Windows Media Center 2005--First Impressions
Posted by Alan Stafford | Tuesday, October 12, 2004 12:13 PM PT
PC World's already had a chance to test Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, which was
announced today in a big to-do thrown by Microsoft in Los Angeles.
The new OS, which should appear in systems on sale immediately, shows Microsoft is serious about expanding its reach beyond Internet browsing and spreadsheets and into TV and DVDs.
The most interesting feature added to Media Center 2005, in my opinion, is being able to serve media to other computers throughout the house, as well as to Media Center Extender devices. Extenders pull digital audio and standard-definition video (HDTV may be added in the future) over an 802.11a or 802.11g wireless network and play them through a stereo or TV. Dell, HP, Linksys, and Tatung, among others, will sell Extenders; Dell's version will reportedly cost $275, while an Extender kit for Microsoft?s Xbox will cost $80.
All Media Center 2005 PCs have TV tuner cards with one or two discrete tuners on them. Two tuners let you watch one show and record another simultaneously, but even with a single-tuner card, the OS lets you pause live television.
Analog TV should look better on new Media Center PCs than on the first-generation machines. The TV tuner cards in 2005 models compress live TV signals at a variable bit rate of up to 9 Mbps, up from the fixed 6-Mbps rate of last year?s media PCs. The new systems also use comb filters to make standard-definition signals look better. Standard-definition video piped to a standard-definition CRT television looked pretty poor on an HDTV or a PC monitor--but standard-def TV never looks all that great on high-def devices.
Some of the new PCS will come with HDTV-capable tuners, However, these devices weren?t available for our initial testing.
i think that microsoft should try to compete with linux
i use both and linux is free and better
microsoft should have a bargain version
somewhere around 25 dollars
i find the Media serving technology to the Extender enabled devices is pretty cool. The reason, if you have a Settop box or DTH you don`t need one for each TV or MC PC you have. The MC PC can work like a hub and cater all chanels to all TV's. Neat. Also MS can consider having a 2`nd radio remote alongwith the existing IR remote just like few audio gadjets like Bose to harness the full power of this from another room and even when not in the line of slight.
5 extenders capability, and 2 Tuner cards? If Extenders are the way forward seems to me like the extenders NEED to have thier OWN TV tuner cards, otherwise your going to need 5 TV Tuners inside your media center. How many PCI slots you got? Even with Dual Tuner cards, you'll still need 3 slots. How many spare inside your PC? in mine? NONE :( And only ONE Extender connected wirelessly.... hummmmm
don't worry Linux Media Centre will be here before Ms new windows longhorn is ready to ship to us regular users
"don't worry Linux Media Centre will be here before Ms new windows longhorn is ready to ship to us regular users"
And by 2043, Linux might actually be user friendly!
paul,
the tuners are for the mce to receive the tv signal and record it.
the extender do not use the tuner, they connect to the mce application through your network.
This is a pretty limited selling item but MS is at least learning on lesson - since they're going to call every $800+ PC a media center PC (even without a TV tuner card), they're going to say it's a huge success especially to Hollywood so they can start collecting that $.10 on every show ever broadcast.
People who want files to edit don't want an cumbersome DRM when for cheaper, you can avoid all this.
People barely subscribe to digital cable, HDTV & DVR's as it is now and with the average person's opinion of the Win Os at an all-time low, who is going to open up their TV to virii, spyware and Pc malware?
This is exactly the technology we get from MS now - not for consumers - just to sell their DRM to manufacturers and studios.
"otherwise your going to need 5 TV Tuners inside your media center"
If you have 5 people in your house that all want to watch tv at the same time in different room me thinks your pc's limitations are the least of your worries.
Don't bother buying a MCE ight now if you want it to be a "HUB" of entertainment in your house.
Current technology is simply not up to it.
I predict that a couple of years AFTER LONGHORN is relesed, maybe around LONGHORN SP2, that is when technology will catch up. PCI Express is arriving now, New Intel chips are in the pipeline. Shifting around 5 or 6 different streams of MPEG2 quality video and audio requires alot of bandwidth and number crunching.
Remember who told you first!
Paul....early adopters dont really care about what may or may not happen in the future. That's why we're called "early" adopters. I would venture to say that most people who poo-poo on WMC2005 don't have it or threw together a system that's not optimized.
Hi,
I have ordered a computer from Dell and it is sitting in my hallway now, wating for the "Dell Man" to come and set it up for me. It runs on Windows Media Centre. (Im guessing 2005 - the latest version)
1. What television channels will I be able to recieve and what quality will they be at?
2. Would I be able to watch television and record a tv show/program onto a dvd disk?
I would really appreciate some help,
Many thanks,
Oh, my world. It is ok