The Vista Media Center PC – This Isn’t Your Father’s DVR
Friday, June 20th, 2008I, like everyone else, want what I want. I sit in an office, stare at a computer all day and type my fingers to the bone. When I get home, like you, I want my TV and I want it on my terms. Unless you’ve been living in a cave, you know how great a digital video recorder (DVR) is. They give you the freedom to watch a show while recording another, they provide an onscreen TV guide and best of all allow you to skip commercials. Now, what if I told you, you may already have the best DVR available in your home right now, and it doesn’t require any fees. A Vista Media Center PC is just that, and is hands down the best TV viewing experience I have ever encountered.
Microsoft hasn’t exactly just introduced this. For years they have built this capability into Windows to organize your music, photos and videos. The Media Center program was written specifically to view these items on your TV. This is commonly called the “10 Foot Interface.” With all due respect to your grandmother’s scrapbooking efforts, nothing compares to seeing your home photos and movies elegantly organized and in high definition with your own custom audio. All of this available, with the press of a button on your remote control.
The Vista Media Center program seamlessly records the TV shows you choose from the onscreen guide. You can opt to record more than one show at the same time, simply by installing an additional TV tuner. Many tuners don’t require the PC to be opened, and can even record free, over the air (OTA) high definition shows as well. Like a traditional DVR, you can watch one show while recording another. If you don’t want a PC in the living room, a Microsoft XBOX 360 will work just as well. The XBOX connects to your TV, which in turns connects to your PC in another room (wired or wirelessly).
The free onscreen guide is built into Media Center
With my beefy hard drive I can record as little or much as I like. My measly (by today’s standards) 200 Gig hard drive has over 40 hours of HDTV. Odds are, I’ll delete much of it, but the shows look great. Browsing and selecting a TV show could not be easier. A large visual thumbnail of each show scrolls across the TV with a description and the time it was recorded. Even my three year old can successfully navigate the simplistic menu to drill into the very exact “Thomas and His Friends” that he absolutely has to watch.
Selecting a recorded TV show is simple and elegant
In another post, I’ll describe how you can edit the TV show you recorded, and splice it into a home movie. Also, I’ll go into how you can rip your DVD collection and integrate it into the experience.
The fact of the matter is, I have a three year old. So I don’t have lazy Sunday evenings to sit and watch reruns of “American Dad.” However, at least it is still pretty darn easy to watch TV on my own terms.
