OK - if I were to answer this question, I would say "heck yeah!".  Well maybe not heck. 

But I know a lot of folks don't know what Vista Media Center is yet, and even more who know, but can't imagine it has a place in their household.  Then there are the "tech-curious" who love the coolness factor and really want to take the plunge, but are intimidated by the cost of the hardware, and the current constraints around the product, and the higher maintenance required to maintain this type of machine as your primary media appliance.  Here are a couple of things you may want to consider:

First of all: What is Vista Media Center?

Well, from a very high level Media Center is a feature that gives you all of your digital media functionality in one slick interface.  It used to be a stand-alone product that you added into Windows XP.  Now it comes bundled with Vista at the Home Premium and Ultimate levels. 

The functionality includes the standards such as music, photos and video, but it also includes some additional cool features such as Internet TV, Online Media, live television (HDTV, too), aggregated sports scores and TV guide plus some free plugin features like WebGuide, which gives you Slingbox functionality and more.  All of this is combined into what they call a "ten foot interface" which allows you to easily view and navigate around the screens on your TV with a remote while sitting on your couch.  Of course, you can also use your mouse if you prefer.

What do I need to use Vista Media Center?

From a software standpoint, it's all there.  If you have Vista Home Premium or Vista Ultimate, just go to the start button and click on "Media Center" and you are in. 

From a hardware standpoint, well, this is where it gets a little trickier - and where many folks are frustrated with Microsoft and our monopolistic cable companies.  What do you need?  Well, it depends on what you want to do.  I've tried to break this up into logical categories - Out of the box, Standard Cable connection, and HDTV.  Feel free to comment on scenarios I've missed and please realize that these are my preferences based on experience and not official guidelines:

1.  Out of the box functionality:  This includes things like Internet TV, Sports Scores, Online Media, DVD player, Music and Photos.

This one is a no brainer.  Any desktop or laptop that has the hardware to run Vista (especially Vista Aero) can run these features (I'm making what I consider a safe assumption here that you have a DVD drive and speakers attached to your system).

More on the specific features in later posts.

2.  Using your Vista Media Center computer as a PVR (Personal Video Recorder) with Standard Cable Service:  A PVR is the thing that allows you to record, pause and resume live TV.  In my town our cable company refers to this as a DVR (Digital Video Recorder).  Many cable companies now issue these for a nominal charge and they will allow you to get the basic functionality.  From a feature set standpoint, I think Vista Media Center beats any cable company issued DVR hands down, and even edges out Tivo.  But from a cost perspective, it can be prohibitive. 

Here's the special hardware you would need on top of a Vista capable system:

a. A TV tuner card.  In fact, if you want the ability to record one show while watching another (as any standard cable company-issued DVR will let you) you will need two TV tuner cards.  I've seen TV tuner cards for as low as $29 on sale, but you have to be careful.  Not all cards are certified for Vista Media Center.  Typically the cards you need will run anywhere between $100 and $300 depending on functionality.  A few of the manufacturers you can look at include Hauppauge, ATI (good luck navigating their web site) and AverMedia.

b. High end graphics card.  Most vista ready systems should already have this, but it bears saying that if you are going to watch live video, and use this system in your living room, you need a graphics card that can handle the load with no skipping or distortion.  To me this says no less than 256MB (and if I were not doing HD I would have this in my system).  The main players in this space are ATI and Nvidia.  While pricing in this area has come down quite a bit, you can still plan to spend over $150 or higher in most cases.

c. Sound system.  If this is your main entertainment system, chances are you will watch downloaded movies and dvd's on this machine as well.  To that end, you want to be sure you have a good sound system to support the experience.  I personally maintain a separate receiver which runs my surround sound.  I use Home Theater Cables from Creative to connect my PC to the surround sound system and it works very well.  But I realize that there are also some pretty good surround sound speakers systems that connect directly to your computer.  Additionally, this is another area where I recommend not keeping you standard "on-board" audio.  I recommend looking at higher end sound cards like the Sound Blaster X-FI Xtreme audio, which is what I use.  But there are other options out there.  The main point is that video and audio are two areas where "standard components" just don't cut it in my book.

d. Memory.  This probably applies to Vista in any usage scenario, but you simply can't get enough RAM.  Now there is some discussion about whether you can actually use all 4GB (maximum allowable) of RAM on a 32 bit Vista system.  Many folks I have spoken to about this seem to use 2-3 GB without any complaints.  But given the price of RAM, I preferred to eliminate it as an issue altogether by maxing out.

e.  Video connection.  Depending on the TV you plan to use with your system, you will want to get a DVI cable or an HDMI cable.  My HDTV is somewhat older so it only has a DVI connection, and I can tell you with confidence that I don't really notice any degredation in the picture but I  am old and my eyes may be going.  Bottom line is:  if you have HDMI, take advantage of it.  If not, go with the best you have available.

