HTPC = Home Theater Personal Computer
you build a PC to be used as your home theater dvd player and a lot of other functions 
to the expert (jpadua), tama diba?
Yup that is correct! Here's a more in depth explanation.
(Home Theater Personal Computer)
What is an HTPC, to make the explanation simpler, and HTPC is basically a PC (personal computer) which has been custom built to play DVD at their highest quality. It can also work as a personal video recorder, and a media server. There are a lot of applications since the Personal Computer is highly customizable.
How do we market this idea? well most if not all new TVs coming out of the woodwork is already High Definition capable, these are TV's ranging from CRT, Plasama, Rear Projection, front Projecton and usually 16:9 widescreen Aspect Ratio. If you were in the market to invest in a new TV, the obvious choice is to buy a TV equipped with High Definition Capability. This is where technology will be going in terms of Home Entertainment. TV's without HD (high definition) will be out of date really soon. One thing that most consumers don't realize is that, HD TV's are made for High Definition Broadcasts. Buying an HDTV will get you the best picture quality. This is both True and False. True, the TV will give you the best quality you can feed through it, and False, we will not have High Definition Broadcast is limited more often than not unavailable in other countries.
Let me explain High Definition. HD is a new video standard, and is catching on in the US very quickly. In the US High Definition broadcast is present but not abundant, the reason for which is that TV networks need to upgrade all their systems to be able to broadcast in High Definition, I believe it has already been mandated in the US that all broadcasts should be able to be in High Defenition within the next 5 yrs. Ok what is high definition in the first place you may ask? There is a huge difference between Normal Definition and High Defenition, currently standard definition is 740x480 Interlaced. This is what we call the video resolution, 740 vertical lines and 480 horizontal lines, whith half the lines being show a split second at a time to show the complete picture. High Definition uses 16x9 Aspect Ration (widescreen) 1920x1080 interlaced, which is more than double the picture resolution. Sharper image, and more detail. Its almost like looking through a window. Almost like comparing wearing glasses and removing them. Its like night and day.
Where does the HTPC come into play? Well, an HTPC is what I call an alternative to a High Definition Video Scaler. A Video Scalers, is a line doubler, and upsamples regular video into High Defenition. This is what broadcast networks use to upscale their video to high definition broadcast. These video scalers would cost about $3,000 or higher. An HTPC would do the same plus more. Since there are no High Definition Broadcasts available in the philippines, not for a long time, the best quality content we can be able to attain is DVD. Unfortunately DVD is only 740x480 standard resolution and not High Definition. By using an HTPC with currently available DVDs we will be able finally create High Definition content! at the fraction of the cost of a video scaler, and is for home use, and since this is also a PC, be able to connect to the internet, surf the web, download email, play computer games, work on Documents and Spreadsheets, all from your Widescreen TV in the comfort of your own living room. In addition, its also Upgradable, so you're HTPC will never become obsolete, not in a very long time.
