Software Review: Windows XP Media Center 2005 Edition! - Page 5

walay · 11-03-2004, 11:22 PM

Well, just tried MCE 05

My opnion is that it can 'become' a great interface for the car, but not for most of us, and here is why:

The control buttons are way too small for us who r using 7" touch screens.

I can totally understand why you think is such a nice program with a 10" touchscreen.

but for in car use, you need bigger button so you can concentrate on on driving without trying to find those buttons.

It would be great if there is some way to change those player control buttons optimized on a 7" screen.

nFiniteTuning · 11-03-2004, 11:39 PM

in my opinion, on a 7" screen, its ideal...cause the buttons are actualy quite big. But thats why I say get the remote...its well worth the money....alot of people get touch screen for the cool factor....but not everyone has touch screen. The pop up screens you see when you move the mouse, dont show up with the remote, it acts like its a full fleged system that you'd get from cable or somethin with mp3 and dvd playing ability.

I mean all the Cadilac and Mercedes systems aren't using touch screen....but it does work great for touch screen. All the people who said they think its workin like a charm on thier touch screens, I looked and are using 7" screens. Maybe if you have gigantic fat fingers.....and the touch screen wigs out when you touch cause your fat finger is pressin more of the screen then it should...lmao. jp (hope I didn't **** anyone off, it was just a joke).....

I do admit tho...I will be using both this program and MMC1...And maybe more MMC1 if Ben would make me a hybrid program for my car.....but we dunno yet.

RoyN · 11-03-2004, 11:51 PM

Way too small to use SAFELY on a 7in while driving...

I use it on myhome theater, on a vaio media center pc... on mycarpc this thing would be such a resource hog it is no use!

it is nice for htpcs, although meedio might be a strong competitor...

for the car, neocar is way more convient in my opinion... scratched this one frommy car plans... its clearly built for a computer sitting at home... I cant be foolin around a remote in my car! haha puh-lease! hahaha....

timothy · 11-03-2004, 11:53 PM

It sounded pretty cool that this verson of XP Media Center Edition would be released to OEM for install, so I decided to give it a whirl. I have always loved playing with MCE systems, but never felt like paying for a whole new pc to use it.

I have a computer thats sorta my HTPC. The the graphics card is pretty ancient: an ATI Rage Fury Pro. It's a Rage Pro 128 card with 32mb ram. I don't play crazy 3D games on it, so it isn't bothersome, and has composite in and composite out. Video playback and most visualizations work fine on it. I also have an ancient TV tuner, a Hauppage WinTV. It does stereo cable tv tuning and works fine.

Of course, Windows XP Media Center Edition will NOT play video with my video card, and it will NOT use my tv tuner. My theory on why it does not support my video card is that it does not support that crazy resolution you said it outputted to work with HDTV's more. As for the TV tuner, every TV tuner that's supported with MCE does on-board MPEG-2 encoding. I guess it would make sense that you would not be able to do time-shifting, but any pc would be able to show the TV feed fullscreen, and even capture.

All in all, if it worked it would have ruled.
...but since it doesnt (i am glad i didnt pay for it

)

xBrady · 11-04-2004, 12:12 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by timothy

It sounded pretty cool that this verson of XP Media Center Edition would be released to OEM for install, so I decided to give it a whirl. I have always loved playing with MCE systems, but never felt like paying for a whole new pc to use it.

I have a computer thats sorta my HTPC. The the graphics card is pretty ancient: an ATI Rage Fury Pro. It's a Rage Pro 128 card with 32mb ram. I don't play crazy 3D games on it, so it isn't bothersome, and has composite in and composite out. Video playback and most visualizations work fine on it. I also have an ancient TV tuner, a Hauppage WinTV. It does stereo cable tv tuning and works fine.

Of course, Windows XP Media Center Edition will NOT play video with my video card, and it will NOT use my tv tuner. My theory on why it does not support my video card is that it does not support that crazy resolution you said it outputted to work with HDTV's more. As for the TV tuner, every TV tuner that's supported with MCE does on-board MPEG-2 encoding. I guess it would make sense that you would not be able to do time-shifting, but any pc would be able to show the TV feed fullscreen, and even capture.

All in all, if it worked it would have ruled.
...but since it doesnt (i am glad i didnt pay for it

)

You HAVE TO download the newest drivers that support MCE 2005. When it asks you what operating system you have you HAVE TO select MCE 2005 or your video car won't work.
Even if you don't use the MCE 2005 frontend I still like the OS better than regular XP pro.

xBrady · 11-04-2004, 12:15 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by RoyN

Way too small to use SAFELY on a 7in while driving...

I use it on myhome theater, on a vaio media center pc... on mycarpc this thing would be such a resource hog it is no use!

it is nice for htpcs, although meedio might be a strong competitor...

for the car, neocar is way more convient in my opinion... scratched this one frommy car plans... its clearly built for a computer sitting at home... I cant be foolin around a remote in my car! haha puh-lease! hahaha....

