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Average Overall Rating:  46 Ratings,58 Reviews |
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| "CODE 13! CODE 13! CODE 13!" |
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By bryandcorey 2008-05-02 00:00:00 1 out of 2 found this reivew helpful |
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I tried everything I could think of and read a few places that it is the firewall, which of course I completely turned off(Windows Firewall in Vista). Finally I just checked the exception for Media Center Extender and turned Windows Firewall back on (Read full review at CNET)
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| Pros: love it when it cooperates |
| Cons: Spent a few hours troubleshooting the guide download |
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| "How did Windows ever become the predominant Operating System?" |
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By jhbpc 2008-04-01 00:00:00 1 out of 3 found this reivew helpful |
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Became so, unrepairably, slow after a week or so (yes all of the Anitvirus/Spyware stuff fully installed and updated, system maintenance done, etc) of use that it is ponderous how Windows and its OEM and Third party software stay in business. All the (Read full review at CNET)
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| Pros: Apple's iTunes and Safari work better that any comparable Windows music player or web browsers |
| Cons: Virtually no effective tech support (i.e. no one knows how to make this system run effeciently without the fallback position of reinstalling it from scratch) |
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| "Excellent and reliable System" |
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By Hoodeddeathman 2007-08-13 00:00:00 1 out of 2 found this reivew helpful |
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I have media center on a custom made machine, which i built and installed the os onto. it has all the features xp has and more. Although i do not use the simple setup options in the media center programs it is good for first time users or people who (Read full review at CNET)
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| Pros: Extensive media capabilities |
| Cons: Not many recogniseable problems |
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| "Grat if they get the bugs out!!" |
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By ahd745 2007-07-21 00:00:00 1 out of 2 found this reivew helpful |
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Like many other Microsaft products, they seem to put things on the market before they are debugged. Eventually it "may" be a great program. Another problem is that it does not always work well with other programs already installed in the computer. (Read full review at CNET)
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| Pros: Great idea! |
| Cons: Many driver problems causes media center to malfunction |
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| "XP Media Center is not stable enough for real work" |
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By zacterrazas 2007-07-03 00:00:00 1 out of 2 found this reivew helpful |
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I have been using Windows XP Media Center Edition with Live OneCare as a development environment with Visual Basic and my experience has not been good at all. Even though my music plays great and my MP3 player is as stable as it can be, I get BSOD's (Read full review at CNET)
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| Pros: The looks are good. Good interaction with media devices. |
| Cons: Too unstable for a production environment |
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| -- CNET Expert, CNET 1 out of 2 found this reivew helpful |
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| Editor's note: On Friday, October 14, Microsoft released an update for Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005. Called Rollup 2, the free update is available for MCE 2005 users via Windows Update. While not a major revision of the operating system, Rollup 2 includes some significant changes. They include: support for the Media Center functionality built into the Xbox 360 game console; support for up to four TV tuners, two standard-def, two over-the-air high-def; support for new (but rare) 200-disc DVD changers; a new power-management mode, called Away Mode, which provides instant on/off functionality; tweaks to the DVD-burning engine included in MCE; new zoom modes for stretching images to fit the aspect ratio of your display; and support for various languages and localities around the world. Other improvements long sought after by users, such as CableCard support, will likely not appear before the release of Windows Vista. (10/18/05) When Microsoft first introduced the Windows XP Media Center Edition (MCE) two years ago, the biggest complaint we had about the operating system was that it held recorded TV captive and produced poor-quality video playback. Last year's MCE 2004 OS improved on both fronts: video, while not perfect, looked watchable, and the OS gave you a sensible method for burning DVDs in a format that played on consumer DVD players. Now in its third iteration, Microsoft's remote-controllable, multimedia OS, Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, continues to provide more freedom with your PC's digital-media content. With support for new set-top Media Center Extender network devices, you can now use MCE 2005 to access files on your PC from displays in the other rooms in your home--the TV in your bedroom, for example; each MCE 2005 PC can support up to five Extenders, over wired or wireless networks. Plus MCE 2005 also now supports dual TV tuners, which means you can watch one channel while recording another. MCE 2005 is the most polished and tightly integrated desktop DVR we've seen, but we'll have to test the image quality on more Media Center PCs and Extenders as they are released before we give it the thumbs-up for broad use throughout your home. Setup and interface of Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 looks polished before you even install it. The printed instructions contained clear illustrations for connecting our test PC to a variety of display types, along with details explaining how to connect the PC to wired or wireless networks and add set-top Media Center Extender devices into the mix. (PC vendors and networking companies such as Linksys will sell Extenders as standalone products.) We connected our test system to a digital LCD and a digital satellite cable box, then connected it to an 802.11g wireless router for use with the Extender we received. After we powered on the PC and started up the MCE 2005 interface, the setup wizard walked us through the setup process, the majority of which we could easily navigate with the included remote control. Within 10 minutes, we received a live TV picture and had downloaded the program guide for our area. The only hitch along the way was getting MCE 2005 to recognize the IR blaster we had connected to the PC and placed in front of our satellite cable box. After