Media Center Redux
(Or Thinking Outside the Box)

As we've mentioned in the past, one of the areas we have been following is something we like to call the "Home Enterprise", and a particular aspect of it, the 'media center'. The concept of media centers covers a lot of territory. Like any 'buzz word' a lot of companies apply it to anything they feel even vaguely fits the definition. And, since there is no formal definition, that leaves a lot of room for interpretation.

To us a media center is just what the words imply. A center for your media. This can be music, video, images, television broadcasts or any other form of media. It can be business or entertainment, broadcast or recorded. Not all companies subscribe to this definition. There are companies that produce devices solely for the purpose of allowing you to play your MP3 files anywhere in the house and call the device a media center. Well, it's a center for one medium anyway.

A true media center, and where the future of the product group lies, is a central repository for all forms of digital interest and entertainment. It stores your pictures, your music, your home movies, acts as a PVR (Personal Video Recorder) and much more. It can allow you to do all the functions you would normally do on a PC, surf the Internet or focus on high audio fidelity and video reproduction. And, with the right accessories, it can control the heat, lights and even make your coffee in the morning.

Over a year ago we contacted the folks at Microsoft and asked them about the availability of their Media Center O/S. It was explained to us that the requirements of the system were very complex and that we should contact one of the handful of manufacturers that were currently producing a working unit. This immediately raised red flags as to the viability of the O/S and the product group. Instinct said it shouldn't be that hard, and common sense said that with so many requirements and restrictions, sales, competition and consumer acceptance would be less than stellar. Fortunately that situation was rectified when Microsoft released their Media Center 2005 in a more widely available OEM version. More on that later.

It was also apparent that alternate approaches should be available. We set out to approach the issue from the 'enthusiasts' perspective and see what could be accomplished.

Good News & Good News

We began our project by asking what kind of budget would the average person or business put on a project like this and what could they accomplish? We are not going to list products by price here but suffice it to say we agreed that staying under $2000 was an absolute requirement and the closer to $1500 the better. On some things there was room for discussion and compromise, on others we were far more particular. The purpose was to configure a system that would meet the general requirements we set out in our definition and be available to the average IT manager or PC enthusiast.

The Beauty is the Beast

Let's start with the chassis itself. There are many who feel that a PC case is a case, is a case. Not the case here. A media center is going to be pretty much an 'ON' all the time device. Therefore you want to make sure it is sufficiently powered, well ventilated, easy to service and most importantly, quiet.

We chose the Sonata enclosure from Antec and could not be happier with the selection. This is a truly superior case that is amazingly Quiet (yes, with a capital Q). If it wasn't for the soft blue front lighting, we would not have any idea a computer was on in the room. This is important for several reasons. First, if you're trying to watch a TV broadcast you don't want the constant droning of a PC in your ear. Secondly, and in the same vein, if you are at all an audio buff, the last thing you want is the white noise of a fan blocking the sounds of your stereo (or surround) system.

The heart of the beast is an Asus AV8 deluxe motherboard powered with an AMD Athlon 64 3800+ CPU along with a gigabyte of Corsair memory.

OK, it's a little high end, but not by much. We wanted top performance for video recording and replication and this was a realistically affordable option. The performance is excellent and even various video rendering tasks are handled quickly and effortlessly.

Given our expensive taste on the system core and case, we eased off a little on the other components. Video is an Nvidia 5200 series with 128MB of RAM and storage is an off the shelf 80GB 7200 RPM drive. We employed 2 different DVD drives. The primary is an internal Pioneer 8X DVD +R/-R drive This drive does an excellent job of handling the media and recording tasks we throw at it. The second is a 'super' drive from Panasonic that is also capable of handling DVD-RAM which we hope to use for on the fly editing, but that will be discussed another time.

Video tuners and converters posed a whole different issue. Numerous manufactures such as ATI, Hauppauge and Nvidia, to name but a few, have offerings in this category. They vary from the most basic of tuning capabilities through whole theatre experiences. We've started off with one from AverMedia the Ultra TV PCI 350. This unit comes with it's own remote control and IR receiver along with a whole host of software and capabilities.

All of this was done on the Windows 2000 platform. Not XP? you ask. This was begun before the XP service pack was released, and given that we were considering both business and consumer uses, Windows 2000 is still the more common environment. But that brings us to the second piece of good news.

Media Center XP 2005

Microsoft has released a new OEM version of the operating system to numerous manufacturers who, by incorporating devices from an extensive list of pre-tested items, can now configure and market a Media Center device. This means that everyone from AOpen to Shuttle will be marketing pieces soon.

What this means to the buying public is more choices and competitive pricing. They have added extensive new features and cleaned up numerous little annoyances like adding a new screen font that is easier to read from across the room. For a detailed look at all the new bells and whistles check out this link to Microsoft Media Center 2005.

Quick Summary

Everything hooked up easily enough. We used the software that came bundled with the various items we mentioned and we dabbled with some Media Center alternatives such as the suite from Meedio with mixed results. Most importantly it showed that there are numerous options now available for the dabbler, enthusiast or hard-core video 'producer' to turn their PC into a capable Media Center.

We are heading out to CES (Consumer Electronics Show) and will pay particular attention to the developments in both hardware and software in this space. We are looking forward to all the new innovations and improvements that will be on display. More on this exciting product group in the months to come.

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