Harry Potter and the search for a true Media Center experience

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Using Windows Media Center: I'm not saying that such a device exists, but having a combination of media streamers, extenders and digital video recorders would be perfect. Having a box which allows you to stream all kinds of media from a shared folder on your PC over a wireless N network - very much like an extender, along with in-built TV capabilities which receives digital TV signals and directly to your television - like Apple TV, but also a unit which has storage enabling you to record live TV and store it on your extender-come-digital TV box - like a DVR.

You might want to think of a Windows Media Center PC as the place you set up your multimedia system, and an extender is a device which extends the experience to another screen inside your home. Therefore you could e.g. attach DVD / Bluray drives to your Windows Media Center PC, along with one or more TV tuners. You could even add internal hard drives, get a Windows Home Server, or merely add external hard drives to your PC, and extend your storage space up to several terabytes for your media. Once you are satisfied with the capabilities of your Windows Media Center PC, you can use an extender to extend the experience to other screens in your house.

Therefore you can do all the things you talked about above - accessing live TV via one or more tuners, recording TV shows, and have terabytes of media streamed to your screen. The above arrangement also has the advantage of allowing you to access Internet based content, which I believe will surge over the coming years. Therefore Windows Media Center is pretty nice technology - though the DRM aspects of it are a real pain.; Posted by: P. Douglas Posted on: 08/21/09 (Edited: 08/21/2009 @ 08:43) You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use