I'm in a kind of limbo with my media configuration, and not for lack of equipment or software (except that I don't yet have an HD LCD HDTV with PC input. I don't have ANY HDTV, except for what I describe below.)
I've gone through several TV-tuner-capture cards, beginning with the Hauppauge PVR-250 (analog), the PVR-500 (dual-tuner analog), and an AverMedia M780 Hybrid (dual-tuner, analog and digital).
We're still using a cable-TV subscription here, and without HDTV, I don't get the newer digital channels that show up on the cable-provider's menu. Instead, I have an HDTV antenna for over-the-air HD broadcasts, and the cable-TV set-top-box is plugged in to the M780's analog coax input.
With VISTA-64 Ultimate and its Media Center, the USB remote-receiver and Windows MCE remote control work beautifully, integrating the provider's channel line-up completely with the over-the-air HD lineup.
There were several things I didn't like about XP-MCE-2005's Media Center implementation. It's services -- loaded at boot-up -- would interfere with usage of other media programs, such as SageTV or AverMedia's own software. You had to disable MCE's ehrecvr service and one or two other services to get the system to work with SageTV.
As for the topic of higher interest -- getting PC output ported to an HDTV -- that's fine, and you can do it easily with the right cables -- IF . . . . you have an HDTV.
I THINK the same problem persists with VISTA's Media Center.
But I now choose my software installations carefully. I only want one, good "Media Center" program that allows me to record TV broadcasts (a PVR or DVR feature). I don't like disabling native VISTA services, either. And I want to be able to convert MC's DVR-MS format to MPG for more versatile usage.
And another problem I had with XP-MCE: I couldn't configure it so that I could access BOTH the tuner inputs AND the composite input from a VCR or similar device connected to the composite RCA plugs.
SageTV works with the tuners and the composite/S-Video inputs. But VISTA -64 still won't allow access to the composite.
But this doesn't matter. I've stuck with Roxio Media Creator from its origins as an Adaptec CD-burning program. In its versions 10 and 2009, the "Video Capture" feature works with the composite input, and nothing interferes with the MC background services.
And now, having looked around cautiously for a cheap conversion program that takes the proprietary wrapper away from DVR-MS and renders an MPG, I find I don't need one. Roxio provides it.
As for me, I can only say this: "Farewell, SageTV and BeyondTV. I still think you're great. But things are simpler now with Media Center and one other software suite that I would install anyway."