repeated attempts, we were finally successful (we're still not sure what we did differently to get it working properly), and we could control the satellite box with the Media Center remote. The IR blaster is essential for the Extender; without it, you can't change the channel when sitting in front of the Extender. This version of MCE adds an audio setup wizard, which simply asks you which type of speaker set you'll be using, from a two-piece set to 7.1 speakers. The setup wizard walks you step-by-step through the installation process. It recognized our satellite cable TV connection, and we had a picture within 10 minutes. Once we had our MCE 2005 PC fully operational, we set up the Extender in another room, connecting it to a 34-inch Sony TV via an S-Video cable. Setup was a snap. We turned it on, and it found the Media Center PC in the Labs next door on our office's 802.11g network. We plugged in a WEP key and soon had access to the contents on our MCE 2005 test system--recorded video and TV shows, photos, music, even live TV. (Since our test system had only one TV tuner, if we changed the channel on the Extender, the channel changed on the PC, too.) Unfortunately, we could neither fast-forward nor rewind when playing a recorded video. And on a large 34-inch screen over a wireless 802.11g network, viewing both live and recorded TV left something to be desired. There's more on video quality on our performance page . On the whole, MCE 2005 is more visually appealing and responsive than past versions. For one, the Media Center shell itself (more of an application within Windows XP Home than its own OS) looks much improved. Microsoft has made it easier to get to your most commonly used functions--next to each item on the main menu are three icons that are shortcuts to oft-used tasks. For example, next to the Live TV menu item, you might find icons for live TV, recorded TV, and movies. It's easy to close out of the MCE 2005 interface or just resize its window to return to regular Windows XP Home; you can perform either action with a couple of clicks, using the remote control or the mouse. Within the program guide, MCE 2005 gives you a convenient snapshot of the movies currently on TV. MCE 2005 is quicker, too. There's no longer a delay while your selections load, and you can now find cover art for albums and movies. The new Movie Finder--a subset of the program guide--takes full advantage of the cover art; it pulls out all the movies from the program guide, letting you know which movies are currently on and which start within the next hour. Features of Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005's core functions haven't changed since the OS's conception two years ago. Its basic function is to give you a remote-control-friendly interface for watching and recording TV along with accessing the videos, photos, and music on your PC. Any MCE 2005 system comes equipped with Windows XP SP2 and Windows Media Player 10.0 , but the most noticeable change to this year's version is greater hardware support, both inside and outside the PC. Inside the box, Microsoft has eased its hardware requirements, so there's a wider range of prices for Media Center systems. We are just starting to see a few MCE 2005 systems from manufacturers, one of which, for example, is priced less than $1,000. Unfortunately, however, you still can't get MCE the cheapest way: by buying just the OS. Microsoft hasn't changed the way it is selling the OS: you still must buy it preinstalled on a new system--you can't purchase it separately and upgrade your current PC. Owners of previous-generation MCE PCs will have to check with the PC vendor about how to upgrade. There are rumors, however, that add-in cards such as TV tuners might come bundled in a kit with the OS from graphics card and TV tuner card vendors. We'll update you here should anything come of these whispers around the Web. The biggest change, however, is Microsoft's added support for dual TV tuners, which give you much more freedom in watching and recording TV. With two tuners, you can record two different shows concurrently or watch one show while recording another. MCE 2005 records TV to your hard drive in a proprietary MPEG-2 format called DVR-MS. In addition to dual-tuners, MCE 2005 supports new HDTV tuners, which let you watch and record high-definition TV on your Media Center PC. Unfortunately, the set-top Media Center Extender devices will not offer HD support, and you'll be able to receive only free, over-the-air HD broadcasts. That is, you'll get the major networks in HD but not HD channels from HBO and ESPN, for example. The program guide clearly displays what's on TV and gives a synopsis for each show. You can record your favorite programs with one-button ease. Outside the box, two developments take center stage. First, the aforementioned Media Center Extender, which is a set-top device that allows you to access an MCE 2005 PC's multimedia files over wired or wireless networks. This development allows you, for example, to connect the MCE 2005 system in your home office and stream content from the system to the TVs in your living room and bedroom. You'll just need to purchase an Extender for each screen you want to be able to share files with. MCE 2005 PCs can support up to five Extenders, though you'll probably run into problems if you have more Extenders than TV tuners: our test system had only one tuner, so if we changed the channel on the Extender, the channel changed on the PC, too. Other files--videos, recorded TV, photos, and music--can be accessed independently, however. What you can't do with an Extender is watch a DVD. Microsoft is right in saying that it would be a poor user experience to have to run to one room to load a DVD in order to view it in another. Our question is, then, why not build a DVD drive in the Extender itself? MCE 2005 also now lets you share content with new handhelds and smart phones. You can copy a sitcom to your cell phone, for example, to watch during your morning commute or take a couple of wallet-size photos to share with your mother at dinner after work. We were able to quickly sync a smart phone with our MCE 2005 test system. Even a 30-minute sitcom is too large a file for a tiny smart phone with a flash memory card, but Windows Media Player 10.0 compressed the video on the fly and moved the file over to the phone within 10 minutes. You can burn a CD within the Media Center interface with the included remote control. There's no need to reach for the mouse or the keyboard. MCE 2005 makes it easier to burn content to a CD or a DVD, too. Both actions require a third-party app, but any system manufacturer should include such software on the MCE 2005 systems that it sells, and you don't have to leave the Media Center shell to create a disc. Just a few clicks on the included remote control, and you can burn a music or photo CD. The same holds true for burning content to a DVD. Similarly, you don't need to leave the MCE 2005 interface to use MSN Messenger. You can IM with friends while watching TV, for example. You'll just have to get used to your conversation scrolling up instead of down. If you want to use another IM client or check your e-mail, you'll need to leave the Media Center interface. It's