At its most basic, a media-center PC is a home computer an A/V receiver combined. It has entertainment-related upgrades that make it a suitable centerpiece for a home theater. Most media-center PCs have progressive-scan DVD playback, over-the-air HDTV support, surround-sound inputs and quieter operation (some use fanless cooling systems). In a single CPU unit, you have a range of functions that encompasses pretty much every aspect of digital media, including:

• Computing functions (Internet, e-mail, word processing, etc.)



• Video



• Stream video from the Internet to your large-screen TV
• Watch, create and burn DVDs
• Watch and record TV (acts as a DVR)
• View, edit and e-mail digital photos




• Audio



• AM/FM radio (which you can record, up to 30 minutes, like you do TV shows)
• Download MP3s to your system and play them on your home-theater speakers
• Play, create, rip and burn CDs



• Media storage (a typical unit might have 500 GB to 1 TB of storage space for music, movies, photos)

With a media-center PC connected to your TV and your speakers, you can access all of these functions by navigating through onscreen menus. The system is built to be controlled across the room with a remote control, but you can also use a keyboard or mouse just like with a standard PC.

There are a couple of routes to a media-center PC. You can do your own home-theater-related upgrades to a standard PC, or you can buy a prebuilt home-theater PC. If you have a fairly new PC (bought in the last five years, say), and you're up for getting at the motherboard, you can totally turn it into a media center. You may not achieve quite the same results as you would with a PC originally built for a home theater, but you're also going to be spending less cash. Let's take a look at how you can build your own media center using your current computer.

Pre-built Media-center PCs

Computer manufacturers build a media-center PC from the ground up to be part of your home-theater system. You can sit on the couch in your den and send an e-mail to your friend, write up a proposal for work and set up a playlist of MP3s to blast through your surround-sound system -- all using one display, one remote and one CPU. The benefit is the simplicity. The only thing you might need to buy in addition to the PC is a TV tuner and remote, although many systems come with those in the box. Setting it up is a matter of connecting your TV and your speakers. That's it. Some units come with enough connections that you can add on an external DVD or CD player if you want to, but these PCs are really intended to serve as your all-in-one media storage and playback device -- your stereo, your DVD player, your home computer, your photo viewer, your 500-GB hard drive, your PC gaming system and your A/V receiver.

The most common systems run on Windows XP Media Center Edition (xpMCE), although lots of products run a different operating system and incorporate home-theater software (like Sage TV or Meedio Pro). Home-theater PCs are available from just about every computer manufacturer out there, and most look like regular PCs, with the CPU tower, monitor and keyboard.

Some manufacturers have adopted a more living-room-friendly form factor, like a CPU shaped more like an A/V receiver than a tower:

And then there are the real dreamers. The Elonex Lumina actually integrates the CPU into the display, so what you're putting in your living room looks like nothing more than a big flat-panel TV. But there's a whole computer inside, with PC and home-theater inputs and outputs located on the side and back of the device.

Since the xpMCE-based system is currently the most popular rendition of the home-theater computer, we'll use it as our focus. You'll see xpMCE systems referred to specifically as "Media Center PCs," although other systems may use the same name in generic form. In this article, where "Media Center" is capitalized, we're talking about a computer running Windows XP Media Center Edition.

A Media Center PC can do all of the things a regular Windows XP-based system can do in addition to the home-theater functions. In the next section.