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Best mini pc for htpc 2014 how to#
Best mini pc for htpc 2014 software#
Best mini pc for htpc 2014 Pc#
Best mini pc for htpc 2014 tv#
Best mini pc for htpc 2014 mac#

There are some hardware components required, but they’ve finally converged on standard, commodity components: Wifi, USB, HDMI, DVD/Blu-ray, multi-purpose processors, touch screen, standard media formats. Horrible.Īt this point in the twenty-first century most of these capabilities could be managed using software.

Best mini pc for htpc 2014 tv#

While I’m a bit of a gadget guy, having eleven-teen different devices in the living room, with six remotes, inconsistent and even cryptic user experience, and the whole dance of “to play a blu-ray on the xbox to the TV with the receiver press the orange button on the big remote then the function button on the middle-size remote except if the red light is on and it’s Tuesday …” Ugh. Most of us have at least a small pile of these gadgets. In terms of real use, and buying decisions, it can also be messy and frustrating. In terms of capability, it’s a magical time. Convergence of capabilities for media has ironically created a proliferation of different, semi-compatible devices. There certainly is no shortage of home entertainment electronics today – not only do we have a glut of actual devices, there’s even a glut of kinds of devices: tablets, game consoles, smart TVs, laptops, phones, set-top boxes, DVRs, docks, on and on.

Best mini pc for htpc 2014 Pc#

On the other hand, I had no illusions: I would have to steel myself for a lot of fiddling around to make a PC with specialized hardware, like a tuner and a remote, actually work. I really wanted one machine to do everything, if that was possible. What bubbled to the surface comparing all the options was that my annoyance for having a bunch of equipment and wires, and the associated nuisance of operating it all, was a compelling set of criteria. Ironically, even as an Apple fan this isn’t the user experience I wanted to end up with.

Best mini pc for htpc 2014 mac#

It’s much more like you have to constantly walk up to the TV where you can see the 2 foot interface and set it up, or you have to have a Mac next to you to Airplay content over to an Apple TV. There’s a minimal remote control and some basic functionality in iTunes, but you really can’t sit on the couch and operate a Mac as a media center with comfort.

The issue is that while the Mini is an attractive form factor for a home theater PC, there’s no fully functional 10-foot interface for the Mac. The Mac was also attractive, and I have been a fan of Macs and a Mac owner for a long time – 25 years.

Best mini pc for htpc 2014 software#

What put me off this was two things: the notion that the software would be static compared to the dramatic changes happening with all things Internet media, and the realization I would still end up buying separate machinery for games and for DVDs or Blu-ray disks. Plugging it in and having it probably work is attractive. The Smart TV option was really tempting from an ease-of-use perspective. This led me to zero in on fewer options: a Smart TV, our existing Apple TV or a Roku, a dedicated Mac, or a traditional home theater PC. (If you are a real sports fan, cable is probably still unavoidable, and that implies a cable box.) We aren’t really into games more than a few basics, and we don’t watch sports much – that meant that the game consoles, even with their multiple functions, weren’t all that compelling, and the heat was off cable TV.

What would the user experience be like? Could we get to the magical, mythical single remote?.

Could we have one (or only a few) device(s)?.

Which boxes are checked seems to change weekly as new devices hit the market, so I won’t even try to keep this chart current – but it was a useful device :-).įor me, with our priorities, the decision boiled down to these things:

* This example isn’t complete or exhaustive – there are more devices and probably more features you might want to list. I started by filling in the matrix with a simple yes/no, then added weighting in terms of how important things are. I was surprised how tough this is.Īcross the top I put the devices I would consider, and down the left side I put all the features I felt are important to my family. Because not everything works on every device, this helped me to prioritize what I wanted most, and then make the best choice. I would recommend this if you haven’t decided whether to take the plunge with either cord-cutting or an HTPC.

Best mini pc for htpc 2014 how to#

Faced with the bewildering array of options and services out there today, I made a matrix like the one below to decide how to proceed.