A couple of weeks ago, Microsoft unveiled the latest version of its Media Center OS, which turns a PC into a Tivo-like device and digital jukebox. While the last version only came pre-installed on rather expensive hardware, there are already vendors lined up with some less expensive (and pretty cool) hardware this time around. Read more in this Mercury News article.
no, well I could not care less then.
I happen to own a piece of said “rather expensive hardware” that came with Media Center preinstalled. I wasn’t impressed however – in my (and not only mine) opinion XP Media Center is quite buggy and resource hungry. Good old XP Professional is MUCH better. In fact that’s what I’m running now (dual booting with Linux
)
then you can run it on your own Box with the smallest of hassle (meaning, not going through the problems of setting up a MythTV or Freevo box)
modman: Yes you can buy it in stores without hardware, $140 for a full version OEM copy. You get XP Pro + MCE for less than XP Pro!
juzio1313: MCE is XP Pro + the media center application. If you disable the two media center services and tray application, you basically have XP Pro (no domain joining, however).
“If you disable the two media center services and tray application, you basically have XP Pro (no domain joining, however).”
How do you disable MCE?
Also, would anyone know if macrovision protection is part of
MCE or is it a hardware component (maybe both)? My Toshiba
laptop has an external tv tuner and when I try to capture
a pre-recorded video tape I get a black screen. I have to
use InterVideo WinDVD Creator 2 that came with the laptop
because no other capture program seems to work.
You can join a domain in MCE 2005 if you upgrade over MCE 2004, or if your network drivers are installed and you configure it during setup.
The reason why it’s restricted to these cases by default is because the Media Center Extenders depend on functionality provided by Fast User Switching. Fast User Switching is not currently available in domain scenarios.
“modman: Yes you can buy it in stores without hardware, $140 for a full version OEM copy. You get XP Pro + MCE for less than XP Pro!”
You CANNOT buy a XP MCE without a MCE system. You can buy an OEM software ONLY, and I repeat ONLY ONLY ONLY ONLY ONLY, with a complete hardware system. It’s ILLEGAL to buy an OEM software without a complete system.
Wrong. OEM copies of the software can be obtained legally without having to buy a system. You can purchase it with pretty much any piece of computer hardware from a harddrive or mouse to even something as little as a power supply cable.
Both the MCE OS as well as the Remote Control Kit are available online for purchase this way (as is other MS OEM software) and it is fully legal.
http://www.newegg.com
http://www.directron.com
http://www.zipzoomfly.com
are just a few places that carry MCE.