Setting up the OS

Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 comes on two CDs. Service Pack 2 is already installed on the OS so there isn't too much to update once you have the new OS installed.

The OS installation process is nearly identical to a Windows XP Professional installation. You won't even realize this is an MCE system until you start up the Media Center application.

There are a few key items that you need to be aware of when creating a Windows Media Center PC.

1. Make sure your drivers are up to date. Most importantly, make sure your graphics card drivers are using Windows Media Center specific versions. Although you can probably get away without having this necessity, you're better off downloading MCE specific graphics drivers. Both NVIDIA and ATI offer Media Center specific drivers.
2. If you plan on recording live TV, make sure you have a DVD player application installed such as WinDVD 6. Without the MPEG2 codec installed, you will not be able to capture live TV.
3. Anything you do in Windows Media Player 10 (which is installed on your system now) will be reflected in Windows Media Center.
4. And finally - if it ain't broke, don't fix it. MCE can be picky at times. We actually installed the OS twice before getting a completely stable system. Make sure everything works correctly before activating your OS with Microsoft. It'll be a real pain if you need to call them again to reactivate a new OS install.

Once the driver setup was finished, we went ahead and launched the Media Center application. The application will guide you through a series of setup questions – similar to a full screen wizard.

MCE will go over the following areas during the setup:

•  Setting up your Internet Connection

•  Setting up your TV signal (if you have a TV Tuner installed)

•  Setting up your speakers

•  Configuring your Television or Monitor

We'll mention a couple of things regarding the TV signal setup. You will need a TV signal to connect to the TV Tuner card of course. This signal can come from Over The Air (OTA) broadcasts or from a cable/satellite box. Microsoft includes an infrared (IR) blaster that will allow MCE to control the channel selection on external set top cable/satellite boxes. The IR blaster comes out of the remote control receiver and can be taped onto your set top box.

Once you have MCE fully installed, go ahead and start enjoying the new GUI. MCE has a great deal to offer and we'll spend a few moments going over this.

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