Hot on the heels of
our own poll asking you dear readers your opinion on HTPCs comes a new report from
ABI Research asserting that all-in-one PCs and internet TV functionality "will fuel the nascent home theater PC market." More specifically, it's reported that more and more companies are cranking out compacted machines "with rich multimedia capabilities to appeal to new usage models around the home." Additionally,
internet TV functionality
packed within HDTVs is touted as something that could be "the next evolutionary plateau," although we -- and
Mark Cuban, comically enough -- would beg to differ. All in all, it's tough to say what place an HTPC still has in the market (save for the niche that simply prefers a full-fledged PC in the living room), but integrating all of that
functionality into an existing living room component won't be the
easiest task.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Mark @ Jul 20th 2008 2:37PM
You know that these will be DRM'd to the point of being absolutely useless for it's purpose.
Mark @ Jul 21st 2008 4:18AM
This seems worse to me than sticking a DVD player into a TV. The more moving parts and complexity, the more chance of the whole thing going boom. And even if it doesn't, PCs rapidly become obsolete. That spiffy new HTPC will look distinctly mouldy in a few years hence.
ChiWax @ Jul 21st 2008 11:52AM
I really don't get all the negativity surrounding this subject. I run a quad HP in the basement of the house. I extend that to a 360 and three Linksys extenders. All I had to do was put an extra TV tuner in and hook two cable boxes to the PC. It didn't take any more work than that. Once ClearQam is supported in Windows Media Center I will at least get the networks in HD. So all I am really missing out on is HBO and ESPN type channels in HD. While I fully admit it is a negative that I can't record and extend those channels without a new PC, the positives still make me love the setup. The internet side of it is a complete add-on. We already pay for hi-speed internet. We didn't pay for the internet connection so we could watch video programming on our TVs. But we can watch programming via the internet. So it's a complete plus that we didn't even plan on having. I don't see the negativity in that. It seems to me that Engadget, CNET and others like it just don't have any love for the use of PCs in the home and mobile entertainment market. It really makes me wonder who is pushing this propaganda. CNET even makes it a point to tell people that there is no reason to have a TV tuner in a new PC. When it comes to $2000 TVs, $400 disc players and $300 portable media players they are all for it. I say save your money on the TV and disc players and get into connectivity and portability that works. Q.