ryBlog

While there are now a multitude of media center applications, I wanted to write a little something about the first one that caught my eye.

I first remember being hooked on the idea of a Media Center when I discovered a little known OEM-only edition of Windows XP, the ‘Media Center Edition’. 

Essentially, it’s an application designed to be run full screen on a television, and operated through a remote control. As such, it falls into the category of a ’10-foot user interface’.

The XP edition was somewhat tricky to install, a little unstable, and very fussy with drivers, but it had some really compelling features.

Working with your photos and videos was a breeze, and looked great on a TV, plus - add a TV tuner card, and suddenly your PC became a fully fledged PVR with features that rivalled even today’s Sky+ / Tivo boxes.

With the release of Windows Vista, Microsoft updated the Media Center interface, and bundled it with the Home Premium editions of the OS.

It was given a more refined and polished appearance, as well as being re-designed for HD and widescreen TVs, but unfortunately suffered from Vista’s random crashes and failures to wake and sleep properly to record shows.

With both versions of Media Center I eventually left disappointed with the stability, but kept an eye on the market as the concept itself still appealed to me.

Thankfully, Microsoft have put the disaster that was Vista behind them, with Windows 7. Again, the Media Center interface is bundled with Home Premium editions, and it suffers from none of the issues its predecessors did, making it a fantastic way to browse your media and watch TV.

Using a PC as your TV is easier than ever before now that there is hardware such as Acer’s Revo series - compact, silent-running desktops, that offer HDMI connectivity, and look right at home beside your television.

There are a number of YouTube videos that show off the capabilities of Windows Media Center, here is a good one to get you started: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsJ9Dwl4PkY

I decided to start a Tumblr blog so that I can start blogging again. I use Twitter a lot, but the character limit can be too restrictive for certain topics. So, here I am!

Probably won’t be very often at first, but we’ll see how it goes.