A home theater PC (HTPC) or media center computer is a
convergent device that combines some or all the capabilities of a
personal computer
A personal computer (PC) is a multi-purpose microcomputer whose size, capabilities, and price make it feasible for individual use. Personal computers are intended to be operated directly by an end user, rather than by a computer expert or tec ...
with a
software application
Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work.
At the lowest programming level, executable code consists ...
that focuses on video, photo, audio playback, and sometimes
video recording
Video is an electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving visual media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, which were quickly replaced by cathode-ray tube (CRT) system ...
functionality. Since the mid-2000s, other types of
consumer electronics
Consumer electronics or home electronics are electronic (analog or digital) equipment intended for everyday use, typically in private homes. Consumer electronics include devices used for entertainment, communications and recreation. Usually r ...
, including
game consoles
A video game console is an electronic device that outputs a video signal or image to display a video game that can be played with a game controller. These may be home consoles, which are generally placed in a permanent location connected to a t ...
and dedicated media devices, have crossed over to manage video and music content. The term "media center" also refers to specialized
application software
Application may refer to:
Mathematics and computing
* Application software, computer software designed to help the user to perform specific tasks
** Application layer, an abstraction layer that specifies protocols and interface methods used in a c ...
designed to run on standard
personal computer
A personal computer (PC) is a multi-purpose microcomputer whose size, capabilities, and price make it feasible for individual use. Personal computers are intended to be operated directly by an end user, rather than by a computer expert or tec ...
s.
HTPC and other convergent devices integrate components of a
home theater
Home cinema, also called home theaters or theater rooms, are home entertainment audio-visual systems that seek to reproduce a movie theater experience and mood using consumer electronics-grade video and home audio, audio equipment that is set ...
into a unit co-located with a home entertainment system. An HTPC system typically has a remote control and the software interface normally has a
10-foot (3 m) user interface design so that it can be comfortably viewed at typical television viewing distances. An HTPC can be purchased pre-configured with the required hardware and software needed to add video programming or music to the PC. Enthusiasts can also piece together a system out of discrete components as part of a software-based HTPC.
Since 2007,
digital media players
A digital media player (also sometimes known as a streaming device or streaming box) is a type of consumer electronics device designed for the storage, playback, or viewing of digital media content. They are typically designed to be integr ...
and
smart TV
A smart TV, also known as a connected TV (CTV), is a traditional television set with integrated Internet and interactive Web 2.0 features, which allows users to stream music and videos, browse the internet, and view photos. Smart TVs are a techno ...
software has been incorporated into consumer electronics through software or hardware changes including video game consoles,
Blu-ray
The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...
players,
networked media players, televisions, and
set-top box
A set-top box (STB), also colloquially known as a cable box and historically television decoder, is an information appliance device that generally contains a TV-tuner input and displays output to a television set and an external source of sign ...
es. The increased availability of specialized devices, coupled with paid and free digital online content, now offers an alternative to multipurpose (and more costly) personal computers.
History
The HTPC as a concept is the product of several technology innovations including high-powered home computers, digital media, and the shift from standard-resolution CRT to high-definition monitors, projectors, and large-screen televisions.
Integrating televisions and personal computers dates back to the late 1980s with tuner cards that could be added to
Commodore Amiga
Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and significantly improved graphi ...
PCs via the
Video Toaster
The NewTek Video Toaster is a combination of hardware and software for the editing and production of NTSC standard-definition video. The plug-in expansion card initially worked with the Amiga 2000 computer and provides a number of BNC connectors ...
. This adaptation would allow a small video window to appear on the screen with broadcast or cable content. Apple Computer also developed the
Macintosh TV
The Macintosh TV is a personal computer with integrated television capabilities released by Apple Computer in 1993. It was Apple's first attempt at computer-television integration. It shares the external appearance of the Macintosh LC 500 series, ...
in late 1993 that included a tuner card built into a
Macintosh LC 520
The Macintosh LC 500 series is a series of personal computers that were a part of Apple Computer's Macintosh LC family of Apple Macintosh, Macintosh computers, designed as a successor to the compact Macintosh family of computers for the mid-1990s ...
chassis but quickly withdrew from the market with only 10,000 units shipped.
In 1996
Gateway Computer unveiled the Destination computer, which included a tuner card and video card. The unit cost $4,000 and mostly integrated television viewing and computer functions on one color monitor.
The Destination was called a "PC-TV Combo" but by December the term "Home-theater PC" appeared in mainstream media: "The home theater PC will be a combination entertainment and information appliance."
