For this week’s installment of Old School Monday (but actually a Tuesday because of Labor Day) we’ve got a little HTPC Before-and-After. The After, of course, is our recent feature on how to build the ultimate 3D home theater PC. You should check out the article, but the long and the short of it is that we set up a beast of a system, able to play video in 3D, play and record up to 4 TV channels at once, and stream pretty much everything under the sun from the internet.
So what’s the Before? It’s this beauty, from The October 1996 issue of Boot (our predecessor):
In 1996, the idea of a living room PC was still on shaky footing. The article cites a survey that says half of adults would be interested in TV/PC hybrid, but as we know that market never quite materialized. High-end TVs are becoming more computer-like, with web-enabled overlays and widgets, but the real incursion of the computer into the living room is coming via PC-like consoles and inexpensive streaming boxes.
Still, it's an interesting bit of perspective, so check it out:
Comments are closed on this article
cynical
September 07, 2010 at 3:26pm
I inherited one of those old Gateway Destination systems from work (they used it for presentations before projectors were cheaper/popular). I wanted one so bad in 1996 but now in 2010, it's a 250lb 35" CRT monitor that only displays 800x600 resolution and I just want it out of my house.
Thoren
September 07, 2010 at 11:31am
"alos"... and I don't recall ever playing an online game with a Sega Saturn user from my PC...
lunchbox73
September 07, 2010 at 11:20am
Back in 1994 or so my roommate and I managed to hook his 486 up to our 27" TV. We played Doom on it and thought it was the greatest thing ever.
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