I'm at a crossroad: Go with the traditional component based home theater, or with an HTPC. After lots of reading you guys have convinced me of the superiority of HTPC in flexibility and PQ. There's just one little thing I can't figure out from the many threads and postings: WAF (=Wife Acceptance Factor).
What it boils down to is: How user-friendly can an HTPC be made? Can the software DVD player be made to work just like any hardware DVD player box? Complete with using a remote and LCD read-out showing what the thing is doing. Can the CD (or MP3) player be used with a remote and little LCD display without even switching on the big-screen TV? In short, can the whole thing look & feel similar to hardware, without having to go through Windows to start programs, select menus etc?
As I said, I've been reading through just about everything in this forum and know about Girder, IR-remotes, LCD read-outs. My question is how well these can be integrated with the software to make my wife accept this. I would be interested to hear how you're doing this, including hardware/software recommendations, and of course, what your wife thinks about your HTPC...
-Rob-
What it boils down to is: How user-friendly can an HTPC be made? Can the software DVD player be made to work just like any hardware DVD player box? Complete with using a remote and LCD read-out showing what the thing is doing. Can the CD (or MP3) player be used with a remote and little LCD display without even switching on the big-screen TV? In short, can the whole thing look & feel similar to hardware, without having to go through Windows to start programs, select menus etc?
As I said, I've been reading through just about everything in this forum and know about Girder, IR-remotes, LCD read-outs. My question is how well these can be integrated with the software to make my wife accept this. I would be interested to hear how you're doing this, including hardware/software recommendations, and of course, what your wife thinks about your HTPC...
-Rob-