Home Theater Notebooks The Future of HTPC?
We’ve had some forum posts in the past discussing this, and there really is no definitive answer. Laptops as HTPC make sense, after all we’ve been using some mobile parts in our systems for years (CPU, 2.5" HDD, etc). Using a laptop as your HTPC will work for some people, but there are some limitations to doing so (but that gap has shrunk in the past few years). I’d always worry about the tempation of people when they see a laptop…to pick it up and use it. Not a problem unless it’s what you’re watching at that moment!
As we move towards a more mobile technology lifestyle the use of home theater laptops will become even easier. Although traditional home theater computers might continue to be used by a select few, I see no future for them. Using your laptop to display video on a HDTV makes more sense. Using a laptop to play stored or online video carries little to no additional cost (so long as you plan to own a laptop anyway) but lets you obtain 90% of the functionality.