UPDATE


some of you are looking foward or have already installed microsoft windows media center edition {MCE}
i fell obligated to update this thread. i admitted earlier on that i love MCE computer, and i have tried them all as you can see from many links above.

i will disappoint you if you are one of those who fished over 1000$ to buy MCE computer, you may also agree with me that microsft windows MCE is not all that for many reasons. after installing the latest upgade {2005 version} i noticed the great changes, improvements that makes it worth trying. hardware support in first {2004} version was minimum, as such that only few tv-cards were supported, but the latest version broke that barrier and woke lots of interests in that good for nothing windows xp tweaked edition.

it is good to know that this version of windows xp is readily avaliable almost everywhere, including it's famous remote control. now everybody can as well install and run the operating system without having to buy a new computer. lots of liefhebbers {enthusiasts} in Holland and their neighbors were very happy when it was anounced that microsoft windows xp media center edition is avaliable in local retail stores. few months down the line i went out to shop for it, and there it is . different OEM versions with or without remote control from retail stores to computer fair. down here MCE remote is sold at about 40 euro and the MCE itself for between 99-119 euro, or bundled price of 150 euro. the other good news is that there are lots of TV-CARDS that supports MCE around, as you know it is not just any tv-card. windows xp MCE supports only hardware mpeg decoder tv-cards, and in those earlier days of MCE only few cards were supported. TECHNOTREND/HAUPPAGE pvr250 and 350 and maybe few others. today hauppage and other manufactures have budget cards with mpeg decoders with price tag of 80 euro making it affordable for anybody who want to run this operating system. i am not happy that my two tv-cards are not supported,haupagge dvb card and wintv 2000, it will makes no sense if i should buy another card with mpeg decoder to be able to watch tv in microsoft MCE if i can use other MCE from other companies which support just any tv-card.

Microsoft proves that somethings never changes, after what i consider reasonable improvements in this upgrade version of media center edition. i am still disappointed with their lack of wide thinking, to have your picture shown in media center slideshow you MUST have all your pictures in {default picture directory} my documents/my pictures. and all your musics must also be avaliable in windows media player, that is searching your music first with mediaplayer. making it easier for media center to be able to find them. no big deal one may argue, but why did they not make it possible to get your musics/pictures during configuration from all folders or partition even from different drivers in the same computer. personally, that takes all my joy away since i know that there are lot of MCE other there that can do that with few mouse click. i understand that others may like it that way, but i think the whole idea of media center edition pc is to make things easier hence the remote control. i give credit to the 2005 upgrade, but still say that it is not worth it if one has to cough out over thousand dollars to enjoy 200 mb upgrade of windows xp

After having a system with MCE 2005 for about a month or so, for the most part I like it. I think they could have done a better job with some of the interfaces - If it had some of the cool things that ATI's media center software like the ability to set your tv as your desktop. or make it translucent, now that would have been very cool. ATI does offer the e-homewonder card for MCE, but unfortunatley their very cool software which runs on their tvwonder cards will not work with it - maybe in the future. Although it is XP underskinned, it does seem to boot a lot quicker, run faster, although their are still some quirks. System Info lists the software as MCE 2002, the help system lists it as MCE 2004, MSINFO32 lists it as XP Pro - guess they didn't update their components to read the new version number. The ability to record tv video is great, - beats the heck out of paying for a Tivo, plus with the right sofware you can edit whatever you want. It does give you true tivo like viewing, with the ability to pause and replay live tv. Although most of the systems that it comes with are overpriced, if you shop around, find the right deals, you can certainly get a good system at a good price. I spent about $2250 on mine, but considering that I got an $800 20 inch flat panel, a radeon XT800 video card, stuffed the system with ddr2 ram, and SATA hard drives, I am pleased. It is nice to finally have a true multi-media capable system - it needs some refinement, but considering it is microsoft, it is the best offering I have seen from them to date.

Ive got MCE on my other computer and ive got sage tv on this one thnx alot

There is an OpenSource project to produce a MediaCenter like thing: MediaPortal. I haven't tried it yet however it looks pretty good. Its in its first stages of life but it looks like it could become a great project with some work!

gries818 wrote:

There is an OpenSource project to produce a MediaCenter like thing: MediaPortal. I haven't tried it yet however it looks pretty good. Its in its first stages of life but it looks like it could become a great project with some work!

tried both Microsoft media center and mediaportal on the same machine...microsoft beat it hands down....

mediaportal needs a lot of updating before it will work for me....

Microsoft also needs a lot of work, but at least it doesnt use all the memory and lock the computer...

maybe someday mediaportal will surpase MS.

ATI media center that shipped with the ati 8500DV card, about 4 yrs ago, beats both of them by far..it also comes with a very nice radio freq. remote control that really works and also controls most windows commands and the mouse joystick is very slick...

Thats to bad, I was thinking for downloading that. Oh well. I'll wait till they come with a new version.

I tried out media portal... but had a big problem with .net.. I had autoupdates turned on for some reason.. .and when iwas installing 2.0 it updated 1 to sp1 or something wierd. I just got fed up as the only thing else that uses .NET is catalyst control center (on my machine) and I just install the old control panel instead.

So I could not give it a fair shake. Though it seemed pretty decent I never got it working correctly

Neuromancer wrote:

I tried out media portal... but had a big problem with .net.. I had autoupdates turned on for some reason.. .and when iwas installing 2.0 it updated 1 to sp1 or something wierd. I just got fed up as the only thing else that uses .NET is catalyst control center (on my machine) and I just install the old control panel instead. So I could not give it a fair shake. Though it seemed pretty decent I never got it working correctly

Well we can just hope they fix the problems. It looks really good, I guess its just the feature .