The increased availability of specialized devices, coupled with paid and free digital online content, now offers an alternative to multipurpose (and more costly) personal computers. Since 2007, digital media players and smart TV software has been incorporated into consumer electronics through software or hardware changes including video game consoles, Blu-ray players, networked media players, televisions, and set-top boxes. Enthusiasts can also piece together a system out of discrete components as part of a software-based HTPC. An HTPC can be purchased pre-configured with the required hardware and software needed to add video programming or music to the PC.

An HTPC system typically has a remote control and the software interface normally has a 10-foot (3 m) user interface design so that it can be comfortably viewed at typical television viewing distances. HTPC and other convergent devices integrate components of a home theater into a unit co-located with a home entertainment system. The term 'media center' also refers to specialized application software designed to run on standard personal computers. Since the mid-2000s, other types of consumer electronics, including game consoles and dedicated media devices, have crossed over to manage video and music content. A Mac Mini as a home theater PC showing Apple's discontinued Front Row interfaceĪ home theater PC ( HTPC) or media center computer is a convergent device that combines some or all the capabilities of a personal computer with a software application that focuses on video, photo, audio playback, and sometimes video recording functionality.

Plex media player