HTPC
(
Home
Theater
PC) A PC that is used to store and play music and movies as well as display photos. Also called a "living room PC," an HTPC is installed in the A/V cabinet and connects to a stereo or home theater system. The HTPC's DVD/CD drive is used to play the media or rip titles to the hard drive.
With media player software, a quality sound card and quiet case, a standard PC can be turned into an HTPC. For example, the Media Center interface in Windows provides the so-called "10-foot user interface" for HTPC deployment. An HTPC's DVD/CD drives often provide an economical alternative to stand-alone DVD/CD decks and digital media servers designed strictly for home theaters. However, high-end HTPCs can be significantly more costly than regular PCs. See
digital media server,
Windows Media Center,
10-foot user interface and
home theater.
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| A Home Theater PC |
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| Designed for the A/V cabinet, the Denzel Media Server is an enhanced Windows Media Center computer. Functioning as both hub, server and a DVR with terabytes of RAID 5 storage, units include multiple HDTV tuners. (Image courtesy of Inteset, LLC, www.inteset.com) |
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| Software Solutions |
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| The 10-foot user interfaces in the Zinc software (top) and Boxee software (bottom) turn a computer into a home theater PC. Zinc provides access to video content, while Boxee is an alternative to Windows Media Center. See video portal. |