By 2000,
DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...
players had become relatively ubiquitous and consumers were seeking ways to improve the picture. The value of using a computer instead of standalone DVD player drove more usage of the PC as a home media device. In particular, the desire for
progressive scan
Progressive scanning (alternatively referred to as noninterlaced scanning) is a format of displaying, storing, or transmitting moving images in which all the lines of each frame are drawn in sequence. This is in contrast to interlaced video used ...
ning DVD players (
480p
480p is the shorthand name for a family of video display resolutions. The p stands for progressive scan, i.e. non-interlaced. The ''480'' denotes a vertical resolution of 480 pixels, usually with a horizontal resolution of 640 pixels and 4:3 ...
instead of
480i
480i is the video mode used for standard-definition digital television in the Caribbean, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Philippines, Laos, Western Sahara, and most of the Americas (with the exception of Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay). The ''480 ...
) with better video fidelity led some consumers to consider their computers instead of very expensive DVD players.
As DVD players dropped in price, so did PCs and their related video-processing and storage capabilities. In 2000, DVD decryption software using the
DeCSS
DeCSS is one of the first free computer programs capable of decrypting content on a commercially produced DVD video disc. Before the release of DeCSS, open source operating systems (such as Berkeley Software Distribution, BSD and Linux) could n ...
algorithm allowed DVD owners to consolidate their DVD video libraries on hard drives. Innovations such as
TiVo
TiVo ( ) is a digital video recorder (DVR) developed and marketed by Xperi (previously by TiVo Corporation and TiVo Inc.) and introduced in 1999. TiVo provides an on-screen guide of scheduled broadcast programming television programs, whose fea ...
and
ReplayTV
ReplayTV was a former DVR company that from 1999 until 2005, produced a brand of digital video recorders (DVR), a term synonymous with ''personal video recorder'' (PVR). It is a consumer video device which allows users to capture television progr ...
allowed viewers to store and timeshift broadcast content using specially designed computers. ReplayTV for instance ran on a
VxWorks
VxWorks is a real-time operating system (or RTOS) developed as proprietary software by Wind River Systems, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Aptiv. First released in 1987, VxWorks is designed for use in embedded systems requiring real-time, determin ...
platform. Incorporating these capabilities into PCs was well within the ability of a computer hobbyist who was willing to build and program these systems. Key benefits of these DIY projects included lower cost and more features.
Advancements in hardware identified another weak link: the absence of media management software to make it easy to display and control the video from a distance.
![MythTV-blue menu](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/MythTV-blue_menu.png)
By 2002, major software developments also facilitated media management, hardware integration, and content presentation.
MythTV
MythTV is a free and open-source home entertainment application with a simplified " 10-foot user interface" design for the living room TV. It turns a computer with the necessary hardware into a network streaming digital video recorder, a digital ...
provided a
free
Free may refer to:
Concept
* Freedom, having the ability to do something, without having to obey anyone/anything
* Freethought, a position that beliefs should be formed only on the basis of logic, reason, and empiricism
* Emancipate, to procur ...
and open source solution using
Linux
Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...
. The concept was to combine a digital tuner with digital video recording, program guides, and computer capabilities with a 10-foot (3 m) user interface.
XBMC
Kodi (formerly XBMC) is a free and open-source media player software application developed by the XBMC Foundation, a non-profit technology consortium. Kodi is available for multiple operating systems and hardware platforms, with a software 10 ...
was another
free and open software project started with re-purposing the
Xbox
Xbox is a video gaming brand created and owned by Microsoft. The brand consists of five video game consoles, as well as applications (games), streaming services, an online service by the name of Xbox network, and the development arm by the na ...
as a home theater PC but has since been ported to Windows and Macintosh operating systems in various forms including
Boxee
Boxee was a cross-platform freeware HTPC (Home Theater PC) software application with a 10-foot user interface and social networking features designed for the living-room TV. It enabled its users to view, rate and recommend content to their frie ...
and
Plex. Mainstream commercial software packages included
Microsoft's XP Media Center Edition (2002, bundled with
Windows XP
Windows XP is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It was released to manufacturing on August 24, 2001, and later to retail on October 25, 2001. It is a direct upgrade to its predecessors, Windows 2000 for high-end and ...
, and Apple's
Front Row (2005) software, bundled with
Mac OS X
macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. Within the market of ...
. By early 2006, commercial examples of this integration included the
Mac mini
Mac Mini (stylized as Mac mini) is a small form factor (desktop and motherboard), small form factor desktop computer developed and marketed by Apple Inc. , it is positioned between the consumer all-in-one iMac (Intel-based), iMac and the profes ...
which had the Apple Remote, 5.1 digital audio, and an updated Front Row interface that would play shared media. Because of these features and the Mini's small form factor, consumers began using the Mini as a Mac-based home theater PC.
