It all started on October 29th 2002 when Microsoft launched Windows XP Media Center 2002 with Hewlett Packard as their supplier of a computer with the new system. The thought behind it was to gather all the digital fun in one place, partly for the enthusiasts and partly for those with limited space for electronics. When the first machine was available more and more manufacturers followed Hewlett Packard’s example and on November 18th the same year you could buy solutions from Gateway, Alienware, ABS Computer Technologies and CyberPower Inc, besides Hewlett Packard.
It all started on October 29th 2002 when Microsoft
launched Windows XP Media Center 2002 with Hewlett Packard as their supplier of a computer with the new system. The thought behind it was to gather all the digital fun in one place, partly for the enthusiasts and partly for those with limited space for electronics. When the first machine was available more and more manufacturers followed Hewlett Packard’s example and on November 18th the same year you could buy solutions from Gateway, Alienware, ABS Computer Technologies
and CyberPower Inc, besides Hewlett Packard.
The development continued and version 2004 of Media Center was introduced September 30th 2003. Except the already existing functions supporting DVD, TV, music,
photo and radio the weight was put on ”on demand” and
on-line media. A new portal showed up in the main menu simply called ”Online Spotlight” while the cooperation with different companies around the web made it possible to listen to onlineradio, play games and other entertainment with Media
Center and its interface. At this time there where somewhere around 40 manufacturers that sold computers with Media Center.
The design of the interface available today, its content and all of its functions has been developed together with users. During the process Microsoft has done over 20 major investigations where they received propositions and opinions from more then 5000 consumers which later evolved into the thing you see in front of you today when you start Media Center.
Since the product is so very special you can’t buy it separately, instead it’s only sold as a complete package by some manufacturers. Except media Center itself you need a TV-card with support for the system and a special remote and last but not least Microsoft wants to guarantee the function works which they can’t if they sold it separately.
So far Media Center is only available in English, French, German, Japanese and Korean even though there are systems available in other countries as well. In Sweden Network Technical is the first to launch a product with Media Center which they have chosen to name Media Station
Boxter. The operating system is in English and since there isn’t a Swedish version available there are no tv program-tableau for the channels available for download. In Sweden we can expect a complete Swedish product at the earliest by the first quarter of 2005.
Since the product isn’t complete yet (when it comes to some on-line functions) in Sweden Microsoft has been very restrictive with picking the companies that can sell Media Center. Network Technical
is the first and only company which offers a product today even if there is another which has been grated permission. Today Wellton Way, which the other company is called, sells a selfdeveloped system based on
Windows XP, but with its own interface. Microsoft will without a doubt deny further companies to sell products with Media Center at this point until the Swedish product is finished.
We at NordicHardware will however give you a preview of what Network Technical has to offer,
and what we can expect from a future complete Swedish version in about a year. Before we move on to the review we should mention that Network Technical will launch a new version of their Media Station in a near future which will have a completely new look.
Windows XP Media Center is only delivered
as a complete product, which means that you can’t buy the operating system
as peripheral equipment and install it on your computer. If all functions
must work and work satisfactory then there are only a few TV-cards that
are certified to be used in Media Center. Together with the TV-card (which
in this
case is a Hauppage PVR-250) a remote control is shipped that is licensed
to use with the Media Center. Together with software for playback of
DVD
(in
this case PowerDVD) this is a complete solution for what the consumer
experiences as one single product in the interface.
Keep in mind that the base of Media Center is Windows XP Pro, which means that you at the same time get all the advantages with Media Center, also get the ability to use it as a normal computer to do your usual tasks. Usually you have a monitor plugged into the computer at the same time as a TV-set or a plasma screen which gives you the ability to work with the computer and then watch a movie, listen to some music or do something else on the big screen in the living room. The interface is easily started using a button on the remote, which is completely controlled from the remote so that you don’t have to use a mouse and a keyboard. Everything is supposed to be simple.
Network Media Station Boxter: Specifications
Operating system:
Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004, ENG
CPU:
Intel Pentium 4
Chipset:
SiS651B + SiS 962L
Cache:
512k on-die full speed L2 cache
Floppy disk drive :
Optional
Harddrive:
EIDE 160Gb, Ultra ATA/100
Optical storage:
DVD+/- RW recorder
Sound:
AC-97 Soft Audio on-board (5.1-support)
Internal memory :
512M DDR333 SDRAM
Graphics:
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200, 128M, TV-out, DVI
Network:
Integrerat 10/100Mbits with Wake-On-Lan
Case:
SFF
Card slots:
1 x 32-bit PCI, 1 x AGP (4x)
Connections:
Back
2 USB 2.0,
1 IEEE 1394 Firewire
1 line-out
1 line-in
1 line-in (optical SPDIF)
1 RJ-45
2 PS/2 for mouse and keyboard
2 COM-ports, 9-pol
1 output for monitor (built-in)
Front
2 USB 2.0
1 IEEE 1394 Firewire
1 microphone input
1 headphone output
1 line-out (optical SPDIF)
Peripheral cards
1 DVI-output
1 monitor output
1 TV-output
1 input for TV-signal
1 input for radio antenna
1 input for s-video
1 input for composite-video
1 input for sound (stereo, RCA)
Power Supply Unit:
200W, PFC
Size:
200 x 300 x 185 mm (Width x Depth x Height)
Miscellaneous:
PowerQuest DISE (restoration), XP Media Center TV-card, 6-in-1 card reader, Cable kit for DVD and remote + IR-eye
Price:
Contact Network for the current price on telephone 0300-67 00 00.
