Total Newbie Question

[Mantishead]

Hi All.

I am a total Windows Media Centre Newbie so I apologise for my ignorance. I am interested in knowing whether it is time to move over to a WMC device or not. Let me first start by describing my current Home Entertainment Setup.

Pioneer HD Plasma
Sky+ 160
Cambridge Audio AV Amp
Cambridge Audio Power Amp
Cambridge Audio DVD Player
Cambridge Audio CD Player
Logitech Harmony 885 Universal Remote Control
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Home PC & Wireless Network
XBox

I use the power amp to drive my two front speakers, since the AV amp just don't do it well enough, and I use a seperate CD player because sound quality is superior to DVD Player for stereo CD output.

I am interested in the new Cambridge Audio Music Server that has been released which is basically the same as my CD Player but it has a built in hard drive. It connects to ethernet network and TV allowing music to be browsed just like iPOD and also retreives song titles from CDDB.

However, I have started to tentatively look at Windows Media Centre Devices, the thinking being that maybe such a device could do the job of the Music Server and more.

My main problem though is that I do not want to sacrifice any quality. I bought seperates because I wanted a little more in quality than some off the shelf mini system. Would I be doing a u-turn. At the end of the day these media centre devices do not contain hi-fidelity hardware, they contain bog-standard CD-ROM drives with little emphasis on the quality of audio circuitry.

Furthermore I paid about £300 for my Sky+ 160 Box. I have noticed that when you route a second RF OUT - which one must do in the case of a Media Centre Device, you lose the ability to hand 2 channels independantly. And also, what't the point of paying a fortune for a SkyPVR only to use a seperate device to do the actual recording. I gather also that as soon as you use the RF Signal Output from a Sky Receiver you instantly sacrifice any HD broadcast...??

This is without consideration that one will need to purchase a new Sky HD Decoder in the New Year to receive HD TV.

I guess I am answering my own question when I ask if it's possible to consolidate all my equipment, hide it all in a cupboard and simply interface through my TV for all home entertainment - be it internet, picture library, DVD library, etc. etc.

[dejongj]

It sounds like you are happy with Sky...As such I wouldn't really touch it....Although I don't understand why you think you need an RF Out connection, as that is not needed...Anyway you could consolidate your DVD player and your CD player within an MCE setup....Have it as a music and video server, just not your telly....With the appropriate sound card (RME!?) you could rival or better your CD player, and the DVD player is easily bettered and upscaled through MCE....
If you wanted, you could have Sky connected to an MCE setup via your s-Video output for example to use MCE as a DVD recorder for archiving any recordings from Sky+ you want to keep....

Hope this helps...