As digital cable and satellite became the norm, HTPC software became more dependent on external decoder boxes, and the subscription costs that came with them. For instance, MythTV is capable of capturing unencrypted
HDTV
High-definition television (HD or HDTV) describes a television system which provides a substantially higher image resolution than the previous generation of technologies. The term has been used since 1936; in more recent times, it refers to the g ...
streams, such as those broadcast over the air or on cable using a
QAM
Quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) is the name of a family of digital modulation methods and a related family of analog modulation methods widely used in modern telecommunications to transmit information. It conveys two analog message signal ...
tuner. However, most U.S.
cable
Cable may refer to:
Mechanical
* Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof
* Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...
and
satellite
A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotope ...
set-top box
A set-top box (STB), also colloquially known as a cable box and historically television decoder, is an information appliance device that generally contains a TV-tuner input and displays output to a television set and an external source of sign ...
es provide only encrypted HD streams for
"non-basic" content, which can be decoded only by OpenCable-approved hardware or software. In September 2009, OEM restrictions were officially lifted for
cableCARD
CableCARD is a special-use PC Card device that allows consumers in the United States to view and record digital cable television channels on digital video recorders, personal computers and television sets on equipment such as a set-top box not pr ...
devices, opening up the possibility of HTPC integration.
The advent of fully digital HDTV displays helped to complete the value and ease of use of a HTPC system. Digital
projectors
A projector or image projector is an optical device that projects an image (or moving images) onto a surface, commonly a projection screen. Most projectors create an image by shining a light through a small transparent lens, but some newer types ...
,
plasma
Plasma or plasm may refer to:
Science
* Plasma (physics), one of the four fundamental states of matter
* Plasma (mineral), a green translucent silica mineral
* Quark–gluon plasma, a state of matter in quantum chromodynamics
Biology
* Blood pla ...
and
LCD
A liquid-crystal display (LCD) is a flat-panel display or other electronically modulated optical device that uses the light-modulating properties of liquid crystals combined with polarizers. Liquid crystals do not emit light directly but in ...
displays often came pre-configured to accept computer video outputs including
VGA
Video Graphics Array (VGA) is a video display controller and accompanying de facto graphics standard, first introduced with the IBM PS/2 line of computers in 1987, which became ubiquitous in the PC industry within three years. The term can no ...
,
DVI
Digital Visual Interface (DVI) is a video display interface developed by the Digital Display Working Group (DDWG). The digital interface is used to connect a video source, such as a video display controller, to a display device, such as a comp ...
and
Component Video
Component video is an analog video signal that has been split into two or more component channels. In popular use, it refers to a type of component analog video (CAV) information that is transmitted or stored as three separate signals. Compon ...
. Furthermore, both the computers and the displays could include
video scaler
A video scaler is a system which converts video signals from one display resolution to another; typically, scalers are used to convert a signal from a lower resolution (such as 480p standard definition) to a higher resolution (such as 1080i High ...
s to better conform the image to the screen format and resolutions. Likewise, computers also included
HDMI
High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) is a proprietary audio/video interface for transmitting uncompressed video data and compressed or uncompressed digital audio data from an HDMI-compliant source device, such as a display controller, ...
ports that carry both audio and video signals to home video displays or AV receivers.
The simplified integration of computer and home theater displays has allowed for fully digital content distribution over the internet. For instance, by 2007
Netflix "watch instantly" subscribers could view streaming content using their HTPCs with a browser or with plug-ins with applications such as Plex and XBMC. Similar plug-ins are also available for
Hulu
Hulu () is an American subscription streaming service majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Comcast's NBCUniversal holding a minority stake. It was launched on October 29, 2007 and it offers a library of films and television serie ...
,
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
, and broadcasters such as
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...
,
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...
and
PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...
.
HTPC characteristics
![Home theater PC front with keyboard](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/56/Home_theater_PC_front_with_keyboard.jpg)
The media itself may be
stored, received by
terrestrial
Terrestrial refers to things related to land or the planet Earth.
Terrestrial may also refer to:
* Terrestrial animal, an animal that lives on land opposed to living in water, or sometimes an animal that lives on or near the ground, as opposed to ...
,
satellite
A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotope ...
or cable broadcasting or
streamed
Streaming media is multimedia that is delivered and consumed in a continuous manner from a source, with little or no intermediate storage in network elements. ''Streaming'' refers to the delivery method of content, rather than the content it ...
from the internet. Stored media is kept either on a local
hard drive
A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating platters coated with magnet ...
or on
network attached storage
Network-attached storage (NAS) is a file-level (as opposed to block-level storage) computer data storage server connected to a computer network providing data access to a heterogeneous group of clients. The term "NAS" can refer to both the techn ...
