In addition to being capable PCs, Media Center notebooks are extremely talented multimedia hubs great for organizing and storing your photos, music, movies, and home videos. You can watch and record live television. Part of the magic is done through Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 (MCE), the OS running these machines, but there are more features to examine. Of course you'll also need to settle on a price you can live with. A good example of a high-end Media Center laptop is Toshiba's Qosmio G35-AV600 ($2,400), our Editors' Choice winner. On the other end of the spectrum is Dell's M140, which can be had for as low as $749.

When shopping for a Media Center laptop, several elements should factor into your decision. First, choose one with a bright, high-contrast screen, also known as a transflective or a glossy display. Companies have proprietary names for this screen technology. Sony calls its XBrite, whereas Dell likes the term Ultrasharp, and Acer uses CrystalBrite. Designed with TV and movie viewing in mind, these screens tend to generate a greater amount of glare than standard TFT displays. Not a problem when catching the latest DVD, but could potentially be an annoyance if you're using it under bright fluorescents or outdoors. As for screen size, you want something with a widescreen, and 15.4-inches (measured diagonally) is a very good place to start. Keep in mind that big widescreen displays tend to make these notebooks heavy--ranging anywhere from about seven to ten pounds. That's a handful compared with the 4 pound or lighter weight of your average ultraportable.

Video and photo files tend to quickly fill up your hard drive, so get a notebook with plenty of storage space. A 240GB hard drive is the largest we've seen, so far. When selecting your optical drives, choose a dual-layer DVD burner capable of recording twice as much as single layer DVD burners.

Most Media Centers have various video and audio connections. At some point, you may want to attach a cable box, home theater system or even an XBOX 360 to your laptop. Look for Composite-In ports, such as A/V (Red, Yellow, White) or S-Video-In for video. The advanced Toshiba Qosmio G35-AV600 even has Component-Out ports, which will let you display content from your notebook to a larger flat screen, such as a Plasma television or a DLP (Digital Light Processing) projector. To pump high-quality audio directly to home theater and surround sound receivers, some Media Center laptops come equipped with S/P DIF digital audio out ports as well.

Another significant feature many Media Center laptops have (though there are some non-MCE machines which can do this as well) is the ability to quickly access and play DVDs, CDs, and audio files stored on the hard drive without booting Windows.

And what's a media laptop without a TV tuner? Some have TV tuners built right in, which is ideal, but these systems tend to cost more than $2,000. A less expensive option is to buy an USB TV tuner upgrade, which also works well but can be bulky. It's important to remember, that not all Media Center laptops (or desktops for that matter) come with TV tuners, as they once did. So make sure you investigate the features, before you buy any laptop.

Comparison these laptops.

Media Center Laptops:

Dell Insprion XPS M140
Reasonably priced Media center laptop. No TV tuner, but if you want one you can upgrade to one on Dell's site.

Toshiba Qosmio G35-AV600Toshiba Qosmio G35-AV600
The Toshiba Qosmio G35-AV600 offers the most complete set of high-end multimedia features.

HP Pavillion dv5000t
This elegantly designed multimedia machine runs fast Intel Core Duo components and has magnificent battery life.