Media centers seem to be all the rage nowadays, as high definition movies and television shows, as well as higher quality picture and music have started to invade the market. While some recent additions to the media center families, like AppleTV and distinguished models from several startup companies have been impressive, none have really captured the idea of replacing a Tivo, computer, amplifier, receiver, Netflix deliveries, media players, DVD player, and catch-all computer … until now.

As Alienware describes it, the Hangar 18 can do just about anything:

* Watch - Watch, pause, and record your movies, TV shows, photos, and internet videos on your widescreen TV in high definition
* Listen - Listen to all your favorite songs and artists with Hangar18’s onboard 5.1 surround sound amplifier
* Share - Wirelessly stream all your media to other PCs, mobile devices, and media extenders throughout your home.
* Download - Download content from all over the internet to one secure location to store and share with your home and others.

Full details and more pictures inside!
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Building a media center is something that can take a lot of time, effort and above all else: money. So testing the foundation before building the house makes sense right? Right.

Finding the right cables that work for you can, if not anything else, be a real pain in the rear. Thats why we’re sacrificing our hard earned paychecks testing this stuff so you don’t have to. (insert smiley face)

This review is actually just a portion of a much larger walkthrough for building your own media center and doing it for under $1400. But since that project is taking much longer than expected, please enjoy this quick review of one of the basic components.
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