HTPC How To Basics

[Bing Fung]

Extreme Tech has a pretty good article on HTPC basics including some key hardware selections. If you have been wanting to build one of these bad boys, but didn't know where to start, this is a great read.

Building a great gaming PC is easy. You can argue about what graphics card, CPU or motherboards are better/faster/cheaper, but the fundamental goal remains the same--building in the best performance you can afford to create a smoother gaming experience.

The Home Theater PC (HTPC) is a different animal. It can have multiple goals, some of which are orthogonal to others. Here's what a good home theater PC can do:


Be a repository for your CD collection
Act as a digital scaler and de-interlacing platform for DVD playback
Create a TIVO or Replay-TV type of unit that allows for time-shifted viewing of your favorite TV shows
Be an HDTV tuner, including time-shifting HDTV viewing

Note that any one of these goals can exist independently of the other--or you could try to create a single platform for all three.

Read it here




Bing

[JonMarsh]

A pretty good introductory article, Bing. There's a few things they might have mentioned or spent more time on, such as the growing number of HD video tuner cards with recording capabilities, or the PC as a Faroudja scaler/de-interlacer, with the Immersivetek Holo3D card- that's a standout product in particular, with a lot of merit- though the pricing isn't "budget", the results are comparable with scalers in the $5K to $20K range.

Best regards,

Jon




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