Convergence Headaches Scare Away AV Installers

[kloneman]

I would prefer the Gigabit ethernet, preferably a multiple of that speed, over slower USB. The faster the transfers, the better. RS-232 is a dinosaur, and some vendors just don't get it.

Originally Posted by jeffca

RS232 and the like haven't been on Macs for years. Rather than insist that Apple add a virtually useless peripheral port, you should be berating the manufacturers of this over-priced, programable HTPC remote crapola for staying with obsolete technology.

Ethernet or USB 2 interfaces might cost about 50 cents more to implement and are way more robust methods for intersystem communication.

[Dave Moritz]

While I messed with the beta release of Vista and found it worked nicely and was very stable on my pc. I honestly do not care to have a home theater pc in my home theater. I do not trust MS software especially not media player! It is one of the buggiest players I have ever come across and to my knowledge I do not think you can rip HDM to your HD yet. While it would be nice to playback SD-DVD's to other systems through out the house. Streaming to my knowledge chews up bandwidth on your network so I would not personally want to stream content across my network. I prefer to use gear built for home theater applications and not a actual pc. I also could not stand to hear a pc fan during quite passages in a movie. I feel there are to many things to list and am just not interested. Does that mean there is no place for a pc in home theater set ups? No, depending on your needs a PC can be quite flexible. Can we expect to see more PC's integrated into home theater set up's? It's unavoidable IMHO.

But at this time I feel that PC's do not offer enough of a audiophile type experience and have a ways to go to accomplish that.

[rex]

Originally Posted by Dave Moritz

to my knowledge I do not think you can rip HDM to your HD yet.

It is certainly possible to rip HDM, both Blu-ray and HD DVD. In fact, there is at least one commercial product available to do so (more will surely follow):

AnyDVD HD comes with same functionality as AnyDVD, but with additional features for full Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD support, including decryption of Blu-ray (BD+ and AACS) and HD DVD (AACS) movies. Allows you to watch movies over a digital display connection, without HDCP-compliant graphics card and without HDCP-compilant display. No need to buy an expensive monitor. Sweet!
Playback your discs on your PC with PowerDVD Ultra, which otherwise do not run (titles released by Studio Canal, The Weinstein Company, Kinowelt, Optimum Releasing). AnyDVD HD is the "must have" utility for the serious home theater enthusiast using a media center / home theater PC.

http://www.slysoft.com/en/anydvdhd.html