Media Center PCs:

The New Home Entertainment Center

By The Vann’s Editorial Team

The Rise Of Digital Entertainment

Let’s face it. The world of home entertainment has become an increasingly digital realm. Bulky VHS video tapes are quickly going the way of the eight-track tape and even CDs and DVDs are taking a back seat to new digital formats and the audio/video components that this shift is birthing. Of course, it’s unlikely that your favorite video store will soon shut its doors, and you won’t have to worry about your CD collection becoming a coaster collection for quite some time. However, if you’re considering upgrading your home entertainment system, it’s worth investigating some trends that are taking shape in the entertainment world. Today, there are more choices to make than ever before when thinking about breathing new life into your entertainment system. Products like TiVo and DVD recorders with hard disc drives for recording television programs are coming down in price, even as the technology gets better and easier to use.

With all of the options available today for digital-based entertainment, it may be a good exercise to take a look at the Media Center PCs that are on the market. It may seem curious to even consider a computer when investing in your home entertainment system. But with today’s rapid advancement of digital entertainment, it makes sense that computers, which have long held the upper hand when it comes to downloading music and video from the internet, become a major player in integrated digital entertainment.

People gobbled up personal computers as the enormous influence of the internet became impossible to deny. The digital entertainment capabilities of computers saw consumers spending hours downloading all of their music CDs to their hard drives. After all, it was much more convenient to scroll or search for a song than dig through piles of CDs and power up the old stereo system. It also made for easy transfer of music to portable audio players. As internet connections increased in speed, the PC made it handy to download music and even television shows from the growing number of providers. Nowadays, it seems that a majority of computers hitting the market are equipped with not only CD and DVD playing capabilities -- they are able to burn these formats as well. Monitors have gained in size and resolution, and modern connections allow consumers to send PC signals to televisions or through projectors.

So when looking at PC capabilities, what was missing that would keep the PC from driving your home entertainment network? You’d need a television tuner. And a way to record television programs. You’d also want quality processing to ensure visual quality when connected to your television. And of course, let’s not forget the remote control.

Enter the Media Center PC

With the help of Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition, there are now computers that will let you do everything other Windows XP PCs do, plus a whole lot more. Media Center lets you enjoy all of your digital entertainment -- music, photos, movies, TV, home videos, radio -- whether you’re sitting at your desk in front of your Windows PC or across the room on your couch with a remote control.

Stated simply, Media Center PCs allow you to enjoy digital entertainment on your PC or by hooking the computer up to a TV system. In addition to those more traditional PC capabilities, here are a few things that a Media Center PC will let you do:

Listen to music, either through a connection to your home audio system or through speakers attached to your computer. It’s simple to play a music CD, copy it to your library, burn a CD, create a playlist, and edit album details. Internet radio is also easy to integrate into your entertainment routine.

Browse, watch, and record television programs, even on multiple channels at the same time (both analog and over-the-air digital). Many new Media Center PCs include built-in television tuners as well as connections to hook into your TV and audio components. Your computer’s hard drive acts as a DVR (Digital Video Recorder), letting you pause live television and record and catalog favorite shows. There’s even a program guide like you’d expect with cable television.

Enjoy your digital photos by downloading your images from your digital camera. You can touch up, print, and burn photos to a CD. But in the home entertainment sense, it’s fun to create slideshows you can play on your television or through a projector when you have company. All your friends can watch your latest adventures at the same time on your TV instead of taking turns leafing through an album.

And here’s another good one. Connect your VCR to the Media Center PC and download all the footage to your hard drive. Now you have your video collection in digital format on your hard drive, where it’s ready to watch or be burned to a recordable DVD disc.

You’ll be happy to know that all of this functionality is brought together with an easy-to-use interface that bears resemblance to today’s cable and satellite television interfaces. The Media Center remote control keeps all the entertainment on your computer within easy reach. It’s a perfect complement to your keyboard and mouse, and is a sure sign that Media Center PCs are ready to let you entertain from the comfort of your favorite chair.

The future looks bright for Media Center PCs. Already there’s a Media Center Extender, which allows a second TV in your house to run on software via a wireless connection. Other great accessories are sure to hit the market in the months and years to come.

With all of these outstanding features (and then some), it’s not too hard to envision how a Media Center PC could bring together all of your entertainment options. Just think -- instead of having a separate receiver, DVD/CD player, digital video recorder and television tuner, you could have all of those available through your personal computer, the same machine that also lets you surf the Web, instant message with friends and family, and download music and even television shows from the Internet. Oh, and do all of that computing and work-related stuff, of course.