Media player verses htpc

[Marccc]

Is a htpc a better choice than a media player, let's put price aside for the moment.

[Baldrick]

It depends.

If you want to be able to play everything a fast HTPC is the best choice. But you might need to spend lots of hours to get everything as you like, like testing different software media players, configure codecs, configuring output settings, etc.

If you are just playing "standard" video and audio files like avi, mp4,mp3,wav,aac and some mkvs a standalone media player would be much easier to use.

[Marccc]

Thank you Balrick, Your recommendations are always succinct and to the point. Appreciated. Considering my limited knoweledge at this point in time and modest video requirements, media player(per your wise suggestion) is what I will purchase. Perhaps we may discuss qualities of different players after I do my research. You have saved me time, money, and aggravation. Again thanks.