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For six years, the Internet Nexus served as my technology blog, but I've since started blogging at the SuperSite Blog instead. If you're looking for the blog, please head there. --Paul

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Creating a Media Center Mac? Not Quite

Really, he's "creating a Media Center PC":

I’ve been toying with a media PC for a while now but, however hard manufacturers try, pretty much none of them is likely to pass the wife approval factor (WAF).

I tried Media Portal a while back but found it a bit buggy; Myth TV is supposed to be pretty good but I believe it can also be difficult to set up properly; the Apple TV sounded good at first - except that it doesn’t have PVR capabilities and relies on many hacks to get it working the way I would like it.

Then, I saw the latest version of Windows Media Center - Mac OS X includes Front Row but Media Center has some killer features… and I have two spare copies of Windows Vista Ultimate Edition (thank you Microsoft)! Why not install Vista on a Mac Mini, then plug in a USB TV tuner (maybe more than one) and use this as a DVD player, PVR and all round home entertainment system?

Why not indeed? You've created a Windows Media Center PC, something that's been around for many years. But props to Mark for recognizing the superiority of Media Center. As noted perhaps a bit too frequently, my family has been using Media Center as their sole TV interface for, oh, over five years now. Good stuff.

Labels: Digital media, Mac, Vista

[ Posted at 10:44 AM | Permalink ]