Introducing Media Center Week!

re: Introducing Media Center Week!

ale_ers — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 14:02:41 GMT

I need a suggestion of a new dual tuner VMC machine that can sync recordings with a Zune? I know this means Cable Card is out, but what do you think are the best options available?

re: Introducing Media Center Week!

mrb55 — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 20:08:07 GMT

Is there any talk of ESPN360 providing a plugin that works directly inside of Windows Vista MediaCenter

re: Introducing Media Center Week!

Kevin — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 02:32:52 GMT

Not necessarily a media center question, but it is relevant.

Will Verizon Fios use SDV? That could be one way around the SDV issue.

re: Introducing Media Center Week!

Platup — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 03:21:00 GMT

What ever happened to the HP Extender software update for the TVs?

re: Introducing Media Center Week!

Glenn — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 20:34:06 GMT

I like the Mac Mini as a small form factor TV for deployment in the living room. Apparently you can install Windows XP on it, and I presume even Windows XP MCE or even Vista. Would let me browse the web (not sure what this would be like from 15' away) and watch shows off my main desktop MCE machine. I don't know whether you can run one MCE machine as an "extender" to another though. I suspect you can't. Any information on this?

Obviously if not then the Mini wouldn't really work for this since it doesn't have any tuners etc, though perhaps a USB interfaced tuner option might still be doable. Not too fond of that for a L/R install though...

re: Introducing Media Center Week!

Einar — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 18:18:53 GMT

Does Vista Media Center support receiving the TV Schedule via DVB-T? Microsoft does not have "TV Schedule coverage" for my country, but since I use DVB-T, Media Center should be able to use the schedule broadcasted over DVB-T. If Media Center does not support this, are there some third party programs/plugins that do?

re: Introducing Media Center Week!

Aaron Spicer — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 12:25:16 GMT

Chris, is this the year that Microsoft 'gets it' with integration with their products (i.e. XBox, MCE, Zune, Vista) and they begin to streamline all of their services?

re: Introducing Media Center Week!

kmd — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 08:25:59 GMT

all my photographs are xmp tagged. all my photographs are geotagged with xmp keywords of the form geo:lat=XXX and geo:lon=YYY. Since XXX and YYY coordinates differ with each photograph, when I browse photographs by tags pivot, the screen is filled with thousands of these geo tags making it difficult to find more useful tags (like family, etc). Is there a way to hide selective tags like geo tags ?

re: Introducing Media Center Week!

Carlos — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 19:41:34 GMT

Do you think that the new Hauppuage Component Caputure Card and DVD streaming can give SagetV extenders a competitive advantage against VMC extenders?

re: Introducing Media Center Week!

Eric Atkins — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 18:00:00 GMT

Is there any kind of Media Center plugin that will detect my cellphone via BlueTooth and display caller ID on screen?

re: Introducing Media Center Week!

Warren — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 17:19:56 GMT

I use hdhomerun and I also have a couple of analog tuners. I only use my media center box with 360's acting as extenders the media center box is actually currently headless.

So, heres my question, I'll explain it to you as it happens to me. Say I'm watching/recording live HD and pause the program to say go to the bathroom or whatever. The commercials come and I want to skip ahead, this is fine and dandy and I skip ahead. The issue is whenever I eventually catch up to where I hit that fast foward button the recording skips. Also sometimes if I'm recording multiple things the rewinds and fast forwards themselves can take awhile. This happens more on HD and less on Analog. So I'm really just wondering is this normal behavior, or can I throw more hardware at the computer to speed it up and if I can what would make the greatest impact?

Here is the computer stats.

System

----------------------

Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3000+ 2.01 Ghz

Manufacturer: ASUSTek Computer Inc.

Model: K8N

Total amount of system memory: 1.00 GB RAM

System type: 32-bit operating system

Number of processor cores: 1

64-bit capable: Yes

Thanks!

re: Introducing Media Center Week!

Matt — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 17:15:20 GMT

I am thinking about getting Vista x64 for my Mediacenter machine. Will HDPC-20 support x64? I got 4GB and a dual core 2.4GHz and I hope that will be enough.

re: Introducing Media Center Week!

Daryl — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 13:07:29 GMT

Chris, any idea if DVD streaming will be officially supported in Fiji?

Do you know if Ceton Corp is ready to release it's (B)OCUR tuner. I think ATI needs competetion to lower it's prices.

Are you aware of any OEM's entering the Cable Card arena with budget priced machines? As cheap as the Dell XPS 420 may be, starting price of $1000 before the obligatory Video card and ATI Tuners pushes the price for a decent spec rig up.

When, if ever will Microsoft offer any solution to the SDV problem. According to several sources, the Tuning Resolver for the Tivo HD and Series 3 will not work on Cable Card MCE rigs. This is important, as more Cable Companies are implementing SDV to compete with Directv and Dish Network.

As always, thank you.

re: Introducing Media Center Week!

Skye — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 11:44:44 GMT

In a situation that is common at least in Europe, I watch TV from 2 different countries and need a separate tuner for each (e.g. 2x STB, or STB + DVB-T card).

Currently Media Center only allows multiple tuners if they are identical (i.e. use the same guide) because it switches between them indiscriminately to resolve conflicts.

When will Media Center allow the use of multiple guides and independent tuners? (I know there are hacks out there, but they won't work if the two tuners have no channels in common)

re: Introducing Media Center Week!

Geoff — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 04:26:36 GMT

Chris,

I have two questions I'd love to get your take on:

1) Do you believe the Home Server bug fix is going to be sufficient enough that I could begin storing home videos and pictures again without too much worry? It is very cool to have music, home videos and pics digitally, but what are you recommendations for making sure these don't get lost. I feel like I need 3 or 4 levels of backup ...

2) Is there ever going to be the ability to streem DVD files to extenders. Does there need to be? (i.e. can the new standards provide just as good of an experience)?

re: Introducing Media Center Week!

chrisl — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 04:23:15 GMT

Tyler: It is an update to Vista, not a whole new OS.

re: Introducing Media Center Week!

Tyler L. — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 00:53:34 GMT

Do you have any info about why there's a need for Fiji? I know there was a lot of stuff left out of Vista Media Center and new stuff like support for DirecTV tuners and H.264, but why a whole new OS? Why couldn't Microsoft just update Vista Media Center with patches, hotfixes, etc for all that stuff? After just buying Vista Home Premium just for its Media Center features, I don't feel like buying Fiji with Windows Seven just a couple years away (unless Windows Seven doesn't have Media Center built in).

re: Introducing Media Center Week!

JazJon — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 23:07:11 GMT

I'm curious to know which why you lean at the moment. Would you rather have The DirecTV MCE (HDPC-20) or CableCard MCE? (SDV BOCUR)? I wonder who will truely have a better HD lineup by this fall? I'm trying weigh all the options, features, and channel choices. The On Demand stuff needs to sort out as well. It's a long way out but maybe you can give us your 08 Q1 opinion.

re: Introducing Media Center Week!

fumingorilla8 — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 20:40:39 GMT

Any word if media center will include ota tv guide for us aussies?

re: Introducing Media Center Week!

Josh S. — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 19:36:46 GMT

1.) your top/favorite VMC plugins. Which ones do you use on a regular basis?

2.) Do you use VMC as your primary DVR? Do you use media center extenders on a regular basis? If so how many tuners does your VMC box have and how many extenders do you use?

3.) If you could have ANY one feature in VMC that currently isn't there what would that be?

- Josh