WndrBr3d

WndrBr3d

Full Audioholic
I'm retiring my HTPC to a more 'file server' role. I've found myself using it less and less for watching movies, as I have less time to rip/encode my collection. I've also been using it more for MP3 streaming and as a network file server. I figure It'll be better off sitting in my office as a file server from here on in, and just getting a Home Theater media streaming device.

I'm curious if anyone else has thought about retiring their HTPC?

Other than watching movies, what do you use YOURS for?
 
Spiffyfast

Spiffyfast

Audioholic General
I use mine for mp3's, streaming video, would like to use it for gaming if I can get a graphics card to work to output 1080i to my Mitsu.
 
WndrBr3d

WndrBr3d

Full Audioholic
I have a 6600GT in mine and got it working.

The only thing I noticed, is that with the nVidia drivers, if you EVER boot the HTPC without the TV activly connected (your input selector switched to the HTPC), it will never boot with the TV as a primary display ever again.

I actually have to reboot my HTPC with the TV on, then use VNC to turn back on TV output.

That was my big beef with nVidia.
 
Spiffyfast

Spiffyfast

Audioholic General
yeah, my 4600gt does that, if i boot the computer with the tv off, then it wont recognize its there and i have to go back into the options and tell it to send the signal then reboot the computer to get it to work
 
wilkenboy

wilkenboy

Full Audioholic
Just a fair warning - check out the media streaming device compatibiliy with your media. Most do just fine for MP3s, but when it comes to video most cannot handle all the different formats / codecs.

I had a cousin that had burned quite a good downloaded / burned video collection and picked up a streaming device just to find that it could not properly play about 1/2 of them. He ended up moving his PC into the room.

I don't know for certain why this is, but I'm speculating that the realm of video encoding is still a moving target - hardcoded boxes have difficulty keeping up with the variations in encoding - with a WIN machine you just go download the latest codec pack and off you go.

~Josh
 
Saint

Saint

Junior Audioholic
I use an old Athlon 1000 Mhz w/ 512 MB of ram, but the video card is a radeon 9700 with a DVI---> Component adapter. I can watch downloaded movies at 1080i on my 16:9 HDTV with great results.

It's too slow a system though to do video capture which I don't care much about anyway since I have a SA8000HD cable box with 160 GB built in HDD.
 
Duffinator

Duffinator

Audioholic Field Marshall
WndrBr3d said:
I'm retiring my HTPC to a more 'file server' role. I've found myself using it less and less for watching movies, as I have less time to rip/encode my collection. I've also been using it more for MP3 streaming and as a network file server. I figure It'll be better off sitting in my office as a file server from here on in, and just getting a Home Theater media streaming device.
I use a Media MVP and while I like the idea of media servers/streaming devices I don't think any of them are ready for prime time yet. I've been reading a lot of the various devices including the HD Roku and they all have issues. I wish one of the manufacturers would step up to the plate and give us a device that is user friendly and works. I have two friends that are really into the whole HTPC thing and seem to have them working very well. They also use them at DVR's and can scale video to just about any resolution you can think of. But for my situation they are too complicated and more importantly overkill for my needs. Maybe TiVo will fix their home media option and unify everything into one box.
 
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