Yet another "Death to HTPC" thread - Page 5

I don't see how anything in this thread gives any reason that HTPC is going to die anytime soon, sure there are cheaper options like the Roku, but does it even do DTS-HD MA, TrueHD and 3D? (I don't have one, so no idea) I have a WDTV Live which doesn't.

Its like saying death to A/V Receivers / Speakers because you can buy a HTIB cheaper.

For me when I buy a $20 BD I want to play it the best possible way, with the best sound/video and have it available to play anytime without the disc, either straight into the main movie or view menus/special features when needed and in 3D if needed. If I have to spend extra to do this then I don't mind, the same reason I spent more on an A/V Receiver and speakers over a HTIB.

Nothing against steaming boxes and I'm sure for $50 the Roku is great for some people and probably perfect for a bedroom, just not going to beat a HTPC for flexibility and features, maybe in the future though.

I have one HTPC and three TV's. One doesn't get used but has HD-Audio enabled Patriot Box Office connected to it, one is just QAM out of the wall but will have an echo connected to it as soon as I get the ethernet pulled there and the other is just connected to my HTPC for everything.. Live/Recorded TV, streaming and internet streaming. As far as rebooting goes, mine just does it on a schedule each night for good measure. I have very few if any problems with mine. It works

you really must tell me how you did that... how do you fix a dieing HDD with just a simple reboot? or a power supply, or memory...
I beg of you, impart your secret reboot info unto us... regardless of my moving on from what is currently considered a "HTPC" this info will be of great help to me as I did just experience a failed OS HDD recently... if I would of known then that I could of fixed it with just a simple reboot it would of saved me much pain and suffering. comcast? eww....
(note I no longer have cable (as such), but when I did, Comcast customer support didn't exactly win them the #1 favorite company of all time award... maybe they are better now?)

You can suffer a dieing HDD or other hardware failure in a CableCo DVR too so I don't know where there is a difference here.

I guess that's true, but as I don't have, nor will I ever have, a cableco box, that really doesn't bother me all that much much...

Okay. Well some of us do actually get content from the CableCo. I tried OTA and didn't like it. For me, the CableCo is a neccesary evil, unfortunately.

That said, how do you get content? For me, streaming off the internet just is not of the quality I like to have yet.. Yet.

well then even a Cableco DVR that you can fix a HDD by just rebooting would be nice then...

OTA works just fine for me... I have over 3TB of unwatched shows that I just haven't got to yet...
Netflix ( 2 DVD at a time) provides me with more then enough movie (and sometimes cable TV series) content

I agree with the streaming thing...

Okay. But for live sports it is still tough. This season the L.A. Lakers moved from the OTA channel they've been on at least 30 years to cable only TWC Sportsnet so it is no longer available OTA. My area the signal is a little week and one of the main networks (ABC) did not tune consistantly. Because of these things I get Cable but at least I save $25 to $30 a month on DVR fees by using the Prime.

the Lakers? they play golf right? or maybe its something about boats?

I am not really a sports fan... closest I get to sports is maybe something like Pass Time...

Yeah LiveSports is key. Most of the Cable shows we watch are available online. The quality isn't as good as through the cablecard, but for most shows its good enough for me, so we could conceivably go OTA plus online, except when it comes to sports. Granted, I'm not a huge sports watcher, but I do follow the Texas Longhorns and my wife is a diehard Mavericks fan. Of course living in NYC, most of the time we get coverage on neither of those anyway!

Sports can be had. Actually, it's not the biggest hassle overall. It's more a question if you're comfortable with violating the TOS of whatever sports league you want to watch. All major sports and leagues have some kind of online viewing package; some motorsport leagues being exception such as WSBK (motorcycle road racing). All you need to do is a use a good VPN to get an IP in an area where the game you want to watch can be seen online.

I've personally been doing this for over two years. The NFL has very good feeds. MLB too. NBA and NHL are decent. All are HD, but they're not going to as crisp as an OTA/cable/Satellite feed.

For some, it will actually be cheaper since they buy the packages through their TV providers anyway. Others who just get the standard or limited, it's about even after taking in the account for the sports package(s) and VPN service. If you throw almost all these leagues include mobile access for live and replay games, it's not bad. I'm not into it enough to buy it, but Fox Soccor 2Go is a really good value. On a side note, the NHL is only charging $50 for a season pass this year since it's only fifty games. Probably doesn't include playoffs.

The sticks in question are currently best suited for a wireless way to access your entire library at a transcoded quality with stereo audio played through the TV speakers. I know several people who've hung screens where they'll never have surround sound or a network cable, but they'd be plenty happy with a setup like this.

On the other hand, XBMC frodo is reportedly bringing hd audio to Android. When H/W acceleration arrives you could get a capable mini-box with a LAN adapter and truly replace your XBMC htpcs. LiveTV might not be there for a while, but it's already feasible with some quirky limitations

I understand all that but I just want to turn it on and not spend a lot of time setting things up.. I'm not that into it to go hunting down solutions for all the home games etc..

I haven't had any of my HTPC's memory, power supplies or hard drives die. Ever. Perhaps it's dumb luck but I find hardware failures to be very few and far between whether it be my systems or the ones I build for others -- dozens that have gone out all over the world now. The exception to that is ASRock motherboards but that's a different thread somewhere. I use the same brand motherboards: ASUS, the same memory: Kingston and well, I don't use hard drives except in my server, everything is SSDs. The power supplies are either Seasonic or picoPSU. All rock solid in my experience.

When we had settop boxes it seemed the DVR drives were always crashing and the whole STB had to be replaced. That required a truck roll, being here during some 4 hour window that turned into 8, etc.