. Some software is capable of doing other tasks, such as finding news (
RSS
RSS ( RDF Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication) is a web feed that allows users and applications to access updates to websites in a standardized, computer-readable format. Subscribing to RSS feeds can allow a user to keep track of many di ...
) from the
Internet
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...
.
Beyond functioning as a standard PC, normally HTPCs have some additional characteristics:
Television connectivity
Standard PC units are usually connected to a
CRT or
LCD
A liquid-crystal display (LCD) is a flat-panel display or other electronically modulated optical device that uses the light-modulating properties of liquid crystals combined with polarizers. Liquid crystals do not emit light directly but in ...
display, while HTPCs are designed to be connected to a
television
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...
. All HTPCs should feature a TV-out option, using either an
HDMI
High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) is a proprietary audio/video interface for transmitting uncompressed video data and compressed or uncompressed digital audio data from an HDMI-compliant source device, such as a display controller, ...
,
DVI
Digital Visual Interface (DVI) is a video display interface developed by the Digital Display Working Group (DDWG). The digital interface is used to connect a video source, such as a video display controller, to a display device, such as a comp ...
,
DisplayPort
DisplayPort (DP) is a digital display interface developed by a consortium of PC and chip manufacturers and standardized by the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA). It is primarily used to connect a video source to a display device su ...
,
Component video
Component video is an analog video signal that has been split into two or more component channels. In popular use, it refers to a type of component analog video (CAV) information that is transmitted or stored as three separate signals. Compon ...
,
VGA
Video Graphics Array (VGA) is a video display controller and accompanying de facto graphics standard, first introduced with the IBM PS/2 line of computers in 1987, which became ubiquitous in the PC industry within three years. The term can no ...
(for some LCD televisions),
S-Video
S-Video (also known as separate video, Y/C, and erroneously Super-Video ) is an analog video signal format that carries standard-definition video, typically at 525 lines or 625 lines. It encodes video luma and chrominance on two separate channe ...
, or
composite video
Composite video is an analog video signal format that carries standard-definition video (typically at 525 lines or 625 lines) as a single channel. Video information is encoded on one channel, unlike the higher-quality S-Video (two channels) a ...
output.
Remote control
Integrating a HTPC into a typical living room requires a way of controlling it from a distance. Many TV tuner/capture cards include remote controls for use with the applications included with the card. Software such as
Boxee
Boxee was a cross-platform freeware HTPC (Home Theater PC) software application with a 10-foot user interface and social networking features designed for the living-room TV. It enabled its users to view, rate and recommend content to their frie ...
,
GB-PVR
GB-PVR was a PVR (personal video recorder aka digital video recorder) application, running on Microsoft Windows, whose main function was scheduling TV recordings and playing back live TV. GB-PVR is no longer under active development and has bee ...
,
SageTV
SageTV Media Center, now open source, was a proprietary, commercial DVR (Digital Video Recording) and HTPC (Home theater PC) software for Mac OS X, Windows and Linux. It requires that the host computer have a hardware-based TV tuner card. The S ...
,
MediaPortal
MediaPortal is an open-source media player and digital video recorder software project, often considered an alternative to Windows Media Center. It provides a 10-foot user interface for performing typical PVR/TiVo functionality, including play ...
and
Beyond TV
Beyond TV is digital video recorder/ media center software for Microsoft Windows produced by the American company SnapStream. The software was originally released in 2000 as a ''Personal Video Station''. Like most media center software, and devic ...
support the use of
Windows MCE
Windows Media Center (WMC) is a defunct digital video recorder and media player created by Microsoft. Media Center was first introduced to Windows in 2002 on Windows XP Media Center Edition (MCE). It was included in Home Premium and Ultimate e ...
and other remote controls. Another option is an in-air mouse pointer such as the
Wii Remote
The Wii Remote, also known colloquially as the Wiimote, is the primary game controller for Nintendo's Wii home video game console. An essential capability of the Wii Remote is its motion sensing capability, which allows the user to interact with ...
, GlideTV Navigator, or Loop Pointer, which gives cursor control from a distance. It is also possible to use common wireless keyboards and other peripherals to achieve the same effect (though the range may not be as long as a typical remote control's).
Some HTPCs, such as the Plex/Mac Mini combination, support programmable remote controls designed for a wide range of typical home theater devices.
