Turn Your Shiny Gaming Rig Into an Awesome Xbox 360 Media Center Extender

Only two ingredients are necessary to cook up a fabulous Xbox 360 Media Center Extender. Got an Xbox 360? Got a PC running Media Center 2005? Toss in a pinch of WiFi connectivity and Viola! Your Xbox 360 just turned into the main course in your Home Theater System.

Doesn't get much easier than that!

And you thought all you could do was play games! Why not watch movies, view your recorded TV shows, and enjoy your downloaded music collection, all from the same little silver box that serves up hours of gaming goodness?

The Xbox 360 Media Center Extender connects directly with your PC either wirelessly (54MB/s 802.11g) or with a 100MB/s Ethernet cable. For serious video streaming, I'd recommend using the hardwired Ethernet option. Especially if you have multiple WiFi devices in your house, such as laptops.

If you purchased the Xbox 360 "Fully Loaded" package, you've already got the dedicated remote complete with a "Green Button" for controlling the Xbox 360 media center extender functions. The media center interface should look familiar. It's the exact replica of your MCE menu. This makes for easy navigation and total control of your console. All your familiar menu choices are available through the Xbox media center extender such as My TV, My Music, etc. In fact, it's hard to tell you're not in front of your Media Center PC!

Even if you don't have a Media Center PC, you can enjoy some of the benefits of the built in Xbox media center functionality. You can use the included media player to stream music and photos from any PC that's running Windows XP.

Brad is the creative and passionate force behind [http://www.MediaCenterPCguide.com] Want to experience the ultimate in home entertaiment? Come visit us at [http://www.MediaCenterPCguide.com] for all you need to know about turning your bland PC into the central component of your home theater system.

Why Media Center PC is Not Going to Be Mainstream Next 5 Years

"HTPC, XBMC, Plex, NAS, media extenders, media centers, media servers, media streamers and so on are given to technology enthusiastics, but mean very little to average consumers."

The more and more I read gadget and technology websites I start to understand what prevents media centers to become mainstream. To be fair, of course digital living room is about technology to some extent, but technology is not the key reason which prevents digital living room to become a mainstream.

First of, the competitive landscape is too fragmented for any viable standard to emerge. For example, if you think about watching traditional TV shows on TV, you do not need to worry about which codec you need to use or if your TV is powerful enough to view a specific TV program. Frankly, consumers are confused what to buy and how to use them. They are intimidated with the all the confusion around the subject, so they rather stay away from the media center market. And no wonder, we have cryptic words like HTPC, XBMC, Plex, NAS, we have media extenders, media centers, media servers, media streamers and so on that are given to technology enthusiastics, but mean very little to average consumers.

Microsoft's "I am a PC and I am 4 1/2 years old" video advertisement has become a huge hit around the internet and it is an excellent demonstration what kind of messages technology companies should be sending to markets. Too many companies are focusing on providing better hardware and more shinier software, but at the end of the day mainstream does not care about that. In order to cross the chasm between technology enthusiasts and mainstream markets they need to demonstrate what is it for the end users and how easily they can do what ever they are interested to do with their computer in the living room.

Most probably media centers are not going to become mainstream in the next 5 years or so. They will remain a niche segment, but a viable one, as there are enough early adopters and developers to keep pushing open source projects to improve media centers and other software around the topic. Companies such as Apple, Microsoft and Dell continue experimenting with various products to test which gets people excited, but they do not use too big budgets on R and D as they know that there are not enough consumers in the media center pc and mac markets.

This does not prevent us continuing spreading the word about the benefits of having a computer in the living room. To me it just emphasizes the importance of sites like mymediaexperience.com that encourages people to enter into the digital living room.

Continue reading about building digital living room

More media center related articles at http://mymediaexperience.com

HP Pavilion Media Center TV m7350n PC

Let us start at the very beginning when we get to know this computer called HP Pavilion Media Center TV m7350n PC. You may be interested to know that this computer has many names and some of its aliases are:

oHP Pavilion Media Center EL406AA

oHP Pavilion Media Center TV m7350n

oHP Pavilion Media Center

oHewlett-Packard EL406AA

oOr simply as the Hewlett-Packard TV m7350n.

Such technology is expected to be really functional. What's in the HP Pavilion Media Center TV that makes it unique? For one, the HP Pavilion Media Center TV m7350n PC has an Intel processor with processor class D. It has a processing speed of 2.8 GHz, and a 2 GB installed memory. Its BUS speed is 800 MHz and a cache size of 4 MB. The memory technology is DDR II SDRAM with a maximum memory of 4 GB. The system chipset is Intel 945P Express.

Further, the hard drive has a storage capacity of 250 GB. Its CD Read Speed is 40X, the CD Write Speed is 40X, the CD Rewrite Speed is 32X, and the DVD Read Speed is 16X. It comes with Serial ATA Drive Controllers as well. The 2nd CD Read Speed is 16X.

For graphics and the monitor, you get a plug-in card for video integration and 64 MB of installed video memory. For networking and communications functions, your HP Pavilion Media Center TV m7350n PC has a 56 Kbps modem speed, and both Fast Ethernet and Ethernet for network support.

The interface connectors you get with your HP Pavilion Media Center TV m7350n PC are three forms of line-out: line-out (center/subwoofer), line-out (rear), and line-out (side surround.) On one hand, the expansion slot types of your HP Pavilion Media Center TV m7350n PC accommodate an XD-Picture Card, SD Memory Card, Memory Stick, SmartMedia Card, PCI Express x16, a CompactFlash Card, Memory, Processor, and PCI.

This type of computer uses Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 as its operating system (or OS.)The OS comes with these different software programs:

oMicrosoft Office 2003 Student and Teacher Edition (Trial)

oMuvee autoProducer

oHP Image Zone

oRealPlayer

oSonic MyDVD

oPC-Doctor 5 for Windows

oA 60-day subscription to Norton Internet Security 2005 AntiSpyware

oAdobe Reader 7.0

oSonic DigitalMedia Plus

oMicrosoft Works 8.0

oAnd InterVideo WinDVD 5

Moreover, the keyboard and mouse are the input devices provided. You can buy the appropriate monitor via a separate purchase as an independent unit.

And now that we know all that techie mumbo-jumbo, it brings us to the most important question: what can it do for us? Well, to start with, it makes for an excellent paperweight, especially if you accidentally plug it into the wrong power source which then renders the insides fried and useless. However, that doesn't justify the expense. Unless you'll take a closer look at it, you'll never appreciate this computer. So let us look deeper.

Since this computer is actually a Media Center, that gives those of you who love your entertainment a ray of hope. For one thing, you can record, and create video recordings to a maximum of 170 hours. The Image Zone software (an exclusive technology of Hewlett Packard) permits you to edit, organize, then store and protect any video clips and photos you feel are worth preserving. You can also create personalized CDs and DVDs with this baby. And there is much, much more it can do - but you need to read the manual for that to get at the nitty gritty technical details.

Should you buy this product then? Well, that's really up to you - if you feel you really need all those high-tech features for both your leisure and work, then this is a great investment. Depending on your usage, the HP Pavilion Media Center is a cool state-of-the art technology for your personal and business needs.

Marcus Rollingston writes on various topics which includes Satellite TV,For more information check out http://topsatellitetvforpcservices.blogspot.com Where you can get informative HP Pavilion Media Center TV m7350n PC

Ten Tips For Building Your Own Media Center Computer

With new faster processors, bigger hard drives and new larger LCD televisions building a media center computer has become more and more practical. A media center computer can record multiple television shows at one time, can organize all your music and pictures and can also be used as a normal computer. They are definitely very cool. However, before you decide to build your own media center here are ten quick tips...

