SJMaye wrote:I am curious to

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October 13, 2011 at 10:22 am #6155
babgvant
Keymaster

    [quote=SJMaye]

    I am curious to hear your comments on HTPC case displays such as this one. 

    On my first HTPC I was convinced i wanted a big display so I bought the OrigenAE S21t.  After a few years I realize I never use it.  On my second build I opted for a VFD similar to the one in this thread.  Since I could not read it at any distance it was still sort of useless.

    Would you mind giving me your thoughts on where they can be helpful to you?

    [/quote]

    There are a couple places where I think a VFD adds significant value, and a few where it just a nice to have.

    1) Recording status – this is my favorite one, I know at-a-glance why it’s not in standby.

    2) CE polish – makes the HTPC look more like a CE device (BD, STB, etc). Very few CE devices have now status information available.

    3) Adds a clock

    4) I know w/o showing the scrub bar where my kids are at in a show so I know whether to postpone dinner for 2 min while they finish up or make them pickup where they left off later.

    There are more use cases, but the gist is the same.  A VFD adds polish and provides non-obvious information w/o having to interact with the PC.