[Solved] What good are HTPCs?

as the title says

why choose an HTPC over a home theater system?

and what is the difference between a nice gaming system and an HTPC?

Indeed. HTPCs can be very useful and very inexpensive. Not to mention with the right parts they can be dead silent.

ATM, HTPCs are not much good.

TV recording: unless you record OTA or have a rare remaining cable company that doesn't (yet) require a set top box for HD TV and other premiums, you can only record the channel that box is watching. And only if your box has an RF output. And then only in SD. This won't change until cablecards become available in a sensible way. DirecTV users need not apply. Get your provider's DVR or a TIVO lol.

DVDs: You have two choices - pop a DVD in your PC and struggle to hook it up to your HDTV. Or rip the DVD (technically illegal if that matters to you) to disk and struggle to hook your PC up to your TV. Seems only marginally better than popping a DVD into your Home Theater DVD player.

Difference between Gaming PC and HTPC: About 450W of cost and heat, 20-30db of noise, and 4392 cu in of case (HAF 932) vs 2142 cu in (ZalmanHD160XT), both large cases. All to calculate and display game elements and avatars, some under user control, some under computer control. Much more cpu and gpu intensive than a simple BluRay movie.

^ It should be interesting to see who wins the war over TV content via broadband: the owners of the ISP pipes who also sell TV content and want to throttle/charge for other sources . . . or the providers of that content.

Because it's a Home Theater System, built into a PC. An HTPC can be nothing more than a generic, off-the-shelf PC with a TV Tuner Card installed. DIY'ers (like myself) build using components specifically for the purpose of being an HTPC (HD capable graphics, digital audio out, aesthetic case, etc).

It's one box that can do all that a home theater system can do as well as all that a PC can do.

-Wolf sends

I think it's the ergonomics holding it back. Until I see attractive server like cases with a small touch screen for basic navigation and where I can pop say four 2 TB HD's in and out from the front panel, I ain't gonna be doin an HTPC.

Comes down to personal preference. I personally like a minimalistic look. I don't want a huge rack full of home entertainment gear sitting in my loungeroom. I want a small, inconspicuous box that does so much more than a DVD player. Particularly in a small appartment you want a box that is able to not only play DVDs, but also handle your music, record TV, give you weather updates, present an EPG, etc.

For me, that's the greatest thing about a HTPC: a DVD player is a one trick box, all it does is play DVDs. A HTPC has much greater upgradability and functionality. As such, it also has greater longevity.