1. Consider building a machine with a dual core or quad core processor. The multiple processing threads will be very useful when recording multiple programs and watching a program at the same time. A fast multi core processor is a must if you plan on watching and recording hi definition TV.

2. Don't skimp on the RAM. A good media center will have at least 2GB of ram and should probably have up to 4GB. The ram will help keep things moving quickly while you are recording programs.

3. You can never have enough hard drive space. With high definition TV becoming more of a standard you are going to want to consider having large amounts of hard drive space on your machine. I wouldn't build a machine that had less than a terabyte of hard drive space.

4. To increase performance considering using a raid configuration for your hard drives. Using raid zero along with high speed SATA hard drives can help you improve video performance and can prevent recording errors.

5. Get good TV tuner cards with built in hardware encoding. Tuner cards with MPEG hardware encoding will take a load off your processor when they record tv shows, this will help ensure that you won't get any skipping or problems in your recorded output. I use Hauppauge cards in my machine and they work great.

6. Invest in a good decoding program. The software decoder software offered by Nvidia does a good job on my media center. However, I tested four or five different ones before I found one that operated the way I wanted with my hardware configuration. Be prepared to test some different options before you settle on the one that will work best for you.

7. Don't forget to order the remote control. A media center without a remote control is a travesty. These computers are designed to operated while you sit back on your couch. The remotes don't cost that much and they work great.

8. Buy the best video card that you can afford. The better the video card that you have the less chances you have that you will have problems with playback. Before you buy your video card also make sure to check the list of Media Center approved cards. If the card isn't on there you might want to avoid it. Also make sure that you buy a video card that has a high definition output that matches your TV (either DVI or HDMI are the best).

9. Get a good audio card that is capable of feeding source audio to your receiver or your speakers. If you plan on outputting 5.1 or 7.1 data from DVD's you are going to want to make sure that the sound card that you pick has an optical or digital coax output. You might also consider buying a card that will convert all the sounds used on your computer into a 5.1 or 7.1 digital audio feed.

10. Be prepared to play with your configuration and build. Unfortunately, building a media center is not an exact science and there is usually quite a bit of tinkering involved in getting a stable fully functional system. If you aren't comfortable playing with the settings and the drivers to get things to work you might consider buying a prebuilt media center and have someone else do the testing and configuring for you.

I have been running windows XP media center edition for quite a while now and I love it. I have built two different media centers and they have both been a blast. Try it for yourself and see.

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How to Use Mac Mini As Media Center, the Perfect Mac HTPC

We have a lot of media center solutions out there and to choose the perfect setup for yourself can be challenging. It all depends on what you are planning to do with your media center setup. For me, I want to view downloaded content and my own movies I have stored on my external hard drive for backup purposes. Recording from TV is not in my interest.

As the title suggests I prefer to use the Mac Mini for this purpose, however I want to talk a little bit about the other options I have tried. This will make you better understand why I went this route in the first place.

First, the Xbox 360. This is a game console with media capabilities, and it worked okay. I had this console as a media center for a while but some times it wont play certain file formats. If that is the case I had to re encode some of them and it is time consuming and nothing I want to do on a regular basis. Because of that I continued to use the Xbox as it was meant to be used, playing games.

We also have the Apple TV. This was a pretty nice device actually, but the real drawback was that it only supported files iTunes could play. Same thing here as the Xbox. Re encoding of media, time consuming = nothing for me. This unit can however be hacked, and it will then play almost any kind of media. Because of the slow CPU in this unit it will only play up to 720p video, and therefore. Not acceptable for me.

Then we have the Popcorn Hour A-110. After the Mac Mini this would be the best choice. This unit could play all kinds of files I threw at it. It also did tackle high resolution video without any problems at all. The price was alright and it worked just fine. It gets firmware upgrades now and then and the community around the device is active.

But,

The interface of Popcorn Hour is in my opinion, slow, ugly, and playing music on this device is not a good experience at all. I found it to be acceptable, but still. I also want to have good music capabilities.

And now, the Mac Mini. The biggest reason for me wanting to use Mac Mini is the free media center application called Plex. This free software impress me every time I use it. It is developed just for the Mac, while still in beta version as of this writing the software works well. This will run perfectly on the Mac Mini, and it does on my base model. Another thing that impress me is the way the library in plex works. It actually scans the file names of say, your movie folder. Then it looks up information about that movie using the Internet and downloads the synopsis, cover and artwork all automatically. This is what I like the most about this.

The other reason for me wanting to get the Mac Mini despite the fact it costs more is because this is a fully fledged computer. You can run any number of services on this little machine if you want. Share your internet connection, use it as router, firewall, web-serve, you name it. While still using it as a HTPC.

True, it costs a little bit more but I believe it is worth it.

Author: B. Kibsgaard

Read more about the Mac Mini Media Center Setup here: http://www.all-about-apple.com/mac-mini-as-media-center.html

All About Apple: http://www.all-about-apple.com

Media Center Desktop Computers

Media center computers are above all, the most technologically equipped of all computers. They could easily be called super computers. Media center computers not only do everything, they also offer increased speed and better functionality. These top notch computers specialize in presentation and media performance. Here is a more focused look into media center computers.

The Essentials

Media center computers come standard with large hard drives, usually 500GB, to accommodate the function which allows you to store recorded television programming, videos, and a host of multimedia. The dual processors allow increased performance. While one is storing memory, the other is helping to speed up your computer. These processors also contain other hidden functions that optimize the rate of transferred data and double execution speed, all while saving power. Computer RAM starts around 2GB and can be expanded in the most advanced computers, up to 16GB! The CD/DVD drives are dramatically improved to accept all of the latest disk formats and can provide burning speeds up to 40x!

Visual and Audio

This area is where these computers outshine all others. Computers generally connect to screens using a VGA attachment. In a media center computer, the graphics card enables a user to connect to a large screen using the latest HDMI technology. This technology offers accelerated, mind blowing high definition viewing from your computer! These graphics cards give the option of using much larger screens because they offer the highest standard 1080i resolution. They also feature surround sound audio integration and built in TV tuners.

Connectivity and Expansion

Expansion and connectivity possibilities are advanced in these computers. They normally feature at least 3 expansion slots, 2 extra hard drive bays, and several USB ports for small peripherals. Media center desktop computers also have FireWire connections and multi-card readers which allows superb connections from any media device.

P.S. Orr has been writing articles for 6 years on a variety of topics such as product info. Come visit http://www.captainsbedsstore.com/ which helps people find the best deals on captains beds and more information about great storage bed ideas.

3 Questions to Ask Yourself Before that Media Center PC Purchase

1. What is the purpose of this machine?

This is one question everyone should ask themselves before buying a Media Center PC. Be honest with yourself because this answer dictates the answers to the rest of the questions.

The purpose of your Media Center should be just that. As a Media Center. Movies, music, pictures, internet, and anything else you want to do. The Media Center is not intended to do your taxes, or write your term paper. Do not get us wrong, it is completely capable of doing these tasks. The point of this question is to narrow down what kind of hardware you will need to do what you want your machine to do. Keep this in mind. What do you want your Media Center PC to do?

2. What kind of software should my Media Center PC use?

This is a question that is up for much debate. However, your answer to this question and the previous question will answer the last question. There are 2 basic thoughts on this, either Windows OS, or Linux OS. It really depends on your comfort level and what you want to accomplish with your Media Center PC. Lets breakdown strong points and weak points of each.

Windows

o Strong Point : Known for its point and click ease

o Strong Point : Works with most if not all hardware

o Strong Point : Allot of software options to go with

o Weak Point : Hefty price tag. For Media Center Edition you are looking between 100-200 dollars just for the software

o Weak Point : Known for their security issues. Updates, after updates, after updates.

o Weak Point : Must run virus software and firewall software. This is a must for security.

