Over the last few weeks we’ve been talking about the logistics of achieving “digital convergence” with the much-ballyhooed Windows Media Center Edition PC (referred to by the acronym “MCE”, which we discovered last time really stands for “More Cables Everywhere”, or, “Managing Cables is Essential”). Lest you become discouraged by all these details, let’s go back and review the digital Nirvana you’re trying to attain with your MCE. Just for fun, we’ll start adding up some of the costs, to come up with an MCE/TCO – the Media Center Edition/Total Cost of Ownership. You’ll be surprised.

First, some assumptions. You already have either digital cable TV or a satellite dish bringing hundreds of channels of television, movies and radio into your home. MCE/TCO: at least $59/month. You already have a broadband internet connection (cable modem or DSL). MCE/TCO: $30/month. You already have a TV, even if it’s not the 50-inch digital flat-panel LCD plasma high-definition (ready) costs-more-than-your-first-car variety. MCE/TCO: $0.

But, not so fast. You decide you need that new TV, so you saunter down to your nearest appliance superstore, and find a great deal on (what turns out to be) last year’s model of flat-panel plasma TV. With their convenient payment plan, your new TV adds only $70/month (for the rest of your life).

Next, you need your new Windows MCE computer. While you can find one for $799 (a Gateway), that model doesn’t include the TV tuner, which is why you’re doing all this in the first place. The Gateway model with TV tuner included really starts at $1000, or a MCE/TCO of $40/month financed through Gateway. For those that wouldn’t touch a Gateway computer with a ten-foot mouse-cable-extension, I checked, and HP’s lowest price MCE offering starts at $1000. Incidentally, both these MCE PCs come with a paltry 160GB drive.

Now 160GB may seem huge by your old way of thinking, but you’re becoming digitally converged, so you’ll soon be thirsting for more space. Why? You’ll be using your MCE PC as a PVR (Personal Video Recorder). Are you sensing we’re also entering acronym Nirvana? Your new PVR will be so much more convenient than your old VCR, and, ASAP, you’ll have that 160GB filled up with CSI, NFL, T&A, etc.

Fortunately, the people who dreamed up all this stuff thought about multiple-TV-households and significant others with cable-phobia and greater decorating sense. Enter the Media Center Extender. Now, we can’t call the Media Center Extender “MCE”, because that acronym is already taken. Let’s call it “MCX” instead. Each MCX will increase your MCE/TCO by $299 USD.

The Media Center Extender is basically a set-top-box, with its own remote, that turns any TV in your house into a portal to your MCE PC. An MCX can be connected to the MCE PC either wirelessly (you’re gonna need a new 802.11g wireless router), or with Ethernet cable (faster, but there’s those pesky cables again). Either way, an MCX enables one user to watch a DVD (loaded into the MCE PC) on the TV in the Family Room, while another user listens to music on the MCE PC. Each MCE PC can handle up to five MCXs.

Whew. You can see that the dinero (a little Spanish lingo, there) is starting to add up. Oh, and don’t forget the $10 per month, on top of your broadband internet access cost, for MSN Premium. There you’ll find exclusive news, weather, sports information, streamed directly to your MCE PC. Of course, the “content” will be accompanied by 15 seconds of advertising at the beginning and end of each clip. Isn’t technology wonderful?

© 2004 Peter F. Zimowski