3.  Using your Vista Media Center computer as a PVR (Personal Video Recorder) with High Definition Cable Service:.  This is where it gets a little complicated and a lot frustrating if you do not plan ahead of time.  The first thing you have to understand when Vista Media Center and HDTV are concerned is that there is no good solution.  Media Center can play High Def but it isn't close to the smooth, seamless experience you get with you DVR.  In blogs and forums all over the web, you will read about something called "The Wife Factor."  The wife factor is a theory that, in essence, says that no media solution will ever get widely adopted until it can give the wife and kids the same functionality they are getting now, without having to learn bunch of new acrobatics to make it work.  When it comes to High Definition Television, Media Center (and, to be fair, Tivo and most other solutions) have some major hiccups to overcome.  Tivo seems to be getting there first, but that is for another post.

At the core of this issue is the way the cable company's HDTV signals are encrypted.  These signals cannot currently be decrypted by the currently available tuner cards. 

So what is the solution you ask?  Cable Cards.  Cable Cards are very similar to mainstream tuner cards with the additional ability to decrypt the HDTV signal you receive from your cable company.  So that's no big deal, you say?  All it takes is a little extra money and problem solved?  Well, unfortunately it is not that easy.  For a myriad of reasons … none of which make any sense unless you assume the cable companies are protecting a monopoly … you will be unable to simply purchase a cable card and install it (and have it work) without first purchasing a "certified" system that has a special bios and code to allow the cable cards to work.  That's right - the ~$2200 machine I have sitting in my living room with all of the bells and whistles will not be able to tune in encrypted HDTV channels (e.g. HBO HD, ESPN HD, etc.) because I built this thing custom and do not have the certification from a place called CableLabs. 

So what does this mean?  It means that if you want to watch all of the afore-mentioned HDTV channels, you need to purchase your machine from a certified dealer who can provide cable cards with your machine.  But wait, that only solves part of your problem.  Another issue with cable HDTV (and Tivo has it, too) is an up and coming technology called Switched Digital Video.  Without going into all of the details on this technology for now (as this blog is getting REALLY long) let's just leave it to say that current cable cards (including the ones in Tivo) cannot handle this signal.  In other words, channels that run under Switched Digital (in my neighborhood that includes things like TBSHD, TNTHD, Turner Classic Movies, etc.) you will not be able to watch these channels consistently.  Tivo has come up with a solution for this that is expected in Q2 FY08 but that can be for another post as well.  So to recap:  for most areas, the only way to reliably receive all of the available HDTV channels your cable company offers is to go with your Cable Company issued DVR (curious, isn't it).  But keep in mind, there are some "almost as good workarounds, and there are a ton of additional benefits you get with Media Center that you won't with your cable company.  More on that in later posts.

So what do you do if you're not ready to buy a new, certified computer?  With Vista Media Center there is one option - Over The Air (OTA) HD.  Thanks to our government, all of the local channels in your area are moving to, or already have moved to, High Definition broadcast formats.  This means that using a simple antenna, you can receive High Def from the major four networks and probably public TV as well for the cost of a simple antenna (don't get snookered into buying a specialized HD antenna, it probably doesn't work as well as the cheapos).  In Vista Media Center, if you have a "combo" tuner card that is capable of picking up ATSC or Digital signals as well as analogue signals, you can connect your standard cable service to the analogue and the OTA antenna to the ATSC connection and have a pretty good compromise.  This is what I have done. 

There is an even better answer to this dilemma in the form of Clear QAM, which is a unencrypted HDTV signal that is broadcast by the Cable companies for the same network channels that you can receive over the air.  This is preferable, in my book, because you don't have to worry about high winds or severe storms interrupting your signal.  But of course there's a catch, Microsoft doesn't support clear QAM in Media Center.  There is no good reason for this that I have seen other than someone dropped the ball and now they have to prioritize it behind a lot of other fixes vying for their attention.  There are other products out there such as SageTV, or MythTV for Linux, which will support Clear QAM and have many of the same great features as Media Center, but they're either not free or are not compatible with Vista.

I do know about the HDHomeRun solution, but I just don't have the energy to cover that, and unless your network is all hard wired this seems like it is not the best way to go.  But check it out if you'd like.

I'm sure there is some stuff I am missing here.  It is late and I am headed out for the holidays.  So be sure to let me know where the gaps are. 

I'll post more about the detailed features around Media Center (and other fun home media gadgets) as we go, so stay tuned.  Over all, if you are willing to live with some of the limitations that currently exist (who really needs TBS in HD?) you can have a very good PVR with a lot of extras you just won't get from your cable company.