Media Center is software from Microsoft to display TV and other media on a PC. The software provides an interface designed to be viewed from a distance and controlled with a remote control handset. This type of device is sometimes referred to as a Home Theatre PC (HTPC). Media Center was first supplied as an OEM extension to Windows XP called Media Center Edition (MCE) and now Vista Home Premium and Vista Ultimate include a new version of Media Center (VMC). I will refer to MCE and VMC as MC for the remainer of this note.
MC functions much like a Personal Video Recorder (PVR) with a hard disk to record TV and buffer live TV to provide pause and rewind facilities. MC, however, is much more flexible than a PVR and supports many different types of media, including videos, photos and music.
So what is required to make an MC PC? In order to watch TV, a tuner card is needed and it is best to have two tuners so that one channel can be recorded whilst watching another. If your country supports it, I would install digital TV tuners (DVB-T). As an alternative, cable TV cards can be installed. Next you need a large screen to use as a TV and a good video card to drive it. Sound is also important and the best configuration is to use a sound card with an S/PDIF optical or coax digital output connected to a 5.1 multi-channel audio amplifier. Normally audio amplifiers include an AM/FM radio tuner but if you want radio in MC a ratio tuner card is needed (sometimes this is included with analogue TV cards but not the digital ones.
With this setup you have a MC that can be used to watch and record TV, including pausing live TV. You can watch DVDs (provided you have a DVD player in the PC). Music can be copied from CDs (ripped) to the MC and thereafter played. Photos can be copied to the MC and displayed (optionally accompanied by music). On top of this there are other features as standard and third party additions.
A really great feature of MC is the TV Electronic Program Guide (EPG) and this allows an on-screen display of what is showing and scheduled for each channel. To record a program you just select if and press the record button (twice to record the series). The EPG makes viewing and recording TV so easy. Unfortunately in Australia, where I live, the EPG is not provided by the TV broadcasters or by Microsoft, however it is possible to setup an EPG using IceTV or Free*EPG. More information on the Australian EPG and loads of good stuff on MC can be found at http://www.xpmediacentre.com.au. General information on MC is also at http://thegreenbutton.com. I download my own copy of an EPG from the Internet using a purpose written program and I may make this available at some stage.
So why isn’t everyone using Media Center? I think MC is a great product but I would be the first to admit that it is difficult to build and maintain. In Australia many people use Foxtel IQ for cable TV and that is much easier to use “out of the box” than MC. There is little marketing for MC and it needs good technical knowledge to keep MC operational.
I belive that for MC to catch on (in Australia at least) it needs a major supplier to sell a “ready to go” VMC PC, the EPG needs to be available to all and a serious marketing drive is required. Unless this happens, Media Center use will be retricted to a limited number of computer gurus.