mmiller0617

I am a network admin and sys analyst so I am not asking out of stupidity but wanting to know generally if anyone here has used Media Center in the past and if they are going to upgrade to 2005?

Also what would be the advantage of having a media center pc is say a 2 bedroom apartment? Is it best for a house where then the use of the extender can come into play?

Thanks

jonjon42

media center? you mean windows media center edition? or something like mythtv?

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SiN

fairly certain he's referring to Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005.

we've got a test machine here @ home running that exact os, have had it for a month or so.

unfortunately it's more of my bf's thing than mine, so I don't know that much about it, other than it's fun to play with

when the bf has a spare few mins, I can show him this thread, see if he has any input.
feel free to think of any specific quetions, too.

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docbungle

Media Center Edition isn't much more than XP, if you have a tv tuner card or an All-in-Wonder video card. It has pretty screens than cover your My Music and My Pictures folders and whatnot, but no real performance advantages over an ordinary, home-built pc. It can record tv, but you can do that yourself with the right setup. Having to buy a pc with it installed is the main drawback, as the OS is not available by itself.

If you don't build your own pcs, it might be the way to go.

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Flyguy

Not yet. I'm sure it will be. One way or another.

SiN

^ things are quicker than you think

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punx1325

I'm thinking about getting it, but knowing my luck it won't work with my TV card. Since Leadtek's compatibility sucks ass, I'm really hesitant. If anyone happens to use a Leadtek TV card and MC 2005 let me know how it works.

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bendsley

Punx: You would need to find out what chipset the Leadtek card you have is using. It's not a compatibility issues between the mfg. and Microsoft, it's between the chipset and MS. It could be an ATI, Nvidia, S3, etc. chipset on the card and windows would handle it just fine.

You can go to the link below and find product information about Media Center 2005. I'm sure there is a compatibility chart as well.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/m...n/default.mspx

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Dragonlich

We sell Mediacenter PCs at work. The basics:

requirements
- P4 3.0
- 512 Megs of ram
- Haupage WinTV PVR videocard (probably because it's one of the few we sell)
- large harddisk

what is it?
- looks pretty damn friggin' cool, especially on a TFT/Plasma screen
- with the remote control unit, it's *very* easy to move around
- with the "build-in" TV guide, it can record only those shows you want (not that new, though)
- generally speaking, it's a media-oriented front-end for Windows. With a few buttons on the remote, you can go to live TV, or you can watch a pre-recorded video, or a slideshow of your pictures, or you can listen to the radio, or watch on-demand movies from the 'net, or you can surf the internet, or play a game, etc. etc.

The basic idea is to have a small (barebone) PC running Windows MCE next to your expensive Plasma screen, allowing you to very easily do all the things you can do with your computer (with TV tuner card).