PCTV MediaCenter: The Complete TV Experience for your PC?

Remote-Control Multimedia

The MediaCenter interface lets you access both TV and the different multimedia resources on your computer - videos stored on the hard disk, DVDs, music files or CDs, and photos - all from a single application.

Connect the video output from your computer to the TV set and you have a real multimedia center you can control using only the remote, for maximum ease of use.

The TV mode gives you access to TV programs in either full-screen or windowed mode. You can change channels via the menu, or by entering the number of the channel directly on the remote control; hopping from one channel to another is a little slow, however.

The Record menu is also simple and lets you program a recording or play back programs you've recorded previously.

Recording can be done in your choice of VCD, SVCD, DVD Longplay and DVD format. As mentioned earlier, the last of these offers the best image quality, but at the expense of disk space. Since the encoding is done by the software, a powerful processor and a fast hard disk are also a good idea.

Recording in SVCD quality

Finally, the TimeShift function is directly accessible via the Pause button on the remote control. Press it and the program you're watching is recorded in temporary memory, so you can start watching it again where you left off, even if the program isn't over. Here again, the processor has to work hard and your computer will need some muscle.