I retired from personal blogging in July 2008.
But you can find me over at http://blog.xero.com.
CJ writes …
Noticed your post on blog about the TV project.
Go Media Center! :)
Here is how I would put it together. Have one central Media Center machine hidden away and connected to your main TV and Stereo etc… Then in any room you have a TV all you need is either:
A MCE Extender device such as:
- An Xbox with the Xbox Media Center Extender
- An Xbox 360.
- Lynksys MCE Extender
See http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/mediacenter/extender/default.mspx
Other reasons to go Windows Media Center:
- Easy as pie to manage, operate etc… you don’t need to know how to compile the Linux kernel to include the right drivers for your hardware as you would with Myth etc..
- There is a sweet roadmap with MCE in Windows Vista
- Support :)
- Recorded TV is WMV so you can take it with you on the road
- Support for Music, Photos etc…
- It is a super set of Windows XP so you can drop back to XP on your TV whenever you like … I.e. surfing the web etc…
- Lots of aftermarket plug-ins for stuff like RSS
- Integrates with Caller-ID on your phone line … so you can see who is calling on your TV when the phone rings.
- The list goes on…
Multiple TV’s, minimum paid Cable/Satellite decoders (I currently have 3 paid Saturn decoders)
>> You probably only require 2 … so you can record and watch another at the same time.
Hard disk recording and playback from any TV
>> Record on the central MCE machine with the decoders in it … and watch from anywhere with an extender.
Useable by wife
>> Very usable. My soon to be wife loves it!
Happy to talk more about what you might need if you want.
CJ
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