The package is delivered with the following components:
1 computer
1 wireless keyboard
1 wireless mouse
1 remote, wireless
1 cable kit for DVD
1 antenna including t-coupling
1 s-video cable
1 audio cable
We give this package a big plus for all the
necessary cables delivered with the machine, and cables in sufficient length
as well. The S-video cable for example is very long and even if you place
the computer far away from your TV set it will reach.
I was thinking of beginning
with saying that Network is almost ready to launch a new look for their
Media Center, with the new name Medius. You who visited Comdex recently
could see it in Network’s case and it is also on their webpage for those
of you that are interested. They aim for a look which looks better in
the living room and is suppose to be quieter then the existing product.
The content when it comes to the system Media Center will be the same
though, even if the hardware may change somewhat though.
The base of the whole concept
Media Center is a box of less size. You probably know the look since earlier,
but as I said in the introduction it will change soon. Windows XP Media
Center 2004 is installed from factory and your product key and license
is on the side of the case.
On the front of the small
case (that is why it is Boxter) offers a bunch of different types connections
for accessories and also outputs for other regular uses. From the left
you have an optical line-out followed by a microphone-input and an amplified
connection for headphones. To the right of these there are two USB-connections
and an IEEE1394-connection where you can connect your regular accessories
such as DV-camera, digital camera or other multimedia products. Of course
you can connect anything that has a USB or Firewire-interface, but since
Media Center is probably going to be used with multimedia I wrote the
way I did.
A bit further up to the right you can find the buttons for turning on, resetting the machine the hard way. The diodes are blue and yellow to show that the computer is on and that the harddrive is working. Today there is no possibility to turn it on via the remote but you can turn it off .
Where there normally is a
floppydrive a cardreader is located, which can handle six different types
of memorycards. These are for transferring pictures to your Media Center
from digital cameras and similar. The pictures can then be shown together
with music, one and one or in a stream in a so called slideshow. This
function and of course all the other will be looked closer at further
into the article.
The optical unit in the computer is DVD-writer from Sony which can handle
both standards (plus and minus). With it you can read all media and the
possibility to write is also there.
On the back there is a whole
bunch connections and at a first glance it may look very advanced for
a beginner, but most of them have their natural placement. What you have
to be careful about though is that the card has two connections for monitors,
one at the bottom left from the integrated graphics card and an extra
one at the bottom right. The machine is configured to use the extra one
at the bottom right since it has better performance and therefore you
have to connect the screen through it, otherwise you don’t get any picture
on your screen. This is mentioned in the manual though.
Further more there are two COM-ports, one network outlet, two USB-ports,
two IEEE1394 (firewire) and two PS/2-port (mouse and keyboard). There
are also connections for 5.1-sound (front, rear and center/sub) in combination
with line-in, line-out and microphone. They are configured for stereo
as default and if you for any reason want to change this you have do it
in Windows manually. There is also an optical line-in (SPDIF) and a connection
for connecting the powercable.
There are two extra expansion-cards
installed in the computer, one AGP and one PCI, which is the maximum number
of cards that can be installed. Which means you can not install any other
cards. The card to the left is the tv-card(PVR-250 from Hauppage) and
there you have a connection for the radio antenna at the top, video connections
both in form of s-video and composite and two line-ins for stereosound
via two RCA-connections. There are also, except for this tv-card, other
models which work with Media Center.
The right card is the graphics card which in this case is a nVidia FX5200
with 128 MB RAM, where you got a DVI-connection on the top, an s-video
connection in the middle and a regular for you monitor at the bottom.
This is the primary one an if you later connect the tv via s-video or
your plasmascreen via the DVI-connection. The graphics card which is used
is not bound to any specific model or brand so it can vary from computer
to computer.
Your Media Center is primary controlled with the remote and with control I mean you can start up the interface and control all function in there without assistance from neither mouse nor keyboard. The foundation is a regular Windows XP though so the need for other accessories are big and therefore is the machine from Network delivered with a wireless keyboard and mouse from Logitech. These can also be used with Media Center if you want to, but the thought with Media Center is that you should only have to lean back into the couch and relax and not lean over the keyboard.
On the top of the remote
you control the regular functions which you already know (play, pause,
stop and so forth) in all applications such as tv, DVD, movie and music.
You can also chose to turn off the computer or set it to sleepmode (depending
on what you have chosen in the power settings) with the button to the
upper right. Just as I mentioned earlier you can not activate the machine
with the remote but have to press the button manualy on the case. However,
if you have set it to sleep mode you wake it up via the remote, with a
touch on the same button.
The middle section of the remote is used to to navigate through the menus.
Just as you probably assumed you steer right, left, up and down with the
arrows which points in the corresponding directions and then you chose
with "OK". There are also quickbuttons to jump to previous menu,
open fullscreen, bring out more information about a tv-show (does not
work completely in Sweden yet) and to pull out the tv-tableau and guide
(does not work in Sweden completely yet either).
Below these buttons are quickbuttons for video video, music, tv and pictures and numeric keyboard to chose track, channel and write text and so forth. The big green button on the remote starts up the interface for Media Center and lets you jump back to the mainmenu .
