MaximumPC 2004 12

Media Centers

62 MA XIMUMPC DECEMBER 2004

T H E U P S H O T

WinXP Media Center vs. Tivo

Head 2 Head A showdown among natural PC competitors

Can the new incarnation of Microsoft’s living room OS beat the original personal video recorder? It’s time to find out!

W

hen we first dove into this Head2Head a few months

ago, we thought Tivo would simply blow WinXP Media

Center Edition out of the water. Microsoft’s release of the

2005 version of the OS, however, leveled the playing field a bit by

providing a more powerful and deep interface that’s even easier to

use than before, and the ability to easily scan and record movies.

The categories indicate that Tivo wins by a final tally of

two-to-one, but in our minds this contest isn’t even that close

because of one reason: reliability. Simply put, Tivo rarely, if ever,

fails us. Crashes are virtually nonexistent on its Linux-based

platform. Media Centers are another story. PCs crash, and crash

regularly, and missing a scheduled recording because of a crash

or lock-up is inexcusable.

With this said, if Media Center can overcome this critical

shortcoming—and its no small task given the wide range of

hardware and driver combinations—we see a potentially bright

future for the platform.

Tivo wins—for now.

PVR functionality: Both

Tivo and Media Center

allow you to quickly and

easily pause live TV and

record future shows. Both

allow you to extend the

stop times of your record-

ings—very important for

live events like sports.

Unfortunately, both also

suffer from the same annoy-

ance: If you pause a TV

show and walk away right

before a scheduled record-

ing, you’ll miss the prompt

that asks you if you want to

stay on your current channel

or start recording the new

program. This could cause

you to miss the rest of the

show you paused.

While it’s a rare situa-

tion these days, if you have

multiple cable boxes in your

living room, Media Center

2005’s built-in multiple tun-

ers eliminates this problem;

the box will automati-

cally resolve the conflict by

switching to the second or

third tuner. This combined

with the fact that a PC pro-

vides much more storage

capacity, gives the nod to

Media Center.

Winner: Media Center

Reliability: This category is a big one. Media Center crashes

coming in and out of sleep/hibernation modes. Microsoft

told us this is primarily due to driver-level faults, and that,

more often than not, videocard drivers are to blame. This is a

massive setback for Media Centers; if your PC crashes upon

waking up, it won’t be able to record your favorite shows

and movies. In stark contrast, over the four years we’ve

used Tivo, we’ve witnessed only three crashes. Winner: Tivo

Advanced features: Both Tivo and

Media Center have a nice set of

advanced features. Both can be

integrated into your home network

(although Tivo charges you for the

privilege). Interestingly, one of Media

Center’s standard features—the abil-

ity to listen to your music library and

view photos—is an optional feature

for Tivo. But there are a couple of

kickers: You can set Tivo to record

over the Internet, and Tivo goes out

and records TV shows it thinks you’ll

like without any prompting from you.

Media Center counters this round to

a draw, however, with two big ’uns:

First, optional Media Center extend-

ers (due to be released in November,

including one for Xbox) will allow you

to access your Media Center from

any TV in the house.

Second—and this is the ultimate

advanced feature —a Media Center is

a fully functioning WinXP PC.

Winner: Draw

Cost: Tivo costs $130 and includes a $12.95 per month

fee, or a $300 lifetime fee, which provides the service

for as long as you use your Tivo. Media Center PCs cost

$1,500 to $2,500. But before you jump to any conclusions,

consider this: When combined with a high-quality set of

PC speakers, a Media Center PC can (and should) replace

your DVD player and your expensive receiver/amplifier. Tivo

can’t. Even so, Tivo’s cost is hard to beat. Winner: Tivo

Interface: The Tivo and Media Center interfaces both present legible text, high-

visibility colors, and easy-to-understand menu options. For standard TV view-

ing, Tivo allows you to see more upcoming programs onscreen at a time for

any given channel, which makes for easier recording. But people who watch

a lot of movies on TV will fall in love with Microsoft’s innovative and incompa-

rable movie-viewing interface, which allows you to browse through currently

playing and upcoming movies as if you were selecting them from a pay-per-

view menu. Because it ultimately depends on your viewing preferences, this

one’s a toss-up. Winner: Draw