[Jake Ludington]

I think digital501 oversimplifies the comparison. I'm firmly planted in the MCE camp, with a nod to SageTV and Beyond TV as great alternatives. I would never expect my parents to have a media center of any kind because setup and maintenance is a PITA. Sure Tivo has fewer features, but the features it does have work for the average consumer. Media Center still requires a convoluted setup process. You still have to think about codecs and networking and all the things that complicate media management on a PC. With Tivo you get a smaller set of functions that just work.