easy to switch between the two, however, and you can use AIM or Yahoo's IM and still watch TV in the corner of your PC screen simply by resizing the MCE 2005 window. You can't browse the Web within Media Center (Microsoft learned its lesson with WebTV), but Online Spotlight will give you severely limited access to the Internet, should you find yourself much too comfortable to reach for a keyboard or a mouse. With a couple of clicks on the remote, you can scan the headlines and watch video on MSN TV or ESPN Motion. Of more use are the on-demand, movie-download services from MovieLink and CinemaNow. And music fans can quickly find an Internet radio station via Live365.com with the Media Center interface or hunt for MP3s using the new Napster. Performance of Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 Microsoft put in a lot of work to improve the quality of TV playback with Media Center Edition 2005, but we're still not completely sold. We saw fewer dropped frames and artifacts than what we saw with MCE 2004, but it was still far from ideal on our tests. We connected the MCE 2005 system itself to a 17-inch digital LCD, then connected the Media Center Extender in an adjacent room via S-Video to a 34-inch Sony TV. The two devices were connected over our office's 802.11g wireless network. Wireless interference and the large Sony screen conspired to make for some rough sledding with watching TV on the Extender. We attempted to watch play-off baseball (TV programs that were both live and recorded) on the Extender. Sporting events are a tough test, granted, with the detail in the crowd and the cameras quickly panning to follow the action. The Sony TV was fully calibrated before our tests (unfortunately, the MCE 2005's display calibration tool can be used only with the screen attached to the PC), yet the image we got using the Extender was overly saturated. The red in the St. Louis Cardinals' uniforms and hats bled profusely. And any foul ball into the crowd created artifacts that were very apparent. Microsoft suggests you use an 801.11a connection or, better yet, a wired connection for the Extender. We also tested the Extender over a wired connection, however, and didn't notice much improvement in image quality. For a set-top DVR, your best bet is still TiVo. TV looked crisper on the 17-inch LCD that was connected directly to our MCE 2005 test system, which uses an Nvidia NVTV tuner card. The color was better, but ample artifacting was still evident. Only when we resized the TV window from full screen to a smaller window that filled about a quarter of the screen did the image appear crisp. MCE 2005 lets you control the quality of your TV recordings to some extent, at least. There are four settings, from Fair to Best. Our test system's 180GB hard drive could hold 64 hours on Best mode and 142 hours on Fair. We set up a recording on the Fair setting and another on Best and noticed a discernible difference. Our advice: get yourself a large hard drive (200GB or more) and use the Best setting. ...
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| -- Htpcnews Expert, Htpcnews 1 out of 2 found this reivew helpful |
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| Article Index Microsoft Windows Media Center 2005 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 1 of 18 I would like to first start out with a warning and an apology. First off make sure you have plenty of time to read this review as I have possibly made it a little too long. I really wanted to cover as much as possibly that Media Center 2005 had to offer and found that after a few hours of grabbing pictures that thing started getting a little excessive. Rest assured though I have tried to include as much information that I possibly can about every module and feature of Media Center 2005 (or from here on out referred to MCE, when making referrals to MCE 2004 I will note the difference by the year following). With that said, you can always navigate around this review by the normal next / previous page links or use the "Navigate to" drop down box to continue where you left off or to skip to a specific area of this review. It's no secret that I like MCE, I have been using it for years thanks to my ability to access a copy via MSDN subscriptions. But sadly most users do not have access to MCE via MSDN and the only other way to of purchased MCE was by buying a machine that had it pre-installed. This made a lot of enthusiasts upset as they wanted the ability to use MCE in their own way on their machines and not on a pre-built HP Pavilion. This honestly made many many people bitter toward MCE and many people swore that the product was the worst thing ever put out by MS. They all made this judgment without even trying the product which really isn't fair to any product. I know there has been many a time that I have spoke with people about MCE and many of them did not even know that MCE had many of the capabilities that it did. I have even converted some people to MCE that were obsessed with other HTPC applications. When Microsoft initially released MCE it did so to make sure that the OS and machine were setup in a proper manor that was optimized for the best experience. This ensured that Joe Bob sitting at home who doesn't even know how to install a driver would not buy MCE off the shelf and assume it would work just by installing it. What did happen though is many vendors did not setup the machines correctly or did things half assed like not actually try the setup themselves. This lead to many odd problems which the majority of the time lead back to a problem with DVD Decoder installed. I'll get to that in a minutt though as that still does play a huge roll in MCE. What MCE is: MCE is a integrated HTPC application that is based off of Windows XP Professional. Yes I said it and you heard it right, Windows XP Professional. However some of the networking features have been stripped out. In the current version of MCE you can not join a domain, but Remote Desktop and IIS are still available to you. MCE will work with most PC hardware out there, however the TV tuner side is a bit limited. The limitation is a good thing though as it helps the machine to run smoothly. MCE does prefer hardware based PVR cards for TV since they have on board hardware based encoding. Such cards are the Hauppauge PVR 250, 250MCE, 350 and Roslyn model. The ATI eHome wonder and Nvidia MCE PVR card will both work and even Avermedia has a few cards. There is support for some of the ATI AIW cards but this is a software based solution and requires a special software encoder from ATI. With the prices falling on hardware PVR cards and the reduced CPU load I honestly don't see why you would want to use a software based card. Besides if you do use a software based card you will not be able to use dual tuners. MCE is not an upgrade to any existing product, it does need to be setup from a fresh installation. There were various "hacks" floating around on the internet that would allow you to install the MCE components on any version of Windows XP such as Home, Pro, or even server 2003 and betas of Longhorn. I have looked in to these methods and I can tell you first hand it works sometimes, others it doesn't. It is a half assed way to do things and