Differences between MCE 2005 and Vista MCE?

richieboy

richieboy

richieboy

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Hi guys,

I'm trying to decide whether to go for XP MCE 2005 or Vista Ultimate (using its MCE) for my new HTPC. I have been using Vista MCE for the past three weeks and have had nothing but problems with driver issues etc so am wondering if there would be any reason not to "downgrade" to XP MCE?

Things i like:
  • Viewing Music album images as a load of "tiles"
  • Use of my dual tuner card (Nova-T 500) to record two things at once or watch one thing and record another
  • Watch Xvid AVI's through "My Videos"
  • Watch ripped DVD's in "My DVD Library"
  • Schedule TV recordings

Can you do all that in XP MCE? Can you do anything in one that you can't in the other?

Thanks :)
 
Dont' have much experience with either, but I recall that drivers can also be a problem with MCE XP, you'll probably require a certified peice of hardware for your tuner, and remote.

But Vista MCE is pretty slick, and probably one of the nicest looking PVR things I've used.
 
My tuner card does sort of work under Vista, but it seems to randomly not work and requires a reboot every so often so thinking about MCE 05, i thought it was basically a cut down version of XP with a media app whacked on top?
 
XP MCE is XP pro with MCE on top. Having played with Vista MCE it has potential but is nowhere near as reliable as XP MCE.
 
vista's look 100 times nicer and has never crashed for me. It works with my hauppage tuner very well and you can set it to record series and things
 
Ross1234 said:
and you can set it to record series and things
Click to expand...
As you can with MCE 2005.

There aren't any major differences that I'm aware of, save for the GUI, though I've not used the Vista one too much (nV drivers around May were, to put it mildly, ghastly). If anything, I expect there are more plugins for MCE 2005 than for the Vista one, though a lot of them can be used on both. I can't say much with regards to playing XviD videos and things, as I only ever use MCE 2005 for recording and watching TV.

I did hear earlier this year that there was an overhaul for Vista's Media Center planned in SP1, but obviously that's not happening now that SP1 is essentially a roll-up of patches, but that's not to say it's not going to happen in the future, or as a separate patch (as was released for MCE 2005), or that it was ever more than a rumour for that matter.
 
Vista MCE also has the MPEG2 codec packs built in whereby you had to buy them (or hack them) seperately before.

Also, MCE is NOT XP Pro with MCE on top, it is XP Pro stripped DOWN to MCE (loosing the networking functionality of XP Pro, although this can be rectified during install).

Vista MCE is far far greater than XP MCE which just became a hash by the 2005 version. It is good, dont get me wrong, but its almost featureless compared to Vista
 
Fair play, i did say i thought MCE was a cut down version of XP with MCE whacked on top. Think i'm going to stick with Vista and just put up with the random driver issues i have with my Nova-T 500, cheers guys.
 
richieboy said:
Fair play, i did say i thought MCE was a cut down version of XP with MCE whacked on top. Think i'm going to stick with Vista and just put up with the random driver issues i have with my Nova-T 500, cheers guys.
Click to expand...

OK, but unless there is somethingelse you aren't telling us, why don't you try out all the other ones, e.g. Media Portal which gets real good reviews, and 'fixes' a lot of the 'broken' stuff in MCE.
 
bledd. said:
if you use the package i linked, all media will be playable
Click to expand...

I didn't have any luck with that one when i was trying a while back, would'nt play any Xvid AVI's in Vista Media Center.

whitecrook said:
OK, but unless there is somethingelse you aren't telling us
Click to expand...

What do you mean by that? I don't beleive the issues i'm having are MCE based, they appear to be driver based. That's why i was looking into XP MCE as i know people have had less problems with the Nova-T 500 card on XP systems.

Have tried LinuxMCE/GBPVR and Media Portal and not too keen on any.

I think Vista MCE is the way i want to go...just need to sort out driver issues. I'll give the drivers bledd posted for my Hauppauge Nova-T 500 a try (thanks for that) and see if i have any luck.

Cheers all.
 
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