The remote has to have a
receiver and this comes of course along with the computer. It is connected
via USB and then there are two more connections on the back of it. These
are for an extra IR-eye (one extra comes along) which you can connect
an extra receiver with. It can be a receiver for cable-tv or satellite-tv
and the purpose with this is perhaps that you can let Media Center control
your external receiver so that you can change channel in Media Center
it will change channel for you on the receiver. A very convenient function.
The operating system itself is preinstalled
from Network so you do not have to install anything just accept the license
agreement and create a user. When this is done the regular guide that connects
your computer to the internet starts, but you do not have to complete it but
can use your regular connection when your done. If you have a broadband connection
through any of the common Internet providers you do not have to configure
the computer in any significant way.
Another thing that could be worth mentioning is that Network has chosen to
activate the firewall from factory. This is mostly positive, though you may
have to open one or two ports for all services to work properly or if you
want to use any form of server software on you computer that you want other
people to access through the web.
When all guides are done you log in with the user you created and the next
time the computer starts up it will log on automatically with this user. This
is recommended if you do not create any more users, but use only the one which
is automatically logged in. Media Center namely is linked to a user, inother
words where the information is saved.
You are now ready to start Media Center for
the first time and you do this by pressing the green button on the remote
or choose Media Center from the startmenu in Windows. Network is very clear
to point out that you have to follow the guide in the manual for Media Center
to function (the tv-function) since there is no official support in Sweden
for tv-tableaus and so forth.
The installation consists out of four steps which is also described on the right picture above. Every step contains the one or more substeps that you have to walk through for Media Center to function. If you interrupt it it will start the next time you start Media Center. If you wind up in the situation where you did something wrong and want to run the guide again there is a little trick.
Start Media Center and the installationguide will start again.
The above command ensures that you do not have to worry if you do something
wrong since you can do everything all over again so to speak. This little
manouver is especially useful when it comes to this machine since you can
make misstakes during the installation which makes the tv-card not work. This
has to do with that the tv-guide does not work in Sweden yet.
The first step of the guide to configure Media
Center is logically your remote, as it is needed for controlling the interface
when you are ready to hit it. If you do not have your remote connected (the
receiver that is) in this step you will get an error which asks you to connect
it. You can do this without turning off the computer since it is connected
via USB.
To ensure that the remote works the way it is suppose to you can aim it towards
your Media Station (and receiver) and press the numbers at the same time that
you check that corresponding number shows on the screen. When you have ensured
that it works satisfactory you click on to the next step. You will now see
a window where you choose method for downloading the guide which is connected
to the tv-function.
It is extra important here that you choose "manual download" since
there is not any guides for Sweden yet. If you by misstake choose the wrong
option you can go back and reset the configuration according to the above
mentioned method start over.
Check twice that you have chosen manual download of the guides and continue with chosing tv-signal.
Here you can choose what type of signal you have into your Media Station.
You can choose between:
Cable or digital cable
Satellite
Antenna
The last is if you have a regular antenna connected to your Media Station,
that is an analog antenna that you receive SVT1, SVT2 and TV4 with then you
choose the last option, "antenna". If you have cable-tv that does
not require an external decoder you choose "cable or digital cable"
and if you have cable-tv or satellite-tv that requires an external decoder
you pick "satellite". You can still choose cable-tv if you have
your own satellite-disc with external decoder and change channel as usual
on the decoder and then take the signal via a single channel in your Media
Station, but if you want to you can let the external IR-eye control your satellite
receiver.
I start with testing the machine with a regular
antenna and therefore pick "antenna" in the first step and then
"analogue" in the second. No further configuration is required in
this mode but you can continue with the guide. You also get information about
about how Microsoft handles your information which might be interesting to
read. This mode also works if you have cable-tv with a selection that does
not require an external receiver.
Media Center can automatically download information
about the media you choose to put on your harddrive. This can be CDs with
music and what happens when you rip a CD is that information about the CD
is gathered from the internet. The information can consist of the titles,
pictures, covers and so forth. If you want this function, which we recommend,
you simply choose "yes" and continue.
The tv-guide, as we have said, can not be used in Sweden yet, so here we have
to choose "no".
You will get a message saying that you could
not get any information from the online guide, which is normal. Continue and
you are done with configuring the first step. Media Center will start up and
you will be greeted by the welcome screen.
The installationguide itself is relatively easy to follow with small reservation
for the section about the signal that goes into the computer. It is easy to
pick the wrong thing and then you can be struggling for very long without
getting the tv-channels to function. One thing that also might cause trouble
is the the fact that the guide does not work in Sweden yet. If you pick the
the wrong thing you have to start over or change the setting inside Media
Center.
The next step will be configuring your tv-channels, which we will go through in the next section.
For this to work you have had to run the installation-guide and picked the correct settings for how you receive the tv-signal. The guide does not check in any way if you have picked the correct setting, since it can not know what type of setting which is correct for you. If any of the following instructions does not work you might have chosen the wrong setting and then I recommend that you start the guide over again and check that you pick the right setting there first.
If you are satisfied with the settings you
made you can continue by open the option "settings" from the mainmenu
and there pick tv. Here are also settings for the rest of the things in
Media Center, but most things does not need to be explained and changed
to get started with the the product.
Choose "guide" and then "edit guide listings" to manually edit settings. Want to remind you not to download any guides or in any other way accept settings that has to do with automatics since it does not work in Sweden yet.
