Below an article from Sydny Morning Herald. I was wondering if this Microsoft Windows XP Media Centre that the article talks about, and the software to record and tune to cable is accessible.
Let me entertain you By Valens Quinn October 22, 2005 There's a whole world of digital entertainment trying to get into your living room. By connecting a "media centre PC" to your TV and stereo, you could be just that little bit closer to living the Jetsons' lifestyle, with all sorts of digital content at your fingertips. Imagine setting up automatic recording of an entire season of 24 or Desperate Housewives with the press of a button, ready to watch once the kids are asleep. You could amaze your friends with a big-screen photo slideshow of a recent hiking trip to the Himalayas, complete with Wagner's Flight of the Valkyries trumpeting in the background. It would beat passing around a stack of 8cm x 10cm prints that just don't do the scenery justice. After a long day at work, you could select a movie from the latest selection of blockbusters, pay electronically and the movie starts playing on your TV a few minutes later - all without pulling on your uggies and heading to the video shop. You wouldn't have to remember to return the movie when you're finished, either. Music lovers can have their complete collections on tap, ready to play with a few clicks of the remote. No more hunting for that special song or stacking up CD cases. You can create customised music compilations and save them for parties, doing housework, or just dancing with the kids. To get started you don't need anything more than a specially equipped PC - called a media centre - and some easy-to-use software. Think of a media centre PC as a home central storage vault for holding and sharing anything digital, including photos, home videos and music. A media centre can also tune in TV signals and play CDs and DVDs. It can pretty much do the job of a VCR, DVD player, CD player, digital set-top box and surround-sound decoder. Then you get the added bonus that it can function like a normal PC too, so you can run your favourite programs, browse the internet and play games from your living room TV set. You could also put a media centre in your study and connect it to a conventional computer monitor and speakers, but this type of PC is much happier in your living room, where it can connect to a big-screen TV and stereo. The benefit is better sights and sounds, and the family doesn't have to crowd around a PC monitor to see your latest photos or watch a video. Media centre PCs come in different shapes and sizes, depending on the model you buy. Some are designed to match your existing AV equipment, with sleek gold or silver metallic front panels, while others look like normal desktop "tower" PCs. Popular models include HP's Media Centre m7088a, Optima's WorkPro S7 Media Centre PC, Toshiba's portable Qosmio G20, the Acer Aspire T630MCE or the Altechs Maestro Pro. Prices vary from $2400 for the HP without monitor to $3999 for the Acer. Whether you tuck it out of the way or position it front and centre, keep in mind that your box will need to be positioned close to your TV and stereo so the cables reach. Generally, media centres use the common S-Video and composite connections for conventional TVs, or a DVI interface for connecting to plasma and LCD types. For audio, you can run signals into your stereo or surround-sound amp, or plug in a set of PC speakers. Depending on what you choose, you'll need a mini-jack-to-RCA or a digital-audio adaptor cable. Of course, to get started you first need a media centre PC. These share most of the same innards as a regular computer, but need a special version of Microsoft Windows, called Microsoft Windows XP Media Centre Edition. This is almost the same as the normal version, only there's a special interface that serves as a one-stop shop for managing music, videos and photos, plus watching and recording TV. This interface is designed to be read from about three metres away, and is operated with a remote control. All PCs sold with Media Centre Edition come with a remote as standard, which is pretty easy to use with dedicated buttons for browsing stored TV and video, playing music, switching channels, setting the volume or returning to the main menu. When you turn on a media centre PC, you won't see the normal Windows desktop as it skips directly to Media Centre's main menu. If you want to enter the normal windows desktop, you can exit Media Centre's interface, but you'll need a keyboard and mouse to navigate regular Windows programs. Some media centre PCs come with wireless keyboards and mice for just this purpose. On the downside, you may not want a PC with keyboard and mouse cluttering up your lounge room. Or unsightly wires for that matter, either. And it may not be worth the extra money to buy a media centre PC - you have to be motivated enough to use its features - it takes some effort ripping CDs, managing your photo collection and programming TV recordings. There are other non-Microsoft solutions to consider too, such as the Asus W2V notebook ($4999) with built-in TV tuner ( www.asus.com.au) and MSI's Mega PC 865 Pro (from $1000). Mini mogul What's enticing about these clever boxes is that they can tune in and record digital TV, so you can watch shows on your schedule rather than the networks'. This is possible with the help of a built-in TV tuner card, which should be included as part of a new media centre PC purchase. There are a few different flavours of TV tuners, mainly analogue or digital, plus standard or high-definition (HD). Don't bother with an analogue tuner as these are largely outdated, and if you plan to have an HD TV, make sure you choose a tuner that supports HD. Also, some media centre PCs have a "dual" tuner option, which is actually two individual tuners that work together. With one of these babies installed, you can record one program while watching another. Whether you go for a single-standard definition tuner or the dual HD variety, both can "time-shift" TV, meaning a