can cause some problems on some systems so to really get the full benefit and enjoyment I strongly urge you to do a fresh install if you do decide to use MCE. MCE will not be Available in retail form (at least not until MS decides to do so). The newest variant of MCE, MCE 2005, will be available in OEM form to many many more companies. It will not be limited as 2004 was to just a few specific companies. But as well all know most OEM software can be had easily with a *ahem* qualifying hardware purchase *cough*. Excuse me, I had a little something in my throat there. I know I have seen MCE 2004 available through Vio Software in single pack OEM form. I wonder if 2005 will be available like that as well.. hmmmmm.... All I know is MCE 2005 is availible right now through most major distributors for sale to retailers who are permitted to sell OEM software. MCE has a very distinct set top box feel to it and is incredibly easy to use. When you first go to the main menu of MCE you immediately can feel the ease of use that it has to it. There is no confusion to it really, and it isn't over flooded with settings menus. There is only one menu on the start page which can take you to a sub menu with all the settings in it. Other than that the main menu speaks for it's self, click on My TV to go to My TV, My Pictures to got to My Pictures. MCE is a full fledged PVR program that can time shift live TV, schedule recordings of TV programs and even has a integrated EPG (electronic program guide). I know that even though some countries are not supported in the guide I have seen many 3rd party plug-ins to pull information to the MCE EPG. Microsoft hopes to add more and more countries as MCE grows so always try to check to see if EPG data is available in your area for MCE before you get all excited. I know many other PVR applications have this problem as well. What MCE 2005 adds that is a great upgrade over previous versions is the capability to have up to two PVR cards and a HDTV tuner card. You have the ability now to record two SD shows and one HDTV show all at once! HDTV can even be timeshifted. MCE is a DVD player and also has the capability to play many other forms of video. Pretty much anything that Windows Media Player can play MCE can play. Divx, MPEG, AVI, WMV9 and many many more are all supported. MCE has the capability built in to display your pictures on your TV and play them back in a slide show presentation. You can even have music playing in the background while viewing pictures. MCE can also be a complete audio solution for your media files. You can play CDs, mp3 wma and many more file types in MCE and have them all displayed by title, artist and even album. As with many programs though you have to make absolute sure all of your music ID3 tags are setup properly to ensure all information is displayed properly. I know that I have waaaay too many files out there with absolutely no information in them. What MCE isn't: MCE is not fully customizable like some other applications out there. It is meant to plain and simply have a set top box feel to it. I do think personally MS should allow people to try and create skins or etc for MCE as this would generate a lot of market support. Now.. keep in mind I said it isn't fully customizable. There is a way to change things around in MCE but your really have to have a whole lot more patience than I do. I will give this disclaimer right now before I even go in to how: If you screw up your MCE installation it is not the fault of HTPCNews.com, it is your own dumb fault. Make sure to backup any files before you begin poking your nose around in files. You will need great artistic ability as well as a resource editor such as, well, Resource Tuner . What you do have the ability to do is edit the ehres.dll file and substitute various resources in that file for others. For example I like the GANT collection of icons, and had a certain background I found that I thought would be cool to try so I edited the ehres.dll file and substituted the items for what I would want and this is one example: Before After This was only a minor change but had a huge impact I think. There are so many buttons, pictures and etc in MCE though that this can be very very time consuming. Again keep in mind editing the ehres.dll file can be dangerous and can cause problems with your MCE installation if you do something wrong. If you break it it's your own fault, but at least be safe and backup the file you edit before you edit it! I don't know if MS will get ticked off at me showing you this or not but honestly I think this capability could help boost support for MCE. I know of some 3rd party applications that are being developed right now to help this customization process. It may be a while before we see them though. MCE has limited support of HDTV, you can only get OTA HDTV with a few HDTV tuners. I see many many people complaining about this feature and frankly it ticks me off. The current available options in hardware make this limitation, not MCE. That I know of there are not any Component video, DVI or VGA HDTV capture cards available to consumers to allow you to hook your HDTV set top box in to. There are also very few tuner cards with the ability to tune in HDTV over cable. Even if you do have a card that can tune in HDTV over cable chances are all you will get is the channels you would get over the air since channels like HBO, Showtime, Discovery HD all are encrypted and require a STB to unlock those channels for viewing. Which leads us back to the point that there are no cards capable of capturing from a set top box for HDTV content. MCE does not support FFDshow at all. This to me is the one thing that absolutely needs to be changed first. The ability to allow the DVD player to use FFDShow would bring a tear to my eye. I have been using other programs for a long time to gain the absolute best quality out of my DVDs. Granted DVD quality is still excellent (of curse depending on the decoder you use), but after using FFDshow it is hard to go back to anything else. For full functionality the MCE remote control is required. The newer remotes for 2005 are not compatible with 2004 as it requires a different driver that is provided with 2005. The new remotes have many of the same features as the old ones but adds back lit buttons and the capability to control volume as well as power your TV on and off from the remote. This is all you will be able to do from this remote though as it is not a full featured universal remote. The remote control set comes with an IR blaster to change channels on your STB while you are watching TV. If you are just using the tuners on your PVR cards the remote set is not required. If you don't have the IR Blaster unit attached MCE will not allow you to use the s-video input since you would need a way to control the STB and let MCE know the channel has changed. I like the idea of adding serial control for MCE but haven't run in to any issues with the IR blaster (except with an Older Motorola STB which all I needed to do was change the IR speed and then it worked fine). The older style MCE remote will work in MCE 2005 and have all the same functionality, with the exception of the back lit buttons and volume control on your TV. Prev - Next >> ...
