HTPCs are the Future

Well Joe was hassling me today because he’s written six of the last eight posts for this website.  I figured we could have a slow week since it was just Christmas and promises to be New Year’s soon, but NOOOO.   So I guess I’d better come up with something to tell you guys about quick.

It is a little known, but well-documented fact that my wife and I hate paying for things.  That being the case, we decided to cancel our satellite TV subscription a few months ago and try our hand at life without TV.

I had the shakes within three hours.

But then I remembered something.  Between Hulu, Netflix, and the web sites of the various networks, almost every show we watch is available online for free or almost free.

Moreover, I had a perfectly good computer that wasn’t getting much use because I also had a newer better one.

Long story short, instead of a cable box or satellite dish, we now have a PC plugged into our television.

Okay, so there are a lot of visible wires. It's still a work in progress. Click the image for ideas on how to make yours less obtrusive.

We have entered the world of the HTPC (Home Theater PC), and I don’t see us going back any time soon.  It’s true, not every show we would like to see is available online, but there’s plenty to keep us in viewing material.  I have plugins on my system for Netflix, Hulu and YouTube and rarely use much else.

If you're wondering what XBMC skin I'm using, it's Aeon MQ3.

Honestly, if there’s any old series you heard about and wanted to give a look, it’s probably on Netflix streaming.  For a few dollars a month, you get access to more movies and shows than you could ever watch.  I just finished up all eleven seasons of Cheers.  Plus, thanks to an XBMC plugin called Free Cable (which aggregates all the streaming content from the websites of the various TV networks),

It also skips the commercials.

I discovered Blue Bloods, a dumb procedural that is cool because it has Tom Selleck and one of the New Kids on the Block.

But for me at least, on-demand TV shows aren’t the best of it.  With the help of a DVD drive, a blu-ray drive and a few pieces of software, I have been able to rip my entire movie collection to my hard drive (well, okay most of it – I ran out of space but as soon as I can grab another hard drive I’ll crank out the rest of them).

Now if you’re one of those lamewads who only has like twelve DVDs to your name and doesn’t understand all this hubbub about the blu-rays, you may not appreciate this.  I, however, figured out today that I have two hundred and fifty-four movies to my name.  This does not include TV shows we happen to have on disc, so you can imagine that’s a lot of boxes to look through on a shelf if you can’t figure out what you’re in the mood to watch.  I also know there are a lot of you out there who think my 254 is child’s play.  If that’s you, pay special attention.

XBMC (the media center software I use.  Other good ones are MediaPortal and Boxee) includes scrapers which read the filenames of the movies on your hard drive, check them against IMDb or TMDb, and automatically download relevant information including box art, actor photos, synopsis, running time, etc.  The result is that you can view all your movies onscreen in a library (which you can flip through with either a wireless keyboard/mouse combo or a media center remote control).

Two, count 'em, two versions of Jesus Christ Superstar. Also, David Bowie.

I can now choose a movie and play it without getting out of my La-Z-Boy.  If I hit stop before finishing, XBMC remembers my place and allows me to either start over or pick up where I left off.  And again… 254 movies.  The mere process of ripping them all to my hard drive reminded me of some I forgot I had.

But wait there’s more.  I haven’t told you the best part.  I spent $30 on a remote control for this gadget and that’s THE ONLY MONEY I HAD TO SPEND.  Oh sure, I upgraded my processor, then later my video card and later my power supply, but I didn’t actually need to do any of those things.  I was just doing it for safety and certain performance boosts.  The truth is, the HTPC ran perfectly fine with just the 2004 hardware I already had in it and a fresh install of Windows.    So what I’m telling you is, if you have an internet connection, a little patience and tech-savvy and an old PC that you don’t need for anything else anymore… you’ve already got an HTPC.

So look into it.  Do some of the Googles.  Find out how to get yourself set up.  Trust me, you won’t miss live TV.  And if you do, you can always put a TV tuner card in your machine and use your HTPC as a DVR too.  They can do anything.

Stevecrest out.

P.S.  Thanks to my buddy Dave for turning me onto the whole HTPC scene.