TWRoO said:
I agree with you that this is a rather silly thread (especially the controls part and the price part) but unless you have some dedicated gaming room a lot of the things you reccomend about connecting PC to TV are highly impractical.... IF I had a gaming room or at least had the space around the TV in our living room, I would first need 2 PCs because I don't wish to work/browse in my living room. Then I would need some kind of awkward work around to use a mouse on my couch. Then I would be annoyed because I don't have a HD tv.
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If you don't own a HDTV, there isn't much point in connecting your PC to your tv. In your case a console is a much better option (or stick to playing on a monitor).
That said, having a PC connected to a HDTV is fairly common among techies. Media Centres are becoming much more common and while they tend to be smaller form factor (and usually less powerful, but that is more due to keeping them quiet and energy efficent) than most peoples gaming rigs, you can still get away with a decent amount on them these days. Pretty much every setup I've seen has just been in the "tv room" (for a more generic term) and isn't a dedicated gaming room. PC gamers with gaming rooms tend to actually be the opposite and have elaborate non-TV related setups (30" monitors support much higher resolutions, as do multiple monitors).
Within my gaming circles, pretty much everyone I know who is a PC gamer and owns a HDTV, has their PC connected to their TV. Now my social circle consists largely of technically minded people and while it may not represent the population in general, given the "higher" entry level for PC gaming to begin with and the fact that most PC gamers are somewhat technically minded, I feel it's a decent representation of a notable portion of PC gamers.
The issue of wanting two PC is definitely a factor, but some people I know either have cables set up ready to move the PC in for gaming (not as practical, but only a few minutes work to get ready), or they choose a laptop for gaming which makes it simple to get connected to a TV (in my father's case, this is how he runs HD movies). I'll agree that neither of these are the greatest solutions, but they can be decent work arounds. From another angle, is there really a difference between having a work PC and a gaming PC, or a work PC and a console?
The "issues" with the mouse are solvable too. I'm as lasy as they can get, so I just stack some cushions and use that for resting my arm and mouse on (and I find this more comfortable than working at a desk!), but other people use tables (or the arm of the couch), some people use trackballs, or I was talking to someone the other day that uses a wiimote type solution (in fact, a wiimote is a solution too). Obviously some of these are less effective for certain types of gaming, but I'm yet to meet someone who has gone down this path and given up because they couldn't use a mouse (or equivilent). And as mentioned numerous times before, game controllers also work, so depending on what you play, a mouse may not be of any major importance.
Now while it isn't as nice as a console to set up, I can't see anything that makes connecting a pc to a tv "highly impractical". There may be some issues with certain people's situations, but in general, I don't see it as being impractical. Perhaps shio has mentioned something in the past that I have overlooked, but there isn't anything that a bit of extra time and additional expense won't fix.
Of course, I think the whole argument about connecting PCs to TVs is stupid. Consoles (and most likely everything else electronic under your tv for that matter) are gradually converging with PCs, in particular, media PCs as the PS3/360 can already do streaming video, online chat, web browsing, etc... If they weren't as restrictive and supported "PC gaming" inputs (some games/applications already do), you'd already have an equivilent to a gaming PC under your tv anyway, and obviously no one complains about connecting those to TVs.
I won't disagree with you on cost. In fact, I'll agree completely. PC gaming is generally more expensive (at least for entry, and you'll usually need to upgrade the video card once within the same time as the lifetime of a console, especially to keep enjoying the graphics benifits) than console gaming but you also get more out of a PC. Lets face it, most hobbies are expensive, especially for those who are serious about them (or are willing to spend more on them). For those who want to dismiss PC gaming, that's fine, let them be, but for those gamers who want a bit of everything, a gaming PC is another gaming machine required in the line up to be able to play all the best games.