Linux OS

o Strong Point : Extremely stable. No need to reboot ever. After updates, you just restart

the program you are running and the update is applied. No reason to restart the system.

o Strong Point : Extremely secure. No need to run virus software or firewall software. This makes it use less resources hardware wise. Thus making it run on lower end PC's.

o Strong Point : Extremely configurable. If you dont like something, change it. Literally anything in Linux you can change and optimize and tailor to your hardware, reducing hardware requirements further.

o Strong Point : Completely 100% free. Not only is the OS free, most software you run on the OS is free. Yes, that is right, free.

o Weak Point : If you have never used Linux, it can be hard to setup and get running the first time.

o Weak Point : Not as much software available as Windows. There is software available for anything you want to do. Just not as much as Windows.

3. How much should I pay for my Media Center PC?

This question is answered by the first 2 you asked yourself. The requirements of Linux are much lower to do the same thing as Windows. Think about this. The Tivo runs with a 54Mhz processor. Now ask yourself this. Why would you want to spend thousands of dollars on the latest and greatest hardware out there, when it would be a lot cheaper for you to use different hardware? You could spend 2000 dollars and upwards on a new Dual Core system with 2 gigs of ram, a monster video card, and the best of everything. What do you gain though? It wont play the HD any better. It wont make your picture look better. You gain no benefits. You could spend a little and get a Media Center PC that does anything you want, or you could spend alot and get the same Media Center PC that does the same things. Its up to you.

How to Load Microsoft XP Media Center

The reason I am writing this article is because I ran into this myself. The set includes three CDs and a book with the license sticker attached.

Here is what happened: I started by inserting Disk one into the DVD-RW drive. I booted (started) the computer and let it load. I then followed the instruction as to weather to load the system, delete and format the hard drive etc.

If the disk will not load you may need to go into the setup screen to change the boot order. The CD or DVD must be the first device to load for this to work.

After the hard drive was formatted the operating system continues to load the rest of the operating system. It will eventually ask for Disk number 2. Needless to say I inserted the disk and it continued to load. Some time during the loading procedure of disk 2 a screen comes up asking to load XP Professional service pack 2. I figured I was supposed to load the update disk which came with the disk set. I inserted the disk but it said it could not find iexplore and/or i386. This may sound simple to certain people but at least I was lost. After searching inside Disk 2 and the update disk I decided to cancel to files it was asking for and I let the rest of the system load. The desktop eventually appeared. However, there was no way to access the internet and Internet Explorer was nowhere to be found.

I decided to contact people I knew. One person seemed to have the answer. He told me the message is misleading. You need to reinsert Disk number 1 (one). I was thinking it could not be that easy. I decided to reload the operating system and try again. This time when the message came up I inserted Disk 1. I could not believe it. That was the answer. It loaded great and everything worked.

What about the update disk?

This could be a good question. I found out you can go to Start>Programs (Windows XP) and then pick Windows Update. This will give you any and all updates that are available.

Warning! Be sure all your drivers are loaded and that you activate the product. If you do not include drivers for sound, Video, Network etc. Those devices will not work. Also, without the network driver you will not be able to access the internet.

If you do not activate the product it will stop working after 30 days.

Licenses

If you load or reload an operating system of any kind it MUST have a legal license from whichever company made it. If you attempt to use an illegal copy of the software you could be charged with fraud, pirating or other charges.

This article emphasizes the importance of understanding how operating systems need to be installed. You may need to find a professional in your area to help you through the installation process if you can not get it to work or do not understand it.

Dennis is a Microsoft A+ Certified Technician with over 15 years of experience. He has a very informative computer blog and website that goes into how to solve numerous computer related problems as well as providing general computer tips, reviews and advice. See: http://www.pcinfospace.com

Storage Solutions - Media Center Built-Ins

How much electronic equipment do you have in your living room? TV, DVD and CD players, two or three (even four) game systems are all commonly found in the modern living room. If your old entertainment center is groaning under the strain of it all while a tangled mass of wiring overflows from the back of it, it is time to consider a built in entertainment unit.

With the help of a good carpenter you can bring all your entertainment equipment together in one cohesive wall arrangement that is both attractive and functional. By having a built in media storage center installed, you will also by freeing up precious square footage and giving your entire living room a more organized and spacious feel.

Built in storage can run the length of an entire wall, adding plenty of room to display your movie, music and game collections. With each piece of your entertainment puzzle now having its own place, wires can be tucked away out of sight and separated so that you know at a glance which plug is which on the power bar.

When considering a built in media storage center you have two basic options - a pre fabricated design that simply needs to be installed in the home or a custom designed unit that can be tailored around the particular shapes and sizes of the electronic equipment you own, as well as the available space in the room. If your home has a fireplace you may want to consider having your media center built around it. Another option is to chose a corner unit to make the most of previously underutilized areas. A carpenter or remodeling expert can help you decide on the best layout for your home and then ensure that it is all safely installed and sturdy enough to stand up to even the heaviest televisions and stereo equipment.

Please go to http://www.renovationexperts.com For a more detailed information

Athenatech Media Center Cabinet at a Glance

The Athenatech A3701BB HTPC is a personal computer cabinet, especially made for home theater personal computer. What's special? For home theater personal computer, Athenatech A3701BB is media center computer cabinet that has aluminum steel. It reduces heat of media center computer. For its air circulation, there are two 80mm fans at rear of cabinet, pulling air through out of the inside, and side vents for optional fan. There is also the center fan to reduce heat from the 500 watt of your personal computer power supply. The cabinet's power supply runs quietly with best quality.

For the motherboard tray, Athenatech A3701BB HTPC media center cabinet supports the ATX, Micro ATX and Flex ATX board. The Athenatech cabinet's made with internal 3.5" drive bays, that's designed for up to 3 hard drives and 6 expansion slot. The cabinet also comes with two external 5.25" drive bays and a external 3.5" drive bays. In front of the case, you'll find ports to enable you easily access it with two USB ports and audio jacks for your multimedia. All the features make Athenatech A3701BB HTPC a media center computer cabinet that fit for your. Complete with the classic black design, it's an ideal choose for your media center computer.

Specifications:

Black case material desktop color
Aluminum plate / steel chasis for power supply
ATX / Micro ATX / Flex ATX boards with side panel windows
External 5.25" drive bay, two external 3.5" drive bays, 1 external 3.5" drive bays
1 Expansion slot, 7 front ports, 2x USB 2.0 ports
2 audio cooling system
2x 80mm rear fan
13.8 x 7 x 15 inch dimensions
18 lbs weight
1 year warranty

Buy it online for only $69.58 from Amazon market place.

Visit my blog notebook-laptop-computers.com to find short reviews and special offers related to Laptop and Computers, including Blank Computer Media and Computer Gaming Software.

How to Build HTPC Media Center

If you want to build your own HTPC media center computer or buy a ready one. This article is for you. I will reveal how to build a great energy efficient media center that will be able to play Full HD movies... The main key to build good media center is a choice of good computer motherboard. What can sound strange for you it is not about the strongest possible CPU. When you choose a motherboard you should carefully watch out on two things.

Most important is...

Most important thing when choosing a sufficient motherboard for your mini media center is video hardware acceleration. You should carefully watch on it. Currently the best available on market video acceleration chipset is released by NVIDIA ION and ION 2. This GPU is able to play Full HD movies without any usage of your computer CPU! It is why you really need it! Your computer may be doing other tasks while you are watching movies!

It should be energy efficient!

It should be energy efficient computer. It is why it would be very bad idea to buy a motherboard without GPU and add external card. Moreover you should make sure that your mainboard is not consuming to much energy. Both of this elements are pointing to choose a motherboard in Mini-ITX format!

