I remember WinBook back from pre-Windows 95 days offering value priced laptops.  Looks like they are being quite aggressive in this market.  I had the good fortune of seeing this living room form factor Media Center PC this morning -- very nice, and with room for expansion (at least 3 PCI slots were free).

http://www.winbook.com/ad_dest/wsj.html

30" Wide Screen LCD-TV
• HD-Ready
• HD Tuner required for HDTV reception (Not Included)
• 1280 x 768 WXGA resolution
 • 15:9 Wide-Screen Aspect Ratio
• Ultrathin 4.25" deep without base
• 33.51 lbs.
• 600:1 Contrast Ratio
• Wide, 170° viewing angle
• Built-in Speakers (10W + 10W)
• Picture in Picture (PIP)
• Closed Captioning
• Removable base with VESA Compliant Mounting points
• Composite, Component & S-Video Input Ports
• Ports are conveniently located on both sides

PowerSpec® MCE 410
 • Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor 530 with HT Technology
(3GHz, 800MHz FSB, 1MB Cache)
• Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005
• 512MB PC3200 DDR RAM
• 160 GB SATA Hard Drive
• 16X Dual Layer DVD±R/RW Burner
• ATI Radeon X300LS with 64MB DDR SDRAM
• NTSC TV tuner with pause, replay & programmable
record capabilities, FM Tuner
• 7 in 1 Media Card Reader
• Wireless Remote
• Keyboard & Mouse
• 1 Year On-Site Warranty

Sean, Matt and I had the pleasure to be interviewed by Thomas Hawk and he posted the first of two parts yesterday -- check it out at http://thomashawk.com/.

Media Center Hosted HTML

Detect the Media Center Version and Remote Experience in Client Side JScript
http://blog.retrosight.com/PermaLink,guid,f0271b1a-b349-488e-a99f-12cbf5cef39a.aspx

Using Media Center Dialog, DialogEx, and DialogNotification in HTML
http://blogs.msdn.com/charlieo/archive/2004/10/22/246176.aspx

Scaling for Media Center Third Party Experiences + Design Template
http://blog.retrosight.com/PermaLink,guid,9cc857a9-997a-418b-8cf9-cf119fc208ab.aspx

Creating a web page that's designed for Media Center (part one)
http://blogs.msdn.com/mcreasy/archive/2004/02/23/78723.aspx

Using FindService and PlayMedia to change the TV channel in Media Center
http://blogs.msdn.com/mcreasy/archive/2004/03/09/86707.aspx

Using FindProgram and FindService to Tune to Shows or Channels
http://blog.retrosight.com/PermaLink,guid,e03eb3d9-cb03-44ca-b892-498a45bc8639.aspx

Hello World - Media Center Dialogs
http://blogs.msdn.com/mcreasy/archive/2004/03/02/82782.aspx

Combining PlayMedia, onPlayStateChange, PlayState, MediaProperty and MediaProperties
http://blogs.msdn.com/charlieo/archive/2004/11/19/267090.aspx

Remote Control Handler Template and Key Press Tool
http://blog.retrosight.com/PermaLink,guid,e87c3911-3cbe-48e7-b2c5-c38aca2c158f.aspx

Media Center Add-In

MSDN Article with In-Depth Coverage of the DVR-MS Format (Fun with DVR-MS)
http://msdn.microsoft.com/smartclient/default.aspx?pull=/library/en-us/dnxpmce/html/dvr-ms.asp

How To Build An Add-In For Windows Media Center Edition 2005
http://blogs.msdn.com/mcreasy/archive/2004/10/12/241449.aspx

Show Dialogs in Microsoft XP Media Center UI from an External Application
http://www.codeproject.com/dotnet/mceexternaldialog.asp

Building .NET Add-Ins for Windows Media Center Edition
http://www.ondotnet.com/pub/a/dotnet/2005/04/05/mce_part2.html

Time Travel with Windows XP Media Center
http://msdn.microsoft.com/smartclient/default.aspx?pull=/library/en-us/dnxpmce/html/positionchangeraddin.asp

Installation

Installing applications on Media Center
http://blogs.msdn.com/mcreasy/archive/2005/02/17/375600.aspx

Installing Components for Hosted HTML Applications
http://blog.retrosight.com/PermaLink,guid,7b06ef43-efff-4579-90a9-4039cf9c883d.aspx

Sample Applications

MCE-YAC, version 0.51 (some good fixes)
http://www.updegrave.com/weblog/ethan/archive/2005/02/20/256.aspx

John and I had a GREAT time with Robert a couple of weeks ago -- he even got John to bump out of marketing / presentation mode, which is a feat!

Charlie Owen and John Canning - Media Center Exposed, Part I

Charlie Owen and John Canning - Media Center Exposed, Part II

[The promised first Media Center post here at my new home, blog.retrosight.com]

One of the most frequent conversations I have with teams developing for Windows XP Media Center Edition starts off like this...

 'I've already got a Windows XP personal computer that's fairly new and powerful.  Where do I get the Windows XP Media Center Edition operating system, what additional hardware do I need, and how do I go about getting it all setup.'

...and then we go back and forth about all the pieces and parts you need to coordinate.

So...

I finally sat down and wrote it all out...

The Windows Media Player 10 License Backup And Restore document illustrates how to make sure you archive the licenses for media content on your computer BEFORE you wipe the hard disk clean to install Windows XP Media Center Edition.  It also shows how to restore those licenses post-installation.  Use this document in addition to your regular work backup paradigm.

The Display Adapter Replacement And TV Tuner Addition document will guide you through the general steps of swapping out the display adapter (sometimes referred to as a graphics card) and adding your choice of a TV tuner.  Media Center has very specific guidelines for both and some OEM enterprise SKUs don't come with compatible hardware making these steps inevitable.

Once of the best things you can do as a developer is separate your operating system, applications and beta software from the products of your work (source code, testing, documents, etc.).  Adding A Hard Disk Drive gives you an outline of how to add a second hard drive to accomplish this task as well as provide invaluable backup and storage space for digital media files.

And finally the Windows XP Media Center 2005 Setup Instructions guide you step by step from ‘Press any key to boot from CD…’ to 'Launch Media Center with the remote control by pressing the Green Button.'

These documents comprise 100+ steps illustrated with actual screenshots and handy tips to make the installation go as smoothly as possible.

Enjoy!

Yay!  Omar helped me get DASBlog running and now it's time to start transitioning everything over.  Stay tuned...