| What to look for: Hardware |
Why ? |
| Does it have silent cooling without fans ? |
Your enjoyment of music and movies can easily be spoilt by noisy fans whirring through quiet moments in films or music. |
| Does it have HDCP on the graphics card ? |
If not you wont be able to watch true HD content. It will automatically be downscaled to a lesser resolution. |
Does it have enough processing power ?
Memory 2Gb minimum / Dual core processor |
Anything less and your movie playback will stutter especially for HD movies. Your system will also be unresponsive and sluggish whilst accessing your high quality entertainment. |
| Does it have an external power supply ? |
Internal power supplys create dirty power which creates interference with the audio signals. |
| Does it have 5.1 Dolby digital cinema outputs ? |
Unless you do you wont be able to properly use surround sound cinema speakers or get the most from your dvds. |
| Do you have high quality gold analogue connecters for connection to your amplifier ? |
If you want crystal clear quality sound you need high quality connectors that transduce the signal with as little distortion as possible. |
| Does it have a high quality soundboard with Burr and Brown op amps and a high quality DAC ? |
Make sure your sound is as true to the original as it can be, by ensuring the highest quality components are used throughout. |
| Have you got backed up data protection as standard ? |
Dont risk losing your precious memories, music or films. |
| Upgradeability: can you add components such as HD drives when they become available ? |
If you can upgrade you dont have to replace equipment when new technology such as HD DVD becomes available |
| Do you have both HDMI and VGA connectivity as standard ? |
If you want the best then HDMI is best for connection to televisions, VGA for monitors. |
| Does it have a big enough harddrive ? |
200 gb stores about 40 movies and 1000 music files, make sure your Media Center has the capacity you need. |
| Is the case plastic or aluminium ? |
Aluminium helps the overall sound quality due to its excellent thermal and non-magnetic properties. |
| Does it have media optimised harddrives ? |
If not your discs will wear out more quickly and your products life will be shorter. |
| Can you turn off your PCI slots for electromagnetic interference optimisation ? |
PCI slots thacan be turned off when not in use ensure your box reduces all possible EMT. |
| Make sure your box has Windows Vista MCE installed |
Vistas redesigned audio stack means no loss of quality through resampling. In Windows XP - Kmixer resamples the audio signal massively affecting the output quality through the soundcard. |
| What to look for: Software |
Why ? |
| Does it come with software bundled as standard and pre configured ? |
If not you have very almost zero chance of getting the best out of your box. |
| Has it got software to play iTunes collections as standard |
If not your existing iTunes collections will be rendered useless . |
| Has it got software to play multi reigon dvds ? |
Ensure that you can use your hardware and watch dvd's in any country. |
| Does it come installed with disc management ? |
If not your hard drives will fragment your content quickly slowing your system and causing problems with playback . |
| Does it have the latest codecs pre-installed ? |
If not then you may have trouble watching downloaded movies and spend hours trying to find ways to play them, or installing viruses by mistake and damaging your system. |
| Is it sold through a dealer network ? |
A HiFi Media Center is part of your expensive HiFi, you need professional dealers looking after you, not a web shop or a mass market retail store ! |
| Does it have support as standard ? |
If not when you run into trouble then you are on your own. Passive systems come with automatic support as standard to ensure your peace of mind and can even alert you to system problems before you know about them. |
