Posted: 9/7/2011 8:47:31 AM EDT
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I searched through arfcom and I found a lot of threads discussing hardware but I have questions about functionality (pretty soon I am sure I will have question about hardware).
I am sick of cable. I pay about $60 a month for basic cable which includes $15 a month for a shitty dvr rental that is only attached to one tv and can only record one show while you are watching another. So, I am planning my attack on the HTPC but there are some things that I want to figure out before I start phasing myself out of cable dependency. I currently have 2 tvs in my house. One is the primary tv in the living room where the dvr is attached. The other is a small tv in the bedroom that isn't attached to the dvr which means I can flip through 50 channels but I have not guide, no hd channels and no access to recorded shows. What I would like is an HTPC that would allow me to use it as a dvr (I will keep cable for now but I will get rid of the dvr), utilize some sort of program like Boxee, store videos (including Blue Ray), store music and access the internet (gotta be able to access arfcom in the mancave). I would like to be able to access all of this stuff on both tvs and I would add a third tv in my man cave/reloading room so 3 tvs total. My question is how straight forward is this? Is it a pretty basic buid or will I need to make special considerations so that each tv can be used for something different off of the same system? Also, what do you use for getting your tv. Boxee looks pretty solid but I would like to have access to channels like history, discovery, military, espn, food network (my wife won't let me get rid of cable unless I make sure she can watch the cooking shows she likes) etc. Am I going to have to keep cable for now until the programming catches up with the HTPC movement? Thanks for any help you can provide. I want to get this done and while I understand some of it I don't think I will fully understand it all until I am knee deep in the process so your collective knowledge is critical. |
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I believe a lot of the cable programming you mentioned is on "fee for service" and will not be available on an HTPC without paying the fee (it is not clear QAM).
An HTPC can access the full spectrum of over the air broadcasting and the clear QAM channels (the not-for-fee, not-scrambled cable channels) and can record channels while displaying others. You can use a router/switch to feed the playback to multiple displays, even if you are watching Bluray. The key to this for Bluray (and other copy protected material) is that all the devices in the chain have to be HDCP compliant or it won't play at all. I don't know much about Boxee but services like Netflix are not free. Boxee can get access for you if you don't have a PC. If you have an HTPC, you don't need Boxee. Where an HTPC comes into it's own is in the ability to store gobs and gobs of the programming for later playback. It usually has multiple tuners built in, good graphics processing, good audio processing, .It can access the internet for free materials and for surfing. An HTPC should output to an audio-video receiver for the best sound quality from a multi-channel audio system. The HTPC will also have an inexpensive but good quality Bluray drive. You can play games on an HTPC. The AVR and/or the PC could do the DVD upscaling to 1080p. I would probably let the AVR do this. |
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Quoted:
I searched through arfcom and I found a lot of threads discussing hardware but I have questions about functionality (pretty soon I am sure I will have question about hardware). I am sick of cable. I pay about $60 a month for basic cable which includes $15 a month for a shitty dvr rental that is only attached to one tv and can only record one show while you are watching another. So, I am planning my attack on the HTPC but there are some things that I want to figure out before I start phasing myself out of cable dependency. I currently have 2 tvs in my house. One is the primary tv in the living room where the dvr is attached. The other is a small tv in the bedroom that isn't attached to the dvr which means I can flip through 50 channels but I have not guide, no hd channels and no access to recorded shows. What I would like is an HTPC that would allow me to use it as a dvr (I will keep cable for now but I will get rid of the dvr), utilize some sort of program like Boxee, store videos (including Blue Ray), store music and access the internet (gotta be able to access arfcom in the mancave). I would like to be able to access all of this stuff on both tvs and I would add a third tv in my man cave/reloading room so 3 tvs total. My question is how straight forward is this? Is it a pretty basic buid or will I need to make special considerations so that each tv can be used for something different off of the same system? Also, what do you use for getting your tv. Boxee looks pretty solid but I would like to have access to channels like history, discovery, military, espn, food network (my wife won't let me get rid of cable unless I make sure she can watch the cooking shows she likes) etc. Am I going to have to keep cable for now until the programming catches up with the HTPC movement? Thanks for any help you can provide. I want to get this done and while I understand some of it I don't think I will fully understand it all until I am knee deep in the process so your collective knowledge is critical. Still_learning is correct. I have an HTPC. I have not finished everything yet, but because of the tuning/scrambling issues, I went with a two-card solution: A WinTV for decoding the in-the-clear stuff, and a Colossus to pass-thru out of my cable box via component video and into my AV receiver. You can't use HDMI for this either, as HDCP will prevent the signals (even most of the free ones!) from being sent to the PC. So my system is a raw cable into the WinTV, component video + optical audio into the Colossus and motherboard, and HDMI out of the HTPC and into the A/V receiver, the HDMI out of the receiver to the TV. It works well, two things not done yet that prevent me from using it on a regular basis. 1. I haven't got the channel-changing stuff working yet. Getting my Harmony One to work with the IR receiver in the HTPC case has been an annoying task. 2. No guide yet (using team mediaportal as my software). |