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Anchordesk's David Coursey writes, "From the Media Center app, and using either the keyboard and mouse or the remote control, you can use My TV, My Pictures, My Music, My Videos, or Play DVD. All these apps do pretty much what you'd expect them to, and the user interface is quite nice, especially when used from 10 feet away.... The image quality is pretty good but not exceptional--something Microsoft is working to improve." The Wall Street Journal's Walter S. Mossberg writes that the new Hewlett-Packard WinXP Media Center PC has "a couple of big downsides that may limit its appeal, especially as a replacement for a conventional television set.... [The] Media Center PC is done in by its TV function. The TV picture it produces is fuzzy and dark, even on the $750 flat-panel monitor [Hewlett-Packard] supplied me. Microsoft ... suggests that users can improve the TV picture by upgrading the video card or hooking up a standard TV to the computer, but these steps would totally defeat the purpose of buying the costly [$1400-$2000 without monitor] Media Center in the first place.Secondly, if the Media Center is meant to serve as the shared TV in a room with roommates, it could be a bust. When one of the roommates needs to use the PC to write a paper, or do e-mail, it's unavailable as a TV for the rest of the group. The small TV window you can run while doing other things is useless for group viewing. A cheap TV set would be better." As well as reading the complete WSJ article, you can also click here to check out HP's official info on the HP WinXP Media Center PC including a picture of a couple who are apparently watching a tiny picture-in-picture TV in the lower left-hand corner on a 17-inch PC monitor. PC World reports that there are some limits to the new Windows XP Media Center PCs: "There are limits to the magic. Recorded TV shows are locked on the disk: You can't copy them to a VCR or easily skip past commercials or avoid recording them. And while HP's new PC is expected to ship before Christmas, Microsoft won't sell the OS separately...." So, if you want the new WinXP MCE then you will have to buy a whole new PC from Hewlett-Packard (HP). Apparently, the blocking of off-the-shelf sales of WinXP MCE as a standalone product must have been influenced by important Hollywood digital rights concerns and issues. (Oh well, so that means Ruel isn't getting WinXP MCE for his current homebrew PC-TV system in time for Xmas....) If you want to build your own PC-TV using your existing PC, without having to wait for WinXP MCE (and without having to buy a whole new PC from HP), then go visit the PC-TV section here at Ruel.Net. The Washington Post quotes Microsoft Windows eHome Division vice president Michael Toutonghi as stating, "We got a lot of customer, partner and analyst feedback. People felt we took an overly conservative approach." The Washington Post goes on to report that Windows XP Media Center Edition will nonetheless "still come with some copy-prevention measures built in, however, in the form of a broadcasting standard called CGMS/A, short for copy-guard management system/analog. Though this standard is relatively unknown, it could be used by broadcasters who do not want viewers to make copies of shows as they are aired." If you want Windows XP Media Center Edition (WinXP MCE), you will have to buy a new PC from Hewlett-Packard. Microsoft apparently doesn't have plans to sell WinXP MCE off the shelf to consumers who want to install WinXP MCE on their existing PCs. PC World reports, "There are limits to the magic. Recorded TV shows are locked on the disk: You can't copy them to a VCR or easily skip past commercials or avoid recording them. And while HP's new PC is expected to ship before Christmas, Microsoft won't sell the OS separately...." Anchordesk's David Coursey writes, "In Microsoft's case, that means the company screwed up - again - on a consumer-rights issue. And now it's retreated - again.... When the company decided to add a personal video recorder to its new Media Center PC design, it designed the PVR so that content could only be viewed on the PC that recorded it. Which meant, for example, that you couldn't record a TV show, copy it onto a DVD, and view the disk on a consumer DVD player or another PC.... So now Microsoft is shifting its course. The Media Center software has been changed so that now the copyright owner, not Microsoft, gets to decide whether a particular TV program will be 'encrypted to the hard drive' - meaning, 'unable to be viewed on a different PC or DVD player.'" CLICK HERE IF YOU REALLY WANT A MEDIA CENTER PC THAT IS RUNNING WINDOWS MEDIA CENTER EDITION BY ORDERING A BUILD-TO-ORDER WITH WINXP MCE AND TV TUNER CARD ALREADY INSTALLED IN PC CLICK HERE IF YOU WANT TO SEE WHAT THE WINDOWS MEDIA CENTER EDITION LOOKS LIKE (SCREENSHOTS PICTURES) OR
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