im not that ultra ace about hardware, so i think i let bigboomtheory or someone discuss that with a looong post or something...
I've tried several of the HTPC softwares, but I must say MS's media center edition isn't bad at all.
The softwares I tried are,
MythTV (for Unix, free) - Boy, how do i even get started with it Though this is a famous one among the Unix users, so it must have its pros. At least it's got the famous FOSS tag on it.
Windows Media Center Edition (Windows, free, from a point of view)- Very easy to use, minimal fuss, records TV just fine, downloads TV programs automatically fine all dandy here. Photo viewing is ok enough, music listening is fine, and if you install some 3rd party codecs, you can listen to flac and whatnot not natively supported by Media Player. If you own a Xbox 360, you can export all of the viewing experience to any of the TV in your house, as long as Xbox 360 has LAN connected. I'd say its a good job and u can even buy an OEM version of MCE just about as cheap as Home Edition (at least in jap...) and MCE is a Pro version of XP with ADDED HTPC capability, who is going to buy any other version?
MediaPortal (Windows, free) - It is free... it is open source... and it looks handsome when u boot it up... but... slow as hell as if some cow is sitting on ur back and quite buggy too, they have to completely rewrite the darn engine for this to be any serious good use imo.
TVedia (Windows, non-free) - Boy when I found this out, I was amazed how complete the whole thing was compiled as. Great interface, fetches DVD cover automatically against DVD directory names etc. DVD watching fine, havent viewed pictures much with this but music is fine, all is super darn fine, only except this has no TV recording capability... which is a bad show stopper to some people, but otherwise I say it's excellent for viewing DVD/mpg/jpg/mp3/flac whatever, and you can use another software (something like bundled app on the tv tuner board) for TV recording anyway. But i think u need a remote controller that is supported by this, if you're off from the screen beyond the reach of mouse and all. Though there's recently wireless mouse that can reach over 10m.
Front Row (Mac official, free, from a point of view) - Well, it is dandy that Apple made it and is bundled with all of recent Macs but since this is a propriety app it does what they want to do. Musics are taken out of iTunes, so if you're using some other music player, then... you're quite out of luck imo, unless you keep a good play list in iTunes. Also pictures are taken from iPhoto, not like you can specify some directory you want to view... omg... So, unless you're a super fan of Apple products i bet there will be a difficulty or 2 to be completely comfortable with it. But the default Apple Remote is cool though so you can control the mac from far, but IMO Apple's comp display isnt that big that you dont really need a remote...-_-
Media Central (Mac, non-free) - This is probably made to get over with the Front Row's limitation, you can choose whatever directory you want to to view photo/music/dvd, its cool and all, dont remember why i didnt buy it, but it shouldnt have any big show stoppers.
So, sadly, I'd say Media Center wins. As you don't have much to hassle about when the OS itself is the HTPC software, and the 10 feet interface is good enough u can read the characters from far off and using a wireless mouse or remote controller or something, it is quite good, and doesn't have little problems here and there mostly seen in free apps. But TVedia wins if you arent about to replace your whole darn OS and give bill gates yet another candy bar (an expensive candy bar this is).
Don't know how u guys cope/think about ripping cd/dvd, but I rip dvd I own/owned/rented and keep them burnt on dual layer dvd, so there is no loss on quaility and enjoy them there.
DVD Decrypter is the way to go for this on Windows, MacTheRipper is for mac. Then, ExactAudioCopy rips CD nicely to mp3 or flac, or Max for Mac which can even rip and encode into multiple format at once, which is very handy for people like me who keep CD in mp3/flac format for mobile/home use.
Also, the way I set HTPC at home is, at downstairs theres a big TV and I connect Windows MCE on that to record TV, then watch DVD. It has about a terabyte hard disk altogether which keeps ripped DVD flac mp3 etc, so it can be viewed on any computer in the LAN which is nice. Then I put a Mac Mini under the upstairs dining room TV, so that can be used to view DVD stored downstairs, watch the recorded TV, listen to flac and all that too, I like it because its small and totally silent.
As for hardwares, I dont have too much experience as good hardware tends to go pretty high in price, so the hardwares I got to roll out HTPC are quite the ordinary parts. The MCE machine is just a Pentium Celeron 2.4ghz with 512mb mem and fanless some ATI board with IO-Data (jap company) TV tuner with Creative Audigy2 board that goes out on some Sony 5.1ch surround amp which makes the 5.1ch out of movies and it has 4 hard disks (all seagate as somehow i like it) doing their storage jobs and a dual layer dvd burner. Although in total it should go at about $3000 with a good case and a new power supply i added. But of course the TV itself was just about as expensive as the whole machine...
well Vista Ultimate also is like Media Center edition but a couple new nifty features in the program....
but yea we are building an HTPC right now at my work.. and i must say that it is quite a lot of fun to play with =)
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--So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong and to strike at what is weak.
my view is the software and interfaces are not robust enough yet, also I would like only 1 PC for all my needs and a high power gaming rig isn't really a good choice for a HTPC.
What would be really neat is a way to transmit the video signal around your home at high resolution. That way you could keep your pc in a cupboard under the stairs.
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"But its written in the starlight,
And every line on your palm
Were fools to make war
On our brothers in arms"
you actually can.. anetech has come out with software.... i cant find the link right now but i know they have video amplifying software... but yea its all about the configuration... we started building it at my work and now i am programing it and it is extremely kickass.... i wish though bbt i could hook it up and have that be the only tv receiver in the house... as for the gaming rig an 8800 would work on a big screen like 50'' the resolutions plus the software would help it be in good condition on the screen
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--So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong and to strike at what is weak.
right now, you could either, record the TV or DVD or whatever (maybe blu-ray, hd-dvd in future), and simply make file sharing from that HTPC to the home network which is what i prefer, due to any number of clients can view and listen to the media at any time or apps like MythTV lets u view the live TV on another client machine but this only allows as much clients as u have a tuner board on the machine where the server machine has the TV cable / tunar board plugged in, but its still Linux, so unless u know what u're doing, it wont be 10 clicks installation.
1 pc for all needs is quite impossible, especially if u go outside with ur pc, and u need a 24/7 machine to just record tv.
i'd say 1 decent notebook + 1 ace hardware windows for htpc and game.
dont know whats wrong mixing up htpc and game machine, if u can keep a nice desk or something to put mouse/keyboard at comfortable height for gaming in front of a tv, it should play game just fine. i did play hw2/doom3/eve on a 40 some inch tv couple of times, that was biiig...
bbt what software have u tried? at least ms targets average computer users, thus i did feel their htpc os was robust enough for most people out there. only, it records on ms owned format, so i just auto transcode that file into a regular mpeg file, so macs can view them too. or even TVedia looked nice especially for people who want to customize this and that.
although u can let people view the contents through LAN on their own comp and unless u play games all day, u could give people turns or buy a new comp...
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Though this is a famous one among the Unix users, so it must have its pros. At least it's got the famous FOSS tag on it.
