Why Use A Home Theater PC
Many individuals are choosing to go the route of a home theater PC. Although a home theater PC doesn't have as much rental or subscription fees as other options it does have a higher up front cost. You will also need some technical knowledge before you can build or purchase a home theater PC. To get your home theater PC to work just right for you, you will often need to tweak or work on the settings. A home theater PC isn't as simple as plugging into an outlet and then enjoying your movies, although a home theater PC can still be an improvement over other methods.
Reasons For Getting A Home Theater PC
Many choose a home theater PC since it gives them better control over their content. With the content on your PC you can archive it to a disc to play on vacation, upload the content to your iPod or other portable devices, this isn't something you can do with a regular cable box. You aren't restricted to simply watching your show in the living room or bedroom. Also once you pay the price to purchase or build a home theater PC you won't have a subscription cost and you don't have to worry about renting content.
With a PC it is easier to skip through the commercials in your content. When you watch a recorded show you can simply jump through a commercial break by clicking the channel up button. A cable box doesn't allow you to do this. A home theater PC also allows you to upgrade and expand based on your entertainment needs. You can add tuners, sound cards, video cards or additional space to your hard drive. You don't have expandability options with a cable box, but you do with a PC in addition to the ability to record many shows at one time while watching another.
You can also manage your content on a home theater PC a lot better than a cable box. Using a remote control you can control a lot of functions on your PC from the comfort of your couch including CD and DVD player. You can view TV shows, record TV shows, play music, watch saved movies and watch online multimedia. You can also archive your specific content based on your moods or certain genres. A home theater PC also has excellent image processing which means you can improve the picture quality on any of your video playbacks, this is something you wouldn't get with a standard cable box.
