Htpc purpose

[paulocr1982]

Hello,

What's the purpose of an htpc case,

just looks?
Some of them come with a digital interface, can you actually listen to music and watch movies without having to turn on your whole system?
I have seen HTPC without that lcd interface will they work the same way?

 

[enzo matrix]

The purpose? It's a case that most people would prefer in their living rooms by their TV as opposed to having a tower beside the TV.

Some of them come with a digital interface, can you actually listen to music and watch movies without having to turn on your whole system?
I have seen HTPC without that lcd interface will they work the same way?

I'm sorry, I don't see how an LCD interface is related to watching movies or listening to music without having to turn on the computer. You also never said what the interface was for? A fanspeed LCD? Perhaps you could link to an example?

Even if, for some reason you can watch movies without booting into windows (like Asus expressgate where you can boot into linux to surf the net) this does not mean your computer is off... It's still on... Every part of the system would need to be on. The hard drive for the files, the RAM to store files that need accessing, the CPU for process, the GPU to process graphics and the motherboard to link everything together.

 

[paulocr1982]

The purpose? It's a case that most people would prefer in their living rooms by their TV as opposed to having a tower beside the TV.

Some of them come with a digital interface, can you actually listen to music and watch movies without having to turn on your whole system?
I have seen HTPC without that lcd interface will they work the same way?

I'm sorry, I don't see how an LCD interface is related to watching movies or listening to music without having to turn on the computer. You also never said what the interface was for? A fanspeed LCD? Perhaps you could link to an example?

Even if, for some reason you can watch movies without booting into windows (like Asus expressgate where you can boot into linux to surf the net) this does not mean your computer is off... It's still on... Every part of the system would need to be on. The hard drive for the files, the RAM to store files that need accessing, the CPU for process, the GPU to process graphics and the motherboard to link everything together.

Well the case I'm interested is the Thermaltake DH202. What I'm talking about is, for example:
have you ever seen the hp laptops, they have a dvd quick button and media quick button. Their purpose is for when you have your laptot shut down and you don't feel like booting the whole operative system and you just want to listen to music quickly or watch a movie and turn off when you are done, you click those buttons for that function, basically you don't have to wait for the windows to boot. I'm sure it uses the motherboard and all that. I thought that was one of the htpc cases function. I know they work with the windows media center but I don't know if that means you actually can just quick turn your computer to just use the dvd to watch a movie or listen to music. I was never sure if that was a real reason, if they actually do that. If you have to go through the whole operative system loading all the time, basically like a normal computer I just think it's not worth to buy an expensive one with a little lcd display, which I assume it interacts with the computer system somehow. Because I can just get a cheaper case with remote and it will do the same thing. I honestly can't understand what the expensivee cases are really for. Those interfaces they bring like the dh202 which is not really the most expensive.

 

[enzo matrix]

Well, I went to their site and it looks like that. The same thing as the asus expressgate or the HP laptop media quickbutton. However, details on it seem scarce. The LCD appears to display media information.

 

[Pyroflea]

The LCD simply displays media information from the looks of it.