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| -- Htpcnews Expert, Htpcnews 2 out of 3 found this reivew helpful |
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| Microsoft Windows Media Center 2005 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 1 of 18 I would like to first start out with a warning and an apology. First off make sure you have plenty of time to read this review as I have possibly made it a little too long. I really wanted to cover as much as possibly that Media Center 2005 had to offer and found that after a few hours of grabbing pictures that thing started getting a little excessive. Rest assured though I have tried to include as much information that I possibly can about every module and feature of Media Center 2005 (or from here on out referred to MCE, when making referrals to MCE 2004 I will note the difference by the year following). With that said, you can always navigate around this review by the normal next / previous page links or use the "Navigate to" drop down box to continue where you left off or to skip to a specific area of this review. It's no secret that I like MCE, I have been using it for years thanks to my ability to access a copy via MSDN subscriptions. But sadly most users do not have access to MCE via MSDN and the only other way to of purchased MCE was by buying a machine that had it pre-installed. This made a lot of enthusiasts upset as they wanted the ability to use MCE in their own way on their machines and not on a pre-built HP Pavilion. This honestly made many many people bitter toward MCE and many people swore that the product was the worst thing ever put out by MS. They all made this judgment without even trying the product which really isn't fair to any product. I know there has been many a time that I have spoke with people about MCE and many of them did not even know that MCE had many of the capabilities that it did. I have even converted some people to MCE that were obsessed with other HTPC applications. When Microsoft initially released MCE it did so to make sure that the OS and machine were setup in a proper manor that was optimized for the best experience. This ensured that Joe Bob sitting at home who doesn't even know how to install a driver would not buy MCE off the shelf and assume it would work just by installing it. What did happen though is many vendors did not setup the machines correctly or did things half assed like not actually try the setup themselves. This lead to many odd problems which the majority of the time lead back to a problem with DVD Decoder installed. I'll get to that in a minutt though as that still does play a huge roll in MCE. What MCE is: MCE is a integrated HTPC application that is based off of Windows XP Professional. Yes I said it and you heard it right, Windows XP Professional. However some of the networking features have been stripped out. In the current version of MCE you can not join a domain, but Remote Desktop and IIS are still available to you. MCE will work with most PC hardware out there, however the TV tuner side is a bit limited. The limitation is a good thing though as it helps the machine to run smoothly. MCE does prefer hardware based PVR cards for TV since they have on board hardware based encoding. Such cards are the Hauppauge PVR 250, 250MCE, 350 and Roslyn model. The ATI eHome wonder and Nvidia MCE PVR card will both work and even Avermedia has a few cards. There is support for some of the ATI AIW cards but this is a software based solution and requires a special software encoder from ATI. With the prices falling on hardware PVR cards and the reduced CPU load I honestly don't see why you would want to use a software based card. Besides if you do use a software based card you will not be able to use dual tuners. MCE is not an upgrade to any existing product, it does need to be setup from a fresh installation. There were various "hacks" floating around on the internet that would allow you to install the MCE components on any version of Windows XP such as Home, Pro, or even server 2003 and betas of Longhorn. I have looked in to these methods and I can tell you first hand it works sometimes, others it doesn't. It is a half assed way to do things and can cause some problems on some systems so to really get the full benefit and enjoyment I strongly urge you to do a fresh install if you do decide to use MCE. MCE will not be Available in retail form (at least not until MS decides to do so). The newest variant of MCE, MCE 2005, will be available in OEM form to many many more companies. It will not be limited as 2004 was to just a few specific companies. But as well all know most OEM software can be had easily with a *ahem* qualifying hardware purchase *cough*. Excuse me, I had a little something in my throat there. I know I have seen MCE 2004 available through Vio Software in single pack OEM form. I wonder if 2005 will be available like that as well.. hmmmmm.... All I know is MCE 2005 is availible right now through most major distributors for sale to retailers who are permitted to sell OEM software. MCE has a very distinct set top box feel to it and is incredibly easy to use. When you first go to the main menu of MCE you immediately can feel the ease of use that it has to it. There is no confusion to it really, and it isn't over flooded with settings menus. There is only one menu on the start page which can take you to a sub menu with all the settings in it. Other than that the main menu speaks for it's self, click on My TV to go to My TV, My Pictures to got to My Pictures. MCE is a full fledged PVR program that can time shift live TV, schedule recordings of TV programs and even has a integrated EPG (electronic program guide). I know that even though some