Vista Media Center Screenshots.

[arod]

there is a new device which allows you to tune qam into media center.... called hdhomerun and is still in beta but functioning great (im using one in my media server)

but be warned qam in most areas will only get you the hd locals. you will want a separate analog card for tuning and recording your SD stuff. I use the hauppauge WinTV PVR500MCE (dual tuner SD) and then the HDHomeRun for dual tuner HD broadcasts recording. And to activate the HD tuners you need a SD tuner of some sort still (although ive heard that requirement might go away at some point)

 

[GTaudiophile]

Nice. How are you getting HD content? OTA? Surely it can't be coming from your cable provider.

Have you thought of installing a HD or BR player?

At what res is the maching outputting to your HDTV? 720P or 1080P? Through DVD-D or HDMI?

 

[Quasmo]

Originally posted by: arod
there is a new device which allows you to tune qam into media center.... called hdhomerun and is still in beta but functioning great (im using one in my media server)

but be warned qam in most areas will only get you the hd locals. you will want a separate analog card for tuning and recording your SD stuff. I use the hauppauge WinTV PVR500MCE (dual tuner SD) and then the HDHomeRun for dual tuner HD broadcasts recording. And to activate the HD tuners you need a SD tuner of some sort still (although ive heard that requirement might go away at some point)

Don't need an analogue tuner in Vista. How do you like your HDHomeRun? I love mine, can't get enough of Discovery HD, and INHD.

 

[wasssup]

I tried Vista Ultimate just for Media Center but it wouldn't recognize my AIW Radeon 9800..

 

[NFS4]

I'm loving Media Center with my copy of Vista Home Premium. I've got my Xbox 360 hooked up to it wirelessly as a Media Center Extender. The only problem is that my notebook is wireless as is the Xbox 360, so it lags a bit when trying to navigate on the 360

 

[Looney]

Originally posted by: NFS4
I'm loving Media Center with my copy of Vista Home Premium. I've got my Xbox 360 hooked up to it wirelessly as a Media Center Extender. The only problem is that my notebook is wireless as is the Xbox 360, so it lags a bit when trying to navigate on the 360

I hear you. That's one of the best thing about Vista, is how seamlessly it connects with the 360. I absolutely love it. My 360 is on a wired connection though, so i don't know about the lag.

 

[NFS4]

Originally posted by: Looney

Originally posted by: NFS4
I'm loving Media Center with my copy of Vista Home Premium. I've got my Xbox 360 hooked up to it wirelessly as a Media Center Extender. The only problem is that my notebook is wireless as is the Xbox 360, so it lags a bit when trying to navigate on the 360

I hear you. That's one of the best thing about Vista, is how seamlessly it connects with the 360. I absolutely love it. My 360 is on a wired connection though, so i don't know about the lag.

Yeah, it's pretty bad right now.

The router is in my room (along with two printers that are hard wired into the router). The Xbox 360 is in the den.

So the signal has to go Xbox 360 --> Router --> Laptop and then back again all wirelessly. Lag City

 

[archcommus]

Thanks, Shawn. That "someone" from the OS forum was me. Just what I was looking for. Trying to compare this to Sage.

 

[Staples]

Originally posted by: Shawn

Originally posted by: Cattlegod
does it play divx files?

yep

That is interesting. It sure as hell does not on extenders.

Looks 100% the same as it was in RC2 which I have been using for a long time. The performance of it is choppy and there are some major problems with functionality. I am on the fence of buying Home Premium but I know chances are that I get it and find out that nothing has changed since RC2..

 

[Staples]

Originally posted by: NFS4
I'm loving Media Center with my copy of Vista Home Premium. I've got my Xbox 360 hooked up to it wirelessly as a Media Center Extender. The only problem is that my notebook is wireless as is the Xbox 360, so it lags a bit when trying to navigate on the 360

That is not a problem with bandwidth for the most part. The searching video function is just terrible on the Xbox. I think it is due to the CPU architecture. I have top of the line computing power, a launch 360 and a gigabit network. At best FF and RW works as well as TWC on demand. MS should be embarrased but so far, not many people use the Xbox as a media center so I have been the only one complaining for 6 months.

You will see a slight improvement if you use wires. In fact, I saw an improvement going from 100mb connection to a gigabit for which I can't explain but the thing still lags like hell so unless something big changed from RC2 to final, the problem is the software the Xbox is running.

 

[arod]

the searching video problem is only a problem for me when i ff at the max speed (of the 4 speeds) but i rarely use it because of the 30 sec skip.