So what to choose...?

I would strongly suggest choosing a barebone nettop that can be easily expanded. The one that I want recommend is ION powered and is ideal choice to play a full hd movies. The heart of this nettop is energy efficient Mini-ITX motherboard from ZOTAC. If you are a person that do not feel like building a computer from scratch the best choice for you would be Zotac MAG. It is available in two versions. Fanless with single core CPU and dual core Atom for even bigger performance in multimedia usage. MAG needs only HDD and memory to be added. It is a perfect choice for your HTPC!

This post has been written by Chris Kreci, the author of Mini Motherboard blog that is writing daily about Mini-ITX and HTPC solutions.

What You Should Know About Apple TV, Google TV, And Media Center Platforms in General

There is a lot of excitement about Apple TV, but it is not a new product. What is new this time around is that the device is HD and can interface with Netflix and YouTube. It also allows you to view photos and play your music collection, and in the future it may play well with the iPad and allow you to view movies that are playing on the Apple TV, on the iPad. Media players have been around for years and the original Apple TV goes back to 2005. Back then it was standard definition and lacked support for much of what it offers now.

The Apple TV is much cheaper now, at only $99, a far cry from what it used to sell for back in 2007 when it was more than $200. This is a good price point, and seeing how it is one of the cheaper devices Apple offers I expect to see a greater adoption of this product than we have seen from it in the past. In fact what I expect to see happen is mass adoption of the Apple TV by Mac enthusiasts (or now, "i" product enthusiasts as there is a whole different crowd of enthusiasts that like the Apple gadgets but do not have an actual Mac computer) and the continued support of everything else by those who love PC. The most significant update to the Apple TV is the support of 720p video, which means that you can finally get high definition content through this device. You also have Ethernet, component video outputs and an HDMI connection and even a USB connection for firmware updates.

One thing that does confuse me is the lack of support for 1080p. Is it because the average person does not know the difference between 1080 and 720 or that you need a screen larger than 27 inches to realistically see the difference between the two? Seriously Apple seems to be shortchanging their customers and putting out hardware that does some things, but not enough in that they may have trouble explaining to customers the nuances of the product at the Mac Store or whatever tech support numbers they have for those few that actually want to speak with them over the phone. If someone wants to watch 1080 video on a 19 inch screen, as ridiculous as that may be, they should have the right to do so. Offering one flavor of this device when they could charge another $30 for a 1080p device at $129 seems strange. Like most Apple devices it connects primarily to its own store and you can watch content approved by Apple on the device. You can break the device or hack into it, but in doing so you void your warranty. The pricing of content is interesting; currently you can watch SD content at $2.99 and HD at $3.99, and shows for 99 cents. Amazon On Demand is now offering movies for the same price; they still offer the ability to purchase a title for $14.99 and still have a lot of free content as well. What will different the options Apple offers through its iTunes store, and what is available through Amazon On Demand and other services is not price, but whether or not you can watch titles on your MP4 player or through a TiVo or some other media center as well as online.

It is not backward compatible with older televisions, so if you do not have a television that supports component or HDMI do not attempt to hook this television up with RCA composite or S-Video cables because they will not work on this device. To be totally honest I cannot see why anyone would want to watch SD video on a television larger than 25 inches even if it is coming off of a computer; the novelty of it is cool but you will not be able to experience the video the way it was intended to be viewed. This is a product for those looking for a simple set up and prefer the controlled environment that people used to Apple's products are used to working in. It is not a viable alternative to the Mac Mini (which does offer 1080p video), and is meant to be used out of the box.

There is also some confusion as to the difference between media center platforms and operating systems, and media centers themselves. A good example of media center software is Windows Media Center, Google TV, or XBMC. Chances are the same software can also be ran on a PC, but one needs to make the distinction between that software, and the actual hardware it runs on. For example Google TV will be used on a variety of equipment, but there is no indication that Google themselves are actually going to produce the hardware it runs on. Another question one may want to ask themselves is whether or not they really want to hook another box up to their television, or whether or not they want to purchase a television with a media center already built into it. A search on Internet ready televisions will show you products that are already capable of viewing YouTube videos or Netflix movies. If you are already in the market for a television because your old set is being replaced, purchasing a television with an Internet connection built into it may not be a bad idea.

The Apple TV is a great product for those who want a simplified experience and do not mind paying for episodes of television shows or movies. Plus at $99, the Apple TV should be flying off of the shelves this holiday season and could make a great gift. But what is important is that what was a device ahead of its time can now interface with Netflix, YouTube, and in the future, the iPad, in order to centralize your television experience under one roof, the Apple TV should be able to do it all. The Apple TV will offer free content through YouTube and paid content through Netflix and Apple's iTunes store. On the other hand the Roku Player is still cheaper as they have devices for as little as $59, and even their cheapest HD device is $69. For $99 you can get a player capable of delivering 1080p resolution, a feature they state will be available in the near future, which is currently more than you get on Apple TV.

Media Centers a Must For Self-Promotion

One of the most frustrating things about being a virtual book tour host for Pop Syndicate's Book Addict blog is searching numerous Web sites for author information.

When I book authors for tour spots, I give them a brief paragraph of what we need and attach a PDF with more detailed information. Some authors read it thoroughly and follow through. Other authors are lucky to make their tour stop deadline.

When I pull together Q&As, photographs and book trailers for posts, I have to visit a variety of sites to get the information. It takes a lot of time, effort, and frustrates me when I cannot find what I'm looking for. What makes it even more infuriating is that the authors didn't bother to include that information with their completed Q&A or guest blog.

This is why every author who is serious about their work should have a media center on their Web site.

Your media center should be a one-stop shop of details about you. It should include anything anyone would need to do an interview with you, host you at their blog, write an article about you, include in reviews of your work, pass along to fans and link to from blogs and other sites.

Media centers also make it easy on you. When people ask for details about you, all you have to do is refer them to your media center.

Want to add a media center, but don't know where to begin? Here is a quick checklist of items to get you started:

Photographs of yourself in JPEG

Cover art in JPEG

News release archive (PDF)

Guest blog appearance list (PDF or links list)

Book tour and virtual book tour stops (PDF or links list)

Links to your social networks

Biography (include one short and one long bio) (PDF)

Publicist contact information

Excerpts (PDF)

Downloadable audio clips

Videos with EMBED codes

Your Web designer can help if you want to add this to your current site. If you don't have a big budget, consider using a free blog like WordPress or Typepad, which allow you to add pages of information - not just blog posts.

Angela Wilson is an author and social media consultant. She offers marketing tips to authors at her blog, Market My Novel. Find out more about media centers and other topics by visiting http://www.marketmynovel.com . Read author interviews at http://www.popsyndicate.com/books .

HP Pavilion Media Center TV M7360N PC

When one hears of the HP Pavilion Media Center TV m7360n PC, the first thing that comes to their mind is having your own home entertainment series. This personal computer is truly amazing. It can play any movie format on its system. It also has a TV tuner wherein you can turn your PC to a television. It can be easily placed in the office or any part of the house. Aside from being an entertainment area, it still functions for composing emails and encoding. It can also be used to burn video files on CD or DVD format. This PC is first released in January 2006.

The HP Pavilion Media Center TV m7360n PC comes with a Media Center case. This case has an empty space on its top part, which can accommodate a PhotoSmart camera printer or an iPod. Apart from this, the casing also comes with a door. This door covers and protects the different slots and ports on the front area. The case has a width of 7.6 inches, height of 15.2 inches and a depth of 16.5 inches. It is only available in silver color.

