BYTE.com > The Upgrade Advisor > 2003
The Windows Media Center PC
By Andy Patrizio
January 20, 2003
(The Windows Media Center PC
: Page 1 of 1 )
HP's Windows Media Center PC is a
specially-designed desktop system
with Microsoft's Windows XP Media Center Edition software. The Media Center
Edition is a customized version of Windows XP Professional with extra software
for audio and video management. This includes management of your music library
as well as watching, recording, and storing video content.
This is hardly new to anyone who has followed PCs for more than a few
years. Remember Gateway's Destination systems? It didn't set the world on fire,
although people who did buy it loved the monitor. But by and large, people tend
to keep their PC and entertainment center separate.
That's what I had to keep in mind in reviewing this system. I've got a
rather extensive home theater that cost me beau coup bucks, and no matter how
nice the Klipsch speakers sound, they don't compare to the Polk Audio/Infinity
setup that I have strung around the living room, and no monitor can top my
32-inch television.
Microsoft knows this too. That's why it isn't positioning this system like
the Destination, as a combined PC/home entertainment system. Microsoft isn't
selling the Media Center PC to people like me. Rather, it's for people with a
small apartment, or perhaps college students, who may not have the room for a
home-theater system.
It's not a software upgrade, either. Because it requires so much integrated
hardware, notably the TV decoder, Microsoft decided for the time being not
to leave it up to consumers to buy the software and hardware and upgrade their
own systems. Smart move. It would probably turn into a tech support disaster if
the company left it to people to do their own upgrades.
The HP Windows Media Center, model number PC 873n, is one of the
first units on the market, although Alienware and Gateway have also jumped into
the fray with comparable products. Different vendors will have different
configurations. In the case of the HP unit, it's designed for casual users.
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BYTE.com > The Upgrade Advisor > 2003
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