Originally Posted by docbungle

Media Center Edition isn't much more than XP, if you have a tv tuner card or an All-in-Wonder video card. It has pretty screens than cover your My Music and My Pictures folders and whatnot, but no real performance advantages over an ordinary, home-built pc. It can record tv, but you can do that yourself with the right setup. Having to buy a pc with it installed is the main drawback, as the OS is not available by itself.