There are those who take a media center PC and use it to watch TV, nothing fancy, just a glorified computer with a nice monitor. Then there is the next level, where the media center extends to others in the household. This is more useful but still…there is a sense of “so what?”
In my opinion, the home media center should make people drool. They should hang out in your living room, seeing videos, pictures, anything that’s online, jump to a web page and all of it should be completely transparent. (Meaning, they don’t think of it as using a computer).
The Apple TV does a great job in this arena, in fact I would have to rate it higher than a media center PC because it is easy, looks great, and is affordable. But you can’t surf the web, connect to specific sites to watch your favorite shows (for free) or do anything else that a PC is great for.
Apple MA711LL/A TV with 40GB Hard Drive
So, the media center holds it’s place in the home media environment, and now here comes Windows Seven. Again…it should make people drool and feel like they are seeing something really intuitive and easy to use. Not just the media center part, but the entire computer experience.
In my situation, I don’t subscribe to cable TV. (High Speed yes but no channels). I would only watch a few shows, as there is no time for anythign more, and those shows are available on Hulu.com or Netflix.com. For high definition content, I have an antenna that picks up all the local broadcasts in HiDef, plus the Apple TV and Media center can download them. But I digress, this is not about saving money, it’s about the Drool factor vis a vis the Windows Seven media center.
I have an older PC, Viewsonic, Media Center PC that runs Ultimate VIsta and outputs to the RGB input on my big screen TV. IT’s fine, but a bit slow. I especially hate the updates that seem to want to run every time I boot it up (every 5 days or so) making it more like a computer to manage and less like an entertainment experience. I set the updates to notify only, that helped but still-it’s annoying!
So now I want to redo the center in Windows Seven, using a few upgrades to make it rank higher on the drool scale. First, a new wireless keyboard, something small and clever so it doesn’t make the room feel cluttered. I am looking at the Logitech Dinovo mini keyboard as the solution for this as it seems to be the right blend of functional keys and size. 
For the media center….no more monster sized boxes under the TV! Small is in! If Apple TV can package their entire system in one small box, the media center should be able to share that footprint, I’m considering a micro sized PC for this application. Something on the cheap with a decent graphics card and speed. Storage isn’t as important as I wont be storing thousands of hours of TV or burning DVD’s.
I will update the blog on how this all goes, but for now I’m just recording the starting point. I also want to consider some upscale additions to the media center like integration with home security, a webcam for couch side conversations and some kind of link up with the home audio. (Yes, it’s overkill but we do it because we want to go further!)
Anyone else working a Windows Seven Media center into operation?