Introducing the Media Center PC

Media Center PCs are computers installed with the Microsoft XP Media Center Operating System (OS). These PCs are enhanced for home entertainment, allowing you to view various types of digital media in one connected platform and, accessed via a remote control.

The concept of using a PC as an entertainment hub makes absolute sense. Thanks to modern technology, apart from performing basic operations such as word processing, these new computer systems can seamlessly handle anything from playing multi-surround audio to displaying high-resolution photos and even screening DVD-quality video files.

Audio: the quintessential element

Audio plays an important role to maximize the Media Center PC experience. Excitement, suspense and even humor can be conveyed more effectively through sound effects and music. To experiment it for yourself, try watching a movie with the volume muted and you'll realize that you derive no enjoyment from it at all. On top of that, if the audio quality is unclear (especially from motherboard audio), explosive scenes from your action movies wouldn't have any impact, and your favorite tunes would sound as though they were recorded with low-end microphones.

Enter Creative Technology

Creative Technology has just the right tools to bring you closer to nirvana in the PC home entertainment arena. Showcasing one of the very best in its class, the THX^®-certified Sound Blaster^® X-Fi™ Elite Pro produces an incredible 116dB SNR 24-bit/192kHz DACs for superior Xtreme Fidelity audio. In other words, crystal clear sounds with immaculate quality. A definite aural boost for everything that is played on the Media Center PC.

Controlling the way you listen, wirelessly

Other than just providing soundcards for great audio, a set of control menus were specifically developed and integrated into the Media Center PC user interface. These menus allow you to access, from the same remote control, the audio settings that are synonymous with Creative sound cards.

CMSS3D

From these menus, you can enable Creative's proprietary CMSS3D technology for captivating surround sound effects. It up-mixes all audio sources recorded in 2-channel stereo to full, immersive multi-channel surround. Once activated, your mp3s or any other 2-channel audio source will be presented to you in vivid, multi-channel format rather than plain stereo!

EAX

Surreal environmental enhancements can be realized by choosing an effect from the EAX^® ADVANCED HD™ menu. Want to hear Diana Krall stretch her vocal chords in Carnegie Hall? Simply play any of her studio-recorded audio CDs, and select Concert Hall as the EAX effect. The sounds will be cleverly mixed to produce the audio effects mimicking the concert hall, instantly transporting you from the living room straight into New York's famed theatre.

EQ

Completing the trilogy with the Graphic Equalizer menu, you can choose an EQ effect to enhance the type of music or sounds you are playing. By tweaking the basses and the trebles, every musical detail can be heard distinctly. While watching Metallica's "Live in Concert" DVD, you can choose the "Heavy Metal" EQ effect to give the bass a little boost, just to make head banging a little more conducive. If you are unhappy with the 15 presets available, you can even customize and use your own EQ settings instead.

If you have Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004 and above, you can download the Sound Blaster Media Center plugin (for Sound Blaster X-Fi, Sound Blaster Audigy 4 Pro and Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS users only) here.