Shuttle XPC M1000 - HTPC Done Right?

Closing Thoughts

Reviewing a device like the M1000 is difficult, as there's far more to it than hardware performance and features. There are likely many people who will be absolutely satisfied with the capabilities of the M1000. If you want a great looking HTPC and you don't want to assemble the system yourself, this is the best offering that we've seen. The Pentium M processor provides for low heat and power requirements, the case is similar in size to most A/V equipment, and it has everything that you need from a single vendor. The roughly $2000 price is higher than even faster mid-range computers, but someone looking for a complete HTPC solution won't have many other options. The low power and heat design could easily be worth hundreds of dollars from an A/V perspective.

The problem is, someone looking for an expensive but capable HTPC probably has some other wants as well. HDTV compatibility is a major flaw in the design. Sure, you can watch DVDs without trouble, and you can even download movies from the Internet and watch them on your HTPC. The NVIDIA output, either through component or DVI to an HDTV, works great. The inability to record or view HDTV broadcasts on its own makes this, at best, a secondary A/V component for many people. If Shuttle could add cards with HDTV support as well as SDTV support in place of the current AverMedia cards, the HDTV recording would be better, but it still wouldn't be perfect. (We'd love to see a card with component-in connections, if someone would create such a card...)

In the end, there are several things holding back the HTPC market, and none of them are Shuttle's fault. The DMCA and similar legislation are definitely not helping the home user get the most out of their electronics. Content providers share the largest portion of the blame, as standards like cablecard were promised years ago and yet content providers are still "nervous". MPEG-2 compression would be far preferable to the MS format, but the potential for piracy is always cited as a reason for alternative formats. As a standalone device, the M1000 works well, but the shared video aspect had problems with streaming, and the video codec was less than ideal.

What we want in a fully-featured HTPC is the ability to record SD and HD content, and even better would be the compatibility with cable and satellite subscriptions. You can get all that for $10 a month from many providers, though other compromises are made in those systems. HDD size is never as large as what we would like, and networking support is generally omitted as well - likely to keep the content secured on the device. Shuttle has the right idea with the M1000 design, but unfortunately, it won't meet the demands of many Home Theater enthusiasts.

If there's anyone to fault for the problems with HTPCs, it's Hollywood, the MPAA, the RIAA, and the cable and satellite providers because while the ability to create our dream HTPC exists in theory, it can only be achieved with more cooperation among all of these parties. The hardware manufacturers would love to be able to sell new hardware that supports the necessary features, but those features are as yet undefined. This isn't the first or last time that we're likely to see casualties of the DMCA and content providers. Last we checked, CDs, DVDs, and movie theaters were all making money in spite of the "rampant piracy" occurring online. VCRs didn't kill off movie rentals or TV watching, CD and DVD burners haven't brought about the end of their respective markets, and there's little reason to think that HDTV and HTPCs would do any more than modify consumer patterns.