The casing comes with a nine-in-1 media reader. This is one of the features located in front of the casing. Aside from this, the unit also has dual ports for USB 2.0. The personal computer comes with the usual DVD ROM and one LightScribe DVD Burner. This burner allows you to print labels in grayscale mode that is directly embedded on top of the compatible media. The unit also comes with a small storage area or compartment area where you can put your collections of DVDs or CDs for easier access. You can also put several blank media in this area for future use.

Aside from these features, the unit comes with an Intel ViiV sticker. This means that the HP Pavilion Media Center TV m7360n is capable to playing multimedia that is ViiV compatible. The ViiV is similar in concept with the iTunes wherein iTune music is only played on original and legal programs of the iPod. ViiV-certification on the PC means that it has a DRM protection and it only allows sharing to other ViiV certified units. Another feature of the HP Pavilion Media Center is its instant-on capability. It functions like the stand by mode wherein once you press it, the PC will be under sleep mode. The fans will be turned off as well. If you want to bring it back to life, you just hit the button again. This is better than previous models because the fans will be stopped as well, to eliminate the noise that the fans are producing.

The disadvantage of this unit is that it does not have additional internal expansion space. You will just have to use the USB ports and the Firewire ports to be able to add other gadgets to it. If you want to add items like additional TV tuners or hard drives, it won't be possible unless you want it as an external gadget.

Marcus Rollingston writes on various topics which includes Satellite TV, For more information visit http://topsatellitetvforpcservices.blogspot.com

A Media Center PC Gives You the Ultimate in Home Automation

Our homes - and our lives - are increasingly filled with electronics, yet more often than not, our home electronics are so independent of one another that they're cumbersome at best and useless at worse. A Media Center PC solves that problem by integrating any number of home electronics and, as a result, giving you the ability to unlock the full potential of everything from your home entertainment system to your home security system.

The secret to full integration is a Windows Media Center, also known as a PC Desktop Media Center. When connected to your TV or HDTV, the Window Media Center becomes the hub of your home electronics. Offering everything from personal logins for each family member to an incredible variety of software, hardware, and services, a Media Center PC gives every person their own document and media libraries.

When it comes to home entertainment, the Media Center PC keeps everything in one place. When connected to a home network, you can watch TV and movies, listen to music, and view photos anywhere in your home. You can connect your digital camera and manipulate photos, create slideshows with music, and even burn them onto DVDs. With the Personal Video Recorder (PVR), also known as a Digital Video Recorder (DVR), you can record up to three live television shows at once and watch them at your convenience. Best of all, the PC Desktop Media Center isn't simply a box dedicated to home entertainment; even while it's playing or slideshow, you can still surf the Web, check your email, and have all of the functionality of any desktop PC.

When it comes to a Media Center PC, home entertainment features are just the tip of the iceberg, though. You can also integrate video gaming systems and automatically synch your Windows Media Center with any number of portable devices.

Most compelling of all, a Media Center PC gives you the ability to automate any number of other devices around the home. You can, for example, turn your lights on or off, control the thermostat, and make sure your doors are locked - all with a click of the mouse or the remote control. You can also create your own video security system and run any number of other security devices right from your Windows Media Center. And, you can even set the entire system up to use voice control.

Although such functionality and integration may still seem like the wave of the future, with a Media Center PC, the future is now.

Chris Robertson is an author of Majon International, one of the worlds MOST popular internet marketing companies on the web. Learn more about Media Center PC: The Ultimate or Majon's Electronics directory.

Tips To Use Playstation 3 As A Media Center!

First you need to know that ps3 is a very powerful machine and if you want to use it as a media center trough the computer it maybe your computer that's not that fast to it can play the big Blu ray movies. You can transfer movies, pictures and music direct to your ps3!

If you want the most of your ps3 as a media center then you can install Linux on it.

It's a bit tricky but there are great guides to it just search Google for Linux +playstation and you will find it.

If you want to stream trough the computer I think the best way is to have a wire to the hub but a fast wireless will do it to. So when you have decided to.

Then you need good software to get the movies music and pictures to the tv screen.

The best software I have found is PS3 Media Center X from Red Kawa this is a simple program to use and all the things you need to now is in there site. If you want to transfer movies you have to convert them you can use: PS3 Video 9 that is a free video conversion application developed by Red Kawa. It allows you to convert your computer video files (like avi, divx, mpeg, etc.) into the specific video formats that are playable on the PlayStation 3. This can take a bit time but it's definitely worth it. You can start some before you go to bed and they will be finished when you wake up!

So now you have it wired or wireless up to your TV and can start converting movies to your PS3.Some movies are really big so I think you shall buy the premium version with 60gb HD.

This was just a fast guide how you can expand your PS3 to a media center.

John Axelberg http://www.ma-electronics.com - your source for buying low price electronics.

How to Make Your Media Center Childproof

The idea of a media center is very young. Media center technology is relatively new, and has only recently begun to gain a foothold in the United States and the UK. If your children are important to you, then protecting them should be foremost on your mind. With most media centers come ways to safeguard both your children and your equipment against any problems.

Media Center? What's that?

A media center is basically a computer that, like a DVR controls your various entertainment devices such as your DvD player, CD Player, satellite box, cable, radio, game console, etc. From the main menu of your media center you will be able to select the activity you plan on using from one menu screen. They come in many forms; in addition to dedicated media centers, many game consoles and computers can function as media centers.

But a question arises: how to make it safe for a child?

Parental Monitoring

Most media center components themselves come with parental controls, allowing you to put blocks on what unauthorized users can view. For internet usage, there are multiple filtering systems available to block inappropriate sites, or you can use a whitelist to only allow certain sites to be visited.

Don't forget our friends the antivirus and spyware detection software, essential when connecting to the Internet. Ensure that all your software is up to date in both these respects, and run regular scans of your entire system for any viruses or spyware.

Physical Precautions

They spill drinks, bang furniture into delicate technology, mix up cables, and otherwise put equipment through the wringer. But the real question is how to childproof their media center's electronics?

Wiring will be one of the main causes of consternation. There are IR repeaters available which will allow you to stow all components out of sight while still being able to use remote controls. If you don't want to use a repeater, then try to use shorter cords and connections to minimize the useless coils of wire lying around.

Also, try not to rest components directly on top of each other. During use, they will heat up, and without proper air circulation they will overheat, which as you can guess is a bad thing.

Integrating Existing Computers into Home Theaters

This can be done, but you have to make sure you know exactly what you're doing. For instance, to connect existing video players into your computer you'll need a video card with video capture capacity; if you intend to use your computer as a DVR, the card will have to support that as well. In addition, the video card will need to support your television's connections if you want to play video on your TV.

Protecting your children and your equipment does not require much effort, and the results are always beneficial. If you put in the effort now, the results will more that justify the time that you spent.

Chuck is an interior decorator who has worlds of experience in interior design. Believe it or not, his expertise is in entertainment centers. If you're interested in learning all about the entertainment center world, turn to EntertainmentCenters123.com.

Media Center Remote Control - A Device Based on Voice Recognition Technology

Media Center Remote Control is specially designed for windows media center and the windows 7 operating system, the latest in media center remote controls now offers flexible operations with most functions being activated by voice or buttons.

This remote is enabled with speech recognition technology. Speech Recognition Technology also known as automatic speech recognition or computer speech recognition, converts spoken words to text. With voice controlled remote, there are multiple speaker profiles selectable by voice for example say the command: 'this is Smith' and Smiths profile will load automatically. Advanced position sensing software will also isolate the voice of the speaker and ignore any concurrent conversations in the background.

Why use a Media Center Remote Control?

We can use this remote for a number of reasons, among which some of them are as follows:

? Watch, record, control TV with the tuner.

? Control, play and rip music.

? Create, play and control slide show of the pictures.

? Navigate using the text.

? View DVD's.

How it works?

