Hi I'm new here and overwhelmed

[cobbled_wings]

Hi guys!

I'm new here and I'm not exactly a tech buff. Recently got married and my wife and I are thinking of pimping up the entertainment room with a new HTPC/Media Center. I have a question, what's the advantage of building your own compared to just purchasing a media center or something pre-built?

[Baldrick]

If you build your own you can play EVERYTHING(if you pick a fast enough CPU and video card). You can also choose between several software players like xbmc, media portal, vlc, mpchc, etc. But you will probably spend more time configuring the HTPC than actually watching movies...


If you don't need support for everything like switchable subtitles in all containers(mkv, mp4, etc), advanced h264 video codec profiles, mkv with dts-hd true hd, blu-ray folder/iso with menus, ALL kinds of video codecs then choose a media center.


And welcome!