windows media center edition

poweller

Anyone get a new p.c. with this on it? Whats it like?

aidan_walsh

Media Edition? You mean ME (Millenium Edition)? Or Windows XP N?

subway

aidan_walsh wrote:

Media Edition? You mean ME (Millenium Edition)? Or Windows XP N?

im gonna go out on a limb and guess xp media centre edition

poweller

windows media center

poweller

Is it hard to tune in the t.v. ?

ethernet

Can you buy the software on its own or only with a MCE system?

monomaniac

MCE is essentially Windows XP with a few extra programs - mainly Windows Media Center which is the 10ft interface designed for running on a TV.

I installed MCE last week but wasn't that impressed as I've been running HTPC programs on my computer for a couple of years now.
I discovered media portal - a free opensource media center alternative.

http://www.team-mediaportal.com/

I cannot recommend this program enough. You can configure it more than media center, it'll run on Windows XP, the video playback quality is much more superior and there are more plugins available.

I'm keep Windows Media Center Edition installed on my PC as it seems to boot up a lot quicker than XP and use media portal on it.

richardson2525

I recently sorted my Dad out with a Media Centre PC (running MCE) He has it set up in the sitting room and runs it purely as a DVD player/Music PLayer/TV recorder. TV reception and recording is fine (the same as what we were getting before through the LCD TV) and the whole interface is quite user friendly. Tuning the TV in and getting the guide to work was simple once you update the software to the current spec. Have been running ti about 2 weeks now with no problems. I would agree that it does lack a little bit in configureability, but it's fine for what it is -a media platform. As for the OS itself -its the same as Windows XP Proffesional Edition.

I would say we are pretty happy with the whole package. I you want to buy the software itself you eityher buy a new pc with it installed or you can buy it with the remote or some other pice of hardware from places like Ebay

SouperComputer

in my experience mediaportal, although a valiant effort and a great price, ive found it to be be pretty buggy. Of couse this is to be expected as it it is still under development.

It works well, but it think for most people MCE is a better, simpler prospect.

as for the OS itself -its the same as Windows XP Proffesional Edition.

Be careful now! Its based on, but is not the same as Pro. One glaring feature missing is the ability to join a domain. It can be done with trickery, but changing domain is a real pain. Also it can join the domain to access shared drives etc, but it cannot take part in the domain security policy.


Overall MCE is fairly decent. Of course in typical M$ fashion, its not extremely flexible, but it does what it says on the tin.

If you are looking for total control, and the possibl pain that goes with setting it up, have a goo at MythTV

young nastyman

I've ordered a laptop with XP MCE but I need XP Pro for the college network to support it.

Will the installation of XP Pro disable any of the features of XP MCE? what I mean is, do operating systems complement or substitute eachother?

monomaniac

Mostly compliment each other however if you were planning on hooking the laptop up to the college network you may have a problem - the option to join a domain in MCE is disabled as SouperComputer mentioned.

There is a workaround though:

http://forums.vnunet.com/thread.jsp?forum=6&thread=52646&message=326057

My friend has tried this on his laptop and it worked fine.

FastFullBack

Can a TV be connected to a Windows Media laptopn using just a S-video cable or is a TV tuner required?

monomaniac

If a laptop has a S Video connection or some sort of video out then it connected to the TV (ensure you download the latest graphics drivers) with any versions of Windows.

Karoma

^ Presuming you mean you want TV out. (i.e. To display the laptop's screen output on a TV). If you want to watch TV on a laptop/computer - then you will require a TV card ("TV in").