The Final Decision
When last we left, I had presented cases for a web-enabled device and for an HTPC. It's one thing to analyze their theoretical pros and cons in a vacuum, but there's something to be said for actual field research as well. I went on a few retail sites to see what was available. HTPCs basically come in four flavors:
1) Refurb. Buy a cheap computer and update whatever needs updating. The computer I'm using right now is a Gateway with a 2.00GHz dual-core processor, 3Mb ram, 500Gb hdd, and 512Mb video card with HDMI output. It has Windows Vista with Media Center. It cost me about $180 used on eBay (thanks David) plus a few bucks ($20ish?) to upgrade the memory. It runs my 23" monitor just fine and would probably run a TV. If not, I could get a nice video card for under $100. A 2Tb hard drive is also under $100. However, the system is not that quiet and it doesn't look good in the living room. So...
2) Boutique. These are custom made using the best components so you get exactly what you want. Maybe if I hit the lottery, but not a cost effective alternative.
3) Barebones. The really nice HTPC cases that look like AV components are generally sold only as barebones kits. Most come with a power supply, some also throw in a motherboard, fans, processor, and ram. The simplest kits only require you to buy a hard drive, optical drive, and software. But you'll have to assemble the kit yourself. Kind of a pain. Also, the cases are not as cheap as regular tower cases. They range from about $70 to over $500...just for the case and a few parts. While cheaper than a fully assembled boutique HTPC, I couldn't see a way of putting a complete system for under $600. I'm not sure it would significantly outlast its payback time.
4) Nettop or Mini PC. Mini PCs, like the Asus Eee family, are built on a small form factor and often marketed as HTPCs. They often run on a single or dual atom processor and the better ones have Nvidia Ion graphics built in. They often come with a remote control and/or wireless keyboard and mouse. Most can even be attached to the back of your TV via the wall-mounting bracket if you have the TV on its stand. Unfortunately, Mini PCs usually can't be upgraded much because there's no space. Many lack an optical drive, and I didn't find any with a Blu-ray drive. The ones with a dual processor, nice graphics, decent memory and hard drive, and DVD drive are just as expensive as buying a full-size HTPC, which would have much better components, so they're not much of a deal.
I suspect the small number of available HTPCs, and their lack of cutting-edge components, means that there's not much interest in them. Indeed, many models have been discontinued and the majority of the articles on HTPC are from a few years ago. On the other hand, there's no shortage of web-enabled TVs, Set-top boxes, Blu-ray players, video game systems, review sites, and sites telling you how to get the most out of them. Ditto for HD antennas. The herd seems to have spoken and they prefer web-enabled devices.
Looking back at my system requirements, I wanted something that will do the following:
1) Play optical disks, preferably Blu-ray.
2) Stream local audio, video, and image files. The industry standard for local file sharing is called DLNA. DLNA certified products will share files over your home network. However, not all devices support all file formats. Sometimes this gets better if you upgrade the firmware, sometimes not. Caveat emptor.
3) Receive and tune a digital antenna signal and output digital sound. FM radio would be nice too.
4) Stream TV and Movies from the internet.
The last one proved to be the most restrictive part of the equation since every device has its own set of available services. We already have a Netflix account for movies, and just about all streaming content players support Netflix, so that wasn't much of a factor. For TV shows, Hulu Plus seems to have the most bundled content for the best price. You can get a lot of the same content on the individual networks' sites, but you have to navigate to each one individually, and that means a fully functional browser. Currently, Hulu Plus is only on a few platforms: Samsung and Sony TVs and Blu-rays, Vizio TVs, PS3, Roku, and computer with browser. There's also a "coming this year" list, but who knows if they really mean it.
The video game systems were quickly crossed off the list because we don't play games, so they're a lot of money for relatively few features. PS3 is the best because it has a Blu-ray player and there's no additional cost to be online. The Xbox 360 doesn't have a Blu-ray, and it does have an access fee to go online. Wii is a bit cheaper than Xbox and you can go online for free, but there's not as much content.
Since we're getting a new TV anyway, I looked into web-enables TVs. There are lots of them. The better ones have wifi built in. Some have a dongle, usually brand-specific so you can't use a cheap one. Most newer TV models are available in two versions- with or without web access. In the 37"-42" range, you'll pay about $100 to $200 extra for the wifi and internet streaming option. Sometimes you can find a deal where the web-enabled version is even closer in price. This seemed reasonable, but I'd still have to get a Blu-ray player for around $70 and at some point upgrade my stereo. An alternate path with basically the same pros and cons is to get a TV without internet and a Blu-ray player that streams local and internet content. These start around $150. These might be workable, if not elegant, options.
