advantages of a htpc? (1 Viewer)

[Tim Brewers]

I am in the market for a new progressive scan dvd. But with computer component prices as low as they are, what would be the advantage of building a HTPC? Can they do everything a PS dvd player can? I have also been looking at finally getting a HD STB, could the same comp do that? Thanks,
Brew

 

[Phu Vo]

Image quality, image quality, image quality, and errr....image quality. Depending on your display device and size, an HTPC's ablity to render and scale a DVD video image is unsurpassed by any stand alone player. Few will argue that. The arguement really is by how much of a degree. Some say night and day, some say it is only incremental. But all say HTPCs is clearly better then standalones for video quality. Also, think of all the things you can do with your regular PC workstation for multimedia functions, then apply them to your HT needs. Possiblities just begin to open up. MP3 jukebox that can hold more songs then a 200 disc changer, download trailers, create slide shows, region free DVD playback, playing PC games, etc.
Problem is that HTPC, as it stands now, is mainly a Windows thing. So any problems a regular PC inherits from running Windows, your HTPC will inherit. If you are not computer savvy, be prepared for big headaches if you go the HTPC route.