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I was wondering if I described my most common usage cases, if you guys could give me your opinions on what software combo would be best for me.
Basic setup:
- my htpc will (probably) have 1TB of storage
- im going to get a case with a touch screen on it (zalman hd160xt (plus?) is in the lead right now)
- the htpc will be connected via wired lan (not GbE yet, probably in a year)
- i have a 5.1 speaker set up mounted around my house, connected to a sony receiver with a decent amount of inputs, but not that many
Case 1:
- i have lots of xvid encoded avi files, comcast cable w/ a digital cable box (w/ the hd add-on)
- dvr-ing is not very important to me (for now, but i dont want anything that will prevent me from being able to in the future)
=> i would like to easily browse and then play video media (50% avi, 40% tv, 10% [dvd | hd-dvd | blu-ray])
=> when i select a video to play on the touch screen, it needs to play on the tv without playing on the touchscreen (IMPORTANT)
=> i dont mind if i switch inputs between what i watch on tv and on the htpc
=> i would like to be able to control about equally as well whether i use touchscreen or remote
Case 2:
- my housemate has a large colletion of mp3s (~100gb), all the text data for the mp3s (title, author, etc) was entered via iTunes, meaning that
ALL of that data for every song is stored in an xml file. the mp3s are still stored in non-protected mp3 tho
- occasionally i will need to play songs off of an mp3 player or cd/dvd
=> i would like to be able to play music (scroll/browse too) without having my tv on. doing it from the touchscreen is fine as long as
the song text is large enough to read (ie i want large buttons, i dont want my finger to be the mouse )
=> this will most often be used in at a party where i want to pump music into a darkened room and not disrupt the mood by turning on the tv
=> it would be nice if i could see some sort of visualization while the music plays. it doesn't have to be automatic. i dont mind switch to an eq or visualization view
thanks for the help guys
I can't answer for anything as far as touchscreen goes, but have you considered that you might be able to do all this with a sideshow remote? It may not look quite as cool as a touchscreen, but will be more functional. That said, I haven't heard of hardly any sideshow remotes on the market yet so how its supposed to work and how it actually will work remain will probably be two different things for the first few months when they become readily available.