To continue you have to accept the window
that tells you that the numbers that does not show in the correct order
later is not related to the order of the channels but the frequencies. When
you have done this you will get a window that shows all frequencies from
start to beginning, i.e. number 1 up to 69 (if you have picked antenna).
Thus these are frequencies for setting and not the name or number of the
channel.
To be able to sort the channels later you have to write down the channels
you find, or more correctly the the slot they are in. We can not help you
with a list since the frequencies vary depending on where in Sweden you
live and which transmitter you receive from information from. The information
you have to write down is which channelslot they are located in and the
channels name, so you that you know until later.
A lined paper is in the manual that comes with the product, and there you
can write down the frequencies for the transmissions.
The setting of the slots itself is done
so that you scroll down the list until you find a slot which contains a
transmission. Remember that you have to wait for a couple of seconds before
the channels is presented in the lower left corner, otherwise you may miss
something. If there is not any transmission on that slot logically there
will only be noise after which you simply click "ok" on the remote
and deselect the channelslot. Then it will not show when you choose the
tv-function but only the channelslots which contains transmissions will
be available. This is good so you do not have to browse through a lot of
empty channels to find the one you want.
Alas there is no automatic search or setting-function.
Continue with the list and remove the check
in front of all slots that does not contain transmission and keep the check
with those slots with transmission. When you are done and have wound up
at the last slot you choose "save" and Media Center will only
use the list which contains channnelslots with transmission.
If you are in the situation where Media Center has not found all your channels you can simply add your own manually by clicking "add missing channels". Everything depends on where in Sweden you live and what frequencies the channels are broadcast on. More information about this can be found at Teracom.
Here is the list of channels which you have
previously added, and if you have not added any you will see an empty list.
Click on "add channel" to continue.
You now get to pick a name for you channel and this is done by using the
numeric keyboard on the remote. On the screen shows which numbers that represent
which letters but if you ever sent an SMS this will not be that hard for
you. When you have entered the name for the channel you click "next".
Check the name and continue with setting
the frequency for the channel in form of channelslot. Note that this is
not the slot on the list or number on which you want to store the channel
later but the channelslot which the channel transmits on. You have to know
this for it to work and that is where the link to Teracom above comes into
the picture. Put the right frequency in form of channelslot and continue
with "add".
The channel is now in you list.
This last task is the only way that Media Center can name a channel. If
you names on all your channels you have to take notes about all you channelslots
which your channels transmitts on and then add them manually (with name)
in the menu above.
If you want to sort the channels in a certain order you go to "personalize preset numbers" from the option "settings" and "guide". There you can select the channels and move them up and down the list and just as you sort them they will show up in the real list from the tv-function. Some channels show up as "blocked" and that is because you have chosen to remove them from the list of channels in the beginning of the configuration, thus this is normal. The last setting is only good if you want for example SVT2 to show up on 2 and does not affect anything else in the system.
Generally i have to say it is a pitty that there is not any automatic search
of channels, even if it is not optimal in all situations. Functionally it
is pretty much right on the money so to speak, only to check what channelslots
which has signal and go for it. If you want to sort channels and give them
names it is also very simply.
With the TV function built in to the Media Center you can handle all you entertainment with the same remote. What device you choose to do your presentation is up to your budget and needs to determine. You can use Media Center with a regular monitor, a flat screen or a TV set. You can also combine a regular or flat screen with a plasma screen or a TV. This is the recommended setup if you choose to use your computer as a workstation but would like to use it as a entertainment station at the same time.
In order to get started you click “My TV” from the main menu and your TV guide will appear. You’ll be instantly presented with the first channel stored and by presented I mean a middle sized window with the active broadcast. You can choose from zapping through the channels up and down or you can open the guide and browse the channels you keep stored there.
As you might see all the channels are marked as “no data available” in the list. This is due to the fact that there’s no on-line guide in Sweden as of yet and that the channels we picked are all manually tuned. When a Swedish version of Media Center arrives there will also be Swedish broadcast charts and you’ll be able to navigate in a different way. Those of you who have digital TV from, for instance, ComHem have already experienced how this can look as this will be a similar solution. There will also be a time-line for all channels where each show on the air and coming broadcasts are shown. You can easily navigate through the different programs that you’re interested in and choose program instead of channel. As it works right now we have to keep track of what’s on the air in another way, i.e. with the help of a newspaper or a separate service on the Internet (www.tv.nu).
When you browse the channels of the guide you can choose to show a small sample of the current program in the lower left. If you activate this feature you’ll also be presented with some additional information but as for now it’s just empty here.
After you’ve found a show you want to watch you just press the “live TV” button on your remote. This will make the currently selected channel to be shown in full screen just as if you watched TV before you had the Media Station. This is just true on the surface though as several functions hide beneath the shell of the Media Station.
As you watch a show Media Center will automatically record the broadcast to the harddrive and keep it for a while, somewhat depending on how much free space you have. The result is that you can jump back and forth and have a second look at something even if the show is a live broadcast. This could prove useful in a game of soccer or an extremely funny scene in a comedy or something like it. As you watch the repeat the regular show is recorded so you don’t miss anything.
