Introduction
Microsoft's Windows XP variant, Media Center Edition 2005, has made quite a splash in the mass-market media centre PC market since its release. It seems that everyone is clamouring to build MCE solutions, implementations of the basic media centre concept slowly appearing from every orifice of the computing world. That you can now buy the operating system and some crucial compatible hardware outside of a purchase with a full system will only help drive its adoption, the average user now able to build their own MCE PC.However it's the pre-build market that still drives MCE2005 sales forward, and there's a couple of good reasons for that. With MCE devices pitched at the user who wishes to replace more than one set of consumer electronics devices with a single machine, such a user has no desire to build a PC themselves. They want a device that plugs in and works correctly, and forever more correctly, from first power on, with no real effort.
Secondly, the pre-build market lets you assume that the integration work, work done to create the component-sized system you want to place under your TV or in your AV rack, has been done correctly. That means hopefully no heat issues in the cramped surroundings they'll usually occupy, sweet silence and flawless operation in the environment for which it was designed.
The big question for the fledgling market is therefore: "Is that assumption correct?". Can you realistically assume that in a market that's in its infancy, that uses commodity PC components in its designs, using a modified mass-market operating system, that the device will act flawlessly for years on end as your usual AV components will?
I'm not convinced at the time of writing.
Tranquil PC got in touch with us just before Christmas, certain they'd got it pretty much right. Confident that their new MCE2005 PC, built into their popular T2 enclosure, is as close to the mark as you can get at the moment. A company with a reputation for fine integration and some neat touches to their systems, Tranquil PC have a growing name for themselves. So it was with an open mind, willing to accept that my sceptism for the concept and current implementations is wide of the mark, that I agreed to look at their T2.e/MCE2005.
Could Tranquil change my notions? Let's find out.
