HTPC or Media Server ?

[MetalHead84]

Over the past month I have download a couple of TV Show (my girlfriend is french, and good TV show in DVD are hard to find, so I download show that have already been played in france) and I have been playing them using the media server options of my ps3 and my xbox.
It seems there's some video that 1 console can read and the other no, or even both of them.
Now I have a receiver with the option to read files from my pc which I didn't test yet to see if it can run almost all files.

I also come across a couple of setup in the Community section, and I saw some people who have HTPC and found it cool the way it can manage all the files so I start reading about that.

My first question is, what will work best (video and sounds) between a media server and an HTPC?

For now I know I won't be able to make a really good HTPC with my desktop (video card only have a DVI out, and it's a motherboard sound card), but my laptop have an HDMI output, will it work well for a temporary HTPC with program like Media Portal ?