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The Home Theater PC (HTPC) is the future of home entertainment and available now. It integrates all your media in one place and improves the media-playing experience by making content digitally available to play at your convenience. It makes the super-expensive home theater setup obsolete.

You can record TV shows or movies to watch them when you want. Do you sometimes miss an episode of your favorite TV show? You can easily set the machine to record all episodes of a series so that you never miss one again. Do you lack time to look up what is playing in the TV guide? An HTPC provides an electronic program guide that makes it simple to search, find and record that favorite movie.

Have you ever wanted to pause a live football game while you answer the telephone, go to the kitchen or answer nature’s call? An HTPC lets you. Just hit the pause button on the remote, answer that telephone and press the play button when the call is over. Want to see something again, like the signs in the Simpsons that go by too quickly to read? Rewind and press pause. It is that simple.

Ever watch a TV show, movie or DVD and wanted to know more about an actor or director? An HTPC allows you to pause the program and search the internet without moving from your easy chair.

Do you listen to music? If you have an HTPC, you no longer have to search your entire CD collection to listen to that special song or artist. You can also use your iPod or another brand of MP3 player with the HTPC.

An HTPC is a special purpose personal computer dedicated to serving media like DVDs, TV programs, radio, CDs, ripped audio – think iTunes, digital photos or home videos. The computer can be standalone, hooked to a TV or integrated into a home media center complete with 7.1-surround sound. If you have a vinyl record collection, you can even add a turntable.

TiVo is an example of an HTPC. It is great for TV recording and playback, has limited functionality for playing music, podcasts and internet radio, and no ability to play DVDs, CDs, or broadcast radio. It is a PC that uses the Linux OS, has a built-in TV tuner, a great remote control, and networking functionality.

Microsoft has offered the Windows XP Media Center Edition for several years. The Vista Home Premium and Vista Ultimate versions of Microsoft’s next OS, which will be available for general purchase January 30, 2007, provide an enhanced version of the MCE. The MCE menu structure is a bit rougher than TiVo’s but has greater functionality adding broadcast radio, DVDs and CDs. In addition, a thriving on-line community builds MCE plug-ins. These plug-ins add games, local weather, news, internet radio, email and much more directly into the MCE menu. Many of them are free.

The more expensive HTPCs that I build and install have special cases that look and act like traditional media components and not like a desktop or tower PC. Remotes or wireless keyboards control them. You can build your own machine using free Linux applications, though this is not encouraged for anyone who is not expert in both building PCs and Linux. Currently Apple has nothing comparable to Windows XP MCE, TiVo, or a do-it-yourself Linux box. It is uncertain if and when Apple will.

If you want to install an HTPC in a media center check the cables you will need and if your current receiver can handle modern inputs and outputs like digital audio (S/PDIF), and digital video, DVI and HDMI.