Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 lets you do everything other Windows XP PCs do¿and a whole lot more. Browse the Web, play your favorite PC games, e-mail and instant message your friends, and install and use programs designed for Windows XP. Media Center also delivers a powerful yet familiar way to enjoy all of your digital entertainment¿photos, music, TV, movies, home videos, radio, and a world of applications and services whether you're sitting in front of your Windows desktop or across the room with a remote control. Media Center is your all-in-one PC and home entertainment center.
Play DVD¿s: Enjoy DVD movies on your Media Center PC. You¿ll get full progressive-scan DVD playback with online chapter lookup on Media Center PCs equipped with DVD decoders manufactured by Media Center partners (standard hardware on new PC configurations).
My TV: My TV offers a simple way to browse, watch, and record TV, even on multiple channels at the same time (both analog and over-the-air digital). TV features work with an antenna, cable, or satellite TV signal and have a fast and easy setup. My TV includes Live TV, Recorded TV, the Program Guide, Guide Search, and the new Movie Finder2 service¿all without a monthly service fee.
My Music: My Music offers access to your personal and online music collection. Now it's easier than ever to play a music CD, copy it into your library, burn a CD, create a playlist, and edit album details.
My Video: My Videos offers an alternate view of your My Videos folder in Windows XP, organizing files and folders by date or by name and displaying a thumbnail image for each clip. My Videos supports common video types including standard avi, .mpg, and .wmv files.
My Pictures: My Pictures provides a fun new way to instantly enjoy and share your digital photos. Download pictures from your digital camera, view your pictures and graphics, create a near-instant slide show, touch up, print, and burn photos to CD¿all with your remote control.
Copy to CD/DVD: Burn recorded TV to CDs and DVDs with built-in CD/DVD burning, easily share pictures and home movies, and burn CD mixes.
Sync to Device: Enjoy hours of TV, music, video, and digital photos on the go by transferring your favorite media to a Portable Media Center, Smartphone, Pocket PC, music player, or other storage devices, such as external hard disk drives.
Remote Control: The Media Center remote control keeps all of the entertainment on your computer within easy reach, complementing the keyboard and mouse.
My Radio: My Radio offers instant access to your Internet or FM radio services and keeps them all in one easy-to-find place. FM radio listeners have simple access to radio presets just like a car stereo and can even pause and rewind up to 30 minutes of live radio.
Things you need to be aware of:
- This Mercer Xhibitor PC has dual TV tuners and it is recommended that you use a DSTV Dual View decoder. This will allow you to record two channels at the same time! The new PVR decoder only records one channel at a time. The Xhibitor will work with a normal DSTV decoder.
- The Radio tuner is only activated if you¿re using the dual TV tuners (e.g. Dual View decoder). The radio tuner will be deactivated if you use a standard DSTV decoder (one channel).
- The DSTV channel guide needs to be downloaded to the PC on a regular basis. The channel guide is one of the most impressive features of Windows Media Center, without it you¿ll be losing a big part of the Media Center experience. MultiChoice does not provide the channel guide; instead you can get it from enthusiast sites such as http://savage.org.za/zaxmltv/ which are updated daily. To download the guide, you will need internet access. The Xhibitor has a built-in modem (for dial-up internet) or network and wi-fi support (for ADSL, wireless boardband).
- The Xhibitor gets hot and needs good ventilation if you¿re planning to put it in a cabinet. Do not put anything on top of it.
- The Xhibitor is a quite PC and does not hum and buzz like a normal desktop PC or laptop. It¿s been designed for the living room as a silent device.
- The Xhibitor can do anything you do with Windows XP! You can browse the web, write e-mails, do word processing, spreadsheets, play games etc. Anything you do on Windows XP can be done on this Media Center edition.
- This Mercer Xhibitor is still covered by the factor warranty which expires on 17 March 2008. If anything goes wrong, Mercer will provide ¿walk-in¿ support at any of their service centers country wide.
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Specifications of the Mercer Xhibitor Media Center PC
Operating System & Software: Genuine Microsoft Windows¿ XP Media Center Edition 2005
Pause Live TV in your digital home: Pause, record and play live TV, Download and watch movies, Create music collections, Edit digital photos, Browse the web, Full PC functionality
Hardware:
- Intel Pentium 4 3.4Ghz Processor 630 with HT Technology 2MB L2 Cache 800 MHz Front Side Bus
- 280 GB SATA Hard Drive
- 1 GB RAM
- DVD Writer
- 8-in-1 Card Reader
- ATI X300 SE 512MB PCI Express (128MB onboard, 384 system RAM)
- Integrated NIC and MODEM
- Remote Control and Wireless Keyboard
- Integrated Wireless 802.11 B/G Adapter
- Integrated TV Tuner Adapter
High Quality Integrated Audio: Supports multiple industry formats, 192KHz 24-bit audio support w/ multi-streaming capability, Intel Audio Studio for Media Center, with Sonic Focus & Dolby technologies. Line level to AMP or Powered speakers, Full 7.1 Analog outputs, Digital Optical and Coaxial, Independent/switching front mic/headphones
System-wide access to Dolby Premier Technologies: Dolby Pro Logic II and Dolby Pro Logic IIx, Dolby Headphone, Dolby Virtual Speaker
Front Panel Interface: Power/Standby, DVD Eject, Media Controls, VFD Display
I/O Ports: 8-in-1 Media Reader, Temporary Video/Audio connections, Headphone/Microphone, USB2.0, 1394, Flush ¿CE-like¿ grouping of Audio/Video Inputs, TV & Audio Outputs, and ¿PC Connectivity¿, Configurable Tuner/capture option
