MCE 2005 vs Vista MCE

monkeysmith

monkeysmith

monkeysmith

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Hi,

Currently have MCE 2005 installed on my media centre and am thinking of getting vista. Few things with MCE annoy me, such as the music section. How does the vista version compare?

Does anyone have vista installed solely for media centre?

Current Spec:
Shuttle Case & Board
Sempron 2600 or 2800, i forget
512mb pc3200 ram
Ati 9250 128mb gfx
Nova t dual freeview tuners.

Any views appreciated,

Thanks
 
burnsy2023 said:
Vista media center won't use third party MPEG2 decoders ;)

Burnsy
Click to expand...


I thought it did there's a little utility to set the one you want it to use, but then what do I know :rolleyes:
 
Slam62 said:
I thought it did there's a little utility to set the one you want it to use, but then what do I know :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

It's what I remember being told/read so I may be wrong....

After a bit of reading I've found this:

Media Center will ignore any 3rd party MPEG-2 or Dolby Digital decoders. Media Center will still use other registerd 3rd party video decoders other than MPEG-2. The same is true for audio decoders other than Dolby Digital. Media Player will only ignore 3rd party Dolby Digital decoders for Dolby license restriction reasons. If you register a 3rd party MPEG-2 decoder (or any other video decoder), Media Player will use them. Media Player will also use any 3rd party audio decoder other than Dolby Digital.
Click to expand...

Burnsy
 
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To answer the original question, I have a PC that's used exclusively for Media Center. Had 2005, now got Vista. What questions do you want answered?

One thing from your spec - I'd check on the Nova-T tuner situation. If you have 2 separate PCI cards, you may find that they don't both work in Vista.
 
csmager said:
To answer the original question, I have a PC that's used exclusively for Media Center. Had 2005, now got Vista. What questions do you want answered?

One thing from your spec - I'd check on the Nova-T tuner situation. If you have 2 separate PCI cards, you may find that they don't both work in Vista.
Click to expand...
Err yes they do, now what was the question again
 
Slam62 said:
Err yes they do, now what was the question again
Click to expand...
meh. The Black Gold PCI cards wouldn't work as a pair in Vista, and from when I was experiencing that problem as far as I remember the Nova-T's had the same issue as well.

Although Hauppauge probably fixed it, BG didn't bother! :(
 
just started to build a htpc myself but wondering whats the minimum realistic spec?
currently have a socket A system but was thinking of upgrading to a skt 775 for DDRII and C2D in the future, but is there any real need unless I want to play 720p/1080p ?

Was looking at the Hauppauge Nova T 500 for the dual tuner aspect of it.

But what OS is the best for the card and current spec, or would I need to upgrade it straight away?
 
The Nova-T is two tuners built into one card, as I'm limited on the shuttle case to 1 pci slot, pretty essential.

Main gripes with MCE 2005 is the my music. I have about 3000 mp3s but not all the tags are correct, they are all sorted in folders, but mce doesn't bother reading this, just looks ats the mp3 tags and makes its own mind up where they need to go.

Are their any advancements on the tv aspect? any new features not in mce 05?

Thanks for the replies.
 
Not really, just looks a bit different, difficult to say whether its better, snazzier if that's a word. Possibly less stable depends on your drivers. I think the nova-t 500 has a return from s3 issue that they may have fixed or are fixing.
 
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