We just have to pick the remote, and speak a command such as "Play Artist Beyonce". The built in microphone transmits your voice to the software in your Windows Media Center. The remote includes advanced position sensing technology; it means that it will only listen to the voice when we talk to the remote and when we are chatting with friends and family, it didn't listen to us. It means it understand the commands and ignores conversation.

Using this technique is as easy as playing with a toy. We can manage our records and we just have to say the command instead of searching a long list and can easily reach to the desired location. Like to browse the DVD library just say "Go To DVD's" and even we can call out for a particular name and in the same way we can manage our pictures and music.

The above article is written by Venus Pareek. She is advising you about the voice recognition technology remote control. This remote control works on the command of voice and can make our life easy with this relaxing technology. It is media center remote which works on voice recognition technology.

What is the Best Mini Media Center?

Today I will try to answer a question posted on the title of this article. It is not easy to give a simple and short answer as it really depend what is parameters may be most important to you. Some of people may want a small form factor computer. Some of other may want a fanless and completely silent media box. And some of other may want to get best possible quality of movies they watch. I will try to satisfy all of given types of people. I will start from first of these needs.

Small form factor HTPC?

First of points given on the beginning of this article I have told that many of you may want a small form factor computer. Moreover I have even put it in the article title. Why it may be so important? Because no one want a huge computer standing near their high class Full HD TV. It do not look good. Much better are little media centers or even these that are invisible (VESA Mounted). It is why we will choose a Mini-ITX form factor computer. It can look really good in a small computer chassis or be hidden on the back of your TV.

Should it be fanless?

You may ask what is a difference between fanless and traditional PC? It is huge difference! When you watch a great movie you really do not want to hear your computer. It may really disturb you and make watching movies a really bad experience. Some of people never watch anything on their HTPC as it is too loud! Even if it won't be fanless it should be very quiet!

Do you need Full HD playback...?

Yes you do! More and more movies are coming in Full HD 1080p quality and in next year or two 100% of new movies will be available only in this format. It is why you want a media center capable to play it! So it should have powerful CPU (but it would not be fanless then) or some movie hardware decoder on board. Currently most popular are NVIDIA ION based mini motherboard that can easily decode Full HD stream without CPU usage.

So what to choose?

On the beginning of this article my head was full of ideas for a media center to recommend. But after considering these 3 points I can recommend only one mini media center. In this place I really recommend a ZOTAC MAG! It is small and have very elegant look or can be mounted on back of your TV. It have fanless one core version. And it have ION chipset on board! Moreover it can be easily customized as it have no HDD nor RAM when you buy it. You may put as big disk and as much memory as you need. Have better recommendation..? Please share in the comments.

This post has been written by Chris Kreci, the author of Mini Motherboard blog that is writing daily about Mini-ITX and HTPC solutions.

Media Centers - Helpful Tips For Purchasing Media Center Furniture

There are many choices in media centers today and just as many things to consider making sure you buy the right one that will fit your needs. Traditionally they are pretty large pieces of furniture so you do not want to select incorrectly. Here is helpful information on purchasing a media center that will be the perfect fit for your home.

Media centers allow you to keep all of your electronic products for entertaining in the one place. They help to keep everything neat and collected in a central location and allow for display when you want in a very fashionable manner. They can also help to create extra space by combining the storage of everything in one area.

These entertainment centers vary greatly in size, compartment numbers, style and material. You can get a media piece in any material usually seen in household furniture, such as wood, metal, glass, plastics and veneer finishes. Designs are also available in many styles to suit all kinds of tastes and choices. So if you are a tech savvy person who likes to keep electronic appliances all around and have a good time, you should take your pick today from the many media centers available from different brands.

Depending on your space - which you must measure accurately before you start to shop - you can have them as high or low as you desire. If you are only starting out and want a simple media center for the basic set of equipment you may find a cheaper alternative or material will work better for you. This way the cost will not be so high and you can upgrade at a later date.

Keep the design of your room in mind when selecting, so the piece will complimentary what is already in place. If your furniture is mostly wooden, then looking to a wooden media center or at least a veneer in the same shade would be the best idea for seamless integration into your room.

You can choose a long, low-lying media center that could be anywhere from a few feet to yards long. It will depend on your space, needs and budget. If you have a lot of larger pieces of electronic equipment, you would like to store in a media center look for the options with changeable or removable shelves that allow you to customize interior space to the size you require.

There are media centers being built today that fit perfectly the new larger screen format televisions that are so popular.

Keep in mind that you can also use a media center to store other items and if you choose one that has cabinets included in the design, you may find this is a great place for ornaments, precious items or breakables.

Alternatively, these cabinets are very convenient for storing your media such as DVDS and CDs. Shop around and choose carefully - this is a piece of furniture that you could be passing down to your children one day. You can use the internet to get an idea of what you can expect to pay, so you will know what is a good deal and what is not.

If budget allows, a custom built piece will be very unique and may suit your needs exactly. This will be a one of a kind piece you can truly treasure for a lifetime.

Mark writes on a variety of topics including furnishings for your home. If you are interested in contemporary furnishings for a new television you may want to take a look at TV Stand Furniture. Also, here is where you can go for a great selection in Bush TV Stands.

Constructing the Ultimate PC Based TV Entertainment Center

You likely already use your TV as a great source for entertainment. You probably also use your computer for a large amount of entertainment. With the combination of a properly configured computer and your TV, you can unleash so much more potential for entertainment and make everything so much easier to access.

Entertainment system will include

At the center of your entertainment system is going to be your TV. I of course would strongly recommend an HDTV to those that can afford it. Also, while size isn't the only important factor in the quality of an HDTV, I do have to say, bigger is better. For this setup we'll assume that you have an HDTV that supports HDMI input.

As I mentioned, that TV is great and all, but we're going to use a computer to make it do so much more for you. So that brings us to the computer you're going to want. I would strongly recommend a Windows 7 based PC that includes Media Center. If you don't know what Media Center is, we'll get to that. The computer should also have a nice video card to ensure that your computer can play high quality HD content without stuttering or being slow. You'll want to make sure this video card has a built in HDMI port with audio support. This will make it as easy as possible to connect the computer to the HDTV. Also, it usually doesn't cost much to add a Blu-Ray compatible drive to a computer and it is definitely worth the cash. If you haven't used Blu-Ray on your HDTV you're missing out on a true movie watching experience.

In addition to the TV and the Computer you'll want to make sure you get a Media Center compatible remote for the computer. This will allow you to control everything we'll install on the computer from the comfort of your couch.

Software and set up

As I mentioned you'll want to run Media Center on the computer. This will be the base of everything we do on the PC. The reason for this is that it has an interface designed to be controlled with the Media Center remote so you don't have to have a mouse and keyboard on your lap while doing all of this.

In addition to that you'll want to install the Netflix Media Center plugin. This will give you access to all of Netflix's streaming catalog right through media center. This way you can browse, search, and watch anything that Netflix has available. Netflix does require a subscription in order to have access to the streaming material, but it is definitely worth it to have access to all sorts of movies and TV shows instantly.

Another one you'll want to install is the Hulu desktop application. This application gives you access to the same free streaming content that is found on their website, but it will also work with the media center remote. Hulu does not install itself into the Media Center application, but we can still make it work. You'll want to use a program like Media Center Studio. Media Center Studio is a free program you can download that will let you make changes to the Media Center menu. Using this you can add a launcher icon for Hulu. Then you can launch Hulu Desktop from Media Center and when you quit the Hulu program it will bring you back.

Media Center does not come with built in support for Blu-Ray movies. If your computer came with a Blu-Ray drive it may have also come with a plugin to add support to Media Center for that. If not, you'll need to purchase one. There are lots of options available online. Just whatever you purchase, make sure it includes a Windows 7 Media Center compatible plug in. This will ensure that you can control your Blu-Ray movies with that same remote and without having to leave the Media Center software.

