What makes a Media Center a Media Center ?

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So, what's so special about a "Media Center " PC ?

Maybe I'm on the wrong track, but when I envision a Media Center PC, I
envision something that could REPLACE my existing AV reciever and/or DVD
and CD players. And something that would have lots of input jacks for
external VCRs, tape decks, etc.

In other words, a box that would be a hybrid between an AV reciever and
a PC.

But aside for a box that Philips sold a few years back (which was too
weak on the PC side), That's not what I'm seeing when I look at what
Dell, etc are calling Media Center PCs, All I see are ordinary PCs that
have XP Media Center edition thrown in. And what's so special about that
?

Or am I missing something here ?


- FM -

 

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Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Fred Mau wrote:

> So, what's so special about a "Media Center " PC ?
>
> Maybe I'm on the wrong track, but when I envision a Media Center PC, I
> envision something that could REPLACE my existing AV reciever and/or DVD
> and CD players. And something that would have lots of input jacks for
> external VCRs, tape decks, etc.
>
> In other words, a box that would be a hybrid between an AV reciever and
> a PC.
>
> But aside for a box that Philips sold a few years back (which was too
> weak on the PC side), That's not what I'm seeing when I look at what
> Dell, etc are calling Media Center PCs, All I see are ordinary PCs that
> have XP Media Center edition thrown in. And what's so special about that
> ?
>
> Or am I missing something here ?
>
>
> - FM -
>
I'd say you have a fair definition of a media center PC. Personally, I
consider a media center PC as one that has the ability to connect to
both my TV & stereo reciever, store, stream, & play multimedia (games,
music, and movies), and can fit in my living room without looking odd.
I'm not so concerned with the specs of the system, as long as it can
serve such a purpose without lagging. Right now my modded XBox serves
this purpose quite well (I threw on a 160GB HDD & run XBMC); it may not
be MS's definition of a Media Center PC but it servers me quite well.