Why the HTPC will never become mainstream.

I love my HTPC. It has become an indispensable appliance in our home. My wife and I are avid users of many of the functions it provides. As a DVR it soldiers away at recording and scheduling television shows and movies. Dutifully it serves as a focal point for our music and video collections. I even connect to the Internet via services like Tvtonic and Online spotlight. I built my HTPC and am proud of the fact that it is quiet, fast, esthetic, and functional.

So what could be wrong?

In a word updates!

After a lengthy designing and building process I chose Microsoft XP Media Center Edition (MCE). I know what you are thinking “Bah.” However after playing with MCE, reading the reviews and getting to know what else was available I felt this was the best choice at the time.

I used a HTPC case, a dual tuner card, large hard drive, great sound card, video card; the list goes on and on. After loading MCE and getting it up and running life was bliss until the update.

One day the Microsoft update service informed me that the “. NET” extensions needed to be updated. So off my computer went whirling into the Internet ether to update my outdated software.

The next day Media Center wouldn’t play the videos, TV, or much else. But this is just a small part of the problem. Keeping up with Anti-virus software, regular OS updates, driver updates.

I just want to enjoy my system. The endless software revisions, optimizations, hardware changes, etc… just take some of the joy away from the experience of HTPC bliss.

So has all of this dimmed my enthusiasm for my HTPC? I absolutely love my HTPC, warts and all. However as long as these living room marvels are just one update from being a support call they will never be something that becomes a mainstream fixture in our living rooms.

I hope that in the near future I will be proved wrong and the nirvana that has been promised to us will come to pass.

Let us hope…

Mine is connected to internet to updated TV listings but disable Microsoft Windows critical updates. A good hardware and up to date software firewall will kept my system fairly safe.

I took the ATI HD2400 out due to Visionteks driver issue; non-WHQL certified and replace it with X800GTO. So I guest we're all in the same boat about the lack of driver support.