HTPC

HTPC is the acronym for Home Theater Personal Computer, which can be translated as Home Theater Personal Computer.

The HTPC is designed to offer multimedia entertainment in the living room. This requires several adaptations to the typical desktop computer:

• It must be quiet.
• It must have a more proper housing of appliance than personal computer/personal computer, or at least pass unnoticed.
• No keyboard or mouse/raton (at least permanently).
• It has an infrared or radio frequency remote control.
• You can have a small LCD screen to display basic information.
• He usually has a television capture card.
• Digital sound 5.1 or 7.1.
• You must have native support for the reproduction of high-definition content, such as 720p or 1080p. The most widely used extension within a HTPC is MKV Matroska followed by MP4 and WebM.

For these reasons they are usually small computers: barebones or computers with mini-ITX or micro-ATX motherboards.

There is a multitude of multimedia software for these devices, which generally fulfill these functions:

• Library and music player (CD, MP3, etc.).
• Video player, DVD and Blu-ray.
• Photo album viewer.
• Recording of television programmes

Other auxiliary functions are:

• Video games launcher, usually video console emulators.
• Web browser.