Evesham Media Station

Want to turn your TV into a time-shifting, MP3-spinning, photo-playing electronic Daley Thompson? Take a look at the UK's first Windows Media Centre PC

When is a PC not a PC? According to Microsoft, when it's a silver box controlled by a remote control that sits under your TV and runs Windows XP Media Centre Edition. Launched a year ago in the US, Media Centre PCs have finally touched down in the UK - and the Evesham before you is one of the first out of the blocks.

Unlike the standard Windows XP OS, you can't just upgrade to XP Media Centre Edition. Instead, you have to buy a whole new system direct from a PC maker. The systems all share fairly similar hardware: a fast Pentium 4 processor, a big hard drive, a built-in TV tuner plus a cordless mouse, keyboard and remote control. In the higher-end systems - such is this Evesham - you can also expect the TV tuner to be digital (Freeview) and a DVD/CD writer.

The software side - XP Media Centre Edition - is essentially a skin that sits over Windows with big text and simple menus to make it easy to control with an infrared remote and receiver. As well as watching and recording live TV, you can use it to view photos, play MP3s, WMAs, PC videos and DVDs.

ONE-BOX WONDER

Evesham's twist on Media Centre is to take a PC tower, turn it on its side and finish it in glossy silver. Compared to other manufacturers' Media Centre PCs, it's not the best-looking but it's also far from the worst. Noise-wise, it's loud when booting up but virtually silent thereafter - you'd be happy to have it in the lounge. As a normal PC running in standard Windows XP mode, it packs a decent graphics card and plenty of memory. We romped through new games like LOTR: Return of the King, and the machine dispatched video and large graphic files happily.

So far, so usual. What about Media Centre's skin, then? Well, the PC boots up in Media Centre mode by default and the first time you do so, you'll need to undertake a 30-minute set-up. Though easy enough, it shows up the first problem with Evesham's supplied kit - the keyboard and mouse only have a two-metre wireless range.

The main use for Media Centre is watching and recording TV (see box). And while there's nothing new with that, what this does well is to provide a fast and comprehensive ten-day EPG downloaded from the Web (it's presumed you have broadband). Our test machine experienced plenty of stuttering and lip-sync TV problems, but Evesham assures us this won't be an issue with finished models.

So,we like the Media Centre skin: it's intuitive and readable from a sofa on the other side of the room. However, the concept isn't without its problems. This PC is clearly designed to be hooked up to a big CRT or flat-screen, and therein lies the first niggle - even on a 42-inch plasma, it's not practical to use it in 'normal' Windows XP mode.

You can hook it up to a second PC monitor in addition to a TV - we did - but then you encounter the issue of only one person being able to use it at a time. Worse, where do you put the second monitor?

JUDGEMENT DAY

You can't judge this machine as a PC, then - you really need to compare it against digital recorders like Panasonic's DMR-E100H or the Sky+ box. In pure feature list terms, it wins hands down. For performance, though, it loses out. DVD playback is ho-hum, we couldn't get a proper widescreen picture and S-Video is the best connector on offer for connecting to boxy CRTs: where is the Scart? More crucially, it's a few hundred quid more expensive than most conventional digital recorders.

Media Centre's an exciting if slightly flawed step forward for the PC, and Evesham has made a fair stab at implementing it. You might want to hang fire with your cash, though, as we hear Bill Gates will be announcing a new version of Media Centre that supports multiple users in January.

Digital photos, music and videos are also available from the Media Centre interface. The photo slide shows are the best bit here, far quicker than those provided by photo CDs or existing streaming devices like Kiss's DP-500 (T3 87, 4/5). KEY FEATURES:
emedia Station - monitor costs extra, Pentium 4 2.6GHz processor, 512MB RAM, 120GB hard drive, DVD+R/-RW and CD-R/RW combo writer, 128MB ATI Radeon 9600 graphics card, Sound Blaster 5.1 compatible sound card, Creative Inspire P580 speakers are optional extras (£70), for more details on the Panasonic plasma pictured,see page 126 of issue 92, Windows XP Media Centre Edition, connections: 1 x DVI, 1 x PC VGA D-SUB, 1 x composite video, 1 x S-Video, 1 x coaxial digital, 1 x optical digital, 5 x USB 2.0, 1 x Firewire, 1 x Ethernet, 1 x v.92 modem