Actually, my Media Center died on me a few months back. I managed to fry in while installing a new power supply, quieter fan and some AcoustiPack. It stopped booting entirely - I don't even get video (I tried 3 different cards and unhooking everything else). I'm assuming I fried the CPU - Athlons are, after all, notoriously easy to fry.
Unfortunately, it's been sitting in my closet ever since. I just haven't had the time between work and school. I was originally going to try to fix it over my winter break. I even considered biting the bullet and just picking up a new MCE 2005 machine entirely. (This is a pretty old box and I've already sank a fair amount into it).
Some people have replaced their TiVo with MCE, and there are others that have long known that MCE rocks.
But, for now, my MCE plans are on hold indefinitely.
Why? I picked up a Scientific Atlanta 8000HD DVR from Time Warner. (Apparently they have been available since late September but I somehow missed this - probably because I was still living my MCE dreams).
There's a few reasons I went this route:
Consumer electronics are a beautiful thing. I think this quote via Chris Anderson sums it up: “Bottom line: Media Center needs to decide if it's an applicance or a computer, because computers haven't yet reached the "appliance" stage of their development.“ As I mentioned, I had a lot of problems with the old MCE. It's nice to just turn it on and not worry about things. It just works. I was recording a show literally two minutes after taking it out of the box. As Phillip Swann said, “the vast majority of Americans will never . . .never think of the PC as an entertainment device.” (Thanks to Fanzoo for that link)
It has dual tuners. My DTV service requires a cable box - which means that, even with dual tuners in the MCE, I can only tune a single channel. In other words, if I'm recording something, I can't watch another channel - I can only watch what I'm recording or some other previously recorded show. (The same limitation would apply to a TiVo as well). With this DVR, I can record one thing and watch another. Or, I can record two different shows simultaneously - even while watching a previously recorded show.
No more IR blasters. Changing channels is slow and annoying with IR blasters. (Remember, I need a cable box). I don't have this problem anymore.
No upfront costs. MCE has no ongoing costs but a relatively expensive upfront cost. TiVo has a moderate upfront cost and a higher monthly cost. It also means that, when new technology comes out, I can easily upgrade without having to lay out even more money.
Tight integration. A single physical unit and tight integration with my cable service.
HDTV Support. MCE 2005 adds (limited) HDTV support, but only for OTA channels. This box records and timeshifts HDTV with full Dolby 5.1. As an added bonus, this box also automatically scales output (unlike my previous cable box) - so I no longer have to go between S-Video and Composite when I go between SDTV and HDTV.
The Downside . . .
Of course, there's plenty I'm missing out on. I can't save my recorded shows and burn to DVD-R. It doesn't have the equivalent of MCE's My Music or TiVo's Home Media option - yet. It “only” has 160 GB and isn't expandable. I'm missing out on the pure cool factor of MCE.
That said, I'm not locked into anything. And I've been very happy so far. I'll post again on this after I've had a few weeks with the DVR.