The last real step for configuring your computer is to copy your music, video, and photo libraries over to the computer. Assuming the music and videos aren't protected by non-WMC compatible DRM you will be able to listen to and view any of those files through the Media Center software.

Connect PC without HDMI

Some of you may already have a PC you want to use, or have just picked one up on some killer deal only to find it doesn't have HDMI. Fear not, you can still connect it to the HDMI port on the TV, with some work. Your options are varied. First you can install a new video card in the computer that has HDMI. This is the best option for older computers that could stand to have an upgraded video card anyway.

Another option is to use a DVI to HDMI cable from any computer that has a DVI video port on it. This will get the video to your TV with no problems at all. Be warned though, that DVI ports do not output audio so you'll have to run separate audio cables. Hopefully your TV has an input next to one of the HDMI ports on the TV to allow for that.

If your TV has a VGA input, you can simply use a VGA to VGA cable from the VGA port on the computer to the TV. This will work great in most cases. Some TVs don't support full 1080p through the VGA port, however, so be cautious of that. Also, VGA doesn't carry audio either so you'll need to run separate audio cables in this situation also.

Let's say you've got VGA on your computer, but you need to go to HDMI on the TV. You can use a VGA to HDMI signal converter to convert from the analog format to the digital, allowing you to use the full 1080p input of the HDMI port. These converters will generally support sound conversion to put it on the HDMI line which can help a lot in setting it up.

Just whatever you do, DO NOT purchase a VGA to HDMI cable. Those things have been floating all over the web, but they are a scam. VGA is an analog signal and HDMI is digital and you cannot just use a cable to convert from one to the other. If you purchase a cable like that you'll really just be wasting your money.

Conclusion

Once you have your TV, PC, and remote all connected you'll be all set to enjoy all these forms of entertainment from a single device. We're talking viewing Hulu, Netflix, Blu-Rays, DVDs, listening to MP3s, stored video files, pictures and much more all from one device, and all from the comfort of your couch. I have personally been running a set up like the one described here for about 3 years, and it is continually improving as new sources of media come out. This is the ultimate home entertainment device.

Jonathan Adams
Tech Writer
Don't trust the VGA to HDMI Cable.
Instead use the USB to HDMI adapter.

Convert Your Extra Room to a Home Media Center

Today is the age of modern technological gadgets, from flat widescreen television sets to multiple gaming systems. Take advantage of these advancements, and arrange for your very own home media room. Converting any extra or vacant space in your home into this entertainment center would be such a breeze if you do the remodeling task properly. You have the discretion to either do this on your own or call in a remodeling contractor.

Planning the new room design

Your primary task is to decide which room would be converted into a media room. Basements, attics and detached garages or storage areas are commonly the spaces created to serve another function such as an entertainment room. Assess the condition of the selected space and see if it can accommodate your concept for a new room.

Visualize your ideal media room. Establish its purpose so you could decide on its style, furnishings and gadgets. Are you aiming it to be solely for any of the following - film viewing, video gaming, music recording, mixing or karaoke singing? Or would you rather have a room that can accommodate multiple purposes? Once these basic details are ironed out, prepare a rough draft. Your sketch should include the items and materials to be placed in the room, from specific entertainment devices and gadgets to furniture pieces and finishing touches.

But a room with heavy electrical demands like an elaborate home theater system, the plan has to be finalized by a licensed engineer. This professional would do proper calculation of the wattage requirement of your particular media room plan, and subsequent considerations would be indicated.

Budgeting for project expenses

Funding for this project may be quite pricey. Two correlated factors that could increase your expenses are the status of the room to be converted and the new room design. Expect bigger expenditure and longer project duration if the old room has poor lighting, ventilation, insulation or other deteriorated components. Detailed finishing would naturally cost higher. On the other hand, there are ways to still have a great functional media room even on a budget.

Canvass prices of all the items and materials needed for the project. Exhaust all available sources - from online to local home improvement shops, gadget stores, depots and showrooms. You might as well look for discount or promo coupons for such locations. A few dollars off the selling price could still help a lot. Conversely, rather opt for items that initially cost more as these could last longer. Hence, frequent expensive repairs may be minimized from occurring.

Factor in professional labor fees. Unless you are equipped with appropriate knowledge, skills and techniques in installing electronic gadgets, hiring a technician to do wiring tasks is essential. Consider this move a way to give your electronics and gadgets some sort of protection. The service ensures the items are properly wired and connected to sufficient power source. In addition, you are reducing risks of having fire hazards in your home, specifically in the new media room.

These are but a few pointers upon undertaking this home improvement project. While some of these may take a toll on your budget, time and effort, the new media room is sure worth it. Imagine hours of fun and entertainment whether by yourself, with family or friends once this additional living space is completed.

The Real estate market can be an enjoyable, satisfying and lucrative experience for you. Whether you are a homeowner, a buyer, a landlord or simply a real estate enthusiast, get to know more about the latest in the real estate market now. Read more about it here: Kierland Luxury Real Estate and Kierland Homes for Rent.

How to Hide Windows 7 Media Center Options

As with WMP, you can choose an Express or Custom setup the first time you start WMC. The Express setup takes less than one minute, and you can immediately get started. For example, you can display a dramatic slide show of photos, with MC automatically panning, zooming, and transitioning in a highly professional fashion. By default, WMC scans your Music, Pictures, and Videos folders for media files. You add or remove any folders you like.

At any time after you complete the initial setup process, you can change settings for all of your media-related tasks through the WMC. To configure the options, open WMC from the Start menu, go to Tasks, and then click Settings.

/playfavmusic - Play favorite music at startup, which gives you something to listen to while you decide what to watch

/mediamode - start in "media only mode" with no minimize/close buttons, which is great if you are using a dedicated media center PC like me

Other WMC Switches include:

/playslideshowwithmusic - Same as above with music

/screensaver - Start media center in screensaver mode

/configuress - Start media center at configuring screen saver menu

/nostartupanimation - disables the startup animation

/noshutdownui - removes the shutdown item from Tasks

/playslideshow - Play all slideshows

/playfavslideshow - Play favorite slideshow at startup

/playfavslideshowwithmusic - Same as above with music

/widescreen - force widescreen mode

/nochrome - launch windowed mode without the containing window

/playallmusic - Play all music at startup

To activate any of these switches just add the chosen argument to the end of the 'target' field for your Media Center shortcut and add a space between each option:

You no longer need to purchase a separate edition of the operating system to enable the powerful Windows Media Center functionality on your computer or designated media server it is built right into Windows Vista. Although it provides capabilities for viewing and cataloging photographs that are superior to those of Windows Photo Gallery and capabilities for collecting and playing music and videos that are superior to those of Windows Media Player, the main appeal of Windows Media Center is its ability to expand your television into a total entertainment center that accesses content on or through your computer. With a built-in or external analog or digital TV tuner, you can use Windows Media Center to pause, rewind, and record television programs (more than one at a time), including high-definition television (HDTV). And you can do it all from across the room with a remote control.

If you also have some questions after you read this article, you can visit the original article from: http://www.pcwatch.com/Windows-7-tips/How-to-Hide-Windows-7-Media-Center-Options.html Welcome to http://www.pcwatch.com to read the information of reviews on software,games and top tech products.

Mac Media Center

In this article I am going to take you through the steps of building a Mac Media Center. Since Apple annoucned the Mac Mini every one has been talking about building a Mac Media Center and using a Mac Mini to do it with.Which Mac Should You Get?There are a number of Mac's on the market, and you need to consider who you will use your Mac Media Center in order to decide on which Mac will suite your needs the best.