About the same function is “time shift” or the ability to pause a live show. Exactly as it sounds this lets you pause a live feed to get a cup of coffee, go to the toilet or just about anything. While you’re gone the program is being recorded to the harddrive in order to be resumed from where you left it when you return. The current broadcast is also recorded as you watch the show as it looked like a couple of minutes ago. As you reach the next commercial you can just fast forward through it to synchronize with the actual broadcast again. You could also keep freezing several times and watch as you have the time, depending on how much free space you have on your harddrives. You also have the option to jump directly to the live transmission if you’d like to.
Naturally you can also record a program in its full, both those that are on the air at the moment and those that are scheduled sometime in the future. Normally, when recording a program with the Media Center, you use the guide but now we have to do it manually. Push the button for recording on your remote and you’ll be presented with the left picture. Here you can pick the channel for recording, if this is a one time occurrence or if it’s a reoccurring recording (a program at the same time each week for example) along with date and time.
Media Center will then proceed to record the program and store it on the harddrive for future viewing. If you’d like to watch your recording later on you simply access “My TV” again but click “recorded TV” instead of the guide. The latest recorded show will always be presented directly under this menu for ease of access.
A list of the recorded programs is presented and it also shows information about what channel, time and date it was recorded from. Here you can define for how long you want to keep the recording or if you want to delete it right away to save some room. If you want to change the general setting for how recordings are done just click “settings” from the main menu, then “TV” and “Storage”. In this menu you can define what device to store your data on (only local harddrives are supported), how much space the program can use and what quality to record with.
You can always see how much time you have free on your harddrive to record programs to.
I’m actually very impressed with the TV function and especially the “time shift” function that enables you to freeze a live show. Going to and from full screen or navigating the menus while watching a small sample picture causes no skips or jumps what-so-ever. This is probably due to the fact that a somewhat better TV card was used and not one of the cheaper ones. Changing channels is also enjoyable as it reacts instantly whereas a computer equipped with a cheaper TV card for half the price might take seconds to change channels.
The DVD function in Media
Center are based on a software from a third part manufacturer and the one
Network has chose to install in its Boxter is PowerDVD 5.0 from Cyberlink.
Apart from activating the DVD functions, PowerDVD also makes the TV function
work completely and that the playback of MPEG2 works. Shortly said,
Media Center doesn’t work without DVD software installed, but it doesn’t
necessarily
have to be PowerDVD.
Before we test the function of the DVD
in Media Center we have to chose what kind of speakers we have connected
to the computer to get as good sound experience as possible. Obviously
it is possible to play DVD anyway, but it’s just stupid to listen to
stereo sound if you have a 5.1 system. 🙂
Open PowerDVD via the start menu in Windows XP and when you reach the point shown
in the picture above to the left, click on your right mouse button (if you
are
right handed) anywhere on the screen and chose "configuration". Click
yourself through it until you reach the tab which handles sound and audio. There
you can chose between different options to suit your speakers best. In my case
I chose the 6 speakers option since I have such a system connected to my computer.
When this is complete just save the settings and then close PowerDVD
and open Media Center again.
From the main menu there are an alternative
called "Play DVD" and if you click on this button without having DVD
media inside the reader you will get an error message as on the left
picture above. What you should do is simply to put a DVD disc inside
the player and it will start automatically, no matter where in Media
Center you are. If you already have a movie in the player when you
start the computer it won’t automatically play it. In this case you
have to open the program and click on the "Play DVD" button in the
main menu to play it.
You can whenever you want during the movie’s
playback click on the button for getting the DVD media’s menu located
on the remote control. Here you can select which sound-track you want
to use and which language you want on the subtitles, if you want any.
What you can find in this menu depends on what’s on the disc from the
beginning; it has nothing to do with Media Center.
You can also fast-forward, fast-rewind and jump between different sections
of the movie as usual. You handle everything with the remote control included
with your Media Station. A short time notice will show when you jump between
different section or when you fast-wind the movie. The time also shows
when you freeze the movie.
Playback of DVD has never been this easy, it’s just to but the disc in the
player and the movie will play. Of course it’s very easy with a stand-alone
DVD player also, but keep in mind that this is a combined product which is
made for handling many different types of media, not only DVD. Precisely
as the TV function everything goes smooth and we haven’t noticed any lagging
with the movies we’ve tested.
Media Station Boxter comes with all the
drivers and applications to watch TV, DVD-movies and video. Though we have
to add that not all the popular formats can’t be shown from the beginning.
This requires the user to install so called codecs for this. These small
programs, if we may call them that, are mostly free to download from the
net for a single user, but they’re not allowed (because of licence rules)
to be installed on a product from the factory. There’s also a large amount
of applications to choose between and some of them contain so called
spyware, advertising or something else that you don’t want in your
computer so we’ll keep a distance from these.
Us at NordicHardware have chosen to install
a suitable package that we know works with Media Center, free to download,
that is not too big in size and of course not any rubbish. Please note
that NordicHardware takes no responsibility for the material that is shown
with the help of these programs. Even if the screening applications are
free, almost every movie protected by copyright and you have to have the
original version in your possession.
The programs we are about to download and
install are called ffdshow and ac3-filter. These can be downloaded at
harddrive, on your desktop or any other directory that you can find later.
Now you have two files stored on your
local harddrive in the folder you chose to download them to. The file we
begin with is ffdshow and you do this by double-clicking on it and choose
the language for the installation. Choose english and continue by pressing
the OK-button. A sign that reminds you to close all other applications
surfaces and you continue then by clicking "Next".
