1. The Media Center displays in a large, bright font,comfortable for viewing from 10 feet away. An optional,WMCE-optimized wireless keyboard also lets you run PCtasks from your couch, and you can even watch TV in aresizable window while you perform other PC tasks.2. WMCE 2005 is a Windows XP Pro machine with a mul-timedia add-on, so it incorporates security features not pre-sent in WinXP Home. You can use WMCE as a regular PC.3. WMCE supports HDTV (high-def) if you have it onyour TV (and your PC has one or more high-def tun-er cards).4. Most WMCE machines (appropriate hardware re-quired) let you record and control multiple TV programssimultaneously and let you burn DVDs and CDs with a fewclicks on the remote.5. Windows Messenger is built into WMCE 2005, so youcan send messages to friends and family(“My favorite episode of ‘Seinfeld’ is on. . . .”)without leaving the couch.6. WMCE isn’t any more of a resource hogthan its parent, WinXP Pro. It shouldn’t af-fect performance when you are in PC mode,even if you are recording programs in thebackground, provided your PC has sufficientpower (see No. 1 in Cons: Burnt Spuds).7. WMCE 2005 supports Media CenterExtenders, devices that can play WMCEcontent broadcast over wired or wire-less connections. 8. Thanks to a new, mobile edition ofWindows Media Player 10.0, you can syncmultimedia content between WMCE and anarray of handheld devices.Pros: Tasty Treats 1. WMCE 2005 has heftier system requirements thanWinXP: a 1.6GHz processor, a hardware-acceleratedgraphics processor, and 256MB of memory (we recom-mend at least a 2.4GHz processor and 512MB of mem-ory). Plus, you’ll need one or more WMCE-compatible TVtuner cards and other fancy add-ons to use all WMCE’sfeatures (included with most preloaded PCs). Of course,you’d need this stuff to make a digital media center out ofany PC, but with WMCE, many requirements are not an option. 2. Microsoft disabled the ability to join an active domain(a client server network) in WMCE, presumably to limitdigital media piracy. That means you won’t be able to logon to your corporate server from your WMCE PC.3. Users report occasional odd quirks in WMCE, partic-ularly videos, programs, and Web sites that won’t loadthrough Media Center yet are fine in PC mode.4. The off-the-shelf OEM version of WMCE does notship with the MPEG-2 codec (the most common compres-sion and digital conversion technology for DVD and TVrecordings). WMCE manufacturers usually install one, butif you are installing WMCE directly, you’ll need third-partydecoder software.5. Setting up WMCE as a multimedia center still requireslots of configuration and connection. Even though WMCEmakes it easier than doing so with third-party software(which is also possible), it can be a bit complicated.Cons: Burnt Spuds With the My Pictures folder open, you can download, view, touch up, print, burn to CD, or create slideshows from your digital images—all with a few clicks of the remote control.The WMCE main menu (above) features oversized, clickable links to the My Videos,My Pictures, My TV, My Music folders and options, plus other program selections
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