Media Centre PC comparable to Xbox 360?

[adamzetec]

I have been enjoying the media centre aspect of my Xbox 360 but am not playing games that much purely down to time and not wanting to splash out £40 everytime I fancy something new.

Anyway, my Xbox360 seems a bit extravegent just for a media centre. Would I be able to turn my new conroe spec with X1950Pro into a media centre on par with the Xbox? Previously I have had limited success with TV-Out etc albeit on lesser TV's and lesser graphics cards. Will I be able to achieve the same picture quality that the xbox offers? Obviously the interface will be the same, I just want the same quality as well.

I will be connecting the PC to a 32" Samsung R7 series LCD TV. I would obviously need MCE with the remote control, component cable from the PC to the LCD TV. Anything else?

[TheAnimus]

erm easily yes!.

MCE remote will set you back about £25.

Because you've got a widescreen monitor, i'd say that the temptation to go for vista as the MCE OS is massive, as it really does feal nicer

I've been having problems with my MCE box on digital input because my samsung has a native of 1360*766 or something stupid which the intel video bios can't do via digital.

However driving these TVs via analouge VGA really isn't that bad, there is some ghosting on poor cables but its perfectly aceptable.

In short, easy with vista/XP very very easy.