James Fee
05-26-2004, 01:00 AM
<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1598934,00.asp' target='_blank'>http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1598934,00.asp</a><br /><br /></div>"The better media hubs handle photos as well as music, and the best ones even stream video; if your PC has a large-capacity hard drive, you can store all your home movies digitally (compressed to less than 1GB per hour). The ShowCenter ups the ante, interfacing with a TV tuner card and DVR software in your PC. To enable the DVR, you'll need to install a Pinnacle TV tuner card (such as the $90 PCTV Pro). In other words, on paper, the ShowCenter can make almost any PC do Microsoft Windows Media Center Edition tricks. But ShowCenter's talents, while wide, are not yet deep. Functions you might expect in a digital media receiver are missing—though more show up each time Pinnacle revises the software. The new 1.5 revision adds the welcome DVR capability and Internet radio. As with virtually all other media hubs, the ShowCenter runs a small program on your PC so it can see multimedia on the computer's drives. You control the ShowCenter through a 39-button remote and your TV set."<br /><br /> <img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/ss_02B_ShowCenter_07.jpg" /><br /><br />ShowCenter is just the latest PC DVR/VoD software to come across the screen, but it seems to come up a bit short. First, how can a software company design a product on Windows that doesn't support WMA? Having to convert WMA into MP3 seems so 2002. Second there is no support for 802.11g (and none is planned so you'll have to buy another unit if you wish to improve wireless speed). Third, the cost is just way too high. Not only will ShowCenter set you back at least $300, but you'll still need to shell out for a Pinnacle TV Tuner card to use the DVR features (better solutions cost much less). IMO those three problems eliminate ShowCenter from consideration as a digital media hub and you should look elsewhere.