So, should you build a Media Center PC or just pop out and buy a TopField or TiVO? Well yes; it offers all of the functionality of a standard set top recorder, but with extensibility just a plugin away.
People have asked me in the past why a product that I, and many others believe is one of Microsoft's best has not taken off like it should have done? My feeling for this is it is due to the way it has been marketed in the past and the difficulties of integrating with cable and satellite television. Microsoft used to only sell MCE 2005 to OEM vendors (HP/Dell etc) and those vendors supplied Media Center PCs, they where usually expensive and underpowered machines. This and both of the pay-for services have their own TiVo/Sky+ systems that where for the most most part 'less hassle' for end users. That combined with the fact that the free to view digital over the air channel lineup has not been good enough until relatively recently has impacted heavily on the success of MCE.
Things are changing however. People now require a more integrated experience, with the like of the Xbox 360 / Wii and PS3 on the market where a lot of diverse media can be integrated into one experience, people are looking for an all in one solution for all their digital media. This is where MCE excels, it has good integration of all sources of media, be it TV, Music or WebCasts. Also there has been agreement in the USA with the Fox Cable network that a cable tuner card will be available for Vista MCE allowing access to the full spectrum of programming in the USA. If Fox's sister company in the UK (Sky) allow a similar card for Satellite television in Europe, it could really mean that MCE would become a common site in lounges all around the world.
Links
![Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium UPGRADE [DVD] [OLD VERSION]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41mlAqlTCyL._SL120_.jpg)
Article comments
1 - Ash
im running the vista rtm release of media center and tempted to get a tv card but heard microsoft has stopped this functionality. is this just in the test version of vista or all versions?
2 - Ashleigh
Vista MCE only exists in certain releases of the priduct. however TV coverage has been in all versions of media center ever released, and it will not be removed at any point soon.
Have a look in the sci-tech section as I have reviewed two such TV cards recently.
thanks
Ashleigh
3 - Simon
Hey Ashleigh, I found your review whilst looking for a USB DVB-T dual tuner that would work with my Mac Mini running MCE (using Bootcamp). I wanted to hedge my bets by finding a model that would support both OSX and MCE and it looks like the Cinergy DT USB XS Diversity may be the ticket.
Are you still happy with MCE and your Diversity? I really want a solution that replaces my ailing Freeview HD recorder (Digifusion) but I want to make sure it's girlfriend proof! I'm not saying she's stupid :), we're just lazy and need something thats completely usable from the sofa.
4 - Ashleigh
The Cinnergy is still working great, in fact it's my primary reciever.
Vista MCE is certainly better than 2005MCE used to be, how do I know? The wife disliked 2005, and loves Vista, go figure?
The only thing to 'worry' about using the Mac Mini is it's lack of memory (get a ready boostable memory stick) and it's lack of HDD space. But it's a grat form factor for an MCE PC.
5 - Rick
Can I have more than one "frontend" with the media center in vista? Reason being I want to record the shows in one room and be able to watch other things in the other rooms of my house as well. I'm currently using MythTV with 1 backend and 2 frontends.
6 - Marcos Scriven
Hi
I have Vista Home Premium, and the same USB TV tuner, however, I see two devices, both of the same name. I think it's the sound capture part of the device that isn'T working (got that little exclamation mark)
Anyway, I tried downloading the latest drivers from the Terratec website, and it say there is a Hotfix you need from Microsoft, but rather stupidly, not which one!
Any ideas pls?
7 - Ashleigh
Frontends can be any media extender (like a 360).
Strange about the exclamation? I never had any issues.
Try re-installing the drivers for the exclamation part. To do this
Launch Device Manager
Double Click the errored device
Click Reinstall drivers
Click Browse for device drivers
Locate the downloaded drivers using the browser
If you get a pop up about security select the ignore/allow option
click through
That should do it.....
Ashleigh
8 - rock
hey guys..... i need some help.... i m currently using vista..... but i prefer xp media center to vista.... now da problem is i m not able to install xp mediacenter..... even after i format da os drive... i m not able to install xp media center... it does not auto run.... can any1 pls help me out....
9 - ParaDoXaLL
hey rock delete your partition whit fdisk and rebuild a new one just format is not enough.
10 - PaulH
Hi. I to have built my self a media center using windows Vista home premium. I'm having major problems with it though, I can't get any of my AVI files to be recognised and run on it. I've tried to look online for solutions and installed all the recomended codec packs, and still nothing. Is it something to do with it being 64 bit Vista? I have another pc running 32 bit Vista and that has no problems at all. Please give me an idea on what to do.
Thank you.
11 - . ..ke
Media center whats junc. I tried to use this what Ms say is advantage hi end solution. I think it's a junk like all vista crap
12 - Jonas
Regarding using Vista MCE as a frontend. I think this is an interesting topic.
It seems like this is "work in progress". There is two solotions in vista. Media Center extenders and media library sharing in WMP. The problem is that Vista MCE cannot consume shared media library. Neither can MCE be an extender for another MCE.
Of course it is possible to use folder sharing, but thats no fun.
Conclusion: There is no real frontend/backend solution in present version. Correct?
13 - Rich
Incorrect.
14 - MCE fan
For XP users please check this out: It's a great Vista or Windows 7 skin for XP MCE 2005 (Make Media Center in XP look like the one in Vista/Windows 7)!