i don't think you have to spend $900. and actually, you can get a Dell with MCE on it for right around $400--try configuring a Dimension 3000 for w/MCE05 w/out monitor.
interestingly, the "Help" section cheerfully notes:
Are there any monthly fees associated with the online or TV services?
No. Unlike TiVo® 1 and many DVR products, there are no recurring monthly fees, making Media Center (with Optional TV Tuner) an excellent long-term investment.
in my own case, the Dell PC cost $600 ($1800 total minus $1200 for 24" LCD)--that is for a 3GHz Pentium 630 w/1GHz RAM, 160GB HDD, 128MB Radeon video card, Soundblaster card, $80 speakers, XP MCE05 OS, yada yada.
still, i agree w/you that J6P isn't going to spend many hundreds of dollars on this type of system just so that they can run MCE--some people who hack their Tivos might.
(btw, two days after i bought my system i configured the same thing at Dell and they priced it at $2117--over $300 more than i paid. so, the pricing there is not set in stone, and if you time it right you can save a lot of money.)
i didn't get the tuner card from them because for some reason they wanted $180 for a card that can't be worth more than $136 (price of a dual tuner Nvidia card). a single tuner card from Nvidia costs $64, which i think i will install. i just want to play around with the interface until the next gen of Extenders comes out.
if i didn't mention it before, MCE05 actually supports multiple tuners--up to 3 tuners. already you can get an Alienware system outfitted with this (although those systems start at $1500 and up).
how do you use your MCE? do you have it connected directly to a TV, or do you watch on the PC? or do you use Extenders? why do you like it better than Tivo? |
