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Re: You said that with 2005 you can only record tv on dvd (Reply to this comment)
by nad_masters
I have been using Vista for a while, but was not able to build a test Media Center with a tuner to utilize the Media Center fully. It does seem to be more hardware intensive than 2005. I saw a bit of Vista MCE on my cousin's PC. She as a HP with a analog and ATSC tuner - it looks great, and I love the alpha blending of the video in the background with the menus in front.
I still can't find a Vista entry here at ePinions (weird, since this is considered to be a huge release). If I do, I will do a proper review on it.
So far, despite some incompatibilities with some software (which will be fixed in time), the OS is very nice to use.
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Feb 23 '07
7:50 am PST
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You said that with 2005 you can only record tv on dvd (Reply to this comment)
by dragon1,  in Software
and show only on the computer. With Vista Home Premium and Ultimate, you can record to dvd and view them on your home tv with a regular dvd player. So far I have recorded about 20 movies for me and my granddaughters.
Mike/dragon1
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Feb 22 '07
6:54 am PST
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Wait till you see Media Center in Vista (Reply to this comment)
by dragon1, in Software
Since RC1 I have not had a problem.I esp like being able to record tv shows/movies and burning to dvd's with no added software.
dragon1
Mike Hereid Sr
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Jan 05 '07
8:04 am PST
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Re: Nice review (Reply to this comment)
by nad_masters
I agree with you - you will not need MCE since most of your DVR functions and DVD playback is already dealt with using seperate set-top boxes.
The only thing you would seem to need a PC hooked up to your HT is for gaming, and if that is the case, WinXP Home is fine. Just make sure that you have a decent config for gaming, though, since it is your spare PC. The config recomendation varies depending on what kind of games you play. If you plan on playing today's and future games, you are better off waiting for Vista and holding off for better selection of DX10 video cards as well.
FYI, the only HD playback/recording MCE can handle is ATSC (off the air) digital TV. Some set-top boxes of cable or satalite can output via Firewire, and some people were able to get MCE to act as an HD-DVR using it. Documentation on how can be found using Google (thegreenbutton.com is a very good source of info for MCE).
If you want all of MCE's convienences, you will have to find out if your particular set top boxes will interface with MCE. Just because they have a Firewire connector doesn't make it so.
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Dec 16 '06
12:47 pm PST
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Nice review (Reply to this comment)
by lousygolfer
Thanks for the detailed review. I'd appreciate it if you could give me a bit of advice on MCE and HTPC's.
I'm in the process of converting a spare computer into an HTPC and am curious about the need to add MCE to my system. I will use the computer for watching DVD's, playing PC games and surfing the internet, using my HT projector as a monitor. I have DirecTV satellite TV with a high definition DVR which I use for TV and currently have no plans for adding a TV tuner to the HTPC because I understand that the video adaptor to add satellite TV to an HTPC is somewhat expensive and the DirecTV DVR (in conjunction with my Panasonic DVD-recoder/hard drive recorder) already does most/all of what I would need doing with TV very competently. If I'm not going to use the television and DVR capabilities of MCE, it doesn't seem that it would make sense for me to upgrade to MCE from Win XP Home SP2. Do you agree that given my system and needs, I probably don't need MCE? Or, are there features I've overlooked that would be useful and that would make MCE a good purchase for me?
P.S. currently Newegg.com has MCE 2005 for $105, including an upgrade to Windows Vista next month.
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Dec 08 '06
8:13 am PST
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Re: ... (Reply to this comment)
by nad_masters
Not sure if you can just upgrade your current Windows installation with the MCE 2005 OEM CDs. However, if you aren't afraid of starting over from scratch, it's worth a try.
Any way to get a reviewers copy of Sage TV and Beyond TV?
One of these days, I will be brave enough to try MythTV and the associated Linux madness.
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Jun 26 '05
8:03 pm PDT
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... (Reply to this comment)
by nc10
Software such as Sage TV and Beyond TV
We've had BeyondTV for about a year and a half. Like it pretty much. Just got a copy of SageTV and I'm working on a review now...wish I could find a way to upgrade my system to Win MCE to see how it compares.
Excellent review.
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Jun 26 '05
7:02 pm PDT
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