More recent innovations include remote-control applications for Android and Apple iOS smartphones and tablets.
External and networked storage devices
Because of the nature of the HTPC, units require higher-than-average capacities for storage of pictures, music, television shows, videos, and other
multimedia
Multimedia is a form of communication that uses a combination of different content forms such as text, audio, images, animations, or video into a single interactive presentation, in contrast to tradition ...
.
Designed almost as a 'permanent storage' device, space can quickly run out on these devices. Because of restrictions on internal space for hard disk drives and a desire for low noise levels, many HTPC units use a
NAS (Network Attached Storage) device, or another type of network-connected
file server
In computing, a file server (or fileserver) is a computer attached to a network that provides a location for shared disk access, i.e. storage of computer files (such as text, image, sound, video) that can be accessed by the workstations that are ab ...
.
TV tuner cards
A
TV tuner card
A TV tuner card is a kind of television tuner that allows television signals to be received by a computer. Most TV tuners also function as video capture cards, allowing them to record television programs onto a hard disk much like the digital vi ...
is a computer component that allows television signals to be received by a computer. Most TV tuners also function as video capture cards, allowing them to record television programs onto a hard disk. Several manufacturers build combined TV tuner plus capture cards for PCs. Many such cards offer hardware MPEG encoding to reduce the computing requirements. Some cards are designed for analog TV signals such as standard definition cable or off the air television, while others are designed for high-definition digital TV.
Network TV tuner
A network TV tuner or
TV gateway A TV gateway (also called network TV tuner) is a television Cable television headend, headend to a network UPnP router that receives live Digital Video Broadcasting, digital video broadcast (DVB) MPEG transport streams (channels) from terrestrial ae ...
is a TV server that converts TV signal from satellite, cable or antenna to IP. With multiple TV tuners, the TV gateway can stream multiple TV channels to devices across the network. Several TV gateway manufacturers build the device to stream the entire DVB stream, relying on the host player device to process the feed and to capture/record, while other devices such as
VBox Home TV Gateway
VBox Home TV gateway is a network-enabled live TV tuner and PVR HDTV set-top-box produced by VBox Communications Ltd.
The VBox Home TV Gateway is also known as:
* V@Home TV Gateway PVR
* V@Home TV Gateway
* VHome TV Gateway
* VBox TV Gateway
* X ...
provide a variety of option from full PVR and live TV features, to streaming of specific DVB layers to support less powerful devices and to save network bandwidth.
Quiet/minimal noise
A common user complaint with using standard PCs as HTPC units is background noise, especially in quieter film scenes. Most personal computers are designed for maximum performance, while the functions of a HTPC system may not be processor-intensive. Thus, passive cooling systems, low-noise fans, vibration-absorbing elastic mounts for fans and hard drives, and other noise-minimizing devices are used in place of conventional cooling systems.
Software
HTPC options exist for each of the major operating systems:
Microsoft Windows
Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...
,
Mac OS X
macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. Within the market of ...
and
Linux
Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...
. The software is sometimes called "Media Center Software".
Linux, Unix, and BSD
A number of media center software solutions exist for Linux-, Unix-, and BSD-based operating systems; for example
MythTV
MythTV is a free and open-source home entertainment application with a simplified " 10-foot user interface" design for the living room TV. It turns a computer with the necessary hardware into a network streaming digital video recorder, a digital ...
is a fully fledged integrated suite of software which incorporates TV recording, video library, video game library, image/picture gallery, information portal and music collection playback among other capabilities.
Kodi
KODI (1400 AM) is a radio station broadcasting a news/talk format. Licensed to Cody, Wyoming, United States, the station is currently owned by the Big Horn Radio Network, a division of Legend Communications of Wyoming, LLC, and features programm ...
is also available (as it is for many platforms), and can be used to present all the available media including TV programmes recorded by MythTV.
Freevo,
VDR,
SageTV
SageTV Media Center, now open source, was a proprietary, commercial DVR (Digital Video Recording) and HTPC (Home theater PC) software for Mac OS X, Windows and Linux. It requires that the host computer have a hardware-based TV tuner card. The S ...
and
Boxee
Boxee was a cross-platform freeware HTPC (Home Theater PC) software application with a 10-foot user interface and social networking features designed for the living-room TV. It enabled its users to view, rate and recommend content to their frie ...
are other solutions.
Linux, partially due to its opensource nature, is available as customised versions including the mediacentre pre-installed and with superfluous software removed. Examples include
MythBuntu
Mythbuntu is a discontinued media center operating system based on Ubuntu, which integrated the MythTV media center software as its main function, and did not install with all of the programs included with Ubuntu.
Following the principles of f ...
(based on
Xubuntu
Xubuntu () is a Canonical Ltd.–recognized, community-maintained derivative of the Ubuntu operating system. The name ''Xubuntu'' is a portmanteau of ''Xfce'' and ''Ubuntu'', as it uses the Xfce desktop environment, instead of Ubuntu's Unity a ...
), and
Ubuntu TV
Ubuntu ( ) is a Linux distribution based on Debian and composed mostly of free and open-source software. Ubuntu is officially released in three editions: ''Desktop'', ''Server'', and ''Core'' for Internet of things devices and robots. All ...
or
Kodibuntu (formerly XBMCbuntu), (all based on
Ubuntu
Ubuntu ( ) is a Linux distribution based on Debian and composed mostly of free and open-source software. Ubuntu is officially released in three editions: ''Desktop'', ''Server'', and ''Core'' for Internet of things devices and robots. All the ...
).
LinuxMCE
LinuxMCE (Linux Media Center Edition) is a free and open source software platform with a 10-foot user interface designed to allow a computer to act as a home theater PC (HTPC) for the living-room TV, personal video recorder, and home automation ...
is a complete
home automation
Home automation or domotics is building automation for a home, called a smart home or smart house. A home automation system will monitor and/or control home attributes such as lighting, climate, entertainment systems, and appliances. It m ...
solution including lighting/curtains, security, and MythTV capability.
Mac OS X
For
Mac OS X
macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. Within the market of ...
versions before 10.7 (Lion), HTPC functionality is built into the operating system itself. Specifically, the programs
Front Row and
Cover Flow, used in conjunction with the
Apple Remote
The Apple Remote is a remote control introduced in October 2005 by Apple Inc. for use with a number of its products with infrared capability. It was originally designed to control the Front Row media center program on the iMac G5 and is compati ...
, allow users easily to browse and view any multimedia content stored on their Macs. With the July 2011 release of Mac OS X Lion, Front Row has been discontinued.
[
Several third-party applications provide HTPC support, including Plex,] and XBMC
Kodi (formerly XBMC) is a free and open-source media player software application developed by the XBMC Foundation, a non-profit technology consortium. Kodi is available for multiple operating systems and hardware platforms, with a software 10 ...
.
Beyond the operating system itself, add-on hardware-plus-software combinations (for adding more full-featured HTPC abilities to any Mac) include Elgato
Elgato is a brand of consumer technology products. The brand was manufactured and designed by Elgato Systems, founded in 2010 by Markus Fest and was headquartered in Munich, Germany, until 2018 when the brand was sold to Corsair.
History
...
's EyeTV
EyeTV is a European brand of TV tuner card, TV tuners that allow users to watch TV on various devices including computers and smartphones. The brand was introduced in 2002 by Elgato Systems and was sold to Geniatech in 2016.
History
The first ...
series PVRs, AMD
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) is an American multinational semiconductor company based in Santa Clara, California, that develops computer processors and related technologies for business and consumer markets. While it initially manufactur ...
's "ATI
Ati or ATI may refer to:
* Ati people, a Negrito ethnic group in the Philippines
**Ati language (Philippines), the language spoken by this people group
** Ati-Atihan festival, an annual celebration held in the Philippines
*Ati language (China), a ...
Wonder" external USB 2.0 TV-tuners, and various individual devices from third-party manufacturers.
Microsoft Windows
For Microsoft Windows
Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...
, a common approach was to install a version that contains the Windows Media Center
Windows Media Center (WMC) is a defunct digital video recorder and media player created by Microsoft. Media Center was first introduced to Windows in 2002 on Windows XP Media Center Edition (MCE). It was included in Home Premium and Ultimate e ...
( Home Premium, Professional or Ultimate for Windows 7
Windows 7 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009, and became generally available on October 22, 2009. It is the successor to Windows Vista, released nearly ...
or Home Premium or Ultimate for Windows Vista
Windows Vista is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was the direct successor to Windows XP, which was released five years before, at the time being the longest time span between successive releases of ...
). Windows Media Center included additional software that covered the PVR functions of the proposed HTPC, including free program guide information and automatic program recording. Windows 7, Windows Vista Home Premium
Windows Vista—a major release of the Microsoft Windows operating system—was available in six different product editions: Starter, Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, Enterprise, and Ultimate. On September 5, 2006, Microsoft announced the USD p ...
and Windows Vista Ultimate
Windows Vista—a major release of the Microsoft Windows operating system—was available in six different product editions: Starter, Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, Enterprise, and Ultimate. On September 5, 2006, Microsoft announced the USD p ...
included an MPEG2 decoder. With the introduction of Windows 8, Media Center was no longer included with the operating system; instead it was necessary to buy Windows 8 Pro and then purchase the Media Center Pack via the Windows Control Panel. Windows Media Centre is not available at all for Windows 10. However, it may be restored by a number of unofficial ways.
