Ah, the “golden age” of digital convergence is upon us. Your computer, your television, and your broadband internet connection, integrated to become the portal to, and repository for, all your digital media needs. Although the concept sounds great on paper, setting it up to work within the space and layout constraints of your home requires some careful planning. Again, you have three configuration “scenarios”: computer and TV in the same room; computer and TV in different rooms connected by cables; and, computer and TV in different rooms connected wirelessly. We ended last time beginning a discussion of the various components of the Media Center system, and how they’re used in each scenario.

The computer. As I mentioned last time, you’re gonna need a new one. Here’s why. As of right now, you can’t buy the Windows XP Media Center Edition (MCE) software as an add-on to a basic installation of Windows XP on your present PC. Your old PC may not have the hardware needed for the MCE as well. For example, manipulating digital media, be it photo, video, or audio, requires as much RAM and processing power as you can muster, as well as far greater amounts of hard drive space than the 60 or 80 GB installed on most consumer PCs a few years ago. And, since your MCE computer will also serve as a Personal Video Recorder, more hard drive space equals more minutes of video you can store before having to burn it to DVD. The new MCE PC’s have lots of memory, speed, and storage space.

MCE PCs also come with TV tuners installed, some with dual tuners so you can watch one channel while recording another. Plus, depending on your setup, your MCE computer may need to provide the video signal to both your computer monitor and your TV. Your old computer most likely doesn’t have a video card with this capability.

Because the MCE PC is also a full-featured “conventional” PC that can also handle more “mundane” computing tasks like Quicken, writing letters and reports, etc., you’ll also have to consider where your printer(s) will be located. Since you’re going to want to share your photo and video masterpieces over the internet, as well as web surf, email, chat, etc., you’ll need to consider the placement of the computer in relation to either phone or cable modem lines.

Oh, and since your TV signal will be going directly into the computer first (to be recorded, or displayed on the computer monitor or TV), your cable or dish TV connection will have to “reach” the computer as well. Then, of course, you’ll need a cable to reach from the MCE computer to your TV. And that’s just the video signal. Throw in the cables to the six speakers (including that space-saving subwoofer) required by that surround sound stereo system you bought to bring the T-Rex of “Jurassic Park” into your living room, and you can see that we’re talking cables, cables, cables. Maybe MCE really stands for “More Cables Everywhere”.

If your TV and computer are in the same room, keeping cables organized and out of the way will be challenge enough. But what if your home “aesthetics manager” says “No way!” to putting the computer in the family room? More cables, probably longer cables, which will degrade the audio/video/data signal, as, in layman’s terms, the electrons get tired if they have to go a long distance.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could get rid of some of those cables? You can. More next time.

© 2004 Peter F. Zimowski