Building a Home Theatre Personal Computer (HTPC)
I'm in trouble. I have the HTPC bug pretty bad. This is going to cost me probably around $800 (plus add the token 50% mark up to my initial estimate that always happens when I do these things because I just have to have the best..sigh).

Building Your Own HTPC, offers a pretty good jump off point for all of this (including links to some great looking audio quality PC cases). They even have vacuum fluorescent displays that can be hooked up to your serial port with software to sniff the CD track number and play time (and about a million other things, like local weather rotational display, time, date, etc). A Google search for HTPC returns thousands of sites showing how to build these things (it is even more mainstream than building MAME cabinets, grin). I really want to find a motherboard that has 802.11g built in wireless networking support. I see that Shuttle has some pretty cool mini cases with integrated proprietary motherboards and wireless support, they are calling XPC's. They even including some of the 7-in-1 media readers that seems ESSENTIAL to any HTPC.

Plus, with Windows new Media Edition Center, and all the other cool software front ends that are popping up all over, this IS going to be the wave of the future. Move over TIVO, because that is just the tip of the ice berg. The question is, for $1000-1200, what do I end up with? Well, here are my main expectations:

• Number one is that I get a PVR (Personal Video Recorder) out of this. The only question is, will it do HiDef capture. At this point, it is probably not reasonable (there are OTA HiDef capture cards, but none that work with cable or satelight providers yet, though DISH network just announced the release of their 921 HD PVR for $1000, and I've heard rumors that DirecTV is planning on releasing a comparable unit by April for around the same amount), so maybe we will see PCI cards at some point, too. The movie industry is REALLY kicking us in the groin to try to prevent us from being able to capture high definition digital content (for the same reasons that the music industry is fighting digital MP3 media and file sharing on the internet, and the network TV industry is REALLY scared about the ability for us to record commercial free video content. For those of you that haven't been sold on how cool a PVR is, I have not yet heard of ONE SINGLE PERSON that has seen it and not had it completely change how they watch TV. It's bigger than the VCR.
  
  
• On demand MP3 playback. This is pretty cool. No more shuffling all my hundreds of CDs to find the song I want or anything. Pick the song you want (or randomly play from specific play lists or music theme types) and have it all. Plus with wireless streaming, I can even have it all stored on a central file server if I need.
  
  
• HD progressive scan DVD playback. This is a minor point, right now, since I already have a progressive scan DVD player, but it comes for free with this. And if Microsoft can ever get their new HD content standards that are currently supported by Windows Media Player 9 (up to 1080p) accepted by the movie industry, this may be the best way to get blue laser DVD super hidef content playback on my TV much cheaper than commercial units will run initially.
  
  
• WebTV. I know this has been pushed for a long time, and failed a lot, but this is something that I can't believe hasn't taken off better. I'm shocked and surprised that cable companies (and more importantly, Microsoft, with all the opportunities for internet fees and subscriptions and a market that may be bigger than the PC industry) haven't been plugging this HUGE. With cable companies offering cable modems and stuff, this is a natural marriage, and the perfect sales tool. Just integrate the cable modem into a TIVO like web browsing box that you rent out to the masses. I think a lot of people underestimate the power of a WebTV.
  
  First, it is one of the best new media/news tools. CNN and MSNBC already have a strong internet news center, and it seems perfectly logical to sit down and browse that content on you HDTV in your living room, sipping coffee before heading to work. Additionally, how many of you have argued with your spouse, or puzzled over some actor or actress and what other movie they have been in? Well, with an HTPC and the combination of a PVR that can pause live TV or DVD and swap over to a browser, just consult IMDB.com (Internet Movie DataBase), and search for actor/actress names, movies, and a million other threads to track that down really quick. Then there is also the tons of internet quickie games (like online hearts, poker, bejeweld, tetris, etc.) that can occupy a ton of your entertainment time all from the comfort of your own couch.
  
  
• PC Game or console? An HTPC seriously begins to blur the lines between console and PC gaming. Most of the games are already so generically produced, that they can be ported easily to just about any platform, including PC. Add a wireless game controller, and you may not be able to tell the difference between Madden 2004 on an Xbox and your HTPC. Hum...Everquest on the widescreen? Nod.
  
  
• Home movie media center. I have a kid now, and you can't believe how much time I spend sampling all the hours of digital mini-DV format video over to hard drive for archival purposes. Most of it would be EASY to do on the TV with an HTPC.
  

Sigh, I'm going to try to put together a list of parts tomorrow and get a cost estimate. I've done this about 3 times now, and each time, I just decide to wait a little longer for prices to drop and for it to become more mainstream (cheaper capture cards, and new hidef support, etc.). But I really want to play around with a PVR!

- posted by Jeff @ 6:32 AM | 0 comments