Luxury media center; cheap and easy

A media center, or sometimes called an HTPC (Home Theater PC), is basically a computer connected to a television. Imagine using it like you would a DVD player or game console. It’s a device connected to your television that can be stored in a cabinet. In fact, because you most likely don’t even have to physically reach for the device you could completely hide it. You control the media center with a remote control. Some of the many features of a media center are:

• Watch and collect hundreds of downloaded movies and TV shows (in HD)
• Listen to your entire mp3 collection with album covers and background images
• Watch streaming content (YouTube, Hulu, Netflix, etc.)
• Show photo slideshows
• Watch TV and pause or record TV like TiVo (if PVR functionality included)
• Listen to streaming radio (thousands of internet radio stations for every taste)
• Browse the internet
• Play PC games on your TV
• Etc.

There are many ways to create a media center setup. There is a huge variety in hardware and software choices. You could use an old computer you no longer use and bring it back to life as a media center or you can buy a new dedicated PC in a small form factor. Our favorite combination is a nettop PC with the free XBMC media center software running on it like demonstrated in the video above. We will post a full guide on installing and setting up an XBMC media center in the near future, but for the sake of the quick and easy character of this introduction we will look at other faster and cheaper possibilities.

The quickest and cheapest way to use a media center is to use a so called hard drive enclosure with media player functionality. This is an external USB hard drive with the only difference that it has a HDMI output so you can connect it to your TV and play all the files on the hard drive. We reported on devices like these before but they have certainly developed over time. Your best buy at this moment would probably be the Xtreamer Prodigy which has all the features and functions that you would expect from a media center and is a fair competitor for the Boxee Box. For only $119,- you get a gorgeous little device that you can pop a hard drive in with all you music and videos, you hook it up to your TV and you’re good to go. A summary of the specifications can be seen in the video below.

 
We can tell from experience that as soon as you’re used to having a media center in your home it’s hard to think of a time that you didn’t have it. It’s a lot of fun to install and tweak a media center to your exact needs, but with prices of media players dropping and their capabilities increasing they are a perfect first step for creating a rich and luxurious high tech living room.