This is a mini-rant, a short essay refuting a common misconception among users of an Internet forum. If you think this essay is FUD, feel free to explain why on the essay's talk page.
Home theater PCs are for geeks. Ars agrees.
A computer connected to a television is called a home theater PC. (Some people call it a "media center PC", reserving "home theater PC" for such PCs with 5.1 channel audio output, but here I use HTPC generally.) It can play movies, TV shows, and home video from the Internet as well as DVDs, video from your camcorder, and a wider selection of video games than any console, all on your TV. And it's expandable: with a TV tuner, it can record TV shows; with a BD-ROM drive, it can play Blu-ray Disc video. (See also Dell's HTPC page.) But as I've gathered from a more general-interest forum, home theater PCs are a tiny niche compared to dedicated home theater appliances. As a PC game developer, I wish it weren't so, but I'm starting to learn why it is the case.
A PC made for the living room would have to overcome the five C's of why most people don't have a computer in the living room: cost, consumption of electric power,[1] cooling noise, case style, and complexity of operation.
With ordinary PCs, the user chooses to build or buy. Building a PC for the first time requires hours of research. Not everybody has the inclination to do this,[2] which is why the majority tend to buy a PC from a major manufacturer such as Dell or HP. But whether one builds or buys, one still ends up with a PC that can run any PC application.
Home theater PCs, on the other hand, aren't as easy to find ready-made. The majority of PC users have a conception of a "PC" as a tower with noisy fans that sits at a desk in another room and is connected to a small (by TV standards) monitor, and putting a PC like this in the living room has a low spouse acceptance factor due to poor aesthetics. So an HTPC needs either A. a special HTPC chassis designed to look no less out of place next to a TV than a DVD player or a cable box, or B. a cabinet with adequate ventilation to hide a tower-style PC. Special HTPC cases are available,[3][4][5] but not usually for ready-built PCs from the major PC makers. I guess that's why most guides about getting started that I've found on HTPC forums talk about building your own.
Well-known electronics store chains like Best Buy are more likely to carry home theater appliances such as Blu-ray Disc players, upscaling DVD players, and video game consoles, which are locked down to do only the things that the manufacturer wants. I visited a Best Buy store in early November 2010 and asked about media center PCs or home theater PCs. The sales associate in the PC department explained to me that the vast majority of the public use appliances such as Sony's PLAYSTATION 3 for such things. Though some video game consoles are promoted with catchphrases like "it only does everything", they tend to have restrictive developer qualifications so that only established companies can develop software for them, not hobbyists or microbusinesses.
An appliance typically costs substantially less than a PC for a few reasons: 1. economies of scale, 2. an operating system cheaper than Windows Home Premium, and 3. a pricing strategy based on expected attach rate. One can repurpose an existing PC as an HTPC, and the cables to connect it to an HDTV shouldn't cost more than $20 at Monoprice. But someone who doesn't own more than one PC will end up doing homework and Facebook on a TV. see nothing wrong with that, particularly if single. But a home theater PC can can quickly become a single point of failure that takes out all entertainment in the household when it breaks or is busy installing a major system software update.
Ideally, I want to be able to recommend a make and model with easy-to-learn media discovery and playback (the "HT") but still capable of doing everything a computer can do (the "PC") to friends and family. Is there a home theater PC that is as easy for an end user to assemble and use as an Xbox 360, PS3, or other set-top appliance, yet can still be used as a PC for surfing the web or playing PC games? Are these goals in some way mutually exclusive, or why else is the market not there?
Perhaps the reason why HTPCs haven't taken off is that not enough work has been put into usability. It's a hard job, taking skills that not a lot of programmers have. If you want to try to sell HTPCs to the public, you'll first need to make them as easy to use as dedicated appliances. This includes a 10-foot user interface that even a computer novice can figure out.
Perhaps part of the problem holding up development of a proper interface is that a lot of HTPC fans overestimate the intelligence of the general public. Some people are too stupid to figure out how to open the packaging that a PC comes in, let alone hook it up.[1] They think a TV with glass on the front can't be liquid crystal because pressing on it doesn't make those funny colors.[2]
Here are some tips based on posts by h4rr4r and others:
So I guess the problem is that no PC maker both feels willing and has the financial wherewithal to spend enough marketing dollars to establish itself as the preeminent HTPC provider.
A product targeted at HTPC users may still be viable if there are enough geeks in the population. Admitted HTPC users, who are presumed geeks because they post on Slashdot, include
Others like Jethro are considering it. Some have an HTPC but acknowledge that most people are unwilling to buy one, such as mcl630. Others have had poor experiences at building one, such as twistedsymphony.
Categories: Mini-rants, Home theater PC