I have vista ult 64 installed and I'm trying to get media center to permanently take over my TV. Can I do this using 1 PC while still being able to use the PC normally while flipping through Media Center on the TV?

Everything else on your computer will run just fine with media center open (assuming you have more than 1GB of RAM). I have a second monitor that I use as a TV screen. You can tell MC which monitor you want it to default to in setup. You just need to get an IR blaster for your cable\sat box.