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PCs Invade The Living Room | |
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| Time: 09:34 EST/14:34 GMT | News Source: InformationWeek | Posted By: Brian Kvalheim | ||
Computer vendors are hoping Santa will be leaving lots of Media Center PCs under the tree this year. With the release last month of Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition (MCE) 2005, vendors are upgrading their Media Center PCs for the holidays. Among the companies with desktop models are Dell, Gateway, Hewlett-Packard, and Sony. Toshiba, for its part, has two notebook versions. Other companies like Pinnacle Systems sell adapters that convert existing PCs into a rough equivalent of the Media Center platform. | ||
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| #1 By 37 (67.37.29.142) at 11/24/2004 10:32:30 AM |
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I have one of these at home, along with the Xbox Media Center extender kit on the way. It's pretty darn awesome. This post was edited by AWBrian on Wednesday, November 24, 2004 at 10:32. |
| #2 By 37 (67.37.29.142) at 11/24/2004 12:34:50 PM |
|
Honestly of course. That is the only way I would answer. I have not had to reboot my Media Center for any problems related to Media Center. I do however, reboot upon request when installing XP patches when requested and any other software that I might load that requires a reboot.
As for stability, I am using the 2005 version and the only problem that I have had so far is the way they require you to add your favorites to the online radio area. You really can't browse the internet within the media center per se. So what you have to do is go into the Windows Media Player 10 while at the XP desktop, add the station url to your favorites, and then go back into MCE and then it will appear. In addition, there are times when I get a prompt from MCE to say Yes or No to a command, but they don't have a place to check "remember this each time" kinda thing. That is kind of annoying, even though it only requires a click of the remote. Not sure if you know, but Media Center 2005 runs on Windows XP SP2. So now you have the third version of MCE running on the third version of Windows XP, so it has been very stable in my use. My wife and my son (he is 5) also use the Media Center as their main pc by using their different logon, and it doesn't seem to affect anything. I am happy so far. FWIW, I built mine...didn't buy an OEM. I have that luxury because of the MSDN Subscription. MCE isn't available as a retail box software set. |
| #3 By 2459 (69.22.124.228) at 11/24/2004 4:50:04 PM |
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I built mine...didn't buy an OEM. I have that luxury because of the MSDN Subscription. MCE isn't available as a retail box software set.
However, the OEM version of MCE 2005 and the Microsoft MCE Remote package are available for purchase via stores such as Newegg, Directron, ZipZoomFly, and others. ZipZoomFly http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=604650-604651 Newegg http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=32-102-311&depa=0 http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=80-100-851&depa=0 Directron http://www.directron.com/xpmedia.html http://www.directron.com/xpmediactrl.html Component system styled cases are also available from the above (and other) vendors. This post was edited by n4cer on Wednesday, November 24, 2004 at 16:53. |
| #4 By 37 (67.37.29.142) at 11/24/2004 5:04:03 PM |
| I bought my remote at newegg.com FWIW. And when you purchase these OEM copies, they are not Microsoft/OEM supported unless you are the OEM distributing them yourself. |
| #5 By 2960 (68.101.39.180) at 11/24/2004 8:44:44 PM |
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#1,
I USED to feel the same as you. Not any more. When I built my new Athlon 64/3500 system, I took the previous system board and processor (ABIT IT7-Max2 w/P4 2.53Ghz) and installed it in a Silverstone Home Theatre case. I then spent the last 6 months looking for just the right software for managing/playing music on my 50" DLP TV. I never did find one that was easy to use, maintain or had the features I wanted. Then, oddly enough, a week ago in one of my Microsoft Mailings was an OEM Copy of Windows Media Center 2005. I wiped out my old WinXP install and installed this in it's place. I like the results. Finally I have a living-room management system for Music that WORKS! [Begin Rant Mode] Some might ask why I didn't just get a wireless streaming box for the Living Room and stream from my File Server to the Home Stereo. Well, I thought of this (and it's what I originally wanted to do), but I researched EVERY Wireless Media Adapter on the market and while many tout "Wireless-G" compatibility, not a damned ONE of them supports WPA. What is wrong with these stupid manufacturers of Wireless devices? The vast majority of them do not support WPA. Dumb!!! I will NOT degrade the security of my network. Period. [End Rant Mode] TL |
| #6 By 2960 (68.101.39.180) at 11/24/2004 8:52:21 PM |
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#4,
