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Windows XP Media Center Edition Review
Harpreet writes "It took 2 months but someone finally published an informative review of the new
Windows XP Media Center Edition operating system. AnandTech's
review has got everything you could want, including pictures galore. It looks
like the folks who make the Linux based Video
Disk Recorder have a new standard to live up to." Update: 01/08 21:06 GMT by T : Read on below for a different (Free software, CD-based) approach to computer-A/V integration.
Trunkboy writes "There are a lot of PVR projects out there (Freevo, TiVo, Dave&Dina, etc... but MoviX is a little different. MoviX is an entire distribution (linux of course) that is designed to play avi/mpg/mp3/etc files from a computer. Upgrading is easy, because it boots from a CD! Videos/music can be stored on a local hard drive, or on a network share. This project is incredible, but needs more developers. Stop in and give Roberto a hand -- MoviX shows some great potential!"
Is Linux any different? It seems like I get an email from redhat at least once a week about a patch for something.
Computer Power User this month. Covered the HP with the emuzed card in particular
The article states that "the vast majority of TV tuner cards available will not work" -- and this includes all ATI All-In-Wonder cards. The only two cards supported are the Hauppauge WinTV PVR and the Emuzed Maui PCI PVR.
Personally, I think I'll stick with my ATI card and Video Disk Recorder.
Direct link to article without ads
Ever heard of the LiRC project? Myth fully supports all liRC remotes.
As the article notes, there is a remote available for the MCE PC. There are also 3rd party remotes available if you want to build your own home theater PC.
I don't know who modded the parent down as a troll but DRM is a legitimate concern here.
The race isn't always to the swift... but that's the way to bet!
It's sad to see the Anandtech guy post stuff that's dead wrong. Firstly, Windows media player 9 final, does NOT play MCE based files other than on the MCE box. It won't play it on non-MCE machines. Secondly, windvd 4.0 most definitely works with this, as I've built a home-made MCE box using only windvd 4 and it had no problems.
I'd have to agree, seeing that xp reports back to home when you do file searches.
You can only imagine what it sends when you record tv....
Did you read the article? No mouse required. And this isn't inteded to be on your workstation. It's intended to be used with a computer sitting next to your television/AV Receiver.
No sig for you. YOU GET NO SIG!
First, don't bash anything untill you read about it and understand it.
Second, and yes, this is pricey, but if your looking for a media PC, this will do the trick, and you shouldn't have trouble hooking up your ipod or any other media device to it.
Alien Ware Media Center PC
Third, You didn't mention it but others did, this is extremely hardware limited, ATI can't even get on because their cards don't do all the encoding in hardware. You also must have a remote so the lazy people can operate this from their couch.
Finally, I know anytime MS is mentioned, it will get torn apart. And i know this has DRM in it, but it will only be months before that is broken. In all honesty, XP is alot better than their previous efforts, RIAA and MPAA ass kissing aside. So lets drop the nothing from MS will ever be good enough, because we all know that the majority of people that use Slashdot are browsing from IE.
Don't waste time... procrastinate now!
"Whenever AMD or Intel release a new CPU, everyone asks the question what we need faster processors for? The most common response for that is "to enable future applications" and a couple of years ago, there was enough processing power in a cheap enough form to finally give the VCR a brain - the idea of a set-top Personal Video Recorder (PVR) was born."
"Although MCE is by far the best first attempt at a PVR we've seen from any company, it isn't without its very noticeable flaws; the most serious of which happens to be this issue of performance. On a 2.53GHz Pentium 4, CPU utilization hovers around 30 - 40% while simply watching TV; note that this is with a hardware MPEG-2 encoder card and a very fast Pentium 4 CPU. We tried performing our own clean MCE install on the setup, updated all of the drivers and walked away with nothing better. There are clearly some issues with MCE as it shouldn't require such a high speed CPU to perform simple MPEG-2 decoding and writing to the disk. The CPU utilization drops to below 20% if MCE is closed and it's just recording in the background, which isn't too bad but still higher than you'd expect for a hardware MPEG-2 encoding engine that isn't relying on the host CPU.
The Tivo uses a 75Mhz PowerPC, which was available many years ago and is a joke of a processor right now. It's also what enables Tivo to not cost $1000. The fact that this windows media center slows down noticable with a 2.xx Ghz P4 is embarassing. Tivo rarely exhibits any slowdown, and it's not only using a alledgely more inferior PowerPC processor, but one from several years ago running at 3% of the speed of this thing.
http://www.naildrivin5.com/davec
Dave/Dina is similar to MythTV
:-)
At the moment MythTV has beter TV-options, better layout and a better logo
DaveDina has more AUDIO options, at the moment.
greechneb, prove it.
