Internet

Using information from internet is what distinguishes a Media Center PC from a harddisk recorder, a Tivo, etcetera.

MediaPortal is constantly finding information from the internet about the media it shows or plays. It gathers tv guide information for watching tv, artist information, related music and cd covers while listening to music, actors with your movies, episode guides with the tv series. And then there's the stuff that you can only get from the internet: Webradio, rss news feeds, movie trailers.

Now, this also means that using a Media Center isn't half the fun when you loose connection to the internet. Dutch readers: By all means - avoid Tele2 as an internet provider. It took the Swedish maffia 10 weeks to move my phone and internet connection.

In my new house I also made some improvements in connectivity. Instead of wireless, my desktop pc and Media Center PC are now hard wired to my ADSL router. That means I got rid of USB WiFi devices not starting up properly. And that I have 100Mbit connectivity between my PC's, or more if I upgrade the router. So I'm set up for some serious nerdmanship...

Keyboard

I bought myself a nice keyboard. Generally speaking, you don't really need a keyboard and mouse for operating the mediacenter, but sometimes... There's a couple of things I like about this keyboard. For one, it has built-in mouse functionality. So you can operate it from the couch on your lap, without having to locate a mouse and a suitable surface first. The 10 meter range is a must for this as well, I found my desktop keyboard and mouse did not cover the less than four meters between couch and mediacenter. There's no numeric keypad, keeping the keyboard small and easy to store in the living room. Finally, the price is acceptable: 60 US dollars. The unit is MCE certified and has 16 multimedia hotkeys along the top. Let's see how that works with MediaPortal!

Remotes

A Media Center PC is operated from the couch and therefore you need a remote. Remotes come in all shapes and sizes. Most remotes only send a one-way signal to your home theatre equipment, but Windows Vista is inspiring the introduction of several interesting two-way remotes. The Ricavision Sideshow Remote is an example. The 2.5" color screen is what catches the eye, but what's really new is that the display shows information from the Media Center PC. So this will enable you to select music from the harddrive without switching your tv on! This device was announced in December and is supposed to cost about US$ 200, but I haven't seen it actually for sale yet.

The functionality is based on the Sideshow feature of Windows Vista. The remote will show and control any gadget that you prefer to include in the Sideshow bar. The question is of course how this functionality will transfer to other HTPC front-end software packages than Vista MCE. And how this will integrate into multi functional remotes like the Logitech Harmony.

My personal preference would still be two separate devices. One "simple" remote with buttons that you can feel and operate blindfolded. And a more sophisticated, touch screen operated, PDA type remote that shows the Media Center user interface. Finally the keyboard and mouse will serve as a backup only.

Now, the simple remote should be as simple as possible. I think there should be a minimum set of buttons and that the software user interface should be designed such that it's fully operable with this minimum set of commands.
The minimum set of buttons is:
- On and off buttons that will not only operate the mediacenter pc but also the receiver, tv set, etc.
- The standard buttons for play, pause, stop, fast forward, rewind, previous and next. I don't think the "record" button is particularly useful anymore. You'll often see that commands like "forward" and "next", or "play" and "pause" are combined in a single buttons. I think that should be outlawed
- Channel + and -
- Volume + and -
- Arrow buttons that will shift the focus on screen from one item to the next
- An "OK" button that will select the highlighted item
- A "menu" button that will show all options for the highlighted item
- A "back" button that will get you back to the previous screen without selecting anything
- The 0-9 buttons are optional. These clutter up the remote and I don't see a real need. Selecting channels with numbers is out-dated. And while the number buttons can be used for text message style editing of text, I don't see that as particularly user friendly either.
- Nice-to-have is a "home" button that will get you back to the start screen from wherever you are in the user interface.
- Another nice-to-have is a couple of multifunctional buttons, that are specific to your hardware setup or your preferences as a user. These buttons should be next to a display that shows what the actual functionality of these buttons is.