 

[Staples]

Originally posted by: arod
the searching video problem is only a problem for me when i ff at the max speed (of the 4 speeds) but i rarely use it because of the 30 sec skip.

Is this searching on your local computer or on an Xbox?

 

[ultimatebob]

Judging from my past experience with media center PC's, I think that I'm going to pass. I prefer having a TV and DVR that doesn't self-destruct every time I get a bad driver update or Windows patch!

Perhaps I'm losing my geek cred, but the idea of spending 2 hours debugging a Windows box when I just want to watch a movie just doesn't sound fun to me anymore.

 

[arod]

Originally posted by: Staples

Originally posted by: arod
the searching video problem is only a problem for me when i ff at the max speed (of the 4 speeds) but i rarely use it because of the 30 sec skip.

Is this searching on your local computer or on an Xbox?

xbox 360 via a wired connection.

 

[NFS4]

Originally posted by: Staples

Originally posted by: NFS4
I'm loving Media Center with my copy of Vista Home Premium. I've got my Xbox 360 hooked up to it wirelessly as a Media Center Extender. The only problem is that my notebook is wireless as is the Xbox 360, so it lags a bit when trying to navigate on the 360

That is not a problem with bandwidth for the most part. The searching video function is just terrible on the Xbox. I think it is due to the CPU architecture. I have top of the line computing power, a launch 360 and a gigabit network. At best FF and RW works as well as TWC on demand. MS should be embarrased but so far, not many people use the Xbox as a media center so I have been the only one complaining for 6 months.

You will see a slight improvement if you use wires. In fact, I saw an improvement going from 100mb connection to a gigabit for which I can't explain but the thing still lags like hell so unless something big changed from RC2 to final, the problem is the software the Xbox is running.

I was also having a problem playing back episodes of Top Gear. I tried using Transcode360Vista and it worked, but playback would skip every 3 seconds or so. So I tried encoding the video to WMV using Videora Xbox 360 Converter and I was able to go about 10 seconds before it would start skipping... then 10 seconds - skip - 10 seconds skip. And so forth.

 

[archcommus]

Originally posted by: NFS4

Originally posted by: Staples

Originally posted by: NFS4
I'm loving Media Center with my copy of Vista Home Premium. I've got my Xbox 360 hooked up to it wirelessly as a Media Center Extender. The only problem is that my notebook is wireless as is the Xbox 360, so it lags a bit when trying to navigate on the 360

That is not a problem with bandwidth for the most part. The searching video function is just terrible on the Xbox. I think it is due to the CPU architecture. I have top of the line computing power, a launch 360 and a gigabit network. At best FF and RW works as well as TWC on demand. MS should be embarrased but so far, not many people use the Xbox as a media center so I have been the only one complaining for 6 months.

You will see a slight improvement if you use wires. In fact, I saw an improvement going from 100mb connection to a gigabit for which I can't explain but the thing still lags like hell so unless something big changed from RC2 to final, the problem is the software the Xbox is running.

I was also having a problem playing back episodes of Top Gear. I tried using Transcode360Vista and it worked, but playback would skip every 3 seconds or so. So I tried encoding the video to WMV using Videora Xbox 360 Converter and I was able to go about 10 seconds before it would start skipping... then 10 seconds - skip - 10 seconds skip. And so forth.

And you say you like using your 360 as an extender despite these show-stopping issues?

 

[NFS4]

Originally posted by: archcommus

Originally posted by: NFS4

Originally posted by: Staples

Originally posted by: NFS4
I'm loving Media Center with my copy of Vista Home Premium. I've got my Xbox 360 hooked up to it wirelessly as a Media Center Extender. The only problem is that my notebook is wireless as is the Xbox 360, so it lags a bit when trying to navigate on the 360

That is not a problem with bandwidth for the most part. The searching video function is just terrible on the Xbox. I think it is due to the CPU architecture. I have top of the line computing power, a launch 360 and a gigabit network. At best FF and RW works as well as TWC on demand. MS should be embarrased but so far, not many people use the Xbox as a media center so I have been the only one complaining for 6 months.

You will see a slight improvement if you use wires. In fact, I saw an improvement going from 100mb connection to a gigabit for which I can't explain but the thing still lags like hell so unless something big changed from RC2 to final, the problem is the software the Xbox is running.

I was also having a problem playing back episodes of Top Gear. I tried using Transcode360Vista and it worked, but playback would skip every 3 seconds or so. So I tried encoding the video to WMV using Videora Xbox 360 Converter and I was able to go about 10 seconds before it would start skipping... then 10 seconds - skip - 10 seconds skip. And so forth.