Set top boxes, like Roku, have a similar problem in that I would need to buy several other components to address all of my needs. Also, Roku doesn't support surround sound. It would be an attractive option if I already had an HDTV and a Blu-ray player, but you can get streaming content and better sound when you upgrade either of these for about the same price as a Roku, which is the best value in set top boxes.
I was momentarily excited about the Sony Internet TV Blu-Ray player with Google TV. It plays Blu-rays, streams content via Android Apps over wifi, and has Google Chrome built right in. It supports quite a few local file formats and outputs digital HD audio. Sweet! But, as my Mom used to say, if something seems too good to be true, it probably doesn't support Hulu. Or somthing like that. Anyway, Hulu is officially blocked for Google TV devices. There are ways around this. But there's no way to get Hulu Plus yet. And it's about $400 all by itself. It was a near miss, and maybe an option if they work out a deal for Hulu Plus in the future.
While digging through Blu-ray players, I started reading about some Home-Theater-in-a-box (HTiB) systems. An HTiB has a Blu-ray player, surround sound receiver, and speakers all in one unit. Some HTiB systems also stream local and internet content. This combination kills a lot of birds with one stone. And I'm looking to upgrade all of these features anyway. Given the current Hulu Plus restrictions, I looked most closely at the Samsung and Sony units. Both companies make a range of HTiBs. The ones that best fit my budget and needs were the Samsung HT-C6600 and Sony BDV-E770W. Both are mid-range systems with the following features:
- 5.1 surround sound sending 1000w of power through 5 speakers and a subwoofer.
- 3D Blu-ray player with all the latest digital decoding.
- Play local files over the network via ethernet or n-wifi (Samsung buit-in, Sony with included dongle).
- Play streaming media from the internet.
The Samsung includes an iPod dock. I don't have an iPod, so that wasn't a plus for me. The Sony can connect to an MP3 via a USB input. The Sony includes Gracenote, which gives you info on whatever movie you're watching. Again, not that big a deal. It also has an FM tuner, which is a significant plus. But the biggest bonus feature for the Sony is that the rear satellite speakers are wireless...sort of. They are wired to an s-air receiver, and the s-air box is wirelessly connected to the main system. So it needs power and there are wires, but you can hide it all behind your couch so there's no wire running across the living room. You can buy additional s-air speakers and have wireless music in other rooms, which is a pretty nice future add-on. Both systems look good, except that the Samsung has visible speaker cones with a silver disk in each one. The Sony speakers have black mesh covers. Ryan liked the plain look of the Sony speakers better.
The Samsung system retails for $600, but you can find it for $330. The Sony system retails for $650, but you can find it for $450 on several websites. Since we liked the Sony's features more, I did some more serious searching and found it for $362 at compsource.com (the price has since gone up by $10 but it's still the best I can find for this system). We decided that the slight price difference was worth it for the better-looking speakers, FM radio, and wireless speakers. It should arrive very soon.
The plan is to hook this system up to an LCD TV and get an antenna to pick up local HDTV broadcasts. I'm looking at TVs in the 37" to 42" range without any internet capability. The only real requirement is that it will have to have a digital audio output (Toslink) to get sound from the antenna signal into the receiver. Some low-end TVs don't have any audio outputs. I'm thinking that a Sony TV might allow us to control everything from one remote (without buying a universal remote), but I'm not sure if you can ever know that for sure without setting it up and trying it out. Hopefully, this combination of components should meet all of our entertainment needs for quite some time.
Part of the pitch for making this upgrade is that it will eventually pay for itself. After eliminating our cable bill ($300/yr) and replacing it with Hulu Plus ($100/yr), we expect a net savings of around $200/yr. The total system upgrade should come in right around $1,000 (depending on the TV we choose) giving us a payback time of 5 years. Given that all of our current components are at least 10 years old, we expect to eventually see significant savings while enjoying more and better quality content. If your cable bill is higher, you will have a shorter payback period...or you can justify a much nicer TV.
In my next post, I plan to detail the setup procedure and the system's good and bad features.
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