Windows MCE - Q's

[tim_n]

When looking to build myself a PVR people mentioned that MCE might be a sensible thing to look at.

So I installed it upon my server with my aging winTV go card, and well, nothing happened much except that I went from XP Pro to what looked like home with no added benefits like the MCE software = )

What went wrong? Well, I have no idea. I was told I was supposed to upgrade (rather than do a full install)

Then I was told it was probably my TV card.

Yet so, I am confused. Can MCE be used on a homebuilt system or is it only within the realms of specific hardware?

[nichomach]

Firstly, it certainly CAN be used on a homebrew. I've got 4 happy shuttles here at work that use it. Which model WinTV card do you have? Some support MCE or are supported by it and some don't. Personally, I haven't applied it as an upgrade from XP Pro, but you don't have the Media Centre shortcut on your desktop? I mean the big green icon?

[Lee H]

Yet so, I am confused. Can MCE be used on a homebuilt system or is it only within the realms of specific hardware?

Yes as long as there are drivers any hardware can be used for MCE2005

I use MCE2005 on the system in my system specs and I have had hardly any issues what so ever, and even SLI runs extremely nicely now the drivers are updated.

There should be a green icon in the start menu's which loads up the MCE menu's for watching TV and stuff like that, which Nicho has pointed out.

When you installed it, was it on 2 discs or 1 as MCE2005 is on 2 discs with the 2nd more than likely housing the media extensions and as far as I know is the only "XP" based OS which is on 2 Discs

According to Hauppauge there are 2 WinTV go cards - 1 based on a connexant chipset, 1 not but I cannot find any BDA type drivers which media Centre requires for the TV go series of cards and the following link to the hauppauge forum shows that there are no drivers to get the card working with the MCE recording side of the Operating system, but the hauppauge software would work - which is besides the point really ( Information can be found Here )

[tim_n]

nope - there was no big green icon at all. My winTV go is one of the ancient variety - circa 1998. I'm thinking of trying to re-install again with the latest version - I was originally on v1 - now I have a nice legal version to try I'm hoping for better results or back to the shop it goes!

If I could integrate it with my skybox it'd be very handy!

[nichomach]

Yep - MS describe it as a "superset" of XP Pro, and the extensions are on disc 2. Frankly, I've never tried using it as an upgrade, but I can see that it might effectively just "upgrade" the pre-existing Pro install, or just not do anything. I would really start by doing a clean install.

[GDVS]

My winTV go is one of the ancient variety - circa 1998.

I suspect there's no chance whatsoever of getting it to work with MCE.

[behappier]

You can't easily upgrade form xp pro to MCE. You need to change the registry HKLM/System/WPA/MediaCenter/Installed from 0 to 1. On my system, it won't let me change the registry key. Don't know why...

[mahenworld]

tim_n - There are definite hardware requirements for MCE 2005 to be able to work. First of all the tuner must come with hardware encoder if it is an anlogue one. Your Wintvgo card has no hardware encoder built in, it is entirely software driven. So I am afraid you will have to buy a new card. If you need further help just ask. I'll be happy to help.