I recently bought a Dell Inspiron 9300 notebook mainly for the size of the screen. It came with the Windows XP Media Center 2005 OS (TV tuner included), but I'm afraid I really don't know what it can do or how to do it. I'm starting to feel like I'm missing out on a lot. I've looked at the user guide that Dell loaded on the computer, but it's mostly Greek to me. Can anyone give me some plain info about the capabilities of WMC 2005 or point me to a Web site that can help? Some people have told me I should just use it as is, others have said I should hook it up to a Slingbox and others have said I should get an Xbox 360. Thanks for the help.

With your included TV tuner, you can hook your cable TV to the unit and watch TV on the notebook. Im sure the optical drive can also play DVDs, so theres another capability. The main thing to understand, is that this a Windows XP notebook. And has all the capabilities of a desktop PC running Windows XP. Oh yeah, use it as it IS. Why spend more money? Your notebook has all it needs. Now, if its got a wireless network card... You're golden! Enjoy! Rich Gu P4 3.2 / 1 GB PC3200 Intel MOBO self built

Park, Go to this site. It has lots of good information on the use of Media Center 2005. I used it when I set up a clients new Dell with Media Center installed. I am sure this will help. http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/mediacenter/using/setup/default.mspx Good luck. Have fun. This is a neat offshoot of Windows XP.

Thanks, hornman, the Microsoft site at least gives me a clue as to what I can do with MCE 2005. I think I'd really like to use it to record TV programs, but is there any way to make the setup wireless without having to run cables all over my living room from the TV to the PC? The notebook has Internet access via a wireless router.