countries are not supported in the guide I have seen many 3rd party plug-ins to pull information to the MCE EPG. Microsoft hopes to add more and more countries as MCE grows so always try to check to see if EPG data is available in your area for MCE before you get all excited. I know many other PVR applications have this problem as well. What MCE 2005 adds that is a great upgrade over previous versions is the capability to have up to two PVR cards and a HDTV tuner card. You have the ability now to record two SD shows and one HDTV show all at once! HDTV can even be timeshifted. MCE is a DVD player and also has the capability to play many other forms of video. Pretty much anything that Windows Media Player can play MCE can play. Divx, MPEG, AVI, WMV9 and many many more are all supported. MCE has the capability built in to display your pictures on your TV and play them back in a slide show presentation. You can even have music playing in the background while viewing pictures. MCE can also be a complete audio solution for your media files. You can play CDs, mp3 wma and many more file types in MCE and have them all displayed by title, artist and even album. As with many programs though you have to make absolute sure all of your music ID3 tags are setup properly to ensure all information is displayed properly. I know that I have waaaay too many files out there with absolutely no information in them. What MCE isn't: MCE is not fully customizable like some other applications out there. It is meant to plain and simply have a set top box feel to it. I do think personally MS should allow people to try and create skins or etc for MCE as this would generate a lot of market support. Now.. keep in mind I said it isn't fully customizable. There is a way to change things around in MCE but your really have to have a whole lot more patience than I do. I will give this disclaimer right now before I even go in to how: If you screw up your MCE installation it is not the fault of HTPCNews.com, it is your own dumb fault. Make sure to backup any files before you begin poking your nose around in files. You will need great artistic ability as well as a resource editor such as, well, Resource Tuner . What you do have the ability to do is edit the ehres.dll file and substitute various resources in that file for others. For example I like the GANT collection of icons, and had a certain background I found that I thought would be cool to try so I edited the ehres.dll file and substituted the items for what I would want and this is one example: Before After This was only a minor change but had a huge impact I think. There are so many buttons, pictures and etc in MCE though that this can be very very time consuming. Again keep in mind editing the ehres.dll file can be dangerous and can cause problems with your MCE installation if you do something wrong. If you break it it's your own fault, but at least be safe and backup the file you edit before you edit it! I don't know if MS will get ticked off at me showing you this or not but honestly I think this capability could help boost support for MCE. I know of some 3rd party applications that are being developed right now to help this customization process. It may be a while before we see them though. MCE has limited support of HDTV, you can only get OTA HDTV with a few HDTV tuners. I see many many people complaining about this feature and frankly it ticks me off. The current available options in hardware make this limitation, not MCE. That I know of there are not any Component video, DVI or VGA HDTV capture cards available to consumers to allow you to hook your HDTV set top box in to. There are also very few tuner cards with the ability to tune in HDTV over cable. Even if you do have a card that can tune in HDTV over cable chances are all you will get is the channels you would get over the air since channels like HBO, Showtime, Discovery HD all are encrypted and require a STB to unlock those channels for viewing. Which leads us back to the point that there are no cards capable of capturing from a set top box for HDTV content. MCE does not support FFDshow at all. This to me is the one thing that absolutely needs to be changed first. The ability to allow the DVD player to use FFDShow would bring a tear to my eye. I have been using other programs for a long time to gain the absolute best quality out of my DVDs. Granted DVD quality is still excellent (of curse depending on the decoder you use), but after using FFDshow it is hard to go back to anything else. For full functionality the MCE remote control is required. The newer remotes for 2005 are not compatible with 2004 as it requires a different driver that is provided with 2005. The new remotes have many of the same features as the old ones but adds back lit buttons and the capability to control volume as well as power your TV on and off from the remote. This is all you will be able to do from this remote though as it is not a full featured universal remote. The remote control set comes with an IR blaster to change channels on your STB while you are watching TV. If you are just using the tuners on your PVR cards the remote set is not required. If you don't have the IR Blaster unit attached MCE will not allow you to use the s-video input since you would need a way to control the STB and let MCE know the channel has changed. I like the idea of adding serial control for MCE but haven't run in to any issues with the IR blaster (except with an Older Motorola STB which all I needed to do was change the IR speed and then it worked fine). The older style MCE remote will work in MCE 2005 and have all the same functionality, with the exception of the back lit buttons and volume control on your TV. Prev - Next >> ...
