Mike Garcen wrote: SO,

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October 31, 2011 at 5:49 pm #6380
mpatnode

    [quote=Mike Garcen]

    SO, there’s nothing a Media Player can do, that an HTPC system CAN’T. But the same can’t be said the other way around.

    [/quote]

    Not 100% true.   Today’s HTPCs cannot stream HD movies from many of the major streaming services (Amazon, Vudu, Netflix?, etc..) due to Hollywood DRM restrictions while a good dedicated media player shouldn’t have this restriction.   Intel recently released the Intel Insider technology to address this limitation, but I’m not yet aware of any streaming media players which take advantage of it.    So if streaming 1080p + Surround Sound is important to you, you might want to have another device to augment the HTPC.    My personal suggestion is a BD player which supports the services you desire, since BD playback on an HTPC is surrounded with DRM pitfalls as well.    Nothing that can’t be overcome with money and time, but I wouldn’t recommend it for the casual user.

    (I’m not a Netflix user, so I can’t speak to whether they’ve addressed this issue.)