Windows media home / xp home

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Soldato
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What`s the difference between these two as my daughter need`s one for her new build and she keep`s going on about the media one.

Thank`s.
 
not 100% but some of the things are

Media centre has tv recording software, home doesn't
Media Centre has a program on it that shows you your movies, pictures and songs like a media centre (sorry I dont know what its called)

There a few things (I think) I'm sure theres more that I have missed

Sorry to not be that much help though
 
Think im going to get her normal xp anyhow,just wanted to see what the fuss was about.

Cheer`s.
 
Media Center is XP pro I believe.

I'd go with the media center personally as its roughly the same price and does a bit more than home. If she watches TV and DVDs on her pc then she will appreciate media center.
 
Mark M said:
Media Center is XP pro I believe.

I'd go with the media center personally as its roughly the same price and does a bit more than home. If she watches TV and DVDs on her pc then she will appreciate media center.
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Yeh she want`s to trun her pc into a tv to save space on her desktop so it`s back to media :D
 
I like MediaPortal.

But XP MCE is much more stable, and integrates into the OS a lot better.

No need to mess around with stuff like xmltv to grab listings, MCE does it all out of the box.
 
squiffy said:
XP MCE is XP Home with a basic HTPC front end application. It's ok but basic. Media Portal is a better free HTPC front end.
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XP MCE is XP Pro, not Home. The freeware alternatives are rubbish in comparison to MCE, in my opinion.
 
dirtydog said:
XP MCE is XP Pro, not Home. The freeware alternatives are rubbish in comparison to MCE, in my opinion.
Click to expand...

Can you have variable fast forward & rewind in MCE upto 32x? Nope. You can with Media Portal.
 
tripitaka said:
Well that's certainly a feature I value over and above stability and ease of use :rolleyes:
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Stability- MCE has crashed twice (crash reports) Media Portal hasen't
Feature- can fast forward adverts, skip intro or go to that place faster. Please fast forward a 3 hour film in Media Centre and report back. Now use MP.
Ease of use- MP is exactly like MCE, just config page is more complex (but allows far more configuability)

Oh you cannot use FFDSHOW high quality DVD scaling in MCE without a non official plugin. Which kinda is the whole point of a HTPC. Microsoft cannot write a decent front end application.

oh I'm using MCE, only because of a certain problem in MP (cannot get certain AC-3 2 channel tracks to output) but will be going back to MP.
 
Well that may be your experience, but mine is a little different.

MCE has never crashed on me. I certainly experienced crashes in the past when using MediaPortal.
Also, MediaPortal completely refuses to start on my sister's PC, unfortunate as she doesn't have MCE and I do think it is a good alternative.

For an HTPC I agree, high quality DVD scaling is great.

However, for simply using the PC as TV to save space on the desk, it is hardly a deal breaker.

MediaPortal has a lot of advanced features that MCE doesn't.

However, for the basic use case described at the start of the thread, I would have to recommend MCE for its ease of use, given that the poster needs to buy a new windows license anyway.
 
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