Other cool HTPC apps & uses

[ahawks]

I like BeyondTV quite a bit, but every now and then I have to answer the question (both to myself and to other people who may ask): "Why spend so much money on a PC and PVR software when commercial PVR solutions are available for less money?"

Personally, my girlfriend loves Battlefield 2. We tried setting that up, but BF doesn't run at 1080i, so that's out. Still, just the concept of playing BF2 on a 55" HDTV got her sold, and she'll settle for Counter-Strike.

I also like to show off some of my photography on the large display, play old NES/SNES games, use Google Earth, Winamp or iTunes visualizers...

It helps to justify the expense and effort if you can do some really cool stuff on your HTPC, so let's hear what everyone does to really show off the setup to guests and/or doubting spouses ;)

[pwlong]

...so let's hear what everyone does to really show off the setup to guests and/or doubting spouses ;)For starters, the ability to play video and music files is a big crowd-pleaser in my family: my kids can watch camcorder-home-videos of themselves pretty much immediately, and of course all the older stuff as well. It's also used very frequently for background music, while the kids do puzzles and whatnot. Obviously DVD Library is pretty awesome, and is a pretty handy way of letting the kids watch their movies, without having to handle the DVDs.

Being able to simply drop a DVD into the machine and hit the "Archive DVD" option (calls a batchfile that runs DVD Decrypter in command-line mode) on the BM menu, then see the title show up in the library 20 minutes later is pretty cool. Full details (http://users.upwardaccess.com/plong/bm-ripdvd.html) available on my webpage for anyone interested.

Stuff I plan to do with the HTPC in the future includes some of the stuff you mentioned: playing games on a big-screen HDTV, browsing cool interactive websites, maybe some home automation functions (via remote), maybe even video-phone capabilities down the line.

Commercial PVRs *may* be cheaper over time (but at $40-60/month, the homebuilt payback may not be very long), but I'm convinced that both the versatility and upgradeability of the HTPC outstrips the commercial offerings on a feature-per-dollar basis.

[jbartlett777]

Using the Game Library to play coin-op arcade, N64, Sega Gensis, etc. games with a wireless gamepad is pretty cool.

[cmcquistion]

For me, the DVD Library plugin is the very coolest thing that we use all the time, other than BTV. I have my entire DVD collection (over 200 movies, plus a few TV series) archived to hard drive on my BTV Server. With BTV Library, they are all at the click of a remote and I never had to find the DVD's and mess around with them.

[JDJinTX]

I use the system in conjunction with wireless-g networked DVD players. The PC itself is only connected to a 19" monitor, but the DVD players in the office, gameroom, and bedroom can all access the recorded audio or video files I've collected over the years (mostly broadcast television & my music collection). One machine, three different places to watch/listen to the media!

[ahawks]

To answer my own question:

Lastnight I downloaded and installed MediaPortal. For now, I am trying to use it in conjunction with BeyondTV, because I like BTV, and I'm not too impressed with MP's TV system.

Some really cool things I've done and/or plan to do with MP:
- snes9x or MAME system
- MyMusicVideos plugin - streams music videos from Yahoo!
- Weather plugin is awesome
- RSS reader is nice
- MSN Messenger plugin is kinda handy
- DVD playback is flawless and easy to setup
- Internet Radio streaming
- YouTube/Google Video/etc browsing plugin
- Netflix Manager plugin (manages queue, browses DVDs)
- A Wikipedia browser plugin is in the works

So far, I'm pretty impressed with it, considering it's completely free.

[RenegadeELEN]

I've been using MediaPortal for a little while now, trying it out. I used the EasyApps plugin to get a BeyondTV link in there so I can have MP be the first thing up and if I want to start BTV then I just go it it and MP minimizes out of the way of BTV and comes back when you close out of BTV.

[hordak]

Here's what I designed my HTPC as:
- Record TV: This is obvious
- Game console: From the start, I designed my box to be a PVR/ game console; I have played all my PC games on there, and I haven't turned back to the "desktop gaming". From Half Life 2 to GTA: Vice City to Bloodrayne. I have no need for an XBOX, PS2 or Nintendo box. The beauty of it all is that PC games usually drop in price MUCH faster than console games. (I just bought True Crime 2 for $10 when it's still double the price for consoles.) I also had Mame and all sorts of emulators set up. I use the Logitech wireless gamepad as my remote for everything - from controlling Beyond TV to playing games. (Only 1 remote to worry about!!!)
- Photo Library: Keep and look at all my photos on there. This is self-explanatory.
- Multi-region DVD player: Use videolan to play any DVD you want without having to worry about about changing the hardware setting on your DVD-Rom drive.
- Remote system: This is a bit harder to explain, but I have a web server set up on the box. So, wherever I'm at, I can access the files on there. If I'm remote, i can always upload my vacation pictures from a remote database. I can also check in to see if my scheduled shows recorded.

Other uses I tried, but I didn't find particularly practical:
- Weather: It was a cool feature, but wasn't practical for me to turn on the TV to find out the weather
- News: Again, very cool, but I couldn't make the jump to reading the news on the TV instead of desktop monitor.
- Fry's ad: Same reasons
- Jukebox: Couldn't find a decent mp3 player that was designed to work without a mouse and keyboard. (Remember, I use my gamepad to control EVERYTHING.)

Also, I'm planning in the near future to set up a Skype phone. One of the gripes of using Skype is that you have to turn on the computer and log in to make a call. If your PVR is on all the time, then picking up the Skype phone to make a call shouldn't be a problem.

Hordak

[unichaos]

I use my pc as my whole entertainment center in one little box.
-Stereo with all my music (only about 9000 songs :smile: ) but Im hopin to increase it.
-All my old emulator systems such as NES, Super NES, N64, etc.
-My Surround sound (5.1) DVD player
-Internet
-And my recently added DVD Xpress + TV tuner (external)That Im just startin to play around with and so far I love Snapstreams interface with it.
-Here's the kicker: It all runs through a DLP Projector! My screen reso. is only 800X600 but theres nothing like playing Battlefield 2 when it feels life size. Increadibly simple to use since everything is either Blue Tooth or remote control soooo no wires!
Nothin like a 200" screen to entertain the guests:bowdown:

[TV Scheduler]

I like BeyondTV quite a bit, but every now and then I have to answer the question (both to myself and to other people who may ask): "Why spend so much money on a PC and PVR software when commercial PVR solutions are available for less money?"


Okay, ask them...

Which commerical PVR has five HD Recorders for around $1500.00 with an intelligent scheduler and that will let me do all my computer stuff on the TV?

When the cable guys come to my house I can't get them to leave. ;) They don't ask why. They ask how.

Bob