I began wondering how easy it would be to build an awesome HTPC these days. I then began to wonder about price and abilities of software. Here’s what I came up with. Would you add or change anything?
- Tasks
- Play DVDs
- Copy full DVDs to HDD
- Shrink DVDs
- Burn Shrunk DVDs
- Record TV
- Watch recorded shows
- Burn recorded TV to DVD
- Stream media from other computers on LAN
- Stream TV and Movies from Hulu and Netflix easily
- Play music w/ visualizations and/or album art
- Browse internet*
- Easily Catalog dvds/shows/movies*
- Hardware Requirements
- Abstract: small form factor, silent, remote control, low cost, fast start-up, low power
- dual-core or quad processor for fast encoding
- video output with hdmi/hdcp options
- ATSC tv tuner card (pcHDTV HD-5500?)
- 2+ large storage (500gb+) SATA hdds (raid)
- 2gb ram
- Probable Software
I don’t actually plan on building one of these any time soon (unless I come into some money or something), just thought it would be fun to think about. Oh and * means that I could live without it, but it would be nice to have.
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