| Welcome to Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004 PC For Dummies. What a mouthful! But each word is important, nay, critical! This book is about Microsoft’s next generation of operating system, Windows XP. But this is not an ordinary piece of software — Media Center 2004 is Microsoft’s major push to merge the computing and entertainment domains in your home. In other words, Microsoft is getting involved in something called convergence — where two previously separate worlds (computing and entertainment) become one.
But wait, there’s more — it’s not just about the software, because this software comes matched with purpose-built PC hardware platforms: souped-up, totallywired (and wireless), processor-rich computers that can drive your television and stereo as easily as they can download your e-mail.
This book tells you everything you want to know about these Media Center PCs. We’re truly on the verge of a new revolution in the home, in which the power of your stereo, home theater, TV, VCR, CD/DVD player, radio receiver, satellite/ cable receiver, and other entertainment devices are sucked into a powerful computing platform that can sit beside your TV. |