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OK, word from home is that my Dad has gone techno-mad and is looking at the possibility of a wired house with a computer for a TV (i.e. to control TV/audio/dvd/etc).
I've been having a look at the new Windows XP Media Center 2005 and the possibility of using the Media Center extenders in conjunction with it. It sounds like quite a powerful setup, but I don't know what other people think. The advantage of the extenders is that you can have a powerful computer with a big HDD in the study or wherever, and then a totally silent box networked to it in the living room to get TV streams, music, etc.
You can have up to 5 extenders running off one Media Center PC.
I've had a look at other alternatives such as XLobby and Meedio HTPC. Has anyone got any experience with any of these? At the moment, XP MCE looks like the best bet, though there are some downsides - namely that the TV recordings are stored in a unique format.
I've been having a look at the new Windows XP Media Center 2005 and the possibility of using the Media Center extenders in conjunction with it. It sounds like quite a powerful setup, but I don't know what other people think. The advantage of the extenders is that you can have a powerful computer with a big HDD in the study or wherever, and then a totally silent box networked to it in the living room to get TV streams, music, etc.
You can have up to 5 extenders running off one Media Center PC.
I've had a look at other alternatives such as XLobby and Meedio HTPC. Has anyone got any experience with any of these? At the moment, XP MCE looks like the best bet, though there are some downsides - namely that the TV recordings are stored in a unique format.
Lol - I've been looking at MCE alternatives and I still can't work out which is best...
Chad Niga wrote:
> Probably the best thing you could do is go to a big
> curry/dixons/whatever, and ask one of the tech support guys for their
> advice on what you will need to set it up.
The would probably look at him with a blank face before nervously shuffling towards the stockroom.
> Probably the best thing you could do is go to a big
> curry/dixons/whatever, and ask one of the tech support guys for their
> advice on what you will need to set it up.
The would probably look at him with a blank face before nervously shuffling towards the stockroom.
That's sounds like a well good setup, but also quite costly.
You've got to buy the computer, the network devices, the means to connect the network to the TV, and then a way to control it.
Plus, to get the best result from it, you'll be needing a surround sound system.
Cost is going to be a big issue, but Windows MCE is built for this. So it'll interact and work the way you want it.
Probably the best thing you could do is go to a big curry/dixons/whatever, and ask one of the tech support guys for their advice on what you will need to set it up.
You've got to buy the computer, the network devices, the means to connect the network to the TV, and then a way to control it.
Plus, to get the best result from it, you'll be needing a surround sound system.
Cost is going to be a big issue, but Windows MCE is built for this. So it'll interact and work the way you want it.
Probably the best thing you could do is go to a big curry/dixons/whatever, and ask one of the tech support guys for their advice on what you will need to set it up.
I got a demonstration in a showroom of one of these. Included projector and all the other stuff, quite nice.
I dont have any experience with them but i did see that sort of thing on QVC, it had a computer actually built into the tv and you had a touch screen remote control to operate all the functions, it had all the usual ports and things so you could hook it up to your broadband and what have you, and of course it had PVR functions. Quite pricey if i remember though.
OK, word from home is that my Dad has gone techno-mad and is looking at the possibility of a wired house with a computer for a TV (i.e. to control TV/audio/dvd/etc).
I've been having a look at the new Windows XP Media Center 2005 and the possibility of using the Media Center extenders in conjunction with it. It sounds like quite a powerful setup, but I don't know what other people think. The advantage of the extenders is that you can have a powerful computer with a big HDD in the study or wherever, and then a totally silent box networked to it in the living room to get TV streams, music, etc.
You can have up to 5 extenders running off one Media Center PC.
I've had a look at other alternatives such as XLobby and Meedio HTPC. Has anyone got any experience with any of these? At the moment, XP MCE looks like the best bet, though there are some downsides - namely that the TV recordings are stored in a unique format.
I've been having a look at the new Windows XP Media Center 2005 and the possibility of using the Media Center extenders in conjunction with it. It sounds like quite a powerful setup, but I don't know what other people think. The advantage of the extenders is that you can have a powerful computer with a big HDD in the study or wherever, and then a totally silent box networked to it in the living room to get TV streams, music, etc.
You can have up to 5 extenders running off one Media Center PC.
I've had a look at other alternatives such as XLobby and Meedio HTPC. Has anyone got any experience with any of these? At the moment, XP MCE looks like the best bet, though there are some downsides - namely that the TV recordings are stored in a unique format.