I was thinking of purchasing a computer with XP media center edition on it and hooking it up to my LCD flatscreen. Has anyone done this already? I was just wondering if it was all that it seemed to be.
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I was thinking of purchasing a computer with XP media center edition on it and hooking it up to my LCD flatscreen. Has anyone done this already? I was just wondering if it was all that it seemed to be.
...I would stay away from the random different versions of windows that are floating around. I haven't tried XP media center edition, but I assume it has a bunch of crap bulked onto it. But in the spirit of being fair to everyone, even m$, read a few product reviews.
crapola on a stick.
We use XP Home on a Sony VAIO. We just installed the software recommended to us, and it all works great. I'm not sure what the point is of buying an OS "specifically modifie" for media editing, when the only major difference is likely to be sponsored software.
It Makes people feel better... :rolleyes:Quote:
Originally Posted by sean_mackrory
I thought the whole idea was to make it interact with a cable TV signal easier and whatnot?
AFAIK, a "media center" is a computer that interacts like a tv, pvr (tivo), place to look at digital pics and videos, and is usually meant to be in the living room connected to the TV for a monitor. Also I think HP and gateway are the only two manufactures selling MCE computers, and you can't purchase a legal copy of MCE by itself *I think*
Thats what I was planning on doing, just wondering if anyone has tried it.
It can be done with open source software.
I have an HP Media Center pc. No complaints here.
Anybody who says it's crap obviously hasn't used it. The OS is basically XP Pro with some proprietary software bundled in to make using the additional peripherals easy to use. My PC performs better than my tivo box, which is kinda nice. It certainly saved me some time and energy had I opted to purchase a different system then attempt to add on a tv card, a smartcard deck, and the remote control hardware. There are some additional features incorporated into the OS which makes cataloging media files simple, convenient and effective, as well as automatically downloading your local cable/satellite program guide. Media Center PC's also typically come with a boatload of drive storage as well.
And no it's not intended to use the living room television as the monitor (my MCE PC had a flatscreen lcd as part of the package). However there is hardware packaged (including a remote) which allows you to control your cable/satellite/tivo system from the PC, as well as allowing you to use your PC as a DVD player for household use. You can reroute your display to the livingroom tv, pipe the television to your pc etc...
Additionally I was able to repartition the HD and add a Linux partition with no troubles.