hd streaming pc or roku or streaming bd player


for that matter xbox playstation mac tv are also in the running though I have ruled out as being above 200 bucks. My goals are to have a nice way of streaming high def netflix and I do have a pandora accont which I enjoy)
well one can get the roku hd for 120 bucks, and inexpensive cable set for another 20. samsung and sony and others have blue ray players with wired and wireless streaming (of netflix, and other hd providers (pandora in samsungs case as well) for 200 bucks or so. The roku which I know little about the Roku bu is the best deal on paper, no blue ray player. the streaming bd players are a bit more, especially when you add in crazy long run cable pricing and then there is this nice core duo pc I have with a soundblaster 5.1 digital audio card and a nice video card with dvi out......Hmmmm a I already own it it would be free. to upgrade to a blue ray player or burner would be 80-200 for the drive, but this could hold off, and I know there are all kinds of compiancy issues to make this work well and it is most likely not cost effective One could need a drive sound card video card and perhaps even a new OS. unfortunately my very nice sony cineza lcd projector is 1080i not 1080p . from my understanding dvi and hdmi provide the same signal. My vid card has just the dvi and my projector hdmi for digital video. so I'll need a converter dealybopper, about 15 bucks. My harman kardon reciever will do 7.1 audio but no hdmi input for sound, my sound card just 5.1 and that is indeed what I use: 5 channel surround and my subwoofer. I can use either digital optical or "wired". I guess the question is would the pc never live up to these other more dedicted streaming devices. hey I know there would be no remote, yuk. Not willing to pay more than 2 bills to be setup.
Want very good or good enough, like the rest of my gear. Harmon Kardon avr 320 wharfedale modus 8 and other pretty well matched wharfdale surround speakers plus perhaps oversized sw10 subwoofer and sony cineza vpl-hs60 1080i projector will be involved in this home theater. currently I have a upscaling sony hdmi out dvd player...that works quite well. Never played a blue ray disk, looking forward to it. I know one thing I dont want to get stuck having to buy a hdmi sound to other digital out to use my reciever: careful to see your player has other digital outs these are like 100 bucks or a new reciever.
wyocoyote
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.
Here's a couple of screen shots taken with a cheap 5 mega pixel camera of the media browser on my projection screen during the day.

Cars Media Browser menu

Inglorious Basterds Media Browser menu

The last pic is a night shot of the blu ray movie " The Island", ripped to 720P playing from one of my hard drives.
Keep in mind the camera is displaying no where near the clarity and vividness you'd see in person. I'd say less than 50% of what you'd see in person.

The Island 720P.
Well back to this old thread:
I had a nice htpc setup and it worked wll, much like Gmood1 set up!
I have chosen to streamline my entertainment center: I now use my Dell Laptop E6500. It has solid state hard drives so is quiet as a mouse.
After much hemming and hawing I purchased the display port to HDMI adapter ( its cheap but Dell had no literature indicating it could carry audio as well as video. It does!!!!
and through my Onkyo tx sr604 and to my sony vpl vh-1 projector now both the sound and video are better than ever.
I still have no blue ray player, mostly streaming netflix I know not all of which is HD. I'm stoked.
Will begin another thread: why doesnt my ipad2 plus adapter work in a similar setup.