Comment Re:Pointless (Score 1) 252
Not to flame, but if you think you can get a "great" projector, receiver, speakers, and DVD player for $1000, you're slightly naive. It'd be more realistic to say "average" system for that amount. In the "good" range, you'd easily spend that much on each component. "Great" is well out of my league, ebay or not. No idea how this got modded +5 Interesting.
Back to the topic at hand, I've never really felt the need to build myself a myth-tv box, simply because my DirecTivo has been awesome. Hackable, if I really wanted to go that route, and it simply works. All for about the price of a decent video-capture card. Of course there are the monthly fees, but that's another story.....
The place where the HTPC really shines IMO, and as a lot of others have stated already, is that it serves as a centralized media hub. From my HTPC, I have access to 350+ CDs, dozens of movies, games, weather, and a browser -- all from the comfort of my couch. If you stick a good UI in front of it all ( I personally am using xlobby at the moment, and have been very impressed thus far ) so that even your Mom can use it, so much the better. In addition, you can do cool things like upsample your 480p DVDs to 720P to get improved resolution using freely available software like ffdshow. Heck, with xlobby I can even set up my system to play 15 minutes worth of the latest previews downloaded off the web, then transition seamlessly into the "main attraction". The ooh and ahh factor of that is pretty damn cool! I still have my DirecTivo, and don't plan on replacing it any time soon, but I wouldn't be without my HTPC. To me, it's obvious you've never been exposed to what an HTPC can really bring to the table. It's well worth the $500 or so it would cost you to put one of these together.
Back to the topic at hand, I've never really felt the need to build myself a myth-tv box, simply because my DirecTivo has been awesome. Hackable, if I really wanted to go that route, and it simply works. All for about the price of a decent video-capture card. Of course there are the monthly fees, but that's another story.....
The place where the HTPC really shines IMO, and as a lot of others have stated already, is that it serves as a centralized media hub. From my HTPC, I have access to 350+ CDs, dozens of movies, games, weather, and a browser -- all from the comfort of my couch. If you stick a good UI in front of it all ( I personally am using xlobby at the moment, and have been very impressed thus far ) so that even your Mom can use it, so much the better. In addition, you can do cool things like upsample your 480p DVDs to 720P to get improved resolution using freely available software like ffdshow. Heck, with xlobby I can even set up my system to play 15 minutes worth of the latest previews downloaded off the web, then transition seamlessly into the "main attraction". The ooh and ahh factor of that is pretty damn cool! I still have my DirecTivo, and don't plan on replacing it any time soon, but I wouldn't be without my HTPC. To me, it's obvious you've never been exposed to what an HTPC can really bring to the table. It's well worth the $500 or so it would cost you to put one of these together.
