PVR Wire

1. I think it's natural progression for new product lines. The average consumer doesn't know any better and are consequently taken to the cleaners.

My biggest question is how can you sell an HTPC with an 80gb HDD???

Posted at 12:47PM on Nov 20th 2006 by cryton

2. I truly suspect that the answer is that the "Marketing" typee get hold of the "HTPC" and say "we can add 100% to the MSRP because it's a HTPC and not a PC".
Totally dumb, but it's the only explanation I have. And it has the Marketing types in control to be dumb enough to spec it with an 80 GB HD.

Posted at 10:51AM on Nov 20th 2006 by Ian

3. I have often seen the prices for these HTPCs and wondered who in the hell is buying these? I realize they can be customized with near infinite possibilities but come on. I can't see spending all of that for a PC. Especially for one with an 80 GB HDD.

Some are insanely expensive. I like to keep the entire shark week until I get a chance to view it but do that many people keep tons of HD video on their PVR long term? I'd like to see the numbers on how well these sell at inflated prices like that. Are they turning a profit?

Posted at 3:29PM on Nov 20th 2006 by Tyler Durden

4. Both 1 and 2 are good points. Also
remember that, for HD, you need either a
powerful processor or the ability to
decode MPEG streams in hardware. High-
performance hardware needs hi-perf
cooling, which is not cheap if you want it
to be quiet, also.

Posted at 3:29PM on Nov 20th 2006 by Brad

5. I have 2 MCE Pc's running in my home one is a P4 2.8 & the other a P4 3.0ghz. I'd have to say in building your own MCE the main expenses come from the windows software itself, the tv tuner & the mce remote that u need to control the set top boxes. Also the cases. if you want a case that fits in the entertainment center as we have then your almost looking at 2 or 3 bills because most cases that are worth buying do not come with the power supply, and if they do they're likely too loud for the living room. I'm a big fan of my dvr's because you can do so much with the files that we can't do with our tivo, which we do have a directivo. Just being able to take the file put it on your regular office pc & edit it down, cut the commercials then put it in a perma folder on a server you can watch thru the entire house, it's superb. I highly recommend it to you thinking of it, and with vista it's getting better for hd dvr. I have one of the mce's running the latest vista rc2, it runs nothing but the tv and does a great job, and the refinements to vista's mce is great, little too much compared to the simple and great mce 05. I'd say if you're thinking of getting a MCE pc just build one with a regular case and hide it behind everything, you only really need the IR receiver to be showing.

Hope that helps and gives some thoughts to those leaning that way, it's really just about the price in the long run. MCE has no monthly fee and TiVo is around $10 a month, which would you rather go with? Just hope it stays this way don't we.

Topmooin'

Posted at 3:29PM on Nov 20th 2006 by topmoo

6. I can't speak to that specific prebuilt/custom HTPC, but in general what makes an HTPC more expensive is: the premium for the entertainment center friendly case compared to the off the shelf ATX beige box (as HTPC's become more prevalent hopefully that'll be driven down a bit)... the other premium would probably go towards quieter components.

Toss in overhead and some profit mark up and there you go -- $999 isn't a terrible price (and i'm predisposed to build rather than buy, fwiw)!

*shrug*

rampy

Posted at 9:16AM on Nov 21st 2006 by rampy

7. Totally agree, but it's really a supply and demand problem. Prices will come down when the average consumer starts to demand this type of technology. Of course, the average consumer won't start to demand it until someone make them cheap, easy to install, and use. And round and round we go.

I looked into some media centers from Alienware and others and ended up building my own for about $700 with MCE and a Silverstone LC11 case. (Had to buy a bigger PSU though.) It is a little noisy but not too shabby for a first go. I'm really intrigued by Apple iTV and hoping they might create an all-in-one system at some point, though I'm sure the cost will still be outrageous.

Posted at 3:30PM on Nov 20th 2006 by Joe Bramhall

8. Well it all comes down to components. Good HTPCs are specialized units requiring specialized parts. If you don't care about how fast, how quiet, or how the machine looks, then you can easily build a HTPC for $700 and under. Here is pretty much the break down of a boutique HTPC.

1. Nice CE Form factor case = $210
2. Quiet - Silent PSU 400 watt = $68
3. MB without fans and SPDIF output ~ $150
4. CPU ~ $150
5. 512MB Memory ~ $60
7. Quiet Decent video card ~$80
8. Quiet CPU fan ~$40
9. Decent DVD Drive ~$35
10. 250GB HD ~$82
11. Good PVR Card ~$69
12. Windows Media Center ~$125

This is about $1000 and you are not even counting labor. The three biggest issues are OS cost, case cost, and MB or CPU cost. Heck the os and the case will set you back $300 at the very start with out anything.

The cost pretty much comes down to what people are willing to accept in there living rooms. Let's be honest here. Most people's wives don't give a crap about how their pc looks or sound if it goes in the home office. When it comes to the living room however, that's where things change.

Isi

Posted at 3:30PM on Nov 20th 2006 by Isi

9. Of course, most of the specs mentioned at the top match the (silent) low-end Mac Mini, at $599, minus the TV tuner and a fancy remote. If you really want a DVR, then you may want to look elsewhere, but to integrate music, your own or purchased movies, photo slideshows, movie trailers, watch DVDs, etc. it's fine. Many people DO add a non-internal TV tuner, more HD space, etc., but for less than a similarly configured MCE PC would cost per the above discussion.

Doug

Posted at 3:30PM on Nov 20th 2006 by Doug Eldred

10. Doug, I agree, I personally would prefer a mac mini in the living room for my pvr use. However, as far as I know, they do not offer an add on with a ir blaster for my hd directv box. I am hoping the soon to be released iTV from Apple is promising.

I have in my living room a 3 yr old ReplayTV. It works great and I can export its content to my Mac Pro. By the way I just enabled the Front Row on my pro and am having so much fun with it.

In my bedroom I have a basic directv DVR I picked up from Costco. I like the fact that is it is ONE self contained box because, without an ir blaster, the box NEVER records another channel by mistake like my Replay does. But the software needs refinement.

Here is one way to keep costs down...

http://www.gbpvr.com/index.html

It is free.

Cheers.

Posted at 12:58PM on Nov 21st 2006 by Rick

11. I don't know about an IR blaster, but if the DirecTV box has FireWire like cable boxes do you should be able to control it from the Mini.

Doug

Posted at 7:02PM on Nov 21st 2006 by Doug Eldred

12. The price is not that bad when consider what your time is worth and add ups all the software and components (be sure to count the NVIDIA Platinum DVD decoder included) and like Isi said, the wife factor and how it looks in the A/V rack is a big deal to lots of people.

Also, many people aren't like us and can build a media center. They would just rather buy one pre built and pretested. I do agree that many companies like Nevius ($10,000) and Inteset ($20,000) is WAY, WAY to much to pay for a media center with the same components that I can buy at my local computer store.

This is really not a bad price for a prebuilt system for someone who doesnt want to build one or doesnt know how.

Posted at 10:43PM on Nov 21st 2006 by Scott

13. Actually, there MAY be an "IR blaster". See the verbiage about a similar-sounding MCE IR device at http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=706050. Now, whether that'd work from Mac OS X is another question...

Doug

Posted at 10:24PM on Nov 22nd 2006 by Doug Eldred

14. A Home theater PC is little more than a quiet desktop with a tv tuner or two plugged into it. Even the power demands of the system are not that much. Everything else is hype!

Posted at 9:44AM on Jan 1st 2007 by John Bailey