Media center

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For the product by J. River, see Media Center (software application).

A media center system

A media center is a computer adapted for playing music, watching movies and viewing pictures stored on a local harddrive or on a (in some cases wireless) network, watching DVD movies and often for watching and recording television broadcasts. Some software is capable of doing other tasks, such as finding news (RSS) from the Internet. Media centers are often operated with a remote control, connected to a television set for video output, and can often function as a normal personal computer. A media center can be purpose-built, or created by individuals by adding media center software to a PC or some other computer, for example an Xbox.

1 Functionality and advantages
2 Common applications
3 See also
- 3.1 Software

[edit] Functionality and advantages

Typical, complete media centers offer the following functionality and advantages to the user:

Integration of all forms of media, entertainment and communication functions including TV-reception (analogue TV, DigitalTV via terrestrial-, cable-, satellite-, IPTV-, webTV-networks), broadband Internet access, IP-telephony, video-telephony, e-mail etc. into one common user friendly GUI (graphical user interface) controlled with a remote control or wireless keyboard by the family members typically in the living room
Ability to receive digital media files (via direct video signal, computer network or USB)
Ability to store digital media (usually on a standard computer hard disk drive)
Ability to playback digital media through standard television or hi-fi equipment
Simplicity (compared to a computer equipped to accomplish transfer, storage and TV/hi-fi playback)
Cost savings (compared to a computer equipped to accomplish transfer, storage and TV/hi-fi playback)
Portability (compared to a computer equipped to accomplish transfer, storage and TV/hi-fi playback)

Though media centers are often built using similar components to personal computers, they are often smaller; media centers sometimes have hardware that is not usually seen in personal computers, such as receivers for remote controls, or television tuner cards. Media centers have not seen widespread popularity but are starting to take hold in the UK and the United States.

[edit] Common applications

There are several common applications for which media centers are beginning to gain popularity. Simply put, any application requiring the playback of digital media based files, but not requiring the full features and flexibility of a personal computer stands to benefit from the reduced size, reduced complexity and reduced cost of media centers when compared to similarly equipped PC's.

Common applications include: