Microsoft Launches XP Media Center Edition
By: Arie Slob
Last Tuesday, Microsoft announced the North American availability of Windows® XP Media Center Edition via HP Media Center PCs. HP Media Center PCs, are now available at more than 1,400 retail outlets including Best Buy, Circuit City Stores Inc. and CompUSA in the United States, Future Shop Ltd. and Best Buy in Canada, and direct from HP.
"Windows XP Media Center Edition greatly enhances consumers' ability to use their PC for both work and play," said Bill Gates, chairman and chief software architect of Microsoft. "This newest member of the Windows XP family enables consumers to enjoy the best of what digital entertainment has to offer and takes us into an exciting new era of personal computing."
Powered by Intel Pentium 4 processors, HP Media Center PCs are optimized to take full advantage of the capabilities of Windows XP Media Center Edition. Intel's Pentium 4 processor offers the higher-performance processing needed to deliver significant performance gains for a best-in-class home entertainment experience. Building on the rich media platform launched one year ago with Microsoft Windows XP, Windows XP Media Center Edition turns a PC into a media center that integrates digital entertainment experiences with the freedom of remote-control access. Consumers can enjoy live television, personal video recording, music, photos, videos and DVDs from a new remote-controlled PC experience called Media Center. The sleek Media Center interface serves as a unified destination for entertainment on the Media Center PC and is designed to be viewed from anywhere in the room. Windows XP Media Center Edition is ideal for digital media enthusiasts and consumers, such as teenagers, college students, young adults and families, who must operate in small, space-constrained environments and who want to use their PC for entertainment and digital media.
The specs on the HP Media Center PC, are quite impressive: besides the Pentium 4 processor it features a recordable DVD drive, a 120GB hard drive, front-accessible media drive slots, a TV tuner card, and 5.1 channel surround sound capabilities.
Microsoft's MCE Web site also has an extensive product overview and demos.
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