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is Windows Media center worth it??
hulkster:
i just got a new 50" tv, new dvd player, and im getting hd channels for the first time through the digital tuner on my tv....all for the first time...and its awesome!
however, as i talked about in the other thread here about me finally getting a tv....my tivo is analog and is kind of the bottleneck. im looking at getting the new hd tivo maybe around christmas time, but i recently saw some screenshots of windows media center and have never really messed with it before.
so i have a couple of questions. one....does the new version of media center come WITH windows vista ultimate/home? i thought it was a seperate OS?
two...do i have to have a crazy powerful pc to run WMC? im guessing ill have to have a video card with a tv tuner, but does that video card have to be really powerful as well?
leapinlew:
The mo'power the mo'better. From a cost perspective, I think Tivo might be a better bargain. You get quite a bit more flexibility with Media Center.
I built a media center box 2 years ago with dual tuners. I spent around 2k for this box and if I had to do it again I would buy a DVR or rent one from my cable company.
hulkster:
spent 2k on a wmc?!!? what the heck are doing on that thing, streaming porn while recording 2 HD broadcasts?!!? my high end gaming machine i built only cost me $1300.
i would only be using a wmc for dvr and tv watching. i have a 2.4ghz machine with a 128 mb video card and 1gb of ram spare at my house, so i would only be buying well....a new vid card with a tv tuner, and of course the OS....but wouldnt that run it?
mcfreak:
I love my Vista Media Center, It has 3 tuners, one HD, two analogs connected to Digital Cable boxes. The power it gives you over a tivo/Digital Cable DVR box is the "Other" stuff. I have Xbox 360's in the bedrooms and media room that "extend" the interface to those areas. I can watch live TV on all three TV's using a central machine. It will also extend HD to the other rooms which is the only device I am aware of that can do that.
I also have a 1.5 Terabyte NAS in a server closet that has all my digital media (Movies, Music, TV Shows) that are shared across all TV's in the house. There is a great add-on freeware program called My Movies: http://www.mymoves.name that will automatically get all the cover art for your movies, titles, description, actors, etc and you can play them from the interface. So instead of having to go find DVD 382 in my collection, I can rip it down, tie it to my movies, and watch it by pressing a few buttons on the remote.
Here is an example of the interface:
http://www.mymovies.name/screenshots/windows-vista-media-center.aspx
Also, don't forget about the MAME interface for Media Center :applaud: :applaud: :applaud: :applaud:
http://www.push-a-button.com.au/products/mce/vista/emucenter/index.php
leapinlew:
--- Quote from: hulkster on August 07, 2007, 09:48:28 am ---spent 2k on a wmc?!!? what the heck are doing on that thing, streaming porn while recording 2 HD broadcasts?!!? my high end gaming machine i built only cost me $1300.
i would only be using a wmc for dvr and tv watching. i have a 2.4ghz machine with a 128 mb video card and 1gb of ram spare at my house, so i would only be buying well....a new vid card with a tv tuner, and of course the OS....but wouldnt that run it?
--- End quote ---
For starters, lets remember this was 2 years ago. WMC 2005 is picky for the hardware it allows, so I had to purchase their approved hardware. The analog tuners on the approved list were not cheap and I purchased 2 of them. Hard disk storage wasn't cheap either. Then I had to purchase all the peripherals - remote, wireless mouse, wireless keyboard, rechargeable batteries.
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