There’s a general push not just by the computer industry, but also broadband providers, to provide services wherein a PC is used to provide content and control the experience of a home theater. In essence, the goal is to replace all the components that make up home theater with a computer that would handle all the functions aside from the display and speakers.

There are vast problems with this “over-integration”, as I’ll detail below. Overall, in an effort to simplify everything into one box these, these companies are actually pushing to make things more complicated and less reliable than what is experienced by the consumer today.  In a world where the general public has just an overall “basic” understanding of computers, the home theater PC market can really only target the uber-geek among us technophiles willing to deal with setup and tweaking issues abound.

There is a place for a computer as an added component to a home theater, and the best role is to serve as a digital music jukebox. Replacing and controlling everything via a central PC isn’t only a bad idea, it actually hinders the expected performance that most consumers have about consumer electronics.

The Reliability Factor
Sure PCs can play DVDs, but usually nowhere near as good as a dedicated DVD player that runs a mere $80. Also, PCs aren’t exactly known for being stable. When is the last time your DVD player crashed? Imagine showing off your favorite scene in a movie to have everything grind to a screeching halt as your PC crashes.

Oh, that sounds like fun, but hey I can organize my photos in my living room right? Well I can do that more efficiently in my office without some clunky remote vainly attempting to give me as much functionality as a simple mouse on my PC does. Not to mention many computer monitors have a greater resolution than a 720p HDTV.

There are video card issues as well. Video displays use different resolutions than computer monitors, and getting these to match up can be, well… just downright difficult unless you have the right knowledge and a capable video card. Trying to figure out and tweak a $300 video card to display on a TV sounds like a dumb idea when you can just plug in an $80 progressive-scan DVD player into a TV, and not only save time, money, and aggravation, but also get better picture quality to boot.

Of Two Different Goals
Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and Pixar was right when he spoke at a MacWorld convention some years back. He said that the environment for good computing is completely different from good TV environment.

• Home theaters are about lounging comfortably and taking in the content passively.
• Computing environments are about active interaction with on screen elements to complete a task or goal

These two completely different goals conflict in their environments. A good home theater has comfortable lounge seating positioned far away from the screen. A great computing environment places the user mere inches away from the screen, enabling the user to read small text and click objects.

The environments needed to get the most from either task are in direct conflict with each other. Thus anyone thinking a computer in a home theater can double is their office computer may also find the need of an office computer so they can use their one unhindered from the non-computing environment that a home theater is.

Capable of doing all things, but none perfect.
Having a computer take over all the functions of a receiver, DVD player, tuner, HDTV tuner, and amplifier may sound like a good idea, but the fact is you can’t have one thing do all things well.  A single or dual processor PC simply cannot perform as well or with as much fidelity as the multiple dedicated processors and systems found in receivers, DVD players, tuners, and the like. All receivers have multiple processors dedicated to completing their task not only in an efficient manner, but also delivering a high quality performance.

Dedicated Systems
The advantage of dedicated systems is tantamount in the argument against home theater PCs. Dedicated systems are solid and reliable with the “always on” capability consumers expect of their consumer electronics.

It’s also a better video delivery system to have a dedicated line of TV broadcasting such as cable, satellite, and digital TV via antenna in an “always on” state. With the simple switch of the TV power button consumers can instantly channel surf. With a PC handling the tuner function, the PC and the TV have to be turned on, and it takes a few minutes to start up any PC, not to mention start up the TV tuner program.

IPTV
Many in the telecom/communications industry are touting IPTV (Internet TV) as the next best thing in broadband, and a contributing factor in making the home theater PC a reality. The main problem with this idea is that they’re trying to break into a market already well served by cable, satellite, and broadcast companies in a reliable “always on” fashion.

The telecom/communications industry envisions IPTV as a great replacement, but it’s dependent on how fast your broadband connection is, and a reliable server connection with the media provider. This approach essentially takes the job of the cable and satellite broadcasters to your home for you to maintain. On a bigger picture, they also see the computer as a hub to connect to all of your household appliances, to be used not only as the general control of your home theater, but your entire house for that matter.

When the All in One Server Breaks
What happens when your Internet connection goes down now? You can still watch TV, and operate your other electronics correctly. If you relegate all of the responsibility of your home theater to a single PC, when it breaks, everything is broken, and getting it all fixed won’t be easy for most people. When a DVD player breaks, almost anyone can go buy a new one, plug it in, and instantly watch a movie.

Overcomplicating Issues Abound
In the goal of making everything collapsed into one miracle box, that tries to over simplify complex tasks, the actual result is a complication of many tasks and an over dependence on one system that does all things, but doesn’t do one exceptionally well while almost always suffering from reliability issues be it software or hardware.

They Do Have Their Place
PCs serving as the entire controller for a home theater are unlikely to find a home among the mass market, but they can serve their place when added to an existing home theater.

My home theater has on older Apple PowerBook wirelessly connected to my office computer’s iTunes music library. Of course, it would be cheaper to just connect an iPod and be done with it, but iTunes offers an awesome search function enabling any song to be found in mere seconds versus navigating through iPod menus of which, while easy, is not as fast.

This laptop running OS X is as reliable as they come. Always on, it rarely needs a restart and serves up a huge music library. It serves its purpose well and efficiently, and makes a great addition to my home theater. It by no means comes close or capable of replacing the whole system or controlling it.

As an addition to an existing home theater and not a replacement, home theater PCs can give you more capabilities than you otherwise would have, but taken as a controller or replacement of the whole system, their benefits are weak and better left for those willing to tinker, play, and forge ahead in their pursuits of home theater nirvana.