Nice MCE and TiVo comparison by Ed Bott

Michael Gartenberg | March 08, 2005, 09:36 AM

Ed Bott has a nice comparison of TiVo and Media Center PCs. I would agree with his comments. MCE meets or exceeds the best standalone DVR functionality that's out there and then some. What he doesn't mention in length is the portability and flexibility of the content on that device and the fact that it's an extensible platform so I can easily do things like add new programs to the 10 foot UI like Newsgator and read all my RSS feeds. The fact that is has dual tuners means that like Ed, I can also watch record both Lost and the West Wing (although why I still bother to record the West Wing is another story). Having said all that, the notion of something called a PC (As opposed to my Xbox and TiVo which while arguably are PCs, aren't called by that name) hooked up to your TV still lacks appeal to a lot of consumers thanks to MSFT's lackluster marketing. It will be interesting to see how they launch the standalone product with LG later this year.