PVR's compatable with MCE-Why should I care?

[Bob151]

I am looking into getting a hardware encoder card to do a PVR PC using Myth or Snapstream (haven't decided which).

I see that some people get all jolly and worked up when they get a PVR-250MCE (Media Center Edition) because its MCE compatible.

Since MS supposedly isn't selling this except to OEMs and they are supposed to only sell it on complete systems, seems like a waste of breath to get excited about it being an MCE compatible card.

Seems I should only care if I plan to 'obtain' an MCE CD and a keygen (which I wont).

What's the big deal? I don't know about this stuff apparently, or there are plenty of people that borrow software?

Thanks

 

[Gravity]

Might be because M$ uses proprietary cvodec for their files?

 

[rbV5]

You shouldn't care unless you intend to run MCE.

 

[Excelsior]

Originally posted by: rbV5
You shouldn't care unless you intend to run MCE.

 

[Bob151]

Originally posted by: rbV5
You shouldn't care unless you intend to run MCE.

OK, its cleared up. I'll get the retail version.

BTW, anyone seen an article comparing MythTV, BeyondTV and ReplayTV? I cant decide which product or OS I'm going to run. I hope those windows versions will run on Windows 2003 SBS.

 

[bassoprofundo]

The retail version (PVR-250, non MCE) is compatible with WinXP MCE as well. The MCE version is just a special edition designed specifically for that OS. It adds an FM Tuner to meet MS' standards for full XP MCE certification. BTW... Check out SageTV before you decide on software for your HTPC. It's awesome. (I'm actually using WinXP MCE 2004 (from MSDN subscription) for the WAF (wife acceptance factor), though.) You can't beat SageTV in terms of sheer power and ability to customize.