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Are HTPC going Obsolete with the advancement of Smart TVs?


neddamttocs

  

39 members have voted

  1. 1. Are HTPCs becoming Obsolete?

    • Yes
      4
    • No
      18
    • Possibly
      17


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I honestly think they will be.... especially once smart TVs have good browsing capabilities...

 

Standalone HTPCs are rather expensive compared to small form factor PCs.... but the HTPC craze hasnt caught on to the general population.....

 

I wonder myself how many devices that could be used as a cheap, effective HTPC have been sold as in the Zotac Z-Box.... I really want to play with a Z-Box Nano A-350 just to see how they do

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In my opinion, they won't. I think it depends on what each person uses it for though, for what I do/want to do, a real HTPC is preferable over a Smart TV. On top of that, I don't like the idea of a Smart TV anyway, it's going to make it more expensive than if it were just a regular TV and should they become the standard, I'd end up paying extra for features I really don't want.

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In my opinion, there will always be the custom build HTPCs out there. I think the big change will be the addition of people with more than just TV access -- with the Wii and XBox being netflix capable and having some sort of internet browsing capabilities it would only be a matter of time before people would want more from their TVs.

 

I feel those who want the most will want more than just a TV remote, and will have either full on systems, with media storage drives like most of the HTPC here on the forum. Others will just be happy with a TV with a slightly advanced version of Linux running.

 

Like I said, it's not that HTPCs will disappear; I almost believe more people will become interested in them over Google TV and such...

 

Mine won't be leaving anytime soon...

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Until you can hang a lot of mass storage off of them...I don' think so.

+1, and Smart TV's have their limitations, whereas you can customize a HTPC to do whatever it needs to do... and it's cheaper to upgrade parts.

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Maybe they will for the general public, but us enthusiasts will have them for a long time. The problem with smart tv's is you can't upgrade them. You have to go out and buy an entirely new tv. Whereas with a HTPC you can just unplug, buy a new tv that isn't as expensive as a comparable smart tv, and plug back in.

 

Although I do think that things like the Logitech Revue could be big if Google ever gets their act together with content licensing.

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Maybe they will for the general public, but us enthusiasts will have them for a long time. The problem with smart tv's is you can't upgrade them. You have to go out and buy an entirely new tv. Whereas with a HTPC you can just unplug, buy a new tv that isn't as expensive as a comparable smart tv, and plug back in.

 

Although I do think that things like the Logitech Revue could be big if Google ever gets their act together with content licensing.

Seconded, I think for people who are capable of building their own HTPC's it is a much better idea to get a standard tv (not a smart tv, but with good picture quality of course). Then you can take the $1000+ you'll save not getting a smart tv and build an easily upgradable HTPC, which will do the job much better than any smart tv can. But then again, I hooked my main computer up to my tv, so it acts as an HTPC on top of many other things.

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I honestly think they will be.... especially once smart TVs have good browsing capabilities...

 

Standalone HTPCs are rather expensive compared to small form factor PCs.... but the HTPC craze hasnt caught on to the general population.....

 

I wonder myself how many devices that could be used as a cheap, effective HTPC have been sold as in the Zotac Z-Box.... I really want to play with a Z-Box Nano A-350 just to see how they do

 

I've got one from Foxconn and it works great.

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Does a "smart TV" have:

 

dual DVB-T tuners?

dual satellite tuners?

DVD/BD disc drive?

automatic movie/tv series info for networked media?

play ALL video formats?

play ALL audio formats?

play ALL pc games?

series record on multi-channels?

live pause/rewind (amount of pause time limited by disk space only)?

 

These are reasons why I made a HTPC because the features of my TV weren't sufficient... I can't see all that being integrated into a smart TV any time soon...

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