4 ms·

There was that time around 2002-2007 or so where the "HTPC" was a thing. You had HTPC PC cases that looked like something that would go beneath a TV, various f

There was that time around 2002-2007 or so where the "HTPC" was a thing. You had HTPC PC cases that looked like something that would go beneath a TV, various forums talking about TV tuners like Hauppage, etc., CableCARDs, things like Windows XP Media Center Edition/MythTV, etc. But who watches TV or cable anymore? Not the young people. BluRay had the dumb luck to be introduced right as the iPhone came out and redefined the consumer electronics landscape. PCs haven't been the forefront of how people entertain themselves since 2014ish unless you're a gamer with a gamer PC. Me personally I'd rather just buy a $50 Bluray player from Walmart and be done with it.

hakfoo 4y ago
It always felt like a missed opportunity. The US transition to digital TV was almost perfectly aligned to slot into the HTPC trend. You'd be able to make perfect-quality recordings from broadcast (remember when timeshifting was valuable?) and the built-in EPG data would reduce the need for some clumsy external data source. But it felt like we never transitioned smoothly. I can recall the Media Centre stuff for Windows Vista being pretty clunky. I suspect part of it was that people were under-appreciating the synergy. I liked TV cards for "I can watch in a 20cm window while doing other stuff" but all the momentum was going into terrible 10-foot interfaces that worked best with a remote control.
- rsync 4y ago
  There was a golden moment - perhaps 2003 through mid 2004 - when xbmc running on the original Xbox could do everything… But then HD content arrived with bitrates too high for that hardware and everything splintered and got confusing and which Mac mini was beefy enough to play 1080p @ 30fps and which downloads were “HD” but not so hd that you couldn’t play them … It never got back to the elegance of a modded Xbox and sd content …

hakfoo 4y ago

It always felt like a missed opportunity. The US transition to digital TV was almost perfectly aligned to slot into the HTPC trend. You'd be able to make perfect-quality recordings from broadcast (remember when timeshifting was valuable?) and the built-in EPG data would reduce the need for some clumsy external data source. But it felt like we never transitioned smoothly. I can recall the Media Centre stuff for Windows Vista being pretty clunky. I suspect part of it was that people were under-appreciating the synergy. I liked TV cards for "I can watch in a 20cm window while doing other stuff" but all the momentum was going into terrible 10-foot interfaces that worked best with a remote control.

rsync 4y ago
There was a golden moment - perhaps 2003 through mid 2004 - when xbmc running on the original Xbox could do everything… But then HD content arrived with bitrates too high for that hardware and everything splintered and got confusing and which Mac mini was beefy enough to play 1080p @ 30fps and which downloads were “HD” but not so hd that you couldn’t play them … It never got back to the elegance of a modded Xbox and sd content …