Alternative HTPC software may be built with the addition of a third party software PVR to a Windows PC. SageTV, GB-PVR, and DVBViewer
DVBViewer is proprietary, commercial software for viewing & recording of DVB TV & Radio using a TV tuner card or box and a Media Center for viewing Music, Video and Pictures. Among its other features are an Electronic Program Guide (EPG), remote ...
have integrated placeshifting Space shifting (or spaceshifting), also known as place shifting (or placeshifting), allows media, such as music or films, which are stored on one device, to be accessed from another place through another device. Space shifting is frequently done thr ...
comparable to the Slingbox
The Slingbox was a TV streaming media device made by Sling Media that encoded local video for transmission over the Internet to a remote device (sometimes called placeshifting). It allowed users to remotely view and control their cable, satellit ...
, allowing client PCs and the Hauppauge MediaMVP
The Hauppauge MediaMVP is a network media player. It consists of a hardware unit with remote control, along with software for a Windows PC. Out of the box, it is capable of playing video and audio, displaying pictures, and "tuning in" to Inter ...
to be connected to the server over the network. Snapstream provides heuristic commercial detection and program recompression. When using a faster CPU, SageTV
SageTV Media Center, now open source, was a proprietary, commercial DVR (Digital Video Recording) and HTPC (Home theater PC) software for Mac OS X, Windows and Linux. It requires that the host computer have a hardware-based TV tuner card. The S ...
and Beyond TV
Beyond TV is digital video recorder/ media center software for Microsoft Windows produced by the American company SnapStream. The software was originally released in 2000 as a ''Personal Video Station''. Like most media center software, and devic ...
can record content from TV capture cards which do not include hardware MPEG2 compression. For a free alternative, GB-PVR
GB-PVR was a PVR (personal video recorder aka digital video recorder) application, running on Microsoft Windows, whose main function was scheduling TV recordings and playing back live TV. GB-PVR is no longer under active development and has bee ...
and MediaPortal
MediaPortal is an open-source media player and digital video recorder software project, often considered an alternative to Windows Media Center. It provides a 10-foot user interface for performing typical PVR/TiVo functionality, including play ...
provide full home theater support and good multi-card DVR capabilities. GB-PVR also has a free client, free mediaMVP client, and free network media playback. MediaPortal provides a full client/server set-up with live TV/DVR (recorded or timeshifted) streaming. MediaPortal is open-source and offers a variety of skins and plugins for music videos, Netflix, Pandora and others.
Digital media receivers and consumer electronics integration
Although digital media player
A digital media player (also sometimes known as a streaming device or streaming box) is a type of consumer electronics device designed for the storage, playback, or viewing of digital media content. They are typically designed to be integra ...
s are often built using similar components to personal computers, they are often smaller, quieter and less costly than the full-featured computers adapted to multi-media entertainment.
In recent years, convergence devices for home entertainment including gaming systems, DVRs, Blu-Ray players and dedicated devices such as the Roku
Roku ( ) is a brand of hardware digital media players manufactured by American company Roku, Inc. They offer access to streaming media content from online services.
The first Roku model, developed in collaboration with Netflix, was introduce ...
have also started managing local video, music and streaming internet content. Likewise, some managed video services such as Verizon's FiOS allow users to incorporate their photographs, video, and music from their personal computers to their FiOS set-top-box including DVRs. Gaming systems such as the Nintendo Wii
The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America and in December 2006 for most other Regional lockout, regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major ho ...
, Sony PlayStation 3
The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on Novemb ...
and the Microsoft Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation ...
support media management beyond their original gaming orientation.
As computing power increases and costs fall, traditional media devices such as televisions have been given network capabilities. So-called Smart TV
A smart TV, also known as a connected TV (CTV), is a traditional television set with integrated Internet and interactive Web 2.0 features, which allows users to stream music and videos, browse the internet, and view photos. Smart TVs are a techno ...
s from Sony
, commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...
, Samsung
The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...
, and LG (to name a few) have models that allow owners to include some free or subscription media content available on the Internet. The rapid growth in the availability of online content, including music, video and games, has also made it easier for consumers to use these networked devices. YouTube
YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
, for instance, is a common plug-in available on most networked devices. Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...
has also struck deals with many consumer electronics makers to have their interface available for their streaming subscribers. This symbiotic relationship between Netflix and consumer electronics makers has helped propel Netflix to become the largest subscription video service in the U.S., using up to 20% of U.S. bandwidth at peak times.
