Windows Media Center 2005

[rallynavvie]

Just got my copy in the mail today along with the MS remote and one more 250GB drive for good measure. I've just finished installing it and am getting AV, drivers, and OS updated before taking an image of the install. I've been digging around it whilst waiting for components to update though. MCE 2005 is Windows XP Pro SP2 with the MCE software built in and not based on XP Home. Reasons why (other than the installation from the CD constantly mentioning XP Pro): it supports SMP (it's running on my 1900+ MP rig), it is able to join a domain, IIS is available in Windows Components, and you can Remote Desktop to it. There are probably more features exclusive to XP Pro to prove this but these are all that I was looking for.

More to follow once I have more time to play with it. I'm holding off on getting a PVR until one of the NVTV units is released. Since I'm already an nVidia whore I may as well wait for their proprietary garbage since the current list of PVRs come from companies I haven't heard of. The only exception to this is the ATi HDTV tuner which is also the only HD-capable PVR. But since I don't have any HDTV equipment it isn't necessary yet.

[Faustus]

What capture card are you using with it? Cause the video quality on the hauppauge cards sucked.

[rallynavvie]

Sorry, let the button slip so I didn't get that second part entered. I'm not using any capture device with it until the NVTV-based ones are released. Until then I'll be trying out other features like DVD and saved video playback and MP3 playback, all this while using it as an FTP.

[ViRaL1]

I wonder why M$ site said it was based on XP Home. It's also cheaper than pro. If it really is Pro based, it might be worth the upgrade after all.

[rallynavvie]

If you're going to use the Media Center app I'd recommend using it on a television as it defaults video to full screen and thus looks awful on a high-resolution monitor. I don't expect DVD playback to look good at full screen on 1600x1200 resolution but I'm sure it looks just fine on a TV.

The eVGA nVidia-based tuners are out, but eVGA is backordered already. That's odd because the tuner only works with Media Center 2005 so there must have been lots of folks who picked up MCE or OEMs are grabbing up all the tuners for their systems. That is a good sign that these may be the hottest tuner/capture board for the system. I'm going to wait until NewEgg gets them in stock. I don't think I'll need the dual-tuner version as I only get broadcast TV out here so I don't think the need will arise to record two shows while watching another when I really only have 10 channels to choose from. I wonder if it's required for picture-in-picture or n-up channel views though, or if that's even possible in MCE. I'd certainly love it if I could see a motion thumbnail of every channel to choose from.

I've run into a couple of hardware snags along the way setting up the old box. Doesn't seem that my LiteOn ROM wants to play well with the secondary IDE channel so it's sitting on primary master right now. I installed MCE to one of my 15krpm SCSI drives just for kicks. Unfortunately that leaves me with only enough room for two of my 200GB IDE storage drives in there but I'm still copying content over to them from within the other PC.

In that Lian Li case with all the 80mm fans and the SCSI drives it's a wee bit loud to set next to the home theater. Instead it's going in the utility room on the other side of the wall from my home theater. I already have a hole in the wall there since the utility room is open to the runners in the floor above so I wired my speakers through there. The MS remote has like 10' of USB cable on it so that'll be easy to put in. I figure a FireWire DVD drive can be set out next to the DVD player for MCE DVD playback since a 6' cable should reach fine. I'll be getting the GbE router when I get the tuner from NewEgg so video transfers and remote access will be plenty fast for my wired computers (which are actually just the two SMP workstations). This is turning out to be a pretty fun little project

[rallynavvie]

OK there is this thing on here called "Windows Dancer" where a live recording of a real person dances when music plays over the top of your taskbar. I happened across it and turned it on to see what it was. It does seem a little disturbing to have someone dancing for me on my computer, but if these were to be "dancers" 8)

Set up my FTP on the new OS and it doesn't seem to be working but it's likely because I'm behind a router and a hub and I don't know which port I should be forwarding to that computer or if I'm missing something from my IIS settings.

I can't wait to get a TV tuner card in it so I can really try it out. I only have it connected to my main monitor via KVM right now, I haven't relocated it to its hiding place yet.