(image courtesy of Lifehacker!)

Continuing on the whole media center kick, there’s a way to turn an old, beat up Windows PC into a cheap but effective Windows Media Center to connect to your TV. If I don’t do something like soft-mod my XBox, I’d love to take an old PC lying around my house that’s starting to reach the end of its days and re-purpose it as a media center, and this Lifehacker article shows you how.

Your first step is to get and install a video capture card. You can use an XBox or XBox 360 already on your network as the front end, or you can use the box itself. Either way, the article will walk you through using your web browser and a really cool interface to record shows to your old re-purposed PC or to another machine on your home network for storage, and then play them through the your new (old) media center system.

[ Lifehacker :: Turn Your Windows PC into a Media Center Powerhouse On the Cheap ]

(image courtesy of Lifehacker!)

If I’m lucky, I might pick up an XBox 360 Elite this holiday season, assuming I can find a really decent sale. Call it a gift to myself. If I do manage to pick one up, it means I have a classic XBox that I won’t have much to do with, since I can play all of my old XBox games on the XBox 360. At the same time, I’ve been wanting to build a system to be a dedicated media center, complete with movies and music to dedicate to the TV. A little home network connectivity and I can have it play downloaded movies and music on other computers around the house. This story from Lifehacker just might help make those dreams come true.

Using the Lifehacker tutorial, I can soft-mod my XBox (and not care if Microsoft finds out, since I won’t actually be playing anything on it on XBox Live), even upgrade the internal hard drive to give me more storage for music and movies. I can get the new media center set up quickly, on my home network, sharing files, and more.

[ Lifehacker :: Transform Your Classic Xbox into a Killer Media Center ]

I can’t resist a little hilarious commentary on Windows Vista. Don’t get me wrong, I actually rather like the OS, although I can’t think of a compelling reason to upgrade to it outside of the visual effects. (which I rather like – I guess I’m just all about aesthetics…) That being said, I won’t upgrade to a whole new OS for as much money as Vista costs without real compelling reasons, and the fact that while Vista has sold 88 million copies, lots of people have downgraded back to XP because their peripherals and applications just don’t work with Vista yet.

What’s the story behind Vista? Well, this video tries to explain:

Absolutely hilarious!