Black Boxes: Gateway Media Center PC

by Charles Fulton
Winter 2003/Spring 2004

If you are tired of dealing with the big ol' stack of A/V components and are looking for a way to consolidate your gear, Microsoft now offers Windows XP Media Center Edition (MCE). Gateway's new Media Center PC is a very good way to go if you are looking for a Media Center PC. Let's peel back a few layers of the onion that is the Gateway Media Center PC, and see if the inevitable tears are tears of joy.

Out of the Box
Gateway has paid a lot of attention to the out of box experience and they have learned a lot about what a customer needs to get started quickly. When you open the box, you'll find a poster at the top that clearly illustrates and describes what you'll need to do to get up and running fast. It took us a very short time to get from the box to the boot-up screen once we got everything hooked up.

One thing we noticed immediately was that the system does not include a floppy drive or a hard drive activity indicator.

Cosmetically, the system's silvery finish is not something that will readily blend in with many A/V systems. Since the unit has fans, it does draw some attention to itself audibly, along with putting out a fair amount of heat. Since the IR receiver and DVD tray are the only things most people will access, we suppose you could stash the system behind a bookcase while keeping the IR receiver near the TV. There is also the matter of the keyboard, mouse and VGA monitor as well. There is no mistaking this machine: it is a desktop computer. However, each of the Gateway plasma displays that are prominently featured on Gateway's website include VGA and DVI connections, allowing you to forgo the extra VGA monitor that you'd need to add to the system to get it set up.

Microsoft TiVo?
To get started with Windows Media Center, you can either click Start > Media Center or just press the Windows key on the infrared remote. It takes a little longer to launch Windows Media Center than we would have liked, but once it's launched, it's responsive and has nice page-flip animations to transition between each menu. The feel of the menus reminded us a bit of the EchoStar DishPlayer, a hybrid WebTV/DISH Network receiver from the recent past.

To watch TV, you have to configure your signal source and location. It takes minimal effort to start the two wizards that configure signal source/IR blaster and channel listing setup. We connected a local antenna and therefore did not test the system's IR blaster. The system received Zap2It listings very quickly over our DSL connection.

The onscreen electronic program guide (EPG) was quite responsive and program start times were spaced within the grid by exact start times. That is to say, if one program started on one channel at 11:30 and another program started on another channel at 11:35, the latter program shifted to the right slightly within the grid. This is in contrast to some other EPGs (such as DISH Network's), in which the programs in this example would line up in the grid with the actual start time noted in parenthesis.

When you select TV from the top menu, it takes a few seconds to start up the TV tuner and display a signal. At first, only our VGA monitor lit up with a television signal. We went into the Display Control Panel's nView tab and found in the settings we needed to adjust.

We tested the system on a number of televisions, including a modern Gateway Plasma and an older Zenith console TV. Images were noticeably soft with the console set, but the on-screen display (OSD) was always clear and fairly easy to read. Ultimately, we turned our display resolution down to 800x600, otherwise the picture on our console set zoomed in on the area where the mouse was and followed the mouse around. The quality of the video (whether from DVD or from the tuner) was not quite as good as our regular living room DVD player or satellite receiver.

The unit has two S-Video jacks, although they are poorly marked, so we had to try both to find the right one.

We could also surf the Web on the TV, but this has its pros and cons at television resolutions and remote control navigation. It was great for visiting companion Web sites during commercial breaks.

Unlike the Sony Personal Studio PC with Giga Pocket that we tested a few months back, the Media Center PC did buffer live TV, like a TiVo or ReplayTV unit, so you can rewind live TV regardless of whether you are currently recording the program. Users of standalone DVRs will find themselves right at home in front of the Media Center PC.

Once we recorded a few TV shows (a no-brainer with the excellent program guide), we wanted to put the DVD burner to work. Unfortunately, there is no DVD authoring software included with the system, but you can burn discs with Roxio Easy CD Creator 5 Basic.

Multi-tasker
We had no problems playing a DVD while recording a TV program. When we inserted a DVD, the unit asked us whether we wanted to play the disc and when we answered in the affirmative, it took a few seconds to get to the usual FBI warnings and eventually the disc's menu appeared. Chapter changes were extremely fast and navigation was great.

Expandability, or a Lack of It
The computer's case itself was very easy to open: just loosen one thumbscrew, squeeze the lever and then swing the side down. The drives are easily accessible and there are a few open drive bays available. The computer has no free PCI slots. Considering the broad array of connections that come stock with the machine, though, you probably will not need a slot anyhow.

So Those Were Tears of Joy
If the extent of your A/V system was a TV, a DVD player, an A/V receiver and a satellite system (or cable box), the only thing you'd miss with this MCE PC is a radio. Arguably, after you add DVD burning software, you could also replace your VCR with this unit as well.

The included Boston Acoustics 5.1-channel surround sound system sounds marvelous, even with the relatively tiny satellite speakers. The system would really shine in a dorm or den setting where space tends to be at a premium.

Overall, we really liked Gateway's Media Center PC. We think products like this will make a big impact with first-time computer buyers who are interested in a computer that will do more for them than just the basics. We are somewhat less sure that this product is ready for the living room, however.

III SMART SPECS
Operating system: Microsoft Windows XP Professional Media Center Edition
Processor: Intel P4 2.66GHz
RAM: 256MB DDR SDRAM
Hard Drive: 120GB, 7200RPM
DVD burner: LG GMA-4020B DVD-R/RW/RAM
Display card: nVIDIA GeForce 4 MX440G, 128MB, VGA output
Modem: 56k
Ethernet: Onboard 10/100 Fast Ethernet
Expansion slots: 1 AGP, 3 PCI
Other connectors: Front and rear FireWire, front and rear USB, PS/2 keyboard and mouse, serial, parallel, IR blaster output
Analog video in: S-Video, Composite, RF
Analog video out: S-Video (composite adapter included)

Company: Gateway
Phone: (800) 369-1409
Web: www.gateway.com
Price: $1,499