Extender Market Far From Gone

re: Extender Market Far From Gone

chrisl — Tue, 21 Jun 2005 00:00:00 GMT

Extenders that know they need to support Myth TV as well as Media center :). Or can at least be reimaged to support Myth.

Seriously though, HD support is critical, but so parental protection. Right now Windows Media center really lacks the ability for to protect and hide video files from kids. It has some base level protection for TV related stuff and that is all. I should be able to set pin access control on every module (music, video's, TV whatever) and at every folder level on each module and have that be respected by all extenders.

-Griffon

re: Extender Market Far From Gone

chrisl — Sat, 18 Jun 2005 15:09:00 GMT

I totally agree with Tim. I grudingly use Media Center because it is more robust than more open solutions like SageTV. However, SageTV allows client PCs to play media off of the server seemlessly. In order to play media off of an MCE PC server on an MCE "client", you have to hack the daylights out of the server and client!

MCE just won't fly in multi-TV households without the long rumored "SoftSled".

re: Extender Market Far From Gone

chrisl — Wed, 15 Jun 2005 20:17:00 GMT

"Media Center 2005 supports dual NTSC tuners out of the box.

Conflict Resolution for me works great with my 2 tuners, when there is a conflict, Media Center tells me and ask what I really want to record."

Yes, I know, that's why I said "MORE than 2 tuners" I need MORE than 2.

Yes the Conflict Resolution works good, but it gets old when I have to mitigate a conflict several times a night when attempting to watch live TV. Basically in my house between the hours of 6pm and 10pm week nights, I regularly have 2 shows scheduled to record and a third and sometimes a forth that some one in the house would like to watch/record.

Now, if I had a couple extenders, I could conceivably need 5 tuners. 1 for each extender, 2 tuners too keep the recording function I have now, and 1 more for live TV on the MCE box itself.

re: Extender Market Far From Gone

chrisl — Wed, 15 Jun 2005 15:47:00 GMT

Paying $300 for an extender box is far too much - a DVD player can be had for < $50. EVERY extender needs to be able to playback DVDs.

re: Extender Market Far From Gone

chrisl — Wed, 15 Jun 2005 08:04:00 GMT

I'd buy an extender right now if I could, but being in the UK I have no choice. Europe - second class citizen as far as Microsoft is concerned.

re: Extender Market Far From Gone

chrisl — Wed, 15 Jun 2005 02:01:00 GMT

I agree that there is a market for the extenders - in fact I don't think Media Center will make it in the long run without extenders. But the Xbox 360 isn't going to be perfect - it won't be shipping with a HD DVD drive and I wonder how streaming HDTV is going to work on people's networks

re: Extender Market Far From Gone

chrisl — Tue, 14 Jun 2005 20:54:00 GMT

Media Center 2005 supports dual NTSC tuners out of the box.

Conflict Resolution for me works great with my 2 tuners, when there is a confliect, Media Center tells me and ask what I really want to record.

re: Extender Market Far From Gone

chrisl — Tue, 14 Jun 2005 20:42:00 GMT

Don't forget Supporting more than 2 tuners in the MCE box itself.

Right now I don't have any extenders and I run into recording and viewing conflicts all the time. If I had extenders I think it would be hopeless with the 2 tuners I have now.

*I know about the hack but I don't care to impliment it if more tuner could be utilized by default.*