Enlighten me please- what is a 'multimedia PC'?

I know I am out of the loop. Please forgive my techno ignorance.

I have heard this term referenced and read a few things that would lead me to believe they have PCs now that you hook to your tv and control with a remote or something? Like- they pretty much can handle all of your gaming, TV watching/recording, internet, etc.

I saw an ad for something like this from Voodoo PC and despite it being expensive- it sort of intrigues me.

Yeah my brother has one, it was pretty cool for the first couple weeks, then the new died off. Now it's just used for games. Recording tv was cool but meh.

OMFG they are sooooo 13337 - they will wipe your ass, spank your monkey, and help you fall asleep. OMFG they are sooooo scaleable you will never need another computer EVAR.

Truthfully, it's just a bullshit term, made up by marketers I'm guessing. It helps ignorant n00bz feel like they're actually doing something intelligent by dumping 3 grand into something they know little to nothing about. I think people have finally realized that nobody wants to watch movies on a fucking computer, and that no one wants a big ugly computer sitting in their living room next to their entertainment center. Maybe a Frag Box would be ok, as long as your friends are really open-minded.

A multimedia PC used to be a PC with a CD-ROM and a sound card. That was mid-90s though.

I believe you are talking about a Media Center PC, however. MS offers a version of XP that supposedly "looks good" on a TV and can be controlled via remote. HP and others offer these "Media Center" PCs for about... $1500 more than they are worth. That being said, for right around $600 you can build your OWN Media Center PC using Linux as the base, with freeware DVD player, MP3/music playing and so on.

BAsically MS wants a piece of your living room and will do whatever it takes to get there.

Most Media Center PCs offer DVD playback, PVR, surround sound, media playback and picture viewing, all from the comfort of your chair.

Actually, I'd be surprised if MS didn't inlude a lot of these capabilities in their X-Box 2, in their never ending quest to rule the world.

AH, what a time to ask this question, cause I building one RIGHT now for my father.

The Windows XP Media Center edition allows you to watch live TV, record live TV, analog AND digital, record HDTV, play music, play DVDs, burn movies and music onto CD/DVD, and play mpegs, wma, avi, divx etc all on your PC on any Media Center capable PC.

You DO NOT have to put the PC in your living room, you can put it in the den, the bedroom, or the office in my case. You can access this PC with Extender kits either via the Xbox or the Linksys Dual-Band Wireless A/G Media Center Extender. These extenders can recieve and output standard RCA A/V, Component video, and digital audio. The extenders come with a remote so through the extenders people can nagivate through all the media they desire that is currently loaded on the Media Center PC. All the navigation works through a separate Graphical User Interface (GUI), NOT the standard Win XP GUI. From the PC itself, though, you can run the standard XP GUI and do your normal Windows apps and the such.

Here's the setup I'm working on. I am placing the Media Center PC in my father's office. From there I am going to set up an extender to his pimpin' HDTV where he recieves his TV signals. Pipe the cable into the PC and control the recording via 2 tuners one digital and one analog. I will also have an optical audio hook up to his 7.1 Dobly Digital Surround Sound. I am also going to set up another extender for my Mother's TV which is just plain old standard def. So these two telivisions will be access any media that I place on the PC. Both extenders will be wireless capable, but I am placing them on the CAT5 T-100 ethernet to ensure the quickest transfer of media.

The whole concept is pretty revolutionary and quite interesting. I'll let you all know more once I complete my Media Center PC. If anyone has any questions I'll try to answer. Your best bet might be to Google some stuff and checkout www.microsoft.com