PC
has entered the living room for sure. Ultimate symbol of this is visible in
Microsoft’s creation of the XP media Centre edition exclusively for the
purpose.
Special
high capacity PCs
Did you know that there are special PCs
which are made for the home specially for entertainment purposes with high
capacity components and add on hardware? these new genre is called media
centre PCs. currently HP, Dell and only handful of others are making these
PCs (Hardware of it).
Specifications of a HP media center PC
- See how high capacity and selected components have been used.
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Intel Pentium 4 560 (3.6 GHz).
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1GB DDR 400 SDRAM,
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250GB SATA hard drive,
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160GB Personal Media removable drive,
(Tivo and replay TVs biggest problem is lack of enough storage)
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ATI Radeon X600 graphics,
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DVD+RW drive, DVD-ROM drive,
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Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS
sound card,
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Klipsch ProMedia THX 5.1 speakers,
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Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004.
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First make it your home audio
player.
Already for some years people have been storing their favorite MP3 music and video in the PC and watching or hearing
it out of it by connecting high quality monitors and sound system to the PC. Media centre edition of windows XP has many advanced
features to showcase.
Even if it is not for the XP media centre edition, simply making the
PC your home audio player is highly entertaining. At the click of a mouse
you can play your favorite songs if a high quality sound card is attached to
a HiFi speaker system like the one from
Altec Lansing or
Klipsch. In any case, PC has entered the living room for sure.
Media Centre is also a PVR.
XP media center is definitely the most easy to use
method for PVR (Personal Video Recorder).
PVR is a device like a VCR (Video
Cassette Recorder) but records television
data in digital format as opposed to the analogue format of the Video
Cassette recorder. PVRs store the data in hard drive.
PVRs have all of the same functionality
of VCRs (recording, playback, fast forwarding, rewinding, pausing) plus the
ability to instantly jump to any part of the program without having to
rewind or fast forward the data stream. Two common PVR systems are
TiVo
(which is a celebration in the western countries already) and
Replay TV. PVR
is also known as DVR ( Digital video Recorder) also.
More about the XP Media Centre:
Windows XP Media Center
Edition 2005,1 available pre-installed on Media Center PCs, allows you to
get the most out of digital entertainment in a simple, connected way in any
room in the home. Photos, music, television, movies, and games—you can
experience them all to the fullest, while easily controlling everything from
one place.
Media Center PCs deliver advanced computing plus easy-to-use integrated
digital entertainment that you can enjoy when and how you want. All your
digital media is in one place, accessible on either a PC monitor or TV
display, using a single remote control. With Media Center, you can pause and
rewind live TV or radio, digitally record an entire TV series or program
category, watch DVDs and videos, organize and play your music collection,
and showcase digital photos.
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