Home Theater PC (HTPC) is used in several applications nowadays. Most often HTPC is a PC or Mac connected to the HDTV to play some form of media files. Many people are using HTPCs to record and watch TV shows, which raises the question whether this is the best solution or should they stick with the TiVo when it comes to PVR functionalities.
There are several competitors today offering HTPC capable solutions. Generally these computers can be used for the personal video recording (PVR) functionality using a separate TV video card that is similar to the TiVo. The PVR functionalities in a HTPC include for example scheduled recording and ability to pause the live TV. In addition HTPCs are capable of playing DVDs, Blu-Rays, media files located on a hard disc and online streaming media. However, there are several other activities you can do with HTPC such as playing games or browsing in the Internet. Most of these activities are not possible on TiVo so ultimately we are comparing two very different devices together.
The main disadvantage of HTPC is that they can be rather costly. Furthermore, there is a greater threshold level for beginners to get started as they are more challenging to configure properly for your hardware and software.
The biggest advantage of TiVo is that it is able to access to various cable channels that are not available on HTPCs due to the various protection schemes. Particularly playing HD channels can be rather complicated with the HTPC. However, the benefit of HTPC over TiVo is that it is easier to manage stored recordings and they can be easily shared with other devices such as iPods.
At the end of the day, I think this is not really a fair comparison. Comparing HTPC to TiVo is like comparing apples to oranges. While there are some similarities, ultimately these two devices are targeted to very different target users. HTPCs remain to be more tech savvy user’s choice while TiVo is the mainstream solution as a dedicated PVR. So which one is more suitable for you? Read further on the HTPC guide to determine which HTPC build is suitable for you.
Copyright protected by Digiprove © 2010 My Media Experience