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Andrew Grant Runs Down Reasons to Stay with Media Center 2005

Andrew Grant runs down his Five Reasons to Stay with MCE 2005 today.  Cost, Extenders (or lack of), Remote Desktop, Functionality (or lack of again), and Stability (or instability) are among the reasons why he is currently staying with MCE 2005.

I have still yet to upgrade to Vista fulltime.  I’ve had it install for some time now in a dual boot with MCE 2005, and everything I reboot the decision to stay with MCE 2005 overrules that of Vista.  My hardware is a bit lacking to nicely run Media Center.  That could be fixed with a cheap RAM upgrade, but still I don’t currently see the benefit of doing so.

CableCARD is a big reason to still upgrade, but considering I have DIRECTV I still have a while to wait for that to happen.

I still say that v2 Extenders will be huge, if anyone ever decides to ship them!  Once I have a $150-$200 v2 Extender that supports playback of MPEG-4 ASP (DivX, XviD, etc) and correctly playback VIDEO_TS folders then I’ll be all over Vista.  Extenders are huge for me, finally being able to have that DVD collection all around the house in the format that I choose.  $150 v2 Extenders would also get the thoughts about Softsled almost out of my head.

Lastly, the MCML Plug-ins that are coming out are really great.  However, I can’t see myself upgrading just for third party plug-ins, the core functionality needs to be there first.  Plug-ins are just that, they are add-ins that will add functionality to a platform that seems to be lacking some basic things.

Has your opinion changed?

Published Wed, Feb 21 2007 9:45 by chrisl
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Comments

# re: Andrew Grant Runs Down Reasons to Stay with Media Center 2005

Very nice blog entry, Chris. I have to agree with you -- I'm sticking with MCE2005. I'm disappointed because I like Vista in almost every way -- except for its Media Center. In addition to all the points you made, the new Vista Media Center interface isn't simple and elegant like MCE2005. There are some nice improvements, to be sure, but on the whole there are too many bells and whistles, and that really detracts from my user experience. Especially since there are no new features, I'm sticking with MCE2005.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007 12:36 PM by Jedster

# re: Andrew Grant Runs Down Reasons to Stay with Media Center 2005

Well, here's the other side of the coin:

I've been running Vista for months now and I would never go back to MCE 2005.  I really like the new interface.  I've also gotten so accustomed to the new refinements that MCE2005 just seems clunky to me now.  The new plugins that are being authored show a lot of promise and many contain functionality that's impossible in MCE2005.

Of course I got my license for free, it runs perfectly stable on my system, it's the Ultimate version, and I already had an X360.....so Andrews reasons are 100% invalid for me.  Some of them are very subjective to begin with.

I'd also be curious as to where he recommends purchasing wireless V1 extenders for under $100.  

Aaron

Wednesday, February 21, 2007 12:54 PM by Aaron

# re: Andrew Grant Runs Down Reasons to Stay with Media Center 2005

v1 Extenders have shown up twice on Woot.com over the past month or two.  Other than that, I'm not sure.  They generally go for more than $150 on eBay.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007 1:20 PM by chrisl

# re: Andrew Grant Runs Down Reasons to Stay with Media Center 2005

I too have seen them on Woot.  But his rationale is bit misleading if Woot is his source for buying sub-$100 extenders.

Similarly, X360's "can" be bought for under $200 if you wait for the next Microcenter sale.  And an X360 at $200 is a better deal compared to a V1 extender for $100 (IMO).

Wednesday, February 21, 2007 2:24 PM by Aaron

# re: Andrew Grant Runs Down Reasons to Stay with Media Center 2005

I was running Vista Ultimate for a couple of months on my HTPC but the pain of lack of drivers and the relatively slower performance has caused me to go back to XP MCE 2005.

I actually prefer the XP MCE over Vista's MC.

Other than the lost eye candy I couldn't be happier. A pox on Vista and its DRM crap.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007 3:38 PM by Richard

# re: Andrew Grant Runs Down Reasons to Stay with Media Center 2005

Looking at Vista Media Center in the stores sure didn't "wow" me. There weren't many new features in the new version. And the few new features there are, seem to be incomplete. Just from what I've read and tested out, Vista Media Center seems to be on the same level as MCE2005: not a step backward, but far from being a leap ahead. The folks at Microsoft really need to add more programmers/designers to the Media Center team if they want to win the war over what computer company gets to play in living room's of the American family. Currently that's still Media Center for me, but I'm hoping to see some "Wow" factor in the coming months (as a service pack) or else others (i.e. Apple) may start catching up.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007 8:08 PM by Jaxim