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| -- Htpcnews Expert, Htpcnews 1 out of 2 found this reivew helpful |
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| I would like to first start out with a warning and an apology. First off make sure you have plenty of time to read this review as I have possibly made it a little too long. I really wanted to cover as much as possibly that Media Center 2005 had to offer and found that after a few hours of grabbing pictures that thing started getting a little excessive. Rest assured though I have tried to include as much information that I possibly can about every module and feature of Media Center 2005 (or from here on out referred to MCE, when making referrals to MCE 2004 I will note the difference by the year following). With that said, you can always navigate around this review by the normal next / previous page links or use the "Navigate to" drop down box to continue where you left off or to skip to a specific area of this review. It's no secret that I like MCE, I have been using it for years thanks to my ability to access a copy via MSDN subscriptions. But sadly most users do not have access to MCE via MSDN and the only other way to of purchased MCE was by buying a machine that had it pre-installed. This made a lot of enthusiasts upset as they wanted the ability to use MCE in their own way on their machines and not on a pre-built HP Pavilion. This honestly made many many people bitter toward MCE and many people swore that the product was the worst thing ever put out by MS. They all made this judgment without even trying the product which really isn't fair to any product. I know there has been many a time that I have spoke with people about MCE and many of them did not even know that MCE had many of the capabilities that it did. I have even converted some people to MCE that were obsessed with other HTPC applications. When Microsoft initially released MCE it did so to make sure that the OS and machine were setup in a proper manor that was optimized for the best experience. This ensured that Joe Bob sitting at home who doesn't even know how to install a driver would not buy MCE off the shelf and assume it would work just by installing it. What did happen though is many vendors did not setup the machines correctly or did things half assed like not actually try the setup themselves. This lead to many odd problems which the majority of the time lead back to a problem with DVD Decoder installed. I'll get to that in a minutt though as that still does play a huge roll in MCE. What MCE is: MCE is a integrated HTPC application that is based off of Windows XP Professional. Yes I said it and you heard it right, Windows XP Professional. However some of the networking features have been stripped out. In the current version of MCE you can not join a domain, but Remote Desktop and IIS are still available to you. MCE will work with most PC hardware out there, however the TV tuner side is a bit limited. The limitation is a good thing though as it helps the machine to run smoothly. MCE does prefer hardware based PVR cards for TV since they have on board hardware based encoding. Such cards are the Hauppauge PVR 250, 250MCE, 350 and Roslyn model. The ATI eHome wonder and Nvidia MCE PVR card will both work and even Avermedia has a few cards. There is support for some of the ATI AIW cards but this is a software based solution and requires a special software encoder from ATI. With the prices falling on hardware PVR cards and the reduced CPU load I honestly don't see why you would want to use a software based card. Besides if you do use a software based card you will not be able to use dual tuners. MCE is not an upgrade to any existing product, it does need to be setup from a fresh installation. There were various "hacks" floating around on the internet that would allow you to install the MCE components on any version of Windows XP such as Home, Pro, or even server 2003 and betas of Longhorn. I have looked in to these methods and I can tell you first hand it works sometimes, others it doesn't. It is a half assed way to do things and can cause some problems on some systems so to really get the full benefit and enjoyment I strongly urge you to do a fresh install if you do decide to use MCE. MCE will not be Available in retail form (at least not until MS decides to do so). The newest variant of MCE, MCE 2005, will be available in OEM form to many many more companies. It will not be limited as 2004 was to just a few specific companies. But as well all know most OEM software can be had easily with a *ahem* qualifying hardware purchase *cough*. Excuse me, I had a little something in my throat there. I know I have seen MCE 2004 available through Vio Software in single pack OEM form. I wonder if 2005 will be available like that as well.. hmmmmm.... All I know is MCE 2005 is availible right now through most major distributors for sale to retailers who are permitted to sell OEM software. MCE has a very distinct set top box feel to it and is incredibly easy to use. When you first go to the main menu of MCE you immediately can feel the ease of use that it has to it. There is no confusion to it really, and it isn't over flooded with settings menus. There is only one menu on the start page which can take you to a sub menu with all the settings in it. Other than that the main menu speaks for it's self, click on My TV to go to My TV, My Pictures to got to My Pictures. MCE is a full fledged PVR program that can time shift live TV, schedule recordings of TV programs and even has a integrated EPG (electronic program guide). I know that even though some countries are not supported in the guide I have seen many 3rd party plug-ins to pull information to the MCE EPG. Microsoft hopes to add more and more countries as MCE grows so always try to check to see if EPG data is available in your area for MCE before you get all excited. I know many other PVR applications have this problem as well. What MCE 2005 adds that is a great upgrade over previous versions is the capability to have up to two PVR cards and a HDTV tuner card. You have the ability now to record two SD shows and one HDTV show all at once! HDTV can even be timeshifted. MCE is a DVD player and also has the capability to play many other forms of video. Pretty much anything that Windows Media Player can play MCE can play. Divx, MPEG, AVI, WMV9 and many many more are all supported. MCE has the capability built in to display your pictures on your TV and play them back in a slide show presentation. You can even have music playing in the background while viewing pictures. MCE can also be a complete audio solution for your media files. You can play CDs, mp3 wma and many more file types in MCE and have them all displayed by title, artist and even album. As with many programs though you have to make absolute sure all of your music ID3 tags are setup properly to ensure all information is displayed properly. I know that I have waaaay too many files out there