I've been running my HTPC for just a little over a year (since I got the house). At this point I have no idea how I'd have a home theater without it really. I run Meedio as my main front end and Beyond TV for the PVR stuff, there is no way MCE can cut it for me. I've spent countless hours messing with Meedio though and probably wont ever stop so it's really not for everyone. It does pay off though, I love having access to all this media on my TV.
- ALL my music in loss-less format optical to my reciever
- TV shows ripped from HD sources (ya I download em)
- Entire TV seasons in Archives
- Piles of random video (music, crap from the web, car stuff)
- Streaming movie trailes
- Streaming music vids
- Streaming online radio
- Movie showtimes in my 'hood with trailers
- Weather with sat images, traffic cameras for my bridge.
- All my digital photos
- PVR (barely use is though, see 2nd on list)
- Web browsing, kinda useless but handy once in a while
- X10 control for some lights
- RSS news feeds
- Sports plugin for scores and details
- Google Maps and Sat, I have to admit this is busted!
- single RF hand remote (Firefly), and keyboard backup
All this on a sub $1000 PC. I have a tube TV so it's S-vid for me which brings the cost down a lot. Video card is a Matrox for excellent TV out considering the s-vid. If I had a better TV this would be a much more expensive system.
Anyone who has PC experience needs to try a HTPC out, the benifits are just a total revolution of the HT really.