Now you reach the license agreement for
the program that you have to accept before you go on. Now the content of the
package will be shown and here you can also choose to add or remove certain
components from the installation. The filter package installs standard
support for XviD, DivX, MPEG4 and variants of these so that Media Center
will know and play most of the movies regardless of the format that they are
coded in. We strongly recommend that you don’t exclude anything in this
setting but continue the installation with the standard choices.
The program will now propose a folder for
the installation and the best thing is to accept the chosen folder. Since
all of Windows XP and Media Center is in english you will want to use
"Program Files" instead of "Program", and it is normal, so don’t change it.
Continue the installation by clicking Next. The installation will now copy
the files to the chosen directory and it only takes a few seconds. Exit the
installation by clicking Finish.
When the installation of ffdshow is
finished we will continue by installing a filter for AC3-sound logically
called ac3-filter. This is a very small file that you just double-click on
and then choose the folder for installation. When the folder is chosen the
files will be copied to the folder and the installation is complete. The
filter makes you able to play movies coded with surround sound using more
speakers if there are such available.
To test the playback ability of Media
Center we copied five small video samples on the harddrive in the folder "My
Videos". The movies that we laid in there were coded in five very popular
formats, namely VCD, SVCD, WMV, DivX and XviD. All the movies that you put
in the harddrive in Media Center is instantly shown as a thumbnail so that
you will know what movie it is, but the formats that aren’t managed by Media
Center are shown as a standard icon. If you try to click on a file like this
you will receive an error message saying that the file format is
unrecognizable and that you have to install support for it.
Media Center managed to play VCD, SVCD and
WMV as a standard which you can see in the left picture since they’re
shown with a screenshot from the movie instead of an ordinary icon. The
right picture shows the same movies after the installation of ffdshow and
ac3-filter, and as you also can see Media Center now recognizes all the
movies and can play them all without any problems.
This combination has been tested under a
long time and we have to say that this is the most flexible solution for
the problem with different formats in the movies. As said earlier, there
is an amount of packages with filters out on the market but most of them
install so many unnecessary things, mostly spyware and other things that
only have negative effects on your computer and in the worst cases it can
make it completely unusable.
If
you want to watch movies via the network, you can also do this with a
little effort. The only thing you have to do is to make shortcuts to the
folders in the network that contains the files you want to play and put
these shortcuts in "Shared Video" on you local harddrive. When you choose
this alternative in Media Center, the shortcuts to the other folders and
computers in the network will be available for browsing. Initially I was a
little skeptical to how it would work with all the types of movie formats
in Media Center, but after I’ve tested these simple ways to get everything
to work I am very satisfied.
Music is one of the greatest functions of
the Media Center and it also happens to be one of the most used functions
by myself. Regardless of whether I’m working on my computer or doing nothing
at all I almost always keep some sort of music on in the background, be
it a CD, internet- or regular radio. Media Center is constructed so you
can store all your discs directly on the harddrive, together with information
about them so you can access them easily with your remote control. I saw
a very fitting comment on the Internet as the first version of Media Center
was released, "once you have stored all your discs you will start to
discover music you had completely forgotten about", and that could
not be more right.
We start out by selecting "My music"
from the main menu and will then be taken to a sub-menu where you can
choose to sort your audio library in a couple of different ways.
Albums
Artists
Playlists
Songs
Genres
This information is provided to Media Center from Windows Media Player
9 which lays the foundation for the functions of the actual interface.
When you sort or search in Media Center, the actual search is performed
in Media Players directory depending on how the sorting and categorizing
is done there. Since this library is empy the first time you access it
you will have to choose something to fill it with initially. I insert
a a regular audio CD in the reader and as you can see I am presented with
the names and length of each track along with the cover of the CD after
just a few seconds. The first track automatically starts to play and I
can immediately browse between the songs and play others if I would like
to.
After I have played a little with the
functions I decide to transfer this CD to the harddrive so I will always
be able to access it, without having to insert the actual CD. To do this
you simply click "Copy CD" and a dialogue box will pop up asking
you if you want to copy protect the tracks in the process. If you choose
to do this you will only be able to play the disc from this computer and
mobile devices connected to this computer. If you choose not to, you will
be able to play the disk on any computer you want to.
The next box will tell you that the standard format for extraction will
be used and if you want to change this you will have to do it in Media
Player before you transfer the disc. If you want to change the settings,
press "Cancel" and if you are ok with the current settings and
want to continue just click "Finish". If you are playing a song
at this moment it will not affect the transfer as it is taken care of
in the background.
I was thinking we may have a look at the
different settings for file transfers when we are on the subject anyway.
This is done by opening Windows Media Player (you will have to exit Media
Center and enter Windows to do this) and enter the menu "Tools"
followed by "Options". Here is where you, in the "Copy
Music" tab, can change the settings for what format to store the
music in and what sound quality you want to use. By default the "Windows
Media Audio" and 128 kbps settings are used and I would say that
is a pretty good setting. You can also choose to let Media Center automatically
transfer CDs upon insertion if you activate the setting called "Copy
CD when inserted".
Another setting that might be good to check out before you start using the folder is "Monitor Folders" in the "Media Library" tab. This setting activates monitoring of a folder on the harddrive so that when you copy music to it Media Player will automatically add the music in the folder. Music in this folder will then be visible from in Media Center and you can access it with your remote.
