Re: Why would I want Microsoft media center edition?

Tech-Archive recommends: Fix windows errors by optimizing your registry

From: JM (junquemaile_at_cox.net)
Date: 11/09/04 

Date: Tue, 09 Nov 2004 12:29:10 -0800

?? wrote:

> Instead of buying a media center PC with Microsoft
> media operating software.... wont it be better to just
> buy a Hauppauge card and use any OS I want to build my
> own PVR?
>
> Bottom line..... if i buy a media center Pc wont the
> ONLY system Ill be able to use is Microsofts?

Somewhat of a dissenting opinion from the others...

I bought an HP Media Center system about 6 months ago (an m380n). I was
looking for decent hardware and it came with everything I wanted at a
price less than I could assemble one myself. It came with MCE 2004, which
I had never heard of before. It works OK, but it's pretty fragile (MCE,
that is, the hardware is fine). It's very easy to break it by installing
some apparently un-related piece of software or even Windows updates from
Microsoft...just check out some of the other posting here to see what
kind of problems to expect. It also uses MS proprietary file formats
which make it difficult to do anything with the recordings except to
watch them on your PC (or on a TV connected to the PC, which is
unimpressive...).

A few months ago (actually, it was SP2 that pushed me over the edge) I
started looking at other PVR packages. I tried Sage, which ran just fine
on the hardware (as will several others). Then I ran across a freebie
called GB-PVR, and that did it. I haven't run MCE since (except to see if
it still works, which it does). GB-PVR is a great package. Runs with XP
and Hauppaugue cards just fine, and uses the fairly cheap Hauppauge
MediaMVP box as an 'extender'...full UI, and all, at about $80 a pop. It
does everything I want it to do and more. Plus, it has a simple interface
and my wife and kids love it. The PC sits in my office and I use it as a
normal PC. The PVR stuff runs in the background and is accessed via the
MVP boxes over my home network. Just what I wanted.

To be fair about it, you could probably do the same thing with MCE but
the 'extenders' cost a LOT more, and weren't available until recently.
MCE 2004 did not support multiple capture cards. You still have the MS
proprietary-ness and (IMO) fragility to deal with. Also, I believe MCE
2005 & extenders will handle HDTV, which none of the others do (yet)
AFAIK, but that's not a factor for me.

So, my advice would be to build or buy a decent PC...3GHz processor, Gig
of memory, 200+G hard drive, decent video card, and one or more Hauppauge
PVR cards (the 150 works fine and costs about $60), and run XP and a
third party package on it...Sage, or GB-PVR, or one of the others. There
are several web sites that give good info how to assemble a decent PVR
system. Or, get an MCE box and you'll still be able to run the others
when you get tired of fighting MCE. Or, you can add MCE later, if you
decide you gotta have it.

Or run Linux on it and use one of the PVR packages available for it, but
they're a lot more fiddly...

My opinion, FWIW. Your mileage may vary. No financial connection with any
of the above mentioned products. Etc, etc, etc...

Relevant Pages

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