windows media center questions

[joecool]

So I'm thinking about getting a copy of MCE and then also getting the Xbox MCE attachment, but I have a couple of questions. Hopefully somebody here can answer them:

- Is MCE compatible with Nvidia 6800 series cards?
- Is it compatible with the Hauppauge remote control?
- what format is video recorded in? (i'd prefer mpeg to wmv)
- does it include a dvd decoder or do you need one seperately? if you need one, will it work with powerdvd?

thanks in advance!

joe

 

[DnetMHZ]

some info here
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/mediacenter/partners/dfw/partnerlisting.mspx

 

[crizzar]

Originally posted by: joecool
So I'm thinking about getting a copy of MCE and then also getting the Xbox MCE attachment, but I have a couple of questions. Hopefully somebody here can answer them:

- Is MCE compatible with Nvidia 6800 series cards? - YES
- Is it compatible with the Hauppauge remote control? - Not for media center functions
- what format is video recorded in? (i'd prefer mpeg to wmv)- proprietary ms-dvr
- does it include a dvd decoder or do you need one seperately? if you need one, will it work with powerdvd? - yes and yes

 

[joecool]

thanks, guys, that helps a lot. one more question if anybody knows; i'd like to get the xbox media center extender as well, but i read somewhere that you can't rewind or fast forward recorded shows thru the xbox. surely this isn't right - that would be so limiting! does anyone know anything about this?

thanks,

joe

 

[RaiderJ]

I've heard the X-Box Extender isn't the best piece of software, google for some reviews. I'd hold off and wait for the 360 for an X-Box + extender.

 

[Daniel]

Originally posted by: joecool
thanks, guys, that helps a lot. one more question if anybody knows; i'd like to get the xbox media center extender as well, but i read somewhere that you can't rewind or fast forward recorded shows thru the xbox. surely this isn't right - that would be so limiting! does anyone know anything about this?

thanks,

joe

I have an xbox media center extender at my house. I'm fairly sure you can FF and REW for recorded shows but I can double check at home so I'll be 100% sure.

 

[Raduque]

Well, all the capture cards that MCE officially supports are Hardware MPEG2 encoding only, I believe the "Proprietary *.MS-drv" file is just MPEG2 with a wrapper. It would take faaar too much horsepower to encode from a hardware encoded mpeg2 stream to wmv! There are tools on thegreenbutton.com to remove it and end up with a plain mpeg2 file ready for burning or editing.

One more: MCE doesn't come with a DVD decoder installed. It'll work with the latest powerDVD, but in my and my others' opinions, the best one is the nVidia DVD decoder.

 

[joecool]

so what's so great about the nVidia decoder, and how do i get it?

 

[NaughtyGeek]

Nvidia DVD Decoder Download Page

 

[sparkyclarky]

Originally posted by: Daniel

Originally posted by: joecool
thanks, guys, that helps a lot. one more question if anybody knows; i'd like to get the xbox media center extender as well, but i read somewhere that you can't rewind or fast forward recorded shows thru the xbox. surely this isn't right - that would be so limiting! does anyone know anything about this?

thanks,

joe

I have an xbox media center extender at my house. I'm fairly sure you can FF and REW for recorded shows but I can double check at home so I'll be 100% sure.

Running a stand alone Linksys media center extender here. You can fast forward and rewind through recorded TV just fine (and time shifted TV). However, according to the documentation, you cannot fast forward/rewind through movies you have on the remote PC. I'm unsure if there is a way to bypass this limitation, but I bet it is possible if you wrap the remote movies in the wrapper that MS uses for TV files.