with absolutely no information in them. What MCE isn't: MCE is not fully customizable like some other applications out there. It is meant to plain and simply have a set top box feel to it. I do think personally MS should allow people to try and create skins or etc for MCE as this would generate a lot of market support. Now.. keep in mind I said it isn't fully customizable. There is a way to change things around in MCE but your really have to have a whole lot more patience than I do. I will give this disclaimer right now before I even go in to how: If you screw up your MCE installation it is not the fault of HTPCNews.com, it is your own dumb fault. Make sure to backup any files before you begin poking your nose around in files. You will need great artistic ability as well as a resource editor such as, well, Resource Tuner . What you do have the ability to do is edit the ehres.dll file and substitute various resources in that file for others. For example I like the GANT collection of icons, and had a certain background I found that I thought would be cool to try so I edited the ehres.dll file and substituted the items for what I would want and this is one example: Before After This was only a minor change but had a huge impact I think. There are so many buttons, pictures and etc in MCE though that this can be very very time consuming. Again keep in mind editing the ehres.dll file can be dangerous and can cause problems with your MCE installation if you do something wrong. If you break it it's your own fault, but at least be safe and backup the file you edit before you edit it! I don't know if MS will get ticked off at me showing you this or not but honestly I think this capability could help boost support for MCE. I know of some 3rd party applications that are being developed right now to help this customization process. It may be a while before we see them though. MCE has limited support of HDTV, you can only get OTA HDTV with a few HDTV tuners. I see many many people complaining about this feature and frankly it ticks me off. The current available options in hardware make this limitation, not MCE. That I know of there are not any Component video, DVI or VGA HDTV capture cards available to consumers to allow you to hook your HDTV set top box in to. There are also very few tuner cards with the ability to tune in HDTV over cable. Even if you do have a card that can tune in HDTV over cable chances are all you will get is the channels you would get over the air since channels like HBO, Showtime, Discovery HD all are encrypted and require a STB to unlock those channels for viewing. Which leads us back to the point that there are no cards capable of capturing from a set top box for HDTV content. MCE does not support FFDshow at all. This to me is the one thing that absolutely needs to be changed first. The ability to allow the DVD player to use FFDShow would bring a tear to my eye. I have been using other programs for a long time to gain the absolute best quality out of my DVDs. Granted DVD quality is still excellent (of curse depending on the decoder you use), but after using FFDshow it is hard to go back to anything else. For full functionality the MCE remote control is required. The newer remotes for 2005 are not compatible with 2004 as it requires a different driver that is provided with 2005. The new remotes have many of the same features as the old ones but adds back lit buttons and the capability to control volume as well as power your TV on and off from the remote. This is all you will be able to do from this remote though as it is not a full featured universal remote. The remote control set comes with an IR blaster to change channels on your STB while you are watching TV. If you are just using the tuners on your PVR cards the remote set is not required. If you don't have the IR Blaster unit attached MCE will not allow you to use the s-video input since you would need a way to control the STB and let MCE know the channel has changed. I like the idea of adding serial control for MCE but haven't run in to any issues with the IR blaster (except with an Older Motorola STB which all I needed to do was change the IR speed and then it worked fine). The older style MCE remote will work in MCE 2005 and have all the same functionality, with the exception of the back lit buttons and volume control on your TV. Prev - Next >> ...
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| -- Trustedreviews Expert, Trustedreviews 1 out of 2 found this reivew helpful |
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| Introduction Windows XP Media Center Edition (MCE) was launched in Bryant Park, New York City, on October 29th 2002 to rapturous industry applause. Designed specifically to enable the convergence of the PC and home entertainment, Media Center Edition was built on Microsoft’s existing Windows XP platform. With that broad product brief in mind, Microsoft set about enabling the PC to perform many of the tasks that were previously the domain of consumer electronics devices. Having a computer as the centre of your home entertainment system, due to its flexibility and power, is the logical step that the computing industry has been working towards for some time, especially in recent years. With PCs getting smaller, quieter and more powerful, the time is ripe for the PC to become a standard feature in today’s modern living room. And Microsoft believes that the key to the PCs home entertainment transformation is Windows XP Media Center Edition. Media Center Edition turns the PC in to a fully fledged entertainment hub, controlling TV, audio, video, DVD, photo collections and much more, all with a slick interface designed to be as easy to use as possible. Research vindicates Microsoft’s decision to create the entertainment orientated version of XP; “The largest increase in home PC usage centres around entertainment: 44 percent of owners listen to music on their PC, 40 percent view photos, and 21 percent view DVDs via PC," is something Microsoft is happy to tell you. In a break from Microsoft’s usual sales model, Windows XP Media Center Edition will only be available as a bundle with a new PC. MCE is sold this way, for one main reason. MCE requires, for its full functionality to be available and to offer the richest user experience, a set of specific hardware components. This ensures that Microsoft ships MCE with a fully tested, compatible and powerful PC so that the user can get the most out of this new wonder OS. With the specified components including but not limited to, high end CPUs, plenty of memory for running XP and the specific MCE functions, TV tuners, DVD drives and the latest DirectX compatible graphics cards, you can see why Microsoft ensures that MCE isn’t loaded onto just any old PC. ...
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| Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 w/Update Rollup 2 - Complete package |
| $125.99 - $130.59 |
| from 2 stores |
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