Not having much in the way of documentation, it took me a while to figure out the relationship between Media Center and WMP as well. In fact, while playing around, my music storage folders moved around and I had to "re-point" to them in Media Center several times. The only problem is, when I would remove a "Watch Folder", it would not remove the song listings in Media Center. It drove me nuts for HOURS until I discoverd it just feeds off of WMP :) Once I figured that out I did all the work in WMP10 and all was well. Side question - Windows Media Center appears to be just an additional application shell that 'wraps' itself around other Windows XP components. Does anyone know if the Media Center application is 'installable' on a normal XP installation, and if so, is it possible to pull the installer for it off the CD's some how? TL |
| #7 By 23275 (68.17.42.38) at 11/24/2004 8:54:19 PM |
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We build highly customized MCE 2005 systems under the MS OEM Systems Builder program - mostly higher end AVI form factor and SFF models. MCE 2005 is a great product - so great in fact, each of us that has been involved in this process [for nearly a year until we launched this line in mid Oct 2004], have decided that we'd never build another type of PC for our use at home. With the XBox MCE Extender [the only one to also support DVD <native to the XBox>] one can extend an MCE to up to 5 rooms at once [XBox Wired connection or 802.11a (Many Bridges support this) is recommended]. It is such a great platform and while the original MCE was good and MCE 2004 was much better, MCE 2005 with up to two analog tuners and one Digital HD tuner and its new interface, it is very hard to not argue against how much the systems can due. Many do not know, but one can build according to very diverse standards and still meet OEM Systems requirements - so one is not restricted and can for example, build one suitable for coporate board and meeting rooms. Of all of the MS Platforms, MCE 2005 has pleased us most and had begun to offer custom builders a means to create some real distinction. I hope the emerging project management super-set is as good.
http://www.libertech.net/examples/albums/1.aspx |
| #8 By 2960 (68.101.39.180) at 11/24/2004 8:59:50 PM |
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BTW...
For the first time ever I'm actually interested in the Windows Media Player and the WMA format. This didn't happen until version 10 came out. It's starting to grow on me. I also like the WMA Lossless format for my server archives of all my CD's. In fact, as I type this, I'm re-ripping all 150 or so of my CD's using WMP10 to the WMA Lossless format. I already had all of them done in Flac, and at the start just used DBPowerAmp to run a conversion to WMA Lossless, but over the years certain programs (I'm not sure which one's) have mangled my Tags and it's too much of a hassle to fix them all. I think it may have happened at the original rip of the CD's with MusicMatch (a program I used to love, but has turned into a bloat-fest in it's latest versions). I've found I like WMP10's ripping quite a bit. The tag lookups are also FAR more accurate (most of them coming from AMG instead of the various Free online archives the others use). I've found a few errors, but the vast majority are professionally tagged. TL |
| #9 By 2459 (69.22.124.228) at 11/25/2004 12:17:08 PM |
|
Side question - Windows Media Center appears to be just an additional application shell that 'wraps' itself around other Windows XP components.
Does anyone know if the Media Center application is 'installable' on a normal XP installation, and if so, is it possible to pull the installer for it off the CD's some how? There isn't much online that goes into the implementation details of MCE. There were new APIs added, new services, streaming and other optimizations in the area of video/audio, custom allocator for VMR, and I believe some extra WHQL requirements for drivers (strict adherance to SMPTE standards for video output and possibly other items). There could be kernel improvements as well, but I'm not sure if these were also applied to the normal XP/Server kernels as well. I know that a lot of the work done by the MCE team is going to be rolled into "Longhorn", and it will include kernel-level enhancements for things like glitch-free A/V. It isn't just a frontend app. You may be able to get it to work on a base XP install, but likely run into problems (not to mention license issues :-) ). |
| #10 By 37 (67.37.29.142) at 11/26/2004 8:19:36 AM |
| Every copy of Windows XP is Windows Media Center "ready". It's the "key" that you enter that tells Windows XP to prompt for the media center cd during setup of Windows XP. |
| #11 By 2960 (68.101.39.180) at 11/26/2004 12:58:04 PM |
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#13,
Interesting.... :) TL |
| #12 By 2960 (68.101.39.180) at 11/26/2004 12:58:09 PM |
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#13,
Interesting.... :) TL |
| #13 By 2960 (68.101.39.180) at 11/28/2004 1:52:15 PM |
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#16,
Not really what I was after, but thanks. I'm looking at this at the _application_ level, not the OS level. TL |
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