live broadcast can be paused and resumed later (the PC records the broadcast in the background). So the next time you want to catch the sports highlights, but the sauce is boiling, you can pause the action, tend to dinner, and pick up where you left off. A media centre PC can also play music via your stereo or PC speakers, and your entire CD collection can be copied to hard disk. A high-speed transfer feature commonly referred to as "ripping" takes care of the copying, and once finished, you can pack up your CDs and put them in storage. No more clutter or broken CD cases, and your music is at your fingertips. With an internet connection, CD track names and album covers can be downloaded to complete your collection, plus new music can be purchased (without the CD) from various online music stores. Managing your music collection is easy with search functions, or you could create a music jukebox by setting up customised playlists based on a music genre, album or artist. If you want to just listen to the radio, there are hundreds of local and international digital radio stations on the internet as well. Media Centre Edition also has built-in support for CD (and DVD) burning, so it's a snap to make a compilation and play it in your car stereo or at work. A media centre PC is also good for storing digital photo collections. It organises picture folders in one place, and it's simple to group favourites for featuring in slideshows. The software lets you set transition effects between photos, so they melt together, and you can pick an accompanying music track for your shows. Spread it around If your house has a wired or wireless network, your media collections can be shared with other devices. It's also possible to send music or video to a stereo or TV in another room with a "media extender". The Microsoft Xbox 360 console, for example, will be able to access files such as recorded TV shows or photos from a Media Centre PC over a home network, and they can be viewed on the TV connected to the Xbox. This means you can distribute your audio and video to any TV in your home, using an Xbox 360 as a base station. Other extender devices are also available, such as D-Link's DSM-320 ( www.dlink.com.au), only this doesn't extend the Media Centre interface, but still transfers videos and music to a TV or stereo. Whichever way you slice it, PCs will keep fighting their way into living rooms, and those set to be released in the coming year will be very different to the hulking beige boxes of old. Where's the TV guide? While it's great to be able to save TV shows onto your hard disk, scheduling a recording can be a bit of a pain. As it stands, you need to tell a media centre PC or digital set-top-box what channel to switch to, and when to start and stop the recording. The frustrating thing is that while Media Centre Edition and many digital set-top-boxes have Electronic Program Guide (EPG) facilities built-in, they're not used. Unfortunately, the free-to-air networks in Australia limit the release of programming information to the public. Only details about the show currently being aired and the one following are available. Using your PC as a personal video recorder (PVR) really only starts to become practical if you have an EPG containing a week or two's worth of programming information. You could then could simply check what's coming up, and pick the shows you want to watch with the click of a button. You wouldn't need to fuss with setting record start and stop times, or entering the channel or show title. Once the PVR automatically copies your programs, you could watch them when it suits you. Also, the best thing about a recorded TV show is fast-forwarding through commercial breaks. No wonder the free-to-air-networks aren't rushing to make EPGs available! It's possible to download an EPG for Media Centre Edition-equipped PCs from the internet, however, with the help of IceTV's IceGuide, or you can subscribe to Foxtel Digital's IQ service, which comes complete with an EPG and hard-disk set-top box for recording your favourite shows. Spoilt for choice A media centre PC can play all kinds of different video, whether it's free-to-air digital television, a DVD movie, home video, or something from the ever-intriguing world of the internet. With the help of a broadband connection you can download the latest movie trailers, watch those quirky foreign commercials that always seem to be circulating, or even subscribe to upcoming internet TV and video-on-demand services. While it's still early days yet, the idea here is that you'll be able to choose what you want to watch, whether it's a missed episode of Grey's Anatomy, or a recent movie, and watch it on your TV for a fee. There are also interactive services such as Online Spotlight, which work through the Windows XP Media Centre Edition interface. The first Australian service, Telstra BigPond's Game Arena, includes game-play options, reviews and news. An American Online Spotlight partner, Wavexpress TVTonic ( www.tvtonic.com), provides on-demand DVD-quality movies, videos and movie trailers. And it's not just video than can be viewed; websites can be enjoyed as well. For example, track the latest V8 Supercars rankings or stay abreast of your eBay auctions, all from the comfy couch. Infofile Apart from playing some pretty amazing games, Sony's PS3 looks set to share some media centre functionality. It will come equipped with a Blu-ray disc drive for playing HD movies on discs with better than DVD capacity, and it can connect to two HD TVs at once. The box can also act like a network hub, channelling internet video or music to other devices around the home. You'll have to wait for the PS3, however, as it's not due until late next year or even 2007. _______________________________________________ PC-Audio List Help, Guidelines, Archives and more... http://www.pc-audio.org To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] This list is a service of MosenExplosion.com. To see what other lists we offer, visit us on the web at http://www.MosenExplosion.com
