Yes a PC can live up to and surpass any of the devices you've mentioned.
You say no remote? Do you mean for your home-theater PC? There are plenty of remotes designed for this, some quite inexpensive.
How about use your digital output of your PC into the receiver? You could in the future if you want to upgrade the sound card with 7.1 outputs. Or you could in the future upgrade the video card to true HDMI output.
I use my HTPC this way. I stream everything in. I have two 1 TB external drives that I store movies and music on.
You can do the Blu ray drive as cheap as 60 bucks and use what you have. You could always rip the Blu rays and DVDs to HD and use MS Media center along with the Media Browser plug in to catalog them for easy retrieval.
Netflix is already in the Media center's User Interface. It allows you to watch and choose movies directly through the Media center without having to go directly to the Netflix site.
Watching Blu rays off hard drive ripped to 720P looks terrific! I doubt you'd see much of a difference this way verses going with a stand alone player. Matter of fact , I think the Blu rays look better when run directly from HD instead of using a Disc reader for playback. I know they load much faster!
Check out the screen shots of the Media Browser in the gallery . It is customizable and the best part is it is FREE!!!
I have yet to have a person over that wasn't speechless at how very cool this looks on a 120 inch screen! Most don't know its a computer unless I tell them. lol
Media Browser.
Another option for you is a WD HD TV live....its not going to be as customizable as the PC. But it might be all you need.
You say no remote? Do you mean for your home-theater PC? There are plenty of remotes designed for this, some quite inexpensive.
How about use your digital output of your PC into the receiver? You could in the future if you want to upgrade the sound card with 7.1 outputs. Or you could in the future upgrade the video card to true HDMI output.
I use my HTPC this way. I stream everything in. I have two 1 TB external drives that I store movies and music on.
You can do the Blu ray drive as cheap as 60 bucks and use what you have. You could always rip the Blu rays and DVDs to HD and use MS Media center along with the Media Browser plug in to catalog them for easy retrieval.
Netflix is already in the Media center's User Interface. It allows you to watch and choose movies directly through the Media center without having to go directly to the Netflix site.
Watching Blu rays off hard drive ripped to 720P looks terrific! I doubt you'd see much of a difference this way verses going with a stand alone player. Matter of fact , I think the Blu rays look better when run directly from HD instead of using a Disc reader for playback. I know they load much faster!
Check out the screen shots of the Media Browser in the gallery . It is customizable and the best part is it is FREE!!!
I have yet to have a person over that wasn't speechless at how very cool this looks on a 120 inch screen! Most don't know its a computer unless I tell them. lol
Media Browser.
Another option for you is a WD HD TV live....its not going to be as customizable as the PC. But it might be all you need.