I'll even accept a packet sniff that said that the machine in question was touching the outside world during any file search regardless of where the connection was being made to. Doesn't even have to be phoning home... could be phoning anywhere and I'll believe your paranoia is justified.
Until then, I'm calling bullshit on your FUD.
>> The fact that you seem unable to grasp the basic notion that M$ servers have a reputation for needing constant reboots is sad (for you).
I grasp the 'notion of a reputation', but I also know that it doesn't relate to the real world.
Linux also has a reputation for poor hardware support and second rate performance when it comes to the video/gui arena.
Acclaim earned a reputation for making really shitty games back in the NES days. So what?
Comparing the latest linux build to NT 3.51 is getting really old.
My 7 year old analogy applies perfectly. She uses a TV as her primary display, and watches DVDs and a small library of cartoons in divx off my fileserver (which runs linux, btw, because that's what I find linux appropriate for) I find this much closer to the function of these machines than an ecommerce server.
And people pointing to Tux Racer as if it validates linux as an entertainment/gaming platform *is* a joke.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
This is a limitation of most digital TV (cable or satellite). The STB can only decode one channel at a time, so you can only do something with one live channel.
You can get double LMB dishes, that provide two cables from the dish to the STB. None of the Bell STBs support two inputs, but you can buy another decoder for the second line for ~$99. Then you can record one show on the PVR and watch another on the other STB.
(STB=set-top box)
Tuus crepidae innexilis sunt.
I can tell you exactly why.
Tivo uses several DSPs to handle the audio and video.
MCE does everything through software which, in technical terms "sucks ass".
This is just another way ms shoots themselves in the foot by forcing everything through windows.
Read the following about details on DRM usage within Windows XP Media Center Edition. In most cases no DRM will be used at all. It is the responsibility of the provider to use CGMS-A (copy generation management system/analog) to mark a program for DRM.
d iacenter_copy.asp
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_me
Well, I think MS already tried the set-top-box formula for success with "UltimateTV", but it just faded into the background as Tivo took over the market. How quickly people forget...
Go to radio shack, buy an IR lead, stick it on your serial port between DTR & ground. Use Lirc http://www.lirc.org/ and download the ir remote database. Use rc to send remote commands.
It's actually pretty easy.
-Jay
MythTV!
Malike Bamiyi wanted my assistance.
Actually you can now hold four drives in a tivo:
http://www.9thtee.com/tivoquaddrive.htm
The upgrade process on a tivo has been mainstreamed enough that upgrading your tivo drive is a pretty easy job.
The main difference between MCE and Tivo is that on MCE a 93gb disk gets you 5 hours and change of recording at best. A 40gb Tivo gets you the same amount of time, so until Micro$oft stops using a bloated encoding system you're not getting value for your disk space.
Personally, I still wouldn't trust MCE as my primary PVR. I don't want something that can be that flaky when recording stuff I want to watch.
My Tivo does a wonderful job for that, and in 3 years my Tivo has never crashed. This is where you want to spend money: Linux is designed to remain up for infinite periods of time, and that has always been an issue that Microsoft has been weak on. You can make MS platforms reliable if you are willing to take the time and devote energy to it. I know, I manage a large mix of MS and Linux platforms. My linux platforms have always been "install and mostly forget" servers. All I do it keep them updated and tidy up sometimes. My MS platforms need babying, they are always finding a different way to require attention, and when MS needs attention *everything* stops until you fix it.
Not a troll. You can only play back recorded video on the computer it was recorded on. Microsoft may announce playback on other devices in the future. For now, it's drm city baby!
The U.S. copyright act, silly. 107. Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use
>MCE does everything through software which,
>in technical terms "sucks ass".
RTFA. Microsoft specifically requires MCE PCs to come with a dedicated MPEG encoder hardware. It is not "doing everything through software". In fact, according to the article ATI and nVidia are having fits precisely because of the outrageous hardware requirements Microsoft has slapped on these systems.
Sounds to me like yet another case of crappy, bloated code from Microsoft. What a surprise. Would never have seen that one coming.
It gets even more interesting. Remember Apple's "Digital Hub" strategy? Well, TiVo is now officialy a member, with Rendezvous support promised in the documents!
This is different than Microsoft's strategy, as Apple is positioning its machines as the traffic controller, helping disparate devices exchange the relevant data. How about dumping your faves from TiVo onto your iMac and burning your own archive DVDs? How about a video iPod that can take your TiVo's recordings on the road? Or pictures from your digital camera into a TiVo album/slide show?
Not interesting enough? Well, Apple's opened the source of Rendevous, and has no qualms about allowing a Linux adaptation of it! Apparently they want to compete on the basis of their hardware/software integration again, not just on lockout.
So now we have two opposing philosophies: Microsoft's "embrace and extend", and Apple's "digital hub". One wants to take over the whole show, the other wants to connect and choreograph.