Other digital media retailers such as Apple, Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational technology company focusing on e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. It has been referred to as "one of the most influential economi ...
and Blockbuster
Blockbuster or Block Buster may refer to:
*Blockbuster (entertainment) a term coined for an extremely successful movie, from which most other uses are derived.
Corporations
* Blockbuster (retailer), a defunct video and game rental chain
** Bl ...
have purchase and rental options for video and music on demand. Apple in particular has developed a tightly integrated device and content management ecosystem with their iTunes Store
The iTunes Store is a digital media store operated by Apple Inc. It opened on April 28, 2003, as a result of Steve Jobs' push to open a digital marketplace for music. As of April 2020, iTunes offered 60 million songs, 2.2 million apps, 25,00 ...
, personal computers, iOS
iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...
devices, and the AppleTV digital media receiver
A digital media player (also sometimes known as a streaming device or streaming box) is a type of consumer electronics device designed for the storage, playback, or viewing of digital media content. They are typically designed to be integra ...
. The most recent version of the AppleTV, at $99, has lost the hard drive included in its predecessor and fully depends either on streaming internet content, or another computer on the home network for media.
Impact on traditional television services
The convergence of content, technology, and broadband access allows consumers to stream television shows and movies to their high-definition television in competition with traditional service providers (cable TV
Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with broadc ...
and satellite television
Satellite television is a service that delivers television programming to viewers by relaying it from a communications satellite orbiting the Earth directly to the viewer's location. The signals are received via an outdoor parabolic antenna comm ...
). The research company SNL Kagan expects 12 million households, roughly 10%, to go without cable, satellite or telco video service by 2015 using over-the-top
An over-the-top (OTT) media service is a media service offered directly to viewers via the Internet. OTT bypasses cable, broadcast, and satellite television platforms: the types of companies that traditionally act as controllers or distributors ...
services. This represents a new trend in the broadcast television industry, as the list of options for watching movies and TV over the Internet grows every day. Research also shows that even as traditional television service providers are trimming their customer base, adding broadband
In telecommunications, broadband is wide bandwidth data transmission which transports multiple signals at a wide range of frequencies and Internet traffic types, that enables messages to be sent simultaneously, used in fast internet connections. ...
Internet customers. Nearly 76.6 million U.S. households get broadband from leading cable and telephone companies, although only a portion have sufficient speeds to support quality video streaming. Convergent devices for home entertainment will likely play a much larger role in the future of broadcast television, effectively shifting traditional revenue streams while providing consumers with more options.[
]
See also
* Comparison of DVR software packages
This is a comparison of digital video recorder (DVR), also known as personal video recorder (PVR), software packages. Note: this is may be considered a comparison of DVB software, not all listed packages have ''recording'' capabilities.
General ...
* Comparison of digital media players A digital media player is a home entertainment consumer electronics device that can connect to a home network to stream digital media (such as music, pictures, or video).
Standalone streaming players
''This list does not include discontinued or l ...
* Cord-cutting
In broadcast television, cord-cutting refers to the pattern of viewers, referred to as cord-cutters, cancelling their subscriptions to multichannel television services available over cable or satellite, dropping pay television channels or reduc ...
* Digital video recorder
A digital video recorder (DVR) is an electronic device that records video in a digital format to a disk drive, USB flash drive, SD memory card, SSD or other local or networked mass storage device. The term includes set-top boxes with direct to d ...
* Digital media receiver
A digital media player (also sometimes known as a streaming device or streaming box) is a type of consumer electronics device designed for the storage, playback, or viewing of digital media content. They are typically designed to be integra ...
* Home cinema
Home cinema, also called home theaters or theater rooms, are home entertainment audio-visual systems that seek to reproduce a movie theater experience and mood using consumer electronics-grade video and audio equipment that is set up in a roo ...
* Media server
A media server is a computer appliance or an application software that stores digital media (video, audio or images) and makes it available over a network.
Media servers range from servers that provide video on demand to smaller personal comput ...
* Portable media player
A portable media player (PMP) (also including the related digital audio player (DAP)) is a portable consumer electronics device capable of storing and playing digital media such as audio, images, and video files. The data is typically stored o ...
* Skin
Skin is the layer of usually soft, flexible outer tissue covering the body of a vertebrate animal, with three main functions: protection, regulation, and sensation.
Other cuticle, animal coverings, such as the arthropod exoskeleton, have diffe ...
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Home Theater Pc
Home video
Multimedia
Personal computers