Windows Vista W/nView!

97GST · 03-18-2006, 06:17 PM

I curently run a Satellite Laptop molded into the passenger side AirBag area, well the screen is anyways. Its a 12.1" non touch Screen, and the keyboard is inside the glove compartment. At this point in time, it isn't a carputer, just an enhancement computer. I use it to Datalog the DSM and Tune her on real time with DSMLink.

I'm now building a Shuttle XPC with a full nVidia video chipset made for gamming that also includes nView to be capable of running Windows Vista easily.

I'm going to be using Windows Vista as the front end! Making a small program to run XM isn't difficult. But I am going to have a program hacked from Windows Vista, so that it matches up with everything else.

The shuttle will also fully replace the Satellite laptop as I get a 7" Motorized TS and a 12.1"TS to install in its place. So its going to run nView so one screen will be setup to do one or two or three tasks like Tuning, Dataloging or playing a movie, while the other screen is doing all those things ore something different like giving navigation or browsing the web.

Please visit Microsoft's website for Vista, I'm sure you'll love it. Including the Speech Recognition that they include built in. So automaticly Vista will know what your talking about, but you can also setup special commands to run the system, and it wont just learn your voice, it will learn others. Say your wife jumps in the car as you two go to a movie, and your listening to Disturbed, she could just easily change the album by telling the computer what she wants to listen to.

BEAM ME UP SCOTTY!

http://www.ShuttleXPC.com
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/

97GST · 03-18-2006, 06:26 PM

The Windows Media Center experience in Windows Vista
By Joli Ballew
I've just seen Windows Media Center in Windows Vista in action, and I must say that I am truly impressed. This version has many exciting new features, including improvements to both the graphical user interface and media performance. In fact, I think the Microsoft team has addressed almost all of the suggestions I've seen posted in the Media Center newsgroups, and that should make a lot of people very happy!

Windows Media Center in Windows Vista makes it even easier to manage and access your digital entertainment from your PC or TV. And, you can easily play, program, and browse your media using a remote control. You can even access your Windows Media Center content through your Xbox 360!

An improved interface
The enhanced interface makes moving through your media library faster and easier. As noted, it's now much simpler to find and play music, photos, TV shows, and videos, and Microsoft has introduced shortcuts to allow playback of all of your music or pictures easily, right from the top level of the Start menu. If you're looking for a specific album or picture, the shortcuts off the main Start menu have been simplified to make managing and browsing your media more intuitive, with fewer clicks to get to the specific media you're looking for.

Windows Media Center in Windows Vista is optimized for faster performance and for high-fidelity display on a widescreen TV or monitor. When using a widescreen display you're able to see up to three times more content than you could in previous versions of Windows Media Center, and it still looks great on a standard TV or PC monitor.

Now both Windows Media Player and Windows Media Center use thumbnails so that you can browse visually. Having thumbnails instead of a lengthy worded list offers a better browsing experience and one that's easier to navigate.

Improved navigation and the use of thumbnails make finding and enjoying your digital media even easier.

Improved navigation and the user of thumbnails make finding and enjoying your digital media even easier.

An enhanced TV viewing experience
As with any version of Media Center, you can still watch, pause, and record live TV; save media and burn DVDs; and easily find what's on by using the Guide. Connect your Media Center PC to a Media Center Extender like Xbox 360, and you can watch your favorite shows anywhere in the house. Like the more recent editions of Media Center, Windows Media Center in Windows Vista lets you experience all your digital entertainment not only on your Windows Vista–based PC, but also on up to five other devices, such as computers and TVs, using Media Center Extenders. Windows Media Center in Windows Vista also offers additional options for enjoying TV content, such as thumbnail images for recorded TV and new overlays.

Thumbnail images
Windows Media Center in Windows Vista offers a more high-fidelity experience than older versions. Using the latest technologies, you can now view thumbnail images from all of the recorded TV in your library automatically. No more long lists of recorded TV with names only; now you can browse through the entries using thumbnails instead.

Overlays
With Windows Media Center in Windows Vista you can browse your channels by simply pressing the up or down buttons on your remote control—this allows you to check out what's on the other channels without leaving the TV show you're currently watching.

You can also click the Green Start Button on your remote control to return to and browse the Start menu, while still viewing what's on your TV or video display. The Start menu appears in a transparent state as shown below.

Here, a TV show is playing, and the subcategory Recorded TV is selected. The TV show is in the background, with the menu overlaid so you can continue watching as you browse (it's not a cool, new theme background as you might think).
Here, a TV show is playing, and the subcategory Recorded TV is selected. The TV show is in the background, with the menu overlaid so you can continue watching as you browse (it's not a cool, new theme background as you might think).

Cable cards and high-definition digital cable
I've read a lot of posts in newsgroups from people with digital cable who want to watch and record high-definition TV on their Media Centers. Well, hold on to your hats—the wait is over.

Windows Media Center in Windows Vista will allow you to take advantage of a digital cable signal to record and watch programs from premium channels, including HBO, Showtime, and Starz.

To do this, you will purchase (or lease) a cable card from your cable provider, plug it into your HD-ready Windows Media Center in Windows Vista PC, and watch and record premium cable content—all without a set top box. These HD-ready PCs should be available during the holiday season of 2006. It's all new technology, and I'm glad it's here!

