Windows XP Media Center PC?

[Ed Hansberry]

Just wondering if anyone here had a Windows XP Media Center Edition PC to do all of their video/audio related items.

Gateway FMC-901x here but I haven't got into it much. Using the Plus! DME from MS for some photo stories and messing around with Windows Movie Maker 2.0.

Still, a fantastic machine. Really nice having front Firewire ports for my camcorder and 7 card slots. 3.0GHz and 512MB of RAm doesn't hurt either. :D

[Mike Temporale]

Wow, I was holding off on the Media Center PC's until they looked less like a PC and more like a stereo component. I just looked up the Gateway you mentioned (http://www.gateway.com/home/products/hm_dtp_mediapc.shtml) and that's what I have been waiting for. :D

I realize this has nothing to do with your question, but how do you like the unit overall?? 512 meg ram is nice, but I would have liked to see it higher. 1Gig would be ideal.

[mrwickham]

Question?
Does anyone know if MS will be releasing a media center upgrade for "normal" xp users. It seems like a great market for those people who already have the equipment, but lack the integrated software solution. Saves buying another computer system, but then maybe I just answered my own question.

[Mike Temporale]

I don't expect one anytime soon. I think that they are trying to enforce the hardware so they can be sure it doesn't have any weak components.

At some point in the future, maybe. However I think if it was available as an OS update someone with Win98 on a low end machine would try and run it.

[Suhit Gupta]

BTW, did anyone try installing WinXP MCE on a machine that is not as beefy as Ed's. I installed it last week on a 1GHz, 512MB RAM machine, and though the MCE features look very nice, the OS is extremely slow. Of notable mention is the 2004 update. It initially took 3 hours to run the update and I had to kill the update thinking that it had hung. I rebooted the machine and tried the install again, and this time it did install in only 2 hours. Verrrryyyyyy slow.

BTW, another point worth mentioning - I don't recommend joining an MCE machine to a domain. It turns out (for some bizarre reason) that the MCE features don't work when one is logged into a domain. I had to log out and log back into the local machine directly.

I guess I need to RTM more carefully.

Suhit

[Janak Parekh]

BTW, did anyone try installing WinXP MCE on a machine that is not as beefy as Ed's. I installed it last week on a 1GHz, 512MB RAM machine, and though the MCE features look very nice, the OS is extremely slow.
This is why I don't think you'll ever see it outside of MSDN (i.e., retail box) -- it just has high demands for the average end-user PC.

--janak

[Ed Hansberry]

Wow, I was holding off on the Media Center PC's until they looked less like a PC and more like a stereo component. I just looked up the Gateway you mentioned (http://www.gateway.com/home/products/hm_dtp_mediapc.shtml) and that's what I have been waiting for. :D

I realize this has nothing to do with your question, but how do you like the unit overall?? 512 meg ram is nice, but I would have liked to see it higher. 1Gig would be ideal.
Sorry for no reply to this. Somehow my email reminders for this site got turned off. :?

I do like it. The LED display on the front though can be a pain. It doesn't always work correctly, something I've called Gateway about. On the whole though, I am glad I purchased it. Having an all in one box is easier for me than having a PVR and separate stereo/radio with MP3/WMA capabilities, progressive scan DVD player and then yet another box to do video editing/DVD burning. Plus, having WMP visualizations (especially the WMP9 waves that you can download) is awesome on a big screen DLP. Very soothing.

[Ed Hansberry]

BTW, another point worth mentioning - I don't recommend joining an MCE machine to a domain. It turns out (for some bizarre reason) that the MCE features don't work when one is logged into a domain. I had to log out and log back into the local machine directly.
Likely you didn't have local admin rights on the box. MCE is a superset of XP Pro and designed to work on a domain. Corporations are putting these things in for video conferencing and news feeds to execs without having to put a TV in. Somehow, a TV is a no no but a video capable PC is ok. :D

[ctmagnus]

Plus, having WMP visualizations (especially the WMP9 waves that you can download) is awesome on a big screen DLP. Very soothing.

Are you referring to Phthalo's Corona (http://www.wmplugins.com/ItemDetail.aspx?ItemID=292), WhiteCap (http://www.wmplugins.com/ItemDetail.aspx?ItemID=408) or something else (http://www.wmplugins.com/ItemList.aspx?GroupID=3)?

[Ed Hansberry]

Called Rhythm and Waves. Lower right - http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/9Series/GettingStarted//personalization/Visualizations.asp

[Janak Parekh]

BTW, another point worth mentioning - I don't recommend joining an MCE machine to a domain. It turns out (for some bizarre reason) that the MCE features don't work when one is logged into a domain. I had to log out and log back into the local machine directly.
Likely you didn't have local admin rights on the box.
Nope -- seeing as how he set up the box here right in front of me, and since he's the domain admin in our group, I don't think that was the problem. ;) The main "media center" app refused to load when he was logged into the domain. 8O

--janak

[Ed Hansberry]

Nope -- seeing as how he set up the box here right in front of me, and since he's the domain admin in our group, I don't think that was the problem. ;) The main "media center" app refused to load when he was logged into the domain. 8O
Strange. MCE will definitely run on a domain. See http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/mediacenter/evaluation/features.asp Join Windows XP Media Center Edition systems to a Windows Server domain to take advantage of the full range of powerful management and security tools.

Is the machine participating in the domain or are you just logging in using a domain account? The only other thing I could think of would be some domain policy that is causing MCE not to launch.

[Janak Parekh]

Is the machine participating in the domain or are you just logging in using a domain account? The only other thing I could think of would be some domain policy that is causing MCE not to launch.
Good questions. He's not here now, so since he's a DMT editor, I'll let him read this thread and figure it out himself. I thought it was weird too...

--janak