![]() Setting it up is a matter of connecting your TV and your speakers. 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. 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. If you're looking for seamless integration, near-silent operation and a unit that's actually going to upgrade your home theater as opposed to just work with it, you're probably looking at a media-center PC built by the manufacturer.Ĭomputer manufacturers build a media-center PC from the ground up to be part of your home-theater system. Which brings us to the thing about serious upgrades: Once you get into the bells and whistles that make a media-center computer the highlight of a home theater, DIY stops being all that cost efficient. This kit comes complete with a chassis, fanless cooling system, motherboard, processor and xpMCE operating system, and it costs about as much as you would spend for one of the less-expensive pre-built systems. And there are some complete upgrade kits out there that include all of the hardware, software and instructions you need to build your own Windows Media Center PC from the ground up, including the D.Vine D2 Quiet Media Center. The thing about xpMCE is that it presupposes certain hardware support, so it makes a DIY upgrade slightly more complicated. As recently as 2005, this operating system was only available to PC manufacturers, but now you can buy it and use it as the center of a media-center upgrade. When you're talking about media-center software, the most complete package you're going to come across is the Windows XP Media Center Edition ( xpMCE) operating system. ![]() Also, a lot of these software packages can put your regular computer monitor into a "theater view" mode that makes it visible from across the room. You can stream music to other computers, transfer data to a portable device, and view your digital photos on your large-screen TV. Overall, a piece of software like Meedio Pro, Sage TV, InterVideo Home Theater or Beyond TV with Beyond Media lets you connect home theater accessories to your computer and control it all through a single interface. ![]() There's a lot of media-center software out there with a variety of features. The advantage to including a piece of software in your upgrade is the added benefit of the onscreen menu and integrated remote control functions that let you control everything through a single interface. But if you want to really tie everything together into an integrated media center, you're going to want a piece of media-center software. Your PC already has a built-in CD player and DVD player, so you simply need to connect your PC to your TV and your speaker setup using the available outputs on your computer. Technically, this is all you need (and maybe a little more than you need) to use your PC in your home theater.
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