Not sure why people keep bringing up the fact that the buttons are too small. As was stated before it just needs to be skinned. Just as Neocar needs a skin with big buttons.

RoyN · 11-04-2004, 12:17 AM

From what I understood it wasnt possible to skin all the elements... some text, buttons, etc cannot be adjusted... if this is not so, then when smeone gets a decent skin i might try it out.... neocar already comes complete with skins

as well as access to my GPS and other stuff....

xBrady · 11-04-2004, 12:20 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by RoyN

From what I understood it wasnt possible to skin all the elements... some text, buttons, etc cannot be adjusted... if this is not so, then when smeone gets a decent skin i might try it out.... neocar already comes complete with skins

as well as access to my GPS and other stuff....

Yes neocar does

But... Maybe I'll look into learning how to skin/customize it. I don't do much at work anyways... I wish I were done with college so I had more time to do fun stuff like hack MCE.

RoyN · 11-04-2004, 12:23 AM

I imagina skinning the OS part isnt hard... problem would be skinning the media center app....good luck anyways.... defect to NMC if it is too much of a hassle! :P

xBrady · 11-04-2004, 12:26 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by RoyN

I imagina skinning the OS part isnt hard... problem would be skinning the media center app....good luck anyways.... defect to NMC if it is too much of a hassle! :P

Nah, I'm not going to skin the OS, I actually like the theme used in MCE. Don't worry, I don't use the frontend for MCE right now anyways, been using Frodoplayer. NMC kept giving me unexpected error or something so I was never able to try it. I still like the OS part of MCE better than regular XP Pro so I am glad I installed it.

RoyN · 11-04-2004, 12:28 AM

BrDY have you lookd at the Unexpected Error thread in the NMC forum?

It would be good to know if it solves the problem for you too! Even if you dont use NMC, it woul be good to iron out this error...

cheers

TimmyM · 11-04-2004, 12:35 AM

I'm STILL waitin' for my copy. I'VE been told that it was being mailed out but it still hasn't arrived.............

walay · 11-04-2004, 01:31 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by NightFireTuning

in my opinion, on a 7" screen, its ideal...cause the buttons are actualy quite big. But thats why I say get the remote...its well worth the money....alot of people get touch screen for the cool factor....but not everyone has touch screen. The pop up screens you see when you move the mouse, dont show up with the remote, it acts like its a full fleged system that you'd get from cable or somethin with mp3 and dvd playing ability.

I mean all the Cadilac and Mercedes systems aren't using touch screen....but it does work great for touch screen. All the people who said they think its workin like a charm on thier touch screens, I looked and are using 7" screens. Maybe if you have gigantic fat fingers.....and the touch screen wigs out when you touch cause your fat finger is pressin more of the screen then it should...lmao. jp (hope I didn't **** anyone off, it was just a joke).....

I do admit tho...I will be using both this program and MMC1...And maybe more MMC1 if Ben would make me a hybrid program for my car.....but we dunno yet.

Is not the problem of my big fat finger.....as I can press the button correctly as I'm looking and aim at it.....

But while driving, the button r not big enough for me to just take a quick glance and click it.....the buttons i'm talking about r the tiny sound control panel sitting on the bottom left of the screen. with next track volume up/down.

walay · 11-04-2004, 01:34 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by brady

Not sure why people keep bringing up the fact that the buttons are too small. As was stated before it just needs to be skinned. Just as Neocar needs a skin with big buttons.

That would be great, something I will look forward to!!

drib · 11-04-2004, 04:43 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by NightFireTuning

Wrong, Wrong, Wrong, and uhm..Wrong! 1st..You cannot use the MCE2005 single cd to install regular windows XP...it wont happen. IT requires disc 2 because its a new operating system. IT does NOT run the same as regular XP with SP2...in fact it runs a crap load better. read this entire forum, and there is alot of people saying its well worth it.

And for the car, It is probably best for car use. Drib doesn't know what he's talking about, no offence.

Ok, I just installed WINDOWS XP without MCE with my first MCE2005 CD. I ALSO contacted MS via a friend; they said that they both are the SAME versions, except for this difference (out of the box):
MCE2005 has no joining networks and file encryption, BOTH functions can be added after installation via windows update.

I think it's really weak to say I don't know what I'm talking about. I have many years of experience of Windows and I am making my living as a informatician (networks expert).

Now back on-topic:

For those who are looking for the same functions as MCE does, look at those programs:

For WIndows:
http://www.showshifter.com/
http://www.snapstream.com/Products/b...comingsoon.asp
http://www.sage.tv/
http://www.meedio.com/

For Linux:
http://www.mythtv.org/

I am planning installing Linux on my Epia M1000 with Mythtv, it looks really nice!