Microsoft and more than 40 hardware partners last week launched what they hope will be a new category of computer: the home entertainment PC or (as one calls it) Home Theatre PC. This will appear in the high street stores such as Dixon's and John Lewis to bridge the gap between conventional PCs and TVs. Rather than being offered as an upgrade to traditional PC buyers, it is aimed at the half of the population that prefers to lie back and be entertained.
PCs based on Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004 can show and pause live television, play DVD movies, CDs and music files, show your digi tal photos, listen to the radio, and so on. The system comes with a free electronic programme guide and the facility to record TV programmes to a computer hard drive with one push of a button. And, of course, you also get a PC that can do all the things it can normally do: play games, browse the web, and run all the Windows XP software, such as Microsoft Office.
There's nothing particularly new about the technology - except perhaps the ability to handle HDTV (high definition television) pictures. People have been adding TV tuner cards to PCs for years. However, MCE packages all the facilities together into one integrated system you can operate from the sofa.
MCE is operated via a simple scrolling menu that has the usual twee headings such as My Videos, My Pictures, My TV and My Music. It's a doddle. You can even rip an audio CD or print photos from a memory card without picking up a mouse to use Windows, though it won't rip and burn a DVD. For that you need extra software such as Sonic PrimeTime, which some MCE manufacturers include with the bundle.
The interface is part of Microsoft's long-term push into "experience computing" (XP stands for eXPerience). The idea is that users should not have to think about applications and data, just about what they want to do, such as watch a movie. MCE is an extreme version of this idea, and the New York Times's reviewer described it as "polished... to within a hairbreadth of perfection". What happens when you want to do something that isn't part of the pre-ordained script remains to be seen.
Third parties will also be able to plug into the interface, such as Music Brigade, which is offering a music video jukebox in the UK. Microsoft says more than a hundred software developers are working on new applications and on-demand services for movies, music and games etc. Sony plans to add its own features.
Based on my quick look at about a dozen systems at the launch, MCE hardware manufacturers seem to have a lot of leeway. Most systems have hyper-threading Pentium 4 chips, 512 megabytes of memory and either an 80MB or 160MB hard drive. Nvidia graphics chips are common, and Nvidia, ATI and Hauppauge TV tuners are all being used. MCE is only available on new PCs, and it's the manufacturers job to make sure all the parts are installed and working correctly.
Buyers should be able to choose from a wide range of brands and form factors. Hewlett-Packard and Toshiba are among the big names. HP is offering something that looks like a desktop PC - not pretty - and a notebook, while Toshiba has a couple of widescreen portables. Packard Bell has a white system that looks like a tribute to Apple's bathroom styling. Sony and Dell are launching systems in the US but have not announced any plans for the UK.
However, a number of British manufacturers such as CFL, Digital Networks (Carrera), Elonex, Evesham, Hi-Grade, Hugh Symons, Mesh and Time are developing systems. Several look more like minimalist chrome hi-fi components: the Carrera only has a power button visible on the front. Mesh has based its MCE on its small, neat AMD Athlon-powered Cubex range. Most people should be able to find something that is at least acceptable in the living room. If not, alternatives are on the way, including MCE PCs built into TV sets.
MCE makes a lot of sense if you work, rest and play mainly in one room - if you are a student, or live in a bed-sit. The problem is that if you don't use it for computing, it becomes a very expensive set top box. There is an obvious solution. The Xbox games console is cheap and also runs Windows XP: Microsoft could use that to run MCE, and just drop the whole computer angle.
As far as I know, Microsoft has no plans to do that. But as a £300 set-top box, the X-MCE would probably take over the world.
