifier. Likewise, you can scale the font DPI (Dots Per Inch) to make fonts larger on the screen.
Regards,
Jay