The Mac Mini

The Mac Mini seems the obvious solution for a Mac Media Center. It's small design, and low noise and heat makes it a great candidate to fit in with your existing mix of stylish audio equipment.The Mini is a great little device, it has a nice processor, a DVD drive, some hard drive space and enough ports to plug it into all the additional equipment you need.The last thing you need is a big ugly tower case, with noisy fans to sit next to your TV and destroy whatever audio fidelity you are trying to enjoy. And the Mac Mini has some sex appeal too.

The iMac

The iMac is also a good candidate for a Mac Media Center, although it's appeal is slightly different from that of the Mac Mini.In a limited space environment the iMac can server a dual purpose. It can be used as a desktop machine by day, and be switched to a Mac Media Center by night.The iMac comes in various sizes, from 17" to 24" so depending on the space you have avalible, and where you want to put it you have a few options. The iMac comes standard with just about everything you will need to use it as a Mac Media Center.

The Rest of the Mac Pac

The Mac Pro, iBook, and Mac Book Pro aren't really as versitile as the Mac Mini and iMac, but can none the less be used as a Mac Media Center.The 17" Mac Book Pro would make a nice mobile entertainment system, but not a dedicated media center.Using a Mac Pro as a Mac Media Center is insane. It's a little like using a crow bar to open a can of beans.You'll need some hardware to go with the Mac Media CenterFor the purposes of the rest of the article I will use a Mac Mini as an example. I have a Mac Mini and have built a media center with it, so using my first hand experience will hopefully be a little more accurate than speculating on what is possible if you have x...y...z...There are a couple of things you will need to get your Mac Mini up and running as a Mac Media Center.Some of these devices are apple devices and some are generic devices. Some work well and some are just a disaster.

Remotes for your Mac Media CenterThe first device you will need to begin hunting for is a remote. Afterall, what good is a Mac Media Center without a remote that the family can fight about.There is the infamous Apple remote which comes with most Mac minis and iMacs.It's a small remote, but works well. It comes in typicall mac style. It's tiny, does everything you need it to do and has no fancy features. All in all it only has 6 buttons that allow you to control the entire Mac Media Center.

There are also a number of generic remotes available. Logitech have a bunch of remotes, some of which work well with Mac, and some that are PC only.I have a Microsoft keyboard and remote, and have been unable to get them going on the Mac.I would advise using the Mac remote. It small, and with ahlf a dozen buttons is actually quite easy to use.My DVD player's remote for instance has 47 buttons, most of which I have never used and I don't have the slightest inclination to find out how they work.You'll also need a keyboard for your Mac Media Center EditionOf course there are those times you need to input some data into the screen, like in iTunes for instance, you might need to punch in your password when purchasing content.No one wants to keep jumping off the couch to press a button, I mean we barely find the energy to get up for another beer.

Apple have a nice bluetooth keyboard that you can use from your couch. It looks like a normal Apple keyboard, yet it has no cables and just fits a couple of batteries at the back.This is a must for your media center. From time to time you NEED a keyboard and having to crawl out from under a warm blanket in the middle of winter can spoil the mood.Of course Logitech and a few other have keyboards that would work just as well. But pairing an apple bluetooth keyboard with the built in blue tooth in a Mac Mini is easier than making toast.Add some storage to your Mac Media CenterIf you have ever spoken to anyone about a media center for digital media, the word storage would have poped up a number of times.The Mac Mini at best will only have and 80GB hard drive, and when you are downloading movies, TV shows, music, adding your own CD's and dumping you digital pictures you can devour disk space rather rapidly.So before you know it, you'll be hunting for a storage device of sorts.Now you have a couple of options as far as storage is concerned.

You can either connect something directly to your Mac Media Center, like a USB or Firewire drive, or you can connect a Network Attached Storage Device.The difference really comes in, when you consider what it is you want to do with your storage. If you want storage purely for media content and want it to be available only to the Mac Media Center, then a USB or Firewire drive is a great option.But if you have more than one computer on your network, like most housholds today seem to have, you might want to consider a netowrk attached storage device, also know as a NAS.Software you will needOnce you have decided on which Mac you want to use, a Mac Mini in my case, and you have you remote, and keyboard ready, and you have some idea of where you are going with some extra storage in the not to distant future, you need to sit down and consider what software you want to use with your Mac Media Center.

You have a about a dozen options, I've looked at a bunch of them, and I've narrowed it down to 3 that I think you should consider.The best way to decide on which media center application you want to use is to install all 3, use them for a week or two and then make your decision.My Mac Mini came with front row, and that's what I decided to use.But here is a break down of the 3 I suggest:Front RowFront row is an apple application, and comes on most Mac Mini's.It's a simple interface, looks a lot like an iPod's interface and has that glass effect. It's a very cool interface, and makes your TV look like it's in a league of its own.Center StageCenter Stage is an open source application for a Mac Media Center. It's a good design and there's ongoing support and development for it.Center Stage is a lot more customisable than front row, and allows a number of skins to be installed. Center Stage also has aditional plugins to make your Mac Media Center do more.Just a friendly warning when using non-Apple software on an Apple machine, especially when it's open source. Make sure you run the stable version. Running a beta version could cause unwanted interuptions during your romantic movie which will result in a night on the couch.iTheatreiTheter is also an open source Mac Media Center.

It aims to work on just about every Mac ever. Well maybe not ever, but at least in the last couple of years.iTheater also has the best user interface (UI) out of the 3. It integrates a whole bunch of other features and can also display the weather.Add onsOnce you have your mac mini, you remote, keyboard, storage and UI sorted you need to consider some add-ons to make the whole media center thing a little more enjoyable.DVI-HDMI ConnectorTo enhance your picture viewing quality, and if your TV supports it, get a DVI to HDMI converter. The Mac Mini has a digital output, and if you can keep your output digital, straight into the TV then you will benefit from the video quality.While HDMI supports audio, DVI does not. So using a DVI to HDMI converter will drop your audio, but it will maintain your video. You can just use the audio minijack output from your Mac Mini to get audio to the TV.TVYour TV is not really and add-on, I can't imagine you having a media center without the TV. Like a car without an engine (I had one of those for a while and it's not so great).When choosing your TV, make sure your TV has some crucial components to accommodate a Mac Media Center. The most important is your input.

You need to, at the very least have a VGA input. HDMI is prefereable but VGA is a minimum.having audio in is another requirement. While you can get away with not having an audio input on your TV it'll only make your life a little more complicated.Audio out would be the last piece of a really nice puzzle. Being able to connect your TV directly to your sound system will enable you to control the audio volume on your Mac Mini from once central place.I'll be posting an article on HDTV soon. Have a look at http://www.shawnsweekly.com for more info.iTunesiTunes forms the foundation of your digital content.

I've been using Front Row, and it integrates nicely into iTunes. So when I flip through the menus, it's like flipping through iTunes on an iPod interface.Using iTunes means that you can download movies TV shows and music from the iTunes store.Once the media has been downloaded, you can access it and watch it with the click of a button.This is a very easy integration and is automatically done for you.Using iTunes to add your CD library to your computer is another great feature. And from your media center you can simply click the remote and play your entire music collection.AlternativesFor those of you who are anti-mac, and want to benefit from the Mac form factor, but want to run MythTV or Vista Ultimate, you can do that.Simply download bootcamp from Apple, load your favorite OS, setup your Media Center and off you go.The Mac Mini really offers you the best of both worlds. You can run Mac OSX, Windows, or Linux, and setup you Media Center the way you want.

Shawn loves technology, and runs a technology company by day, while he plays with cool toys by night. His site http://www.shawnsweekly.com is dedicated to the toys and technology he works and plays with.