Fixing The Perils of a Platform: Media Center PC's
Digital Media Thoughts: The Power and Perils of a Platform | Jason Dunn is out with a post about the pros and cons of the Media Center platform as it is today.
Jason’s first peril of the platform is the infamous “Video Error” that many Media Center users have seen at least once. This is one of those questions of, is it Microsoft’s fault that third parties products gets messed up on a PC or not type of questions. For the most part this error means one of the following.
-
Your video card is not compatible with
Media Center, or something went wacky with the driver for a supported card.
Check to see that you have a supported video card and reinstall the drivers.
The
Logo Partner List will help you find a supported graphics card to use with Media Center 2005.
-
Your TV tuner is not compatible with
Media Center, and/or something went wacky with the driver for a supported card.
Check to see that you have a support TV Tuner and reinstall the drivers.
The
Logo Partner List will help you find a supported TV tuner to use with Media Center 2005.
-
Your MPEG-2 Decoder (aka DVD Decoder) is not compatible with
Media Center.
Your only choice is to purchase a supported decoder, install it, and use the Decoder Checkup Utility to set it as the default.
The
Logo Partner List will help you find a supported MPEG-2 decoder
to use with Media Center 2005.
Jason then brings up plug-ins for Media Center. No doubt, the number of plug-ins for Media Center keeps growing! Of course, there is always the chance that a plug-in could screw something over on your MCE box. For the most part this is not an issue, just because of how the majority of plug-ins are developed and the underlying technology used in them (eg DHTML). Michael Creasy brings up how to disable a Media Center add-in if any of them are giving you issues.
He then brings up a good point about Windows Media Player disabling plug-ins after it crashed (and it does) and why Media Center doesn’t do this. The main reason from my view is that the majority of the plug-ins for Media Center are initiated by the user before they are loaded. Windows Media Player has a number of background plug-ins that load as soon as you launch it, Media Center kind of works in the complete opposite.
For me, most of what needs to be done to fix stability must be done in some of the technologies that Media Center uses. DirectShow is always a key pain to troubleshoot, and the main cause of people’s MPEG-2/DVD Decoder issues. The next biggest issue is working with third parties on drivers. Those are big keys to getting Media Center more stable.
Of course, getting people to use Supported Hardware/Software is also a problem. Both OEM/System Builders and users need to follow this. Please don’t expect to build a Media Center PC using 5 year old PC parts. If you try to, please don’t make a big fuss when it doesn’t work saying Microsoft screwed up (Yes, I’ve heard that more times then I can count). All System Builder and companies selling Do It Yourself kits to build your own Media Center PC also need to follow this. Don’t ship a kit with a Radeon 9000, I don’t care how good you say it works. Spend the money for a DirectX 9 card, they don’t cost that much. And if you are selling a kit or machine with an HDTV card, include a graphics card that can handle it! An NVIDIA FX5200 will be fine for 720p, but if you receive 1080i content, that card will choke. And we can’t control what is being broadcast to everyones homes, so no one can assume that a card that handles 720p fine will be good for everyone.
All and all, I feel that most of what needs to be done is in the hands of everyone but the Media Center Team. They just need to make sure they work with everyone else getting it to a higher level (and I can pretty much bet they do!)