Since I eliminated STBs and went HDHR Prime w/ CableCard, Comcast has been rock solid -- no complaints except the price.

That's not to say others such as yourself don't have something to gripe about, have not had a hard time, etc. I am just relaying my own experience. No doubt: YMMV. No judgements here. Everyone's experiences are different. That's why they play the game, etc. No doubt, there were plenty of growing pains to get to this point but now that I am here it's great. No regrets.

HTPC is alive and well in the StardogChampion household.
Edited by StardogChampion - 1/18/13 at 4:18pm

they didn't have SSD's when I started with HTPC's, they didn't even have WMC when I started... admittedly some of my HTPC's were quite old before they started to fail, but now my sage HDx00's are getting old too and they have no signs of trouble...
also, in the spirit of YMMV, I personally viewed that any time I needed to grab a keyboard or mouse as a software or system failure, other people just go on with their day... its all relative...

Seriously, of all the things to complain about HTPCs, I feel like hardware failure is pretty low on the list. Receiving a dud component happens sometimes, but a component spontaneously failing is pretty unusual.

That sounds like a software issue to me. My powers only work on hardware -- except ASRock motherboards. That's my kryptonite. I have found that I am able to channel my powers best through brushed aluminum.

ASRock boards with that particular PSU, correct?

Well, that's how it started - the good ol' H67M-ITX and the IWill powerboard. But, I've used enough now that some are just plain DOA or die a week after being delivered. As for PSUs, No, I've been lucky enough to find other mini-ITX PSUs that hate ASRock motherboards but only every other generation -- kinda like a Star Trek movie -- every other release is bad. No other brand I've used has been RMA'd. But then there's the A75M-ITX which has been rock solid. Only two RMAs out of twenty.

I guess I should count my blessings though the powerboards fail with the FM2A75M-ITX before the motherboard catches on fire like other peoples'. Nightmare.

I don't know what you do though when it's the only mini-ITX game in town. I've got a nice stack of FM2A75M-ITX and some A6-5400Ks collecting dust.

Any electronics that live past 5 years are just biding there time before they die. Some stuff is built to last longer but it's also normally thousands of dollars.

Asus just refreshed their Brazos 2.0 mITX boards they will actually play some mainstream games fairly well. Go to the You Tube New Egg CES 2013 coverage.

Its not a need, its a want. Total flexibility. Through screwing around at the moment, but when I return from my trip. Server upgrade (still WHS 2011) just mITX and more drives, HD Capture Card + DirecTV HD box. Yeah there some services I can get on DTV['s five tuner DVR (Like Speed 2) but overall, I can always download whatever they show anyway. I will be doing Sickbread on the server too, it runs uTorrent now.

STB + Smart LCD/Plasma not quite there yet... I'd give it another two years before I'd even consider it and much of the web is still Flash not HTML5 yet for streaming video. Adobe stop supporting flash on those platforms.

Doh! All the electronics in my car are 8 years old.

You are right

Any electronics that live past 5 years of run time are just biding there time before they die. Some stuff is built to last longer but it's also normally thousands of dollars.

Of course there are exceptions still(fridge, microwave, etc.). I have an old 386 motherboard that still works fine.

What a ridiculous statement.

My truck is 12 years old and the electronics are mostly fine with the exception of a sensor hear and there.. The ECM is fine and it is in not the best of environments.

My car is 14 years old. The light behind the clock went out. Otherwise no issues at all. I have replaced the light once before. Haven't had time to do it again.

that's just it, it's not that all that to find a solution. You fired up your VPN to particular server to get that "IP". Open up your favotire browswer. Sign into your sports package (some leagures remember it), and pick your game. Other than using the VPN, it's like using ESPN3. The process takes a couple minutes to complete, depending on your bandwidth speeds.

The only hassle you may have is with the actual VPN. And when I have it, it's usually because of my firewall blocking traffic either to or from the VPN service. The service I use really hasn't updated the software for Windows 8; They may have about two weeks after I went back to Windows 7. And given some of your posts, I think you have a enough tech savvy to handle the VPN. Oh, you have to using the VPN to when signing up for the sports package. Beyond that, I use my normal credit card and address for billing.I did this video on Sunday, Jan 20, 2013. I had an NHL and NBA game going. This is technically just a comparison video of the video quality. I like using Chrome. Both were set at the highest rate offered 3mbps.

Technically speaking, this was a TOS no-no because both games were on national broadcasts on channels I do not subscribe to.

The biggest knock on this stuff, none do 5.1 audio. Probably have to pay some licensing fee for DD5.1. I don't think it really requires that much more bandwidth.

It's not for everyone and is not necessarily going to save money depending on what your current subscriptions are, versus getting the only packages for the sports you do want. Some leagues are NOT cheap. The NFL and NBA are expensive, around the $200 to $300 for the season. MLB is around $120, and the NHL in usually in that area; they're $50 this season.

I'm a bit of a sports junkie. I'm not a big history or stat sports hound. Thus, sports was a major issue. In fact, I watch more sports now when I had standard cable and the sports packages. I'm much happier now because I paying for stuff I actually watch.

Never replaced spark plug wires or a coil? Headlights, turn signals, window motors, A/C, heat, oxygen sensor? The ECM is built to last a long time. Failure rates on electronics increase exponentially as they age.

I don't know many people who leave there cars running 24/7. Plenty of people do this with there electronics(htpc included). Anyways my point is that if you have a component die in your htpc that is 10 years old and you're upset, then you're just being ridiculous.

I don't sign up for league passes because I am not that much of a sports junkie. It is cool that you are doing this and I would too if I wanted that much sports. I am happy with the Sports Package included with a bunch of other extra HD channels for $10/month from Charter and if I catch a game great, if not then oh well, but that's me.