I have studied the offerings and decided on the machine I would like to investigate. Now there needs to be either a monitor, flat panel or TV. Here I have tried all three.
Buy Now...
A Media Centre PC is something that may even gain acceptance in the lounge, the one I used anyway was just a grey box and in that context was little different from a VCR or DVD player. It was supplied with a cordless mouse and keyboard but as far as some are concerned the most important tool is the dedicated remote control.
At the time of writing this first item I have had the Media Centre for around a week and while it has been in daily use mainly in PVR mode, only now do I have all the bits required, so this item centres on what it is attached to.
When it first arrived there was no SCART set so connection to the TV was not on. I always like to ascertain shortages and correct working without delay, so using the supplied DVI to Analogue converter I attached it to a spare 15inch monitor, so I now knew it worked. I then found an old set of speakers and these proved there was sound.
A few days later the missing bits arrived but I have to say the supplied information was not enough for me to extract the required leads from the MCEPACK1 to the supplied SCART plug/adapter unit. An email produced a helpful phone call that established that all I needed was the S-Video lead from the video card to the SCART plug/adapter and then I have pictures.
This also turned out not to be that simple as the supplied SCART plug/adapter had a bent pin and only after close examination could this be sorted. I was unaware that the only SCART socket to accept S-Video is 2-S so lucky he was on the line. Once gone I realised that I still had no sound so connecting a couple of the multitude of leads from the MCEPACK1 to the rear of the SCART plug/adapter and to the speaker socket on the PC solved that. I found that even though it was a recent TV doing anything worthwhile in PC mode could only be accomplished in 800x600 mode as any resolution above this was not clear at all.
Friday evening saw a long awaited 23 inch panel arrive and as this has both analogue and DVI sockets I attached this to the latter and it has been running in top mode of 1920x1200 with excellent sharp images.
Most people will buy a Media Centre for the PVR abilities and here my tests have worked well with monitor TV and panel. I have spent the weekend playing them back though the panel. This unit is supplied with two TV cards so it is possible to watch one while recording to the other or to record two programs at the same time. Certainly this aspect appears to be working fine.
So keep looking out for three further articles one around the Media Centre PC and one about the 23 inch panel, first however an item already started about Microsofts Media Centre operating system upgrade from their 2002 original version.
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