Phat Matt (his real name?) has put together a great list of Windows XP Media Center 2005 links in a Wiki at:
Phat Matt's MCE 2005 Wiki
Lots of great links to blogs, reviews, plugins, accessories, and more. I'll be adding a link tonight.
I am obviously missing the joke, but his site is "Fear the Pie." British humor, I presume?
I just bought a HP 1170N Media Center PC at Circuit City. Why not get a Gateway? They didn't offer any 2005 Media Centers on their Web site (only through Best Buy) and the one model was too pricey for my budget. Dell? Too pricey (at the time I bought it). Tiger Direct? No 2005 versions available at the time. I also have quite a few HP products, including an iPaq, printer, digital camera, and a couple of old HP PC's. I've been really happy with all of the products, so I felt comfortable buying from HP.
My budget was about $1,000 and I desperately needed a new computer. We have taken more than 11,500 family photos, filled dozens of video tapes, and I wanted to be able to record and watch TV on my schedule. I was going to get a TiVo and another PC, but the Media Center made more sense. I priced out a HP computer with similar specifications, and it was nearly the same price.
The 1170n wound up costing $1,168.99 (after a $50 rebate). The features are better than I expected from a machine at this price:
Pentium 4 3.0GHz processor with Hyper-Threading
1MB Second Level Cache
512MB DDR SDRAM (can handle up to 4GB)
200GB Serial ATA
Radeon X3100 SE PCI-E graphics with 128MB DDR RAM
Dual-layer DVD +/- RW Drive
6 USB 2.0 and 2 Firewire ports
9-in-1 memory reader
So far I'm very happy and almost impressed with the product.
I had the pleasure of meeting Sean Alexander, a product manager for the Media Center, at the Digital Life show in NYC. He's one of the reasons I bought a Media Center PC and started this blog. When I saw all of the ways I could work with digital files on my home network, I was sold. I was thinking of spending $350 for a TiVo or around $1,000 for Media Center PC, and the features of the Microsoft product (DVD burning, photo organization, extenders, and more) convinced me that I should get the Media Center. It didn't hurt that I needed a new computer, too.
Sean has setup a blog about the Media Center and related products, Addicted to Digital Media, and I've been subscribed for a while now. I can't believe that Microsoft encourages the people behind the products to communicate on this level. Highly recommended reading if you have or are thinking about getting a Media Center PC.
I started this blog to document my discoveries as I learned more about Windows XP Media Center 2005 Edition. I also run a similar site that explores the DVD-by-mail rental business, HackingNetflix.com.
Feel free to contact me or post to this blog if you want to join the discussion.
- Mike
11/21/2004
