NY Times takes a look at Media Center PCs, With a PC’s Power, That’s Entertainment:

All these features on the living room screen can make other household TV’s seem dull in comparison

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HP has introduced some new Media Centers. Check out the z555 and the z557.

I’ve actually been fortunate enough to have a z555 for the past several weeks in addition to my Silverstone box, and I certainly recommend it to anyone looking for a Media Center for their living room.

Pros:

• Great specs. Triple tuner - Dual NTSC tuner plus an ATSC tuner!

• Great case. When I get home tonight I’ll put some pictures online but lots of attention to detail has been paid on both the front and back. The front has a front panel display, hides connections nicely, looks clean. And the back panel looks like the back of my receiver and not a computer. Everything is clearly labeled and makes sense.
• Great out of box experience. HP really put a lot of work into this and it shows. Great quick start documents. Nearly every cable imaginable (the only one I feel they need to add is a optical SPDIF cable) is included.
• Great keyboard. Works better than my Gyration. No external receiver required, it’s all built into the unit.

Cons:

• Some of HP’s included Media Center specific software needs polishing
• Norton Anti Virus pops up annoying 10′ dialogs too frequently telling you to go to 2′.
• I’ve fallen in love with my custom MCE remote and wish other remotes included it’s features. So I wish the HP one had backlighting and the ability to control my TV power and receiver volume.

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The Onion, Tivo Wishlist Roulette (via PVR Blog):

To test our luck, The Onion A.V. Club entered the keyword “war” into a TiVo WishList and examined the first 14 programs that came up

Did you know MCE has the same functionality?

Go to My TV > Recorded TV > Add Recording > Keyword and you can setup keyword recordings based on:

• Actor name
• Direcotr name
• Movie title
• Program title
• Generic keyword

Yeah, I know, this feature is pretty buried in our UI. …You probably wouldn’t believe how many times in meetings someone on our team says, ‘who designed this thing!?’ :).

(Okay, I need to stop working and go to bed. Good night).

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