I am in the proccess of bying a new cpu and wanted to know if anyone has any experience with XP Media Center, and how it compares to XP pro?

Also I know MS is the devil but what can you do?

 

I don't know much about Media Center, but my experiences with XP Pro have been pretty good. I've been running XP Pro at my house for a while now and I haven't had any issues with it. Just don't upgrade to SP2 right yet


Have you looked at Microsofts site yet for info on Media Center?

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/m...r/default.mspx

 

Put Linux on it, or better yet, buy a Mac?

 

What are you looking to do?

Media Center is a tuned UI for watching and recording TV, watching movies, listening to tunes, etc.

This is not a "new" version of XP, it's a version of XP SP2 that's had a canned UI stuffed on the front of it.

If you're surfing the 'Net, replying on YT, and playing Half Life 2 - then that's NOT Media Center.

If you're looking to replace your TiVo (cable or broadcast only - no Sat support), and need a place to rip and store your 600 CDs and watch DVDs, then that IS Media Center.

 

Ok thanks for the help. I should have said I already am using XP Pro on my existing system, and was just wondering what the other differences are.
Last question, are you still able to use XP Pro to copy TV shows like Tivo? I know it can rip CD's and watch DVD's. Is that the only main difference?

 

Maybe the best answer here is a general one: "Starting from a stock copy of XP Pro (with SP2) you can add all the capabilities that you see in Media Center, but you won't have the fancy interface".

A more direct answer to your question would be "yes".

You can certainly add a TV tuner to your XP Pro rig and record TV shows. You can get scheduling data similar to what Media Center uses to build it's TV guide, and you can get recording software that will use it. But again, you won't have the fancy UI (which really is slick btw - they done good here).


And... like Matt said, in the end you may be better off buying a PC, slapping *nix on it and doing things there. If you didn't know, TiVo is running Linux and most of what makes TiVo what it is "just" a slew of TCL scripts.

 

Once again thank you for the insite. I might just get the media center CPU and if I don't like it I will just wipe it and put in Pro.

 

not a bad plan!

 

I picked up a new Gateway with the XP Media Center and I think I will stick with it. I really like the extra features and the DVR function is way cool. Here is a link to the specs of the new setup if anyone is interested.
https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f98/my-new-box-46753/

 

I know this is kinda' stale, and Brad's already made his choice, but for those folks looking for similar info, this snuck out when I wasn't looking:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/win...t/default.aspx

This is an option for folks that have DMR's (Digital Media Receivers) on a network. It's kindofa' high-ticket solution, but it's something I didn't know about when Brad started this thread.