Microsoft. Ok, so I didn't want to keep you in suspense for too long, I guess that proves I'm not a great writer. But the fact is that right now in the race to win your digital living room Microsoft is smoking everyone else. That's right, Microsoft. Ok, now let me tell you why and a little bit about my setup. First the goals for my system.

- Ability to access all my digital media (TV Shows, Movies, Pictures, Music).
- Ability to record and watch live TV (ala TiVo)
- Ability to playback virtually any codec type (from DivX, WMV, Quicktime, etc).
- Ability to output a HD signal and playback HD content
- Ability to program my existing remote controls to operate the system
- Easy to use, rich and attractive interface
- Must pass the WAF (wife acceptance factor) test (remember my wife works in IT too so this isn't too hard for me)
- Common interface on ALL my televisions (Plasma in bedroom, Projector in Home Theatre, 32" CRT in living room)

Over the past year I've tried many of the different devices that allow you to access all your digital media in your living room (I specifically mean on your Television, Plasma, Home Theatre, etc). I've tried the Roku Photobridge HD, the Buffalo Technologies Link Theatre, GO Video Networked DVD Player, and countless software solutions ranging from open source (MythTV) to other commercial applications. The only thing I haven't been able to try yet is Apple's FrontRow which does look pretty promising, but no TV support (so I ruled it out). I've also owned a few TiVo's including the first dual tuner model, the DirecTV version and a Comcast HD DVR. Most recently I've used the Comcast box, which while not nearly as nice as TiVo did provide me dual tuner HD recording and playback which was a huge plus. But that's all it does, no music, pictures, video files, etc. So my search continued...

That's when I decided to install Microsoft Windows Media Center Edition on an old PC that I had, which I then connect to my plasma in my bedroom. I won't go into much specifics on hardware/software for Media Center now (I'll save that for a future post) but I will say that is it a full OS replacement - you can't just install it on top of an existing XP install - you have to start from scratch. It's also VERY picky about hardware, specifically your video card so be ready to have a 32MB card as a minimum (and even then it might not work). Once I got it installed I realized that I also needed a USB IR receiver so I could control it with a standard remote control, which I bought from Newegg.com (my personal favorite online e-tailor). After a lot of playing around with it I had it up and running happily watching all the video files I own (countless TV Shows, DVD Movies, Music files, Pictures, etc). But this was only the beginning of my quest...

Soon I realized that the experience (hey, I'm finally using that term that XP was really named for..) in Media Center was not only rich (the on screen menu system is very slick) but it was easy to use and very powerful (yes, it has it's short comings but overall I love it). I decided it was time to really go all out with it and see if it could replace my HD DVR for all my television. I already have a HP z545 Media Center PC that I'd been using in a limited capacity in my home theatre to playback DVD's so I decided that it was time to connect it's dual tuners to my cable company and start using it for recording TV. Once I had all my shows setup to recorded on the Media Center in my theatre I needed to be able to access them on my other TV's. I configured the PC in my bedroom to access the recorded TV shows on my Theatre Media Center so that I'd be sure to only have to record and delete shows once. Ok, so now I can access all my recorded TV shows from 2 of my 3 systems, but what about my living room with my old 32" CRT? I don't want a PC in there so what to do?

Get the XBox 360, that's what. I've always been into games, but the last console I owned was a Nintendo 64 many years ago. Since then I've always been into PC games, mainly because I only play first person shooters. I've always hated playing them on consoles as I don't think they are any fun at all using a console controller (I just like the keyboard/mouse much better). I'd never really considered getting a PS2, XBox, etc until now. One of the very under appreciated abilities of the XBox 360 is to act as a Media Center Extender. This does just what it sounds like, it allows your XBox 360 to connect to your Media Center PC and "extend" all the content on it to your XBox. It gives you the EXACT same interface on your TV that your full Media Center PC does, including all the transitions and nice little sound effects. It not only lets you access all your recorded TV but it also lets you access LIVE TV streamed from your Media Center (assuming the tuners aren't busy recording for you). You can access all your music, pictures, and video files too. The only catch is that you can only access a small hand full of video files, but thanks to Transcode360 you can transcode almost ANY file on the fly and view it in very high quality. Media Extender is the sole reason I bought my XBox 360 (ok, I did get MLB 2k6 which is AWESOME!). Everyone knows that the XBox 360 is a great gaming console but I think it's very under appreciated for what it is - the single best convergence device that has ever come to market in my opinion. This one little device give me access to ALL my digital media AND the ability to play the latest generation of games (not to mention all the other XBox stuff like Marketplace, etc). It really is an amazing piece of hardware and software.

So, now I have what I consider the ultimate home media distribution system. Let's go through it piece by piece for you (I'll just focus on the media distribution, not the other gear)

Home Theatre
- HP z545 Media Center PC (one that looks like a standard piece of audio gear, NOT a computer)
- Dual analog tuners for recording cable TV
- 400 GB of disk space for recording TV shows

Living Room
- XBox 360 acting as a Media Extender

Bed Room
- Self built Media Center PC (it's in a closet so I don't care what it looks like)
- Hauppauage WinTV 150 TV card (so we can watch Live TV in the bedroom - you can only stream TV to an extender, NOT another PC)
- Media Center remote control

NAS (Network Attached Storage)
- 1.4 TB Linux Server
- 6 250 GB Hard Drives
- Stores all my TV Shows (800+), Movies (200+), Music (60,000+), and Pictures (4000+)
- Available to ALL devices on my network, not just my media center PC's

Ok, so now let's go back to our original goals and see if we met them.
- Ability to access all my digital media (TV Shows, Movies, Pictures, Music) - CHECK
- Ability to play live TV and record all my TV (ala TiVo) - CHECK
- Ability to playback almost any codec type (from DivX, WMV, Quicktime, etc) - CHECK
- Ability to output a HD signal and playback HD content - CHECK (more on this in a future post)
- Ability to program my existing remote controls to operate the system - CHECK
- Easy to use, rich and attractive interface - CHECK
- Must pass the WAF (wife acceptance factor) test (remember my wife works in IT too so this isn't too hard for me) - CHECK
- Common interface on ALL my televisions (Plasma in bedroom, Projector in Home Theatre, 32" CRT in living room) - CHECK

There are many other things that Media Center can do, thanks to a very active user community and 3rd party plugins. A few that I use are:
- Local Weather Forecasts
- Viewing your Netflix Queue
- Newsgator RSS Feeds
- Automatic Commercial detection and skipping for ALL recorded TV shows (more on this in a future post)
- Listening to Internet and FM radio

You may be amazed that the leader in digital media in the home is Microsoft, as was I when I started this
journey toward digital media nirvana. Yes, there are a few down sides to all this (expense, the Music
interface in Media Center SUCKS - something I'm working on now with a Jinzora interface, time to get the entire system setup, time to rip all your content, etc) but in the end it is an incredibly powerful system that gives me on-demand access to all my media from all my interface points anytime I want it. Now it's time to actually go enjoy some of my media!