PC... media center... type question

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GORDON
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Post by GORDON »

I'll be retiring my current "production" PC soon, and giving it new duties as a television media-type thing. Stuff on the PC being displayed on the TV w/surround sound system.

I figure obvious additions will be wireless keyboard and mouse for the coffee table in the tv room... but does there exist a remote control that can pause/rewind/etc stuff on the pc? Maybe that wouldn't be necessary if I consider the keyboard/mouse to be the remote controls.
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Cakedaddy
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Post by Cakedaddy »

I'm sure there is. When you order a new laptop from Dell, you can get a built in tuner with remote.
TheCatt
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Post by TheCatt »

What OS?

I use Windows MCE, with the Windows MCE remote. While I like the remote, they have a fundamental electrical issue (perhaps corrected in the 1.5 years I've owned it) that makes them freeze up every once in a while. To correct, you have to short the battery terminals with a paper-clip or such. The first one I owned died completely after 3 days. The second one has been much better behaved.

I used to have a StreamZap prior to MCE.
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GORDON
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Post by GORDON »

What can MCE possibly have that XP doesn't? All the fancy stuff is still hardware... right?
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TheCatt
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Post by TheCatt »

It's a glossy UI on top of the fancy hardware stuff. If you are looking at Tivo-like capabilties, it has a program guide and such. You'd need a TV card to go with it, of course.
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GORDON
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Post by GORDON »

Hmm. Hadn't considered tivo-like abilities.
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TheCatt
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Post by TheCatt »

Well, I've got One of these inside and can record 2 things at once.

The chip is only 1.25Ghz Athlon, but can do two recordings at once pretty well. (512MB RAM)

Playing something back while recording two things at once pretty much brings it to its knees though. (SATA drive would help with that).
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