And you say you like using your 360 as an extender despite these show-stopping issues?

I use it mainly to playback music which isn't that much of a problem once it is all queued up. That and for viewing pictures in a sideshow while the music is playing.

 

[n7]

I quite like Media Center in Vista for slideshows etc. to show pics/videos to family or friends.

Otherwise i don't use it too much.

 

[bearxor]

If you have a MCE2k5 HTPC then you almost have to upgrade to Vista. There's just no comparison between the two.

To clarfiy what someone mentioned earlier in this thread:
Media Center will play ANY video or audio file if you have the proper codec installed. With Quicktime Alternative, you can play quicktime files in MCE. An MCX (Media Center Extender) will only stream wmv and mpeg (unless you do transcoding).

 

[Staples]

Originally posted by: NFS4

Originally posted by: Staples

Originally posted by: NFS4
I'm loving Media Center with my copy of Vista Home Premium. I've got my Xbox 360 hooked up to it wirelessly as a Media Center Extender. The only problem is that my notebook is wireless as is the Xbox 360, so it lags a bit when trying to navigate on the 360

That is not a problem with bandwidth for the most part. The searching video function is just terrible on the Xbox. I think it is due to the CPU architecture. I have top of the line computing power, a launch 360 and a gigabit network. At best FF and RW works as well as TWC on demand. MS should be embarrased but so far, not many people use the Xbox as a media center so I have been the only one complaining for 6 months.

You will see a slight improvement if you use wires. In fact, I saw an improvement going from 100mb connection to a gigabit for which I can't explain but the thing still lags like hell so unless something big changed from RC2 to final, the problem is the software the Xbox is running.

I was also having a problem playing back episodes of Top Gear. I tried using Transcode360Vista and it worked, but playback would skip every 3 seconds or so. So I tried encoding the video to WMV using Videora Xbox 360 Converter and I was able to go about 10 seconds before it would start skipping... then 10 seconds - skip - 10 seconds skip. And so forth.

Well, maybe this is a problem with bandwidth after all. I never have a skip during playback unless the signal recorded drops out (which does happen time to time). FF and RW are still horrible though. The picture on the screen can lag minutes behind the progress bar's displayed time. The best thing I have discovered is to just watch the time when FF or RW and stop it there. You know commercial breaks are 3 minutes so just FF for three minutes. Don't try to stop it when you see the show on the screen because it probably has FF for 5 minutes by this time. I do not have a supported analog card but it has been eating at me for 6 months to buy one just to see how well MS's codec works. The reason I never do is because I record all analog stuff on TIVO which is perfect at almost everything (save for a few menu bugs). I figure if I spend $50 on one, I will still use TIVO anyway because it can't be any better (I bet it would not even come close).

Right now I have only an ATSC tuner and the video always takes a few seconds to stabilize after I come back from searching or just starting the play. I wonder if MS's own encoded video performs any better. Low bit rate WMV is handled a lot better but it is still way far from perfect. Searching is still choppy and FF is almost impossible because it is slow and using the skip 30 button will FF through the whole movie if you skip more than 5x30 second blocks. If nothing else, I sure as hell hope they fixed this in Vista final. The sad thing is that I think it is the software on the Xbox that controls this.

 

[BoldAsLove]

can you get vista MC alone?

 

[Shawn]

Originally posted by: BoldAsLove
can you get vista MC alone?

nope. you need vista.

 

[Auryg]

Originally posted by: Shawn

Originally posted by: BoldAsLove
can you get vista MC alone?

nope. you need vista.

Can you get it if you have the Business version? That's what my school gave me. I'm wondering about legal ways btw , like some sort of upgrade.

 

[Shawn]

Originally posted by: Auryg

Originally posted by: Shawn

Originally posted by: BoldAsLove
can you get vista MC alone?

nope. you need vista.

Can you get it if you have the Business version? That's what my school gave me. I'm wondering about legal ways btw , like some sort of upgrade.

you'd have to upgrade to the ultimate version.

 

[BoldAsLove]

Originally posted by: Shawn

Originally posted by: Auryg

Originally posted by: Shawn

Originally posted by: BoldAsLove
can you get vista MC alone?

nope. you need vista.

Can you get it if you have the Business version? That's what my school gave me. I'm wondering about legal ways btw , like some sort of upgrade.

you'd have to upgrade to the ultimate version.

But say if I get the ultimate version, is their an option to just install MC...im assuming not. Would I be able to run Vista w/ MC on a 3400+ with 1gb ram and built in Radeon X300?