Xbox 360 and extenders
Windows Media Center allows you to experience all your digital entertainment content not only on your Windows-based PC, but also on up to five other devices (PCs, TVs, etc.) using Media Center Extenders. If you have an Xbox 360, for instance, which has a Media Center Extender built into it, you can access all of your Media Center digital entertainment in any room in your home over your home network.

I'm looking forward to owning a new Windows Media Center in Windows Vista (and a new Xbox if I can find one!). After seeing this new version, my Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 looks pretty outdated and I can't wait to get rid of my dusty, connection-ridden set top box. Once I get it all set up, I'll write about my experiences, including any problems I run across. If you have any suggestions for future articles, feel free to contact me at the e-mail address shown below.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Joli Ballew is a technology trainer and writer in the Dallas area. She holds several certifications including MCSE, A+, and MCDST. Joli has almost 20 books available, including Degunking Windows (Paraglyph Press), Hardcore Windows XP (McGraw-Hill), and Windows XP: Do Amazing Things (Microsoft Press). Joli is also a regular Microsoft Expert Zone and Windows Vista Community columnist. Joli can be contacted at Joli_Ballew@hotmail.com.

tj!2k4 · 03-18-2006, 06:34 PM

this is almost as bad as the nigerians with the cellphone spam.

Joli Ballew... is that you?

97GST · 03-18-2006, 06:42 PM

no, my name is Josh. I was just posting that info from the Microsoft website to show what I'm going to be using inside my car

tj!2k4 · 03-18-2006, 08:15 PM

alrite.. well welcome aboard josh

Maeveth · 03-18-2006, 08:17 PM

If your going to use Vista in your car youll have to wait until october when it is due to be released.

On top of that if you look read around and what the projected system requirments are for standard use, most CarpPCs wont run it very well. Your shuttle should work fine though, 2GB ram probaly needed according to many sources.

Vista isnt new and your post did sound a bit like an ad 8 (

EDIT: Oh and one more thing the screenshots you posted are specific to VistaMCE which if it follows the pattern as the previous versions of MCE will be available to OEMs only.

I dunno about speech recognition it takes usually around 10+ hours of training for MS SAPI to be able to understand you well in my experience. And thats in a room, let alone a loud car.

97GST · 03-18-2006, 09:10 PM

Well I allready own the Curent versions of both x32 and x64 Vista. I get them for free since I somewhat work for PAMD64.

Lately I've been playing around with it on my 10.4" screen and its great. All thats left for microsoft to work on in the released version of Vista, is bugs. Its allready Feature Rich.

And I dont know about speach recog. just yet either. but suposedly, what is said on the Vista Microsoft site, it is supposed to be the most advanced Speach system ever developed and is supposed to be pretty easy to use. They say that yes it does have to learn your own voice, but it doesn't have to learn it freash. Its supposed to allready know words and all of that, it just gets freash with its owners own voice. And yeah in a loud car it should be difficult. But it may be possible to train it using ambient noises in the background to train it to work with loud area's? But if not, it would still be good for browsing the web, navigation or anything else.

blk02si · 04-01-2006, 07:48 PM

I actually just got done testing Vista on my laptop. I formatted and reinstalled XP due to vista being the most bloated OS ive EVER used and lack of driver support yet. 6Gb installed? Thats just silly. Vista is pretty sweet though, I like where M$ is going with windows. Very nice GUI and layout, easy to get navigate the PC. I found explorer to be very slow and buggy but I was testing on my minimum spec laptop. All in all the next generation windows will be cool, im bored to death of XP. Im a linux guy and am used to 6 month release cycles, not 6 year release cycles. But what I really wanted to say is that Vista is probably the worst choice possible right now for a carPC. You do know that Vista is still beta right? Beta OS + 6Gb install size + lack of driver support = bad idea.

BTW: I downloaded Vista from the internet very easily. I also don't like how its a DVD and you need a DVD drive to install it.

fooshizn1x · 04-01-2006, 08:46 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by blk02si

I actually just got done testing Vista on my laptop. I formatted and reinstalled XP due to vista being the most bloated OS ive EVER used and lack of driver support yet. 6Gb installed? Thats just silly. Vista is pretty sweet though, I like where M$ is going with windows. Very nice GUI and layout, easy to get navigate the PC. I found explorer to be very slow and buggy but I was testing on my minimum spec laptop. All in all the next generation windows will be cool, im bored to death of XP. Im a linux guy and am used to 6 month release cycles, not 6 year release cycles. But what I really wanted to say is that Vista is probably the worst choice possible right now for a carPC. You do know that Vista is still beta right? Beta OS + 6Gb install size + lack of driver support = bad idea.

BTW: I downloaded Vista from the internet very easily. I also don't like how its a DVD and you need a DVD drive to install it.

I've used Vista too and agree that it is a bloated pig.. it does have a lot of cool whistles and bells but sucks for usability unless you have a P5 45Ghz 84Gig Ram 6 Terabyte HDD and an OC36 connection.. Hopefully the final release will be a little better...

and regarding the DVD requirement.. who doesnt own a DVD drive now a days? C'mon.. either move into the future, or go back to dos.. its just typical of the way things move in the world...