Recording Premium HD With Windows Vista

I just visited the loft apartment Microsoft has set up in New York City to show off the multimedia wonders of Windows Vista. I'm impressed, but a word of warning to anyone considering buying a Media Center PC before the end of the year: If you want to take advantage of the HD-optimized Windows Vista, you may want to wait until Microsoft's new operating system launches in January.

Windows Vista has a fantastic new Media Center Edition built right into the OS. As you may have read in Chris's previous posts on Vista, the new Media Center Edition has a widescreen-view, horizontal-as-well-as-vertical interface. So in addition to scrolling up-and-down, you can now scroll side-to-side across the screen through large movie-thumbnails, music-album-cover art, and still images, as well as easily access a DVD-creation program (for shows like The Simpsons, but not The Sopranos).

The Vista version of Media Center will also have a slot for digital cable and CableCARDs, which means you'll be able to record shows off of premium channels like HBO and Showtime in HD. But here's the rub for owners of older Media Center Edition PCs: Though the Vista upgrade will slap that fancy new interface and widescreen look on your old Media PC, it won't upgrade the hardware—so you're stuck recording digital cable in standard definition versus high-definition. Not the end of the world, but if you're a high-def freak such as myself, you'll want premium HD-DVR capability.

Though pricey, the new OS looks sweet—I'm looking forward to upgrading my whole system, hardware and software. But media hounds should hold off on new computer purchases until the dang thing gets released.