Creating a Digital Home Entertainment System with Windows Media Center

It is obvious from other reviews that this book struggles to find its identity through the confusion of expectations. If you are a computer newbie you will probably find it far preferable to any book that has the word "idiot's" in the title, but if you have been taking the cover off computers for years you are destined for disappointment. But, that appears to be Mr. Miller's intension. Those who can already cast spells with a screwdriver can find the detailed answers they need elsewhere. This is for the Tookish Hobbit, not Gandalf.

Michael Miller is the former editor of PC Magazine. He has moved on to become Chief Content Officer for Ziff Davis Media. Uber Geek. I have read his stuff for years, it is solid but I was not expecting a tome that would soon be added to Mortimer Adler's "Great Books of the Western World". It is what it should be - good clear technical instruction. Most of the technospeak is well defined. It is reasonably well organized if somewhat... Read more

Hello, i just loved this book. I spent easily like 3 months figuring out what i needed to buy to build my custom media center, after that i found this book, and before the 4th chapter i had all that information. If i only knew this book existed before i would have saved a lot of time and money.

If you just purchased or are planning to buy a windows media center system this book is a must in your library, very easy to read, and not boring at all. And its even cheaper than your windows media remote. :)

It's definetely not very technical but a lot of good advice on using your system.

This book is great for beginners. Unfortunately, I needed something more in-depth that dealt more with tweaking a system than setting up a system for the first time. If you are setting up a Media Center PC and don't know where to start, this is the book for you. If you have a system that is up and running but you want it to perform a little bit better, this book won't help you.