When you are satisfied with your settings
you are ready to return to Media Center and "My Music", click
"My Music" and complete the guide this time. A small rotating
icon will show you what track is being transferred at the moment and when
it settles you will know the track is transferred to the harddrive. A
percentage meter is also present so you can tell how much of the CD has
finished even if it is a relatively quick task to transfer a whole CD.
As the copy process is complete you can safely remove the CD and archive
it in a secure location. As I said earlier you can play any track from
the CD even during a transfer.
As it happens music nowadays does not always come in the form of a CD though. You might have purchased music on the net in MP3 format or maybe you already have CDs transferred to MP3 files. This is no problem at all as Media Center can handle these files as well.
You may recall that we activated a folder for monitoring earlier? If you
exit Media Center, start Media Player and click "Media Library"
you will be presented with the disc we already transferred to the harddrive.
At the same time as you have this view up you could, with explorer, copy
an album in MP3 format to this folder and thanks to the monitoring of
this folder the new album will be automatically added to the listing.
If, for some reason, Media Player should
be unable to find information about your album you can complete this yourself
by providing the name of the album, artists and the different tracks along
with images of the cover for instance. It is possible to select and change
all the files at the same time so you do not have to enter artist information
more than once which is very convenient.
If Media Player finds information about your album automatically on the
Internet it will arrange the track names, numbers and cover image so they
match the real McCoy. The right picture shows an album I copied in MP3
format to the monitored folder on the harddrive and the information about
the disc was automatically located and inserted into the directory.
I t is also here where you create your favourite lists, or a so called
"playlist", with songs you want to play with a single click.
These lists are then accessible from the menu "playlists" in
"My Music" in Media Center. Media Player also keeps track of
what songs you play the most and hand out a sort of score for popularity
so you can play the songs you like the most and skip the ones you do not
like. If you want to you can manually grade the tracks like this in Media
Player.
When you have copied all the discs you
want in Media Center for the moment you close Media Player and start the
interface with your remote. If you now click the menu "My Music"
you will find everything you just transferred. As you can see we have
two albums with cover, one with its own image and one with no image at
all. All the albums found here can be edited at any time in Media Player
and the effects will show up in real time in Media Center.
Navigate with the help of the arrows on the remote and play the entire disc, one track at a time or why not randomize the songs in the album or the entire directory. Just as I said, the possibilities of searching and playing is next to endless.
If you would like to there are also a couple
of visual effects you can choose to show along with your music and by
doing so, create a small music video if you can call it that. There is
a bunch of built-in effects and you choose between them with the remote.
You can also choose to display information about the track in the beginning,
the end or the full duration of the track. If you do not want the visual
effects you could always show pictures from the vacation, directly from
the harddrive, a memory card or something alike. You can also create slide-shows
with different effects and of course show the track name, artist and cover
image here as well.
Personally I think it is a small drawback you can not browse for music
as you can with the movies in "Shared Videos" and then play
them. You have to put everything in the Media Player’s directory and it
is not always you feel like doing that. On the other hand there are advantages
with this method as well if you, for example, want to store the music
with a cover image and the correct names of the songs and so on.
We are done with the mayor functions in
Media Center and I thought I could continue with a mixed chapter about
the other features worth mentioning. The fact is that Media Center is
supposed to be easy to use and therefore has the number of menus and
submenus been limited to a level that everyone should be able to find
it easy to
use. If there would have been too many possible settings and too much
that has to be configured and changed it would have been too hard for
a regular user to feel comfortable with the system.
Media Center can, just like with movies
and music, manage your pictures. You can read pictures from three sources:
My Pictures
Shared Pictures
Other media
The two first alternatives are folders on the local hard drive or a hard
drive on another computer in the local network. Just like with movies you
have
to create the shortcuts yourself to the other folders or computers on the
network in the folder "Shared Pictures" to make them visible
in Media Center. You only have to do this once. The pictures you have stored
can be sorted by date or name and you can also play them as a slideshow
with chosen picture files. For the show you can play the music of your
choice and create your own little music video, which we showed in the chapter
for music.
The last alternative, which is called "Other Media", are memory
cards which are connected to the computer via the preinstalled card reader
included with the computer. This
card reader can handle all
popular
memory cards and you just have to insert the card in the reader to get
the possibility to watch the pictures in Media Center. The
picture to the
right
shows the
content of a memory card from a digital camera and as you can see you
can browse through the folders and also the pictures with help
of the remote control.
On the button for settings through this menu there are options for how
the pictures should be shown on the screen, how the presentation of the
pictures should function and some other options that has to do with pictures.
However,
as I said in the beginning, the settings you can change here are very limited
so it won’t feel complicated.
Media Center also got a simple function
for regular FM-radio. To get this working you have to connect
an antenna to the correct in port
on the TV-card on the back of the computer. After that you just have
to find the right frequency
for your channel and listen. You can also chose to save channels so you
can access them easily through the buttons on your remote control later.
The function is very simple but still functional.
If you go online instead and look for contents, there is an option on the
main menu called "Online Spotlight". This is a service under
construction and will in the future offer a lot of "Content on Demand" as
it’s called. Movie and music is ordered via internet and is watched in
real time, under the circumstances that you have an internet connection
with enough bandwidth. A lot of functions in here are suited for the
American
market and we in Sweden have to wait some time for the same possibilities.
However, you can chose to use some of the things, for example listen
to the radio through the internet.
Since Windows XP is the foundation for
Media Center there are actually some settings that have to be done. A
lot of people will also use the computer as a tool for work, surfing
the web or playing games besides using it as an entertainment unit. Before
we round of I was thinking of mentioning two settings which I found necessary
to change and those are the settings for the sleep mode and the speakers.
The sleep mode is what the computer goes into when you press the button
on the remote that looks like a power off-button. The standard setting
for the computer is to go into sleep mode but still be on, so to speak.
The advantage with this is that you can start it up with the remote again,
with the same button, but the disadvantage is that you can’t turn off the
computer completely in any other way then using the keyboard
and mouse. If
you instead go to the control panel and chose "Power options" you
can under the Advanced-tab chose something else instead of
sleep mode when you press the button. Personally I have chosen the option "Ask
me what to do". That way I can continue choosing sleep mode, reboot
or just simply turn it off completely.
The other setting has to do with the speakers and this can be done in the control panel and "Sound Effects Manager" which
is a part of the sound card. Here you can configure the three connections
on the back of the computer and in most cases I can imagine they should
be set to use a 5.1-system, which they weren’t as default.
Network has actually thought of some other settings that you usually change.
These are screensaver, which is turned off completely, which is good. They
have also activated the power saving mode on the hard drive and the screen,
and also automatic sleep mode to not interfere with the functions of Media
Center.
Network Media Station isn’t delivered with
any media for Media Center 2004 but you can chose to reset the machine to
the factory settings with PowerQuest Drive Image which is installed on
the hard drive. A hidden partition containing the original installation
makes it possible to do this and this partition is also hidden in Windows.
However, you have to be careful with using programs such as
fdisk,
since
you
can accidentally delete the partition which contains the factory settings
and thus lose its possibility. The machine must then be sent for
maintenance to regain the possibility.
Except resetting to the factory settings you can make your own backups
which can be restored later, which can be very good if you want to install
something
you aren’t sure of how it works. It might also be a good idea to do this
with
now and then in case of virus or similar.
Even though Media Center has been around for
a couple of years it is not until now it has risen to a grade of maturity
where this type of product becomes interesting. There have been many attempts
of manufacturing similar products and I believe they have failed because the
software manufacturer has either been too small, too little resources or trusted
in technology and software from many different players. This has lead to that
the final product might not have functioned in an optimal way between the
different functions of the system, or that the functions alone have been too
advanced or hard to use.
Many people take a step back when you mention the word Microsoft, but you
can say what you want but very many of you out there are using Windows XP
on your home computers. There are resources behind the company and they have
really put time and energy into this product, but foremost they have listened
to the customer and their thoughts. All this put together has become Media
Center 2004, a to us very positive experience purely spontaneous.
Since the product is based on Windows XP Professional the product has everything a regular computer does. You can do word processing, pay your bills via the Internet or do anything you normally do with your computer. When you are done you can turn your eyes to your tv or plasma screen and pick up the remote and watch you favorite show which Media Center recorded the yesterday, listen to music or whatever you want to do. The interface is neat, simple to navigate through and everything is actually on the remote making any other equipment obsolete.
The technician in me was of course skeptical at the beginning since you got
the need to fiddle with every setting tuning it to perfection. To my surprise
this initial fear for not having complete configuration possibilities was
converted into a very comfortable relief over having something that can handle
everything and makes it very easy for me. Sure there are some minor things
that need fixing, for example installing some extra filters for video playing
more types of movies but works flawless despite that. We were counting on
that at least something would make create problems and not function but everything
works just the way it was suppose to.
Despite this not everything that sparkles is diamonds and a great disadvantage
is of course that it is only available in English at the moment. This does
not bother me that much having the operating system and all menus in English,
but I can imagine that some people will have problems with this. What we miss
is of course the tv tableaus and the possibility to see what programs that
are coming and through that record them to the harddrive. We will just have
to hope that this will be implemented in the beginning of 2005 when a Swedish
version Media Center is expected to arrive.
Another disadvantage is that you can not buy the operating system separately,
but only a complete product from any of the approved retailers that are available
today. This depends on a lot of factors and among others are of course it
demands certain hardware and a special remote to make it work. It is also
probably because Microsoft wants to guarantee the functionality, and they
can not do so if it is sold as a separate product, later to be combined with
a computer and hardware which has not been tested. I have to agree that it
will become expensive for a regular user that already have a good computer
and only want the function Media Center, but I still think it will win in
the long run on having a product that is already tested and functions. Consequently
this point becomes both a pro and a con.
Network Media Station Boxter
Pros:
+ A remote for all functions
+ Good looking interface and easy to work with
+ One box for both work and entertainment
+ A functioning integration between the functions
+ Only available as a complete product
Cons:
– Tv tableaus missing in Sweden
– No automatic search for channels
– Expensive since you have to buy a completely new PC
To summarize I have to say it is hard to be
separated from my Media Center and I can definitely not imagine replacing
it with any another product now that I have used it a couple of months. The
development of Media Center continues rapidly and for you who wants to know
more you may find the following pages interesting:
The three first pages are official pages from Microsoft while the other two are written for and by enthusiasts. The unofficial ones contains a lot of